Kydex is a great material for holsters and I have zero reservations about it (except I think sometimes it’s a bit hard on a guns finish). But, for some reason, I still like leather holsters for some applications. My usual go-to guys for gunleather are, first, DeSantis , Galco, and then Bianchi. Between those three I can usually find the holster I want. There are, of course, some exceptions. For my BBQ gun I want something with a lot of style and eye-catchiness. For that, I wound up going to El Paso Saddlery. While I was there, I also picked up something I have always had a fondness for – a classic leather flap holster. You know, just like Indian Jones and every other adventurer. Since my running around in the woods gun is either a .44 revolver or a 10mm auto, I need a flap holster for those. The flap for the 10mm arrived today.
I must say, new gunleather has a pretty distinctive smell to it.
Nice, eh? Might take it to a saddlemaker in town and get my initials stamped in there or something.I also, by the way, have a tanker holster from these guys as well.
About a month ago I was at a friends house and saw a small pistol target taped up on their wall. Whats that about, I asked. They said it was for their laser target practice system.
Huh..wha…come again?
My friend had one of these. I’m going to try and explain this, but really the video does a much better job.
You buy this kit and use it in conjunction with your smartphone. You set the smartphone on the included tripod and aim it at the target that youre going to use. You then drop a little laser module into the chamber of your firearm. Each time the firing pin hits the back of the laser it sends a little pulse out the barrel and onto the target. The smartphone, which is scanning the target, logs where the ‘shot’ hit, scores it, tracks your time between shots, and shows the motion of the gun (your follow through).
When it’s -12 outside and the snow is a foot deep, this thing is perfect.
The product is Mantis Laser Academy I got the 9mm version which means that not only can I drop the laser into my Glocks, but I can also drop it into my 9mm carbines and use them as well.
The software that you download to your phone includes shooting drills of all sorts, the kit comes with a dozen different types of targets, and the metrics are quite useful for measuring progress.
For me the practical use of this is it lets me practice drawing, getting a good sight picture, and smoothly pulling the trigger…..critical skills.
I ordered mine from Amazon for around $160 and I feel it is worth every penny.
Because the laser is actuated by the firing pin hitting it, that means you have to cock/reset the striker after each ‘shot’. For what I’m doing, which is practicing my draw and target acquisition, this isn’t a big deal..Im only firing one shot per cycle. However, there are aftermarket Glock triggers/slides that are made specifically for dry fire practice that avoid the whole issue. And, if youre shooting a DA/SA auto, you’ll have no issues.
They also make an AR version which is more money, but it features a replacement bolt carrier that is designed for dry fire exercises. Considering what 9mm and .223 costs are these days, for just practicing gun handling and sight acquisition this is a ridiculously economical way to do things. Plus, there’s that convenience of not having to pack up your gear and head to the range.
And T3 was having a sale on plate carriers so I got one of each – this and this.
I already have a couple sets of soft armour, which I believe everyone should have, and I have a carrier and plates next to my AR in the bedroom ‘just in case’. But, I wanted an extra set…perhaps for offsite storage…and I also wanted a low-profile set to keep in the truck. And, lets be real, the prices aren’t going to go down and at some point getting this stuff will no longer be as simple as a webform and a credit card.
And as tempting as it is to buy a set of plates and sock them away, don’t. You need to actually wear them and get used to how they feel and, most importantly, how they affect your ability to function and move while wearing them. I promise you, bringing up a rifle and shouldering it will be a completely different game when youre wearing this stuff. And it isn’t lighweight. The smart survivalist will buy a dirt cheap plate carrier, a set of weighted replica plates, duct tape the crap out of the corners and stress points, and use them for training purposes. Crom forbid, but when Der Tag arrives you really don’t have margin for a learning curve. So, yes, feel like a dork as you’re LARPing around your house in armour….thats part of the familiarization process. Your carrier needs to fit you, and it needs to do it in such a manner that donning it is as familiar and easy as slipping into worn shoes. Wear it…go the range, go for a hike, do a workout, but wear it and move with it and adjust as necessary.
And, finally, remember that these things will stop bullets (most of the time) but there’s no free lunch in physics so that energy has to go somewhere and that somewhere is going to be you. Don’t think you’ll have a round of 7.62 bounce off your chest and your gonna keep moving forward like the Terminator. Hollywood makes bullet resistance look like fun and game but it really looks more like cracked/broken ribs/sternum and bruises that make you queasy just looking at them.
BUT….it beats a sucking chest wound any day of the week.
I have a lot of Filson wool clothing. Every piece is made in Seattle. Filson also makes some non-wool stuff I want but every time I go look at the specs on their website, its manufacture is listed as ‘Imported’. While I love the Filson brand, Im not paying Filson prices for something made in Thailand, Bangladesh or anywhere else in Asia.
I suspect its only a matter of time before Filson moves the production of the magnificent wool coats to somewhere more economical…and probably offshore. Or maybe they’ll just move to California and really make the stuff there rather than ‘making it’ at the Port of San Diego.
I suggest that if ‘Made in America’ matters to you, and you want the genuine Filson product, buying it sooner rather than later might be wise.
On the bright side, if you do buy the genuine Filson the rather high price is borne out over the rather long lifespan these things have. I often meet people wearing a Filson and it used to belong to their dad or grandfather. And a couple times a winter I’ll be out and about and someone will interrupt me and say “Excuse me, is that a Filson?” Great product those wool coats.
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it before, but if a price on a CAT-style tourniquet seems too good to be true, it probably is. And, unlike many other counterfeit products, getting caught with one of these and having it fail when you need it is, literally, a matter of life and death.
I got a reminder about this in my email today from NAR. If you think about it, t his thing is simply injection moulded plastic and some nylon webbing. That means the barrier to entry for making a knockoff is pretty darn low. As a result, these things are all over Amazon and eBay. Yes, there are other wendors with nigh-impeccable creds selling the genuine product….but I’m just not willing to take the chance that their purchasing agent made a mistake that month and got some knockoffs from Glorious Peoples Plastic Factory No. 55 in Changzhou.
This is one of the very few products that I will not buy, no matter how discounted, from anywhere except NAR. I will spend an extra ten bucks or so to ensure that I’m getting something that actually does what its supposed to do when its supposed to. There are times to shop around and save money but when it comes to things like scuba gear, defense lawyers, parachutes, heart surgeons, and critical life saving equipment, you’d have to be a fool to make cost the deciding discriminatory criteria.
I’ve a bunch of the CAT tourniquets, and every single one of them came straight from NAR. Sometimes NAR will have a sale and I’ll pick up a couple more as gifts or extras, but I never buy them from anywhere else no matter how discounted they are. I would recommend you do the same.
When it’s 3am and youre laid out in the back of a pickup truck speeding to a hospital with a fountain spurting from your leg,probably the last thing youre going to think before passing out from blood loss as you stare at the broken tourniquet windlass won’t be “wow, I’m sure glad I saved that ten bucks.”
Even without TEOTWAWKI, stuff happens. Get a couple tourniquets, practice with them, carry them, and stay safe(r).
A little while back, I mentioned that Ontario Knife Co. was no longer a going concern. It appears that it was sold, without its manufacturing equipment, to another knife distributor. Not maker, but distributor. I suspect that soon we will see the marketplace full of Made In China knives sporting the OKC brand on it. This is pretty much what happened to Schrade. Sad, but thats how things go in the real world.
Although my personal prefs run towards the KaBar and BKT products, I did order a couple knives while they were still available. They arrived today:
Its always sad when a long-running American company finally succumbs. I have no experience with Ontario knives but everything I read says their RAT series of knives were quite good. Being a sentimentalist, I ordered some of their knives right after having this news brought to my attention.
For knives, I use Spyderco folders, Glock field knives, and Becker designs from KaBar. And, lately, the Mora knives for less tactical uses like fishing and hunting (good knives at a great value, by the way.)
Pretty soon theyll be giving them away, assuming they have any left. They only had maybe a dozen or so packages left. Comes out to $4.25 ea. Ridiculous price….for that kinda money you should have spares on top of spares.
Condition was, apparently, new and unused. It might have been used at some point, I suppose, but it sure didnt look it. They say unused, the evidence seems to support it.
I like the idea of as light a pack as possible so my go-to for shelter is either a tarp or poncho shelter, or something ridiculously light like a Kifaru tarp.. But, sometimes you just want something you can zip yourself into and get away from those damn mosquitos.
Anyway…if youre looking for a tent and fly suitable for one person who doesnt mind 7# of weight, go check it out before it goes off sale.
Was up at CostCo and the LifeStraws are now $20 for 4 (or $5 each if you’re mathematically challenged). Its worth having one in your vehicle console (“Glove compartment”), hunting bag, emergency kit, and off-site stash.
And…they may turn up as Paratus gifts at that price.
Nice, eh? Might take it to a saddlemaker in town and get my initials stamped in there or something.I also, by the way, have a tanker holster from these guys as well.
