New Direct Action line coming from Eotac
Rogue Elite will be running promos for the new apparel line called Elite Operator Tactical or which is more commonly named, Eotac. We have seen the tactical apparel market explode in the last few years, but we have also seen some casualties. There have been several small concealed carry clothing companies come out with pants or vests that have already gone out of business. The art of designing tactical or concealed carry clothing is not an easy one. The real problem that we see in many of the products that are showing up is consistancy and quality. 5.11 tactical has held a huge chunk of the market, but as many of our customers know, the original manufacturers made a higher quality clothing line and things have deteriorated. Some of the 5.11 clothing I own is nice, but on more than one occasion, the sizing was inconsistant. I have seen some of the newer casual clothing and it does look nice, but I’m still wondering if I’d have the same issues if I wore their shirts.
Woolrich has been making tactical clothing for almost 5years now, but seems to have taken a real hit since so many dealers have dropped the line. We have been told that many of the people that were originally behind the Woolrich Elite Series clothing split off from the company and are working with Eotac. We wondered about that when Eotac first showed up on the market because so much of their clothing mirrored 5.11 Tactical and Woolrich Elite Series clothing. This coming Fall there will be some real cutting edge products coming from Eotac, namely the Direct Action line. The new A-Tacs camo is really nice and we will first get a glimpse of this at the Atlantic City Expo in June.
Nothing beats a good brick and mortar store that stocks tactical clothing, but there aren’t too many of those out there. Makes sure you do some research on clothing sizing and look at the sizing guides closely. To avoid wasting money on shipping and return shipping charges, you may want to break out a tape measure and measure yourself. Comparing one clothing line to another is a no, no, since not everyone follows the same standards. The Eotac tactical pants have an elastic wasteband which will give you some flexibility in waist sizing. Keep in mind that when you measure yourself, you should be measuring with the gun inside your waist if you carry IWB. We have a great many of sizing issues when people order The Wilderness belts. These tactical belts are hands down the best configuration for carrying firearms around, but the sizing can be tricky.
There is much to debate when it comes to discussing the effectiveness of the 5.56 round. When it was originally deployed in the M16A1, the military had issues with the reliability of the gun, but I have heard not one complaint from any Vietnam vet about the lethality of the round. That was when the military was using a 20inch barrel with a 55gr bullet travelling well over 3000fps. The bullet is extremely violent at that velocity. The lethality of the round was greatly diminished when the military started using shorter length barrels and the 62gr SCBT also known as SS109 or M855. Although it is only 6grs heavier, the bullet is so well balanced that it basically zips straight through a target and the terminal ballistics are not very good below 2800fps which is practically what an M4 shoots it at near the muzzle.
There is a point where people have to learn to realize that there are a great many firearms manufacturers out there that are making suberb firearms. I’ve heard people claim that a certain firearm was superior in reliability over another. Well, that is true to some degree, but I’d have to say there are some firearms that are in the top tier category and the durability and reliablity differences may vary in extreme circumstances. Take a Glock 17 and put it up against a Sig 226 and you’ll see what I mean. I’m sure the Glock will reguire less lubrication, but there won’t be much difference in 98% of circumstances.
One problem that any hunter already knew was using too much magnification meant slow target acquisition, especially at close ranges. Field of view is even more important in combat than in hunting. In Combat you may be looking at a bad guys face with your reticle right on him, but 6ft to his right is a guy with his sights right on you that you can’t see. I’d have to say that I belive that 3x-4x is probable the best of both worlds. Trijicon knew that even an optic with zero magnification like the Eotech had an edge in some situations so now they have Trijicon ECOS which has a red dot optic which sits on top of the scope. This will eliminate the problem of magnification in close quarters situations.
This week I got an email from an ammunition manufacturer that made me smile. He was selling Russian 7.62×39 ammo for $209 per 100rds. I haven’t seen that price since before the Obama election. It seems that a bad economy and high unemployment is having an impact on the consumption of ammo buying. I didn’t get caught up in the panic buying because in my opinion, I never thought that 1000rds of any kind of rifle or pistol ammunition should cost as much of the frickin gun. I remember the days of $79 Wolf ammo and IMHO we are going to go back to that as long as there is not another major upheaval.
Russian ammo may save you money compared to shooting domestic 556 ammo, but be careful that you clean your guns after each range session. I saw more malfunctions at traininig ranges and gun clubs in the last 2yrs than I have ever seen before. Since nobody wanted to put 1000rds down range that cost $500 or more + the cost of the training course which could have cost from $150-$300 depending on what you were going for. When you are considering saving money by buying dirtier or less expensive ammo, you should consider that you may have to clean your gun more often and that you will have more malfunctions. I’ve seen plenty of the AR15 crowd show up at competition shoots with guns that had not been cleaned recently or they were not lubricated properly. I remember people getting in debates about DI AR15 reliability 12yrs ago and it amazes me to this day that people that go out and buy an Ar15 think that they do not need more lubrication than other semi-autos.
We’ve been selling Woolrich Elite clothing since the beginning and have seen the changes in the tactical pants market over the last 5 years. One thing we have noticed is the tactical pants sales change like the seasons do. Our customer base knows that certain types of clothing just can’t be worth in hot climates, but for working in other environments, lightweight material just won’t hold up to the heavy use, and won’t shrink as much. We get a lot of people calling or emailing us about whether or not the clothing shrinks, and they answer to that is not as bad as some of the other apparel companies that have been on the market for almost 10yrs. We still don’t understand why some of these companies haven’t cleaned up their quality control.
For those of us living in the part of the Country where we get all 4 Seasons of weather, our concealment options usually will change atleast 2 times a year. There are enormous numbers of ways you can conceal a weapon, but for those of us that carry full size weapons, the warmer the weather the fewer the options. I carry a full size Beretta 92F while at work and one of my favorite ways of carrying this firearm is in a Fobus paddle holster. For only about $20, I’ve gotten more than my moneys worth and have never broken the holster. I’d have to say that if I was rolling around in the dirt I would defanitely prefer to have a Serpa holster.
The lightweight 100% cotton ripstop pants are very comfortable, but in 90F+ weather I’m always going to go with shorts even if they are made of heavy material. Protecting your legs from bug bites is also something to consider when wearing shorts and clearing out woodlands because you never know what is going to be swarming around you when you start sweating up a storm. There are some bug repellents that can be worn on a belt, but with the work I will be doing, I prever to bring a spray bottle with me and store it on the cargo pockets. Since I am also always carrying flashlights, radios, guns and other items, not having enough pockets means putting more on the belt line. I find wearing too much on the belt being a real pain when having to do a lot of lifting so just about everything except my Glock 26 is stored in my Woolrich Elite Pants.