All posts in Hunting Gear

Transporting the 1927 Thompson

I recently attended a World War II gun club event and had a lot of fun being there.    I have always know what I liked from the WWII era, but I never really jumped on the collectors bandwagon because most of the guns are in my humble opinion, collectors items.    Many of the bolt action rifles that were used during the war are chambered in .303, 8mm and 30/06 and still have a place in the hunting community, but for home defense or modern combat, those calibers are not very common and there aren’t very many gun chambered in them anymore.   Finding ammunition is very hard and with todays inflated prices, it’s very much a collector thing.

The M1 Garand is a great and powerful for it’s time, but the function of it is very dated.   Having 8rds of 30/06 in a semi auto that is capable of hitting targets out to 600yds easily is far more than what the average deer hunter is going to need.   The M1 Carbine would probable be my favorite if the caliber wasn’t so hard to get and there were more bullet designs that could be applied for defensive purposes.   The M1 Carbine is more powerful than .357 magnum, but the gun is designed for FMJ and would urge against them for home defense.   My favorite is still the Thompson 1927 which can be toted around in gun cases that look like a violin case and will get a lot of laughs when you show up at the range.   The 45acp gun is very reliable and will shoot many defensive rounds.   The 45acp you get out of this gun is a powerful close range weapon.

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Lasers and Flashlights the key is to know when to turn them off

I did a demonstration with one of my friends how using night vision and IR was really easy to pick up from a counter sniper situation if you were projecting it from the same location.   For instance, if you have night owl night vision which is pretty good for the money, the IR is located right above the objective lense.   If you had something like that mounted on a rifle scope and someone who had the same nightvision, but didn’t turn there IR on, they could find you as easily as you would have if you turned on a flashlight in the night.   The best way to aid a sniper in combat is to project IR from above and not directly from a rifle.  The point of this is just because you can do something with an accessory on a firearm doesn’t mean it’s really going to give you the edge.  You have to know how to deploy it.

I never thought just slapping a laser on my AR15 would be fun, I always thought it was kind of pointless because a laser is virtually a perfect beam of light, but a bullets trajectory changes very fast and the laser is about as good as a red dot or rifle scopes in all practicality.   Flashlights are a good thing to have around or on your firearm in your home, but if you are going to use it offensively and not defensively, you have to deploy  tactics that hide movement and don’t give your direction of movement away.   If you are in  your house and hiding in your bedroom ect.  In 99% of situations, yelling down the stairs that you have a gun and you are going to blow their head off if they come up will stop a threat being able to identify something in a corner like a burglar in hiding is what your flashlight it for.

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Slings on shotguns and home defense

While I must admit that I have never taken a shotgun training class, and I have not yet gotten around to watching the Magpul Art of the tactical shotgun DVD,  I have seen enough things happen on firing lines to know that the more stuff you put on a firearm, the more you are complicating things.   The more you complicate things the more you have to worry about things falling off or getting snagged.  Slings are extremely useful tools and it will get real uncomfortable carrying a firearm with out one.   I recently picked up a shotgun scabbard because I personally do not like having slings on a pump shotgun.   The fact that you have to manually cycle the gun and your sling will be moving around while you do this, I’ve  seen too many times where people’s hands get snagged up.

I must remind you that this is a personal preference, not everyone has these types of problems.   There are ways of training to get around some of the issues, but they can all  be eliminated by not having one on.   My shotgun scabbard is basically one of my rifle cases because it is attached to one of my primary shooting backpacks, I can just toss a lever action rifle or small bolt action into the same case and carry it on a hunting trip.   Some of my friends have the Galco battle sling on their shotgun and it is  a very thick sling.   Some people may prefer this because it is easy to grasp and feel.

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I’ve tried on many pants

And I’m still mostly wearing Eotac tactical pants.   I’m hoping to see more pants styles coming out from this company that are really concealed carry friendly and not tactical.   I was at the NTOA in Pittsburgh this year and one of the guys I was working with mentioned that he has been a rep for various tactical clothing companies and has a hard time telling the difference between them especially at a Tactical Conference.   The people that have to live and work in tactical clothing are usually the people that I like to get feedback from.  Most of these guys really know how well clothing  holds up when they have 4 or 5 pairs of pants and are washing them each approximately 4 times a month.

There are occasions when we get the idiots that call up and say their shirts shrank and then we ask them if they read the directions on how to wash and dry them and they say no.   Anything made of Cotton will shrink, including your tactical pants and there are things that you can do to slow it down, like not using a dryer to dry your clothes all of the time.   You will extend the life of your  if you watch the temperatures that you dry them at and try to air dry them as much as possible.   Shrinkage should not really ever be a problem if you do this.

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The Mini 14 in it’s secondary format

The Mini 14 seems to have a love hate relationship with gun owners.   There are a lot of gun owners that were mad at Bill Ruger for his lack of a spine during the Clinton years and his support of the Assault Weapon ban, and many people were irked by the fact the Mini 14 was not sold with 20rd or 30rd magazines which were supplied to Law Enforcement and AC556 owners.   The Mini 14 is one of those guns that everyone wishes would hold up to the same reputation of combat worthiness that the M1 Garand and M14 or M1A had, but it couldn’t.   There were design flaws that kept the Mini 14 from ever being anything more than for a few quick shots.

The Mini 14 with all of it’s shortcomings is still an extremely reliable firearm under most conditions.   It does not hold up to the amount of fire that an M16 can tolerate, but although it is very good as a truck gun or varmint gun, it can be used for home defense because the .223 is actually a very good close range caliber if using the correct kind of defensive ammunition.   Butler Creek rifle stocks have given another angle to the Mini 14, and if you using fragmenting ammunition, the Mini  14 is as destructive as any AR15 rifle is.   This urban Carbine is light and easy to store in your gun safe.  Heck, I’ve actually had more room in my gun safe for more firearms since I swapped a few standard Mini 14 stocks in for these folding stocks.

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Tactical gear and taking to a paint ball game

I’ll admit this up front, some of the best combat training I have ever had was the number of years I played paintball with friends.  Not only did I learn communication skills and human behavior, but I learned about what kind of clothing I prefer to wear if I am going to be running around.  Things like car keys and cell phones can get in the way when you are laying down or swing you hands around.   Certain types of jackets can really restrict the amount of movement  you are needing and simple things like raising a gun up and trying to hold it in mid air can be stressful if you have lots of heavy clothing on.

The Eotac style 101 vests are very good tactical vests, but I realize the type of gear that swat teams and military may be putting on a vest may not be suitable for anything like this.   These vests are on the soft side and may be a little too long for those getting in and out of vehicles that may want handguns or gear to sit up higher on the chest line, but for playing paintball, these tactical vests is probable the best configuration for you.  The large rifle magazine pockets will hold paintball tubes and they are very deep that this will give you added security.   The soft flexibility is also useful and this vest will easily sit on top of whatever type of clothing you are wearing.  It makes a very good outerwear piece of clothing.   It is also easily washable although I do suggest you make sure you take everything that shouldn’t be washed out of the pockets, there are so many of them that it’s easy to get lost in them.

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Weird stuff on youtube these days

I have been having fun watching the YouTube videos and information.   There is a lot of copy written stuff and I’ve been trying to avoid watching firearm instructional videos and gunsmithing stuff just because I’m in the minority that thinks that is stealing.  I have been buying  handguns that I’m not really fond of, but since they are fairly popular I have been enjoying looking up amatuer videos from other gun owners talk about the guns they own and being their own gun video writers.   Some of the stuff is pathetically bad and the inability to pronounce words like Kimber and are acting like they know something I don’t know.  It’s KIMBER not KIMBALL.

There have been some interested changes to the previous Kimber Guardian Angel and there is now the Kimber Pepper Blaster II out that they gives the ASP Pepper Sprays some real competition.   I think any type of pepper spray is a must even if you are carrying a firearm.   If you read some of these gun forums and discussion about carrying firearms into the woods or in bear Country, you will be just as safe carrying mace with you as you are in carrying a  44 magnum.   I have had numerous conversations with game commission workers about bear contact and they have actually had to put black bears down, they recommended that bear sprays and pepper sprays will do as much keep a bear off you as firing a gun.   The only real issue is range.

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Optics that hold zero

There are a great many  things that I have learned over the years about what is a combat worthy firearm and what is a hobby type of firearm.   I have seen such huge variations in AR 15 rifles that I really can’t say that some manufacturers of direct impingement firearms are less reliable that gas piston guns.   There are some variations in the older design that have machine their parts so well that they really do run on less lubrication and have run in some tests off thousands and thousands of rounds with out failure.   I will say that gas piston guns will run cleaner, but are they more reliable than a high end AR15?   I don’t think most of us will really ever know the answer to that because there are always variables in how a firearm is maintained and in what climate and conditions it is subjected to.

If I had to issue handguns and rifles to relatives, I’d probable go with a gun that is easy to clean and easy to shoot, if I want a gun for myself, I’ll take the guns that work the best for me.   I know I put more effort into making sure every rifle I own has the right parts staked and loctited down.   I have broken a few Tasco and Simmons optics, but I have never had Leupold rifle scopes, Zeiss or Trijicon optic fail on me.   There are faulty mounts and scope rings out there, but even the less expensive ones will work if you use Loctite on them and don’t over torque them.   Over torque screws on firearms can mean broken screws and I have learned that the hard way with a DSArms SA58.   The FAL is not a very good gun for using optics, but it can work if you lock everything into place.  Cleaning the guns with this scope mounts is difficult, but the FAL can be made into a good DMR gun.

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Gun storage, gun safes and gun cases

I mentioned a few days ago that the ideal way of locking up all of your firearms and ammunition is to create a fireproof room in your home that you can just walk into.   I know several gun collectors that have done this and if they would have gone out and purchase gun safes they probable would have had to remove a few walls in there house just to get the safes in, not to mention how much destruction they might have caused trying to move one around the house.   I believe my one friend had 3 gun safes that would today, cost close to $10,000, but I don’t think he would have done that again.   Security systems are much better designed and you can keep various sections of your home under active lock downs while it’s free to roam in other areas.

One thing that hasn’t changed very much is the reality that guns usually get damaged during transport and many people don’t  have the right gun cases matching up to the rifles.  I had issues with several of my Uncle Mike’s assault rifle cases not working very well with some of my M4 Carbines when they had anything more than a rifle scope on them.   The Uncle Mike’s gun cases are very good, but if you have lasers or flashlights on them, you may need another fatter type of gun case.  There have been times where I have taken 7-10 rifles to a gun club and that was an enlightening time for me.   After I put my most expensive rifles in the better gun cases like the SKB gun cases, I ended up just having gun socks for shotguns and 22 rifles.  I think gun socks are good for the money, but the Allen Endura gun cases offer a little more protection.

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Tactical shirt comparison between Woolrich and Eotac

First I’d like to say that we have been dealing with clothing made from both companies for a long time and both are quality tactical clothing lines, especially if we compare them to many of their competitors.   We all know who the big tactical clothing companies are and judging by the number number of competitors, people are looking for something else.   I have been wearing a lot of 5.11 tactical, Eotac, Woolrich Elite and Blackhawk pants for years and I notice there are big sizing and fit differences.  I’ll leave quality control to another argument, we’ll just talk about fit for  now.

The Woolrich Elite Series Tactical clothing shirt in Style 44901 and the Eotac style 408 tactical shirts are virtually identical, but there is a big difference in the fit.  We get asked all the time if the shirts are the same, but they aren’t.   The Eotac shirts all seem to fit tighter in the shoulders and aren’t as over sized as the Woolrich Elite.  If I do a comparison of just how they fit in the shoulders, the 44901 shirt hangs over.   Woolrich Elite shirts are all a little roomier too.   I have to say that these shirts are more for military or LEO and not a very good CCW shirt because they look tactical.  You can carry a lot of stuff in them, but shirts with lots of pockets aren’t dressed down.   If you want something that fits you better and can be tucked in, the Eotac shirts seem to be better, if you want a looser larger fit, Woolrich Elite shirts will fit the bill.

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