All posts in Survival Gear

Heroin it’s all over the place, and our sales for frisk gloves are up

turtleskin glovesThis is one of those things that really bothers us when we get phone calls from Police and our sales for certain products go up, it’s good for us from a sales point of view, but it’s incredible disturbing when we hear from Police that “heroin is everywhere”.    I  had a friend that was in our store last year that told me he’s never seen it like this before and aside from the Celebrity overdose stories (that happen every year) everyone in the medical industry from ambulance drivers to hospitals, all know when the bad batch of heroin is in the area.   I have some harsh opinions about people that are willing to risk in-taking someone elses chemistry skills.  Sure it’s somebody’s son or somebody’s daughter, but it’s also somebody’s son or daughter that has to risk getting stuck with a needle every time they frisk someone or have to look through a bag.

There are big differences between all of the protective gloves and we always know that people want dexterity because now that I-Pads, I-Phones and keyboards are an everyday thing, you need to be able to function with your gear.   We deal with a lot of glove manufacturers from Hatch to Damascus to Warwick Mills, and the Turtleskin gloves seem to be the product line that has gained the most in the last 3 years.   Corrections departments have been calling  us all the time because every other dealer seems to  be out of stock of these and the production never seems to keep up.   It’s rare to have  a product take off like this but has recently been very well deserving of a top seller.

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The whole Prepper movement, balanced? Or responsible?

tactical stores in the philadelphia areaI got in on the emergency food thing several years ago after Hurricane Sandy hit the New Jersey Shore and even though that is not the State we live in, our area outside of Philadelphia had plenty of  havoc placed on it from the storm.  It’s amazing at what hi-winds and heavy rains can do and it’s not always from a major storm that you had a week or more to plan for.  Many of the worst storms I have lived through were considered Thunderstorms, but those freakish high winds would knock out electricity in certain areas for weeks sometimes.  Most of our society has lost the  whole Boy Scout “Be Prepared” thing and many in the Northeast have politics that make them wide up for problems because they think the Government is going to help them in a crisis.

There is no reason to not have at least 30 days of emergency food in  your how where you can just use water to cook it.  Stores like ours get runs on because we are the only really one of the only Tactical Stores in the Philadelphia area that caters to Law Enforcement and Civilians for medical supplies like QuikClot or National American Rescue.   There are many things like self defense,preventing infections, blood loss, and starvation that are personal responsibilities and all of those area easy to prepare for.   The shows you see on cable TV may be extreme, but sometimes its a good thing to think about extreme circumstances so you have the knowledge to survival.

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Belt suggestions and the hazzards of ordering online

Wilderness beltsThere a warning signs when checking out on The Wilderness belts website about making sure you measure yourself before buying because their belts are made when orders are placed and they do not accept returns.   We on the other hand are stocking dealers and only stock even sizes from 30 waist to 48 waist so if someone needs to move a size up, it’s not that hard for us to just swap them out.  Having a store front where you can walk in and try something on and get it right the first time is a major plus.   These have velcro on them and there is no belt holes to adjust sizing and if it’s not attached properly to your waist size you will  not get full use of the belt.

I personally have worn these belts for over 10 years and have good luck with them.    One of the best things about investing your money in The Wilderness belts as when the velcro wears out you can just have it redone for a small fee and not buy a whole new belt.  This is something that has only happened to me one time in over 10years of use.   You can use these as rescue belts or as a CCW belt and it will give you very good support for large frame guns.   I went from a regular dress belt to a Wilderness belt and the difference in support for my Colt 1991A1 was tremendous.  I could barely feel the weight of the gun where I could feel the pull when I was wearing my dress belt.   Lots of people don’t use the right kind of belt for their guns and The Wilderness isn’t going to let you down.

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Using Flashlights on weapons and for search, how many lumens do you really need?

Streamlight FlashlightsI remember upgrading from the XENON bulbs to LED Upgrades on several of my flashlights a few years ago.   I was using Streamlight Scorpions and Surefire G2 flashlights that I believe were around 80 lumens each and I was impressed back then at how bright they were.   The only piss off I had with them was how the bulbs didn’t really last that long and I didn’t really like the lack of reliability, regardless of how bright they were.   The Streamlight Scorpions were upgraded to about 130 Lumens with the Upgrade kit, and the first thing I did was mount them on my AR15 rifle.   I was very happy having a weapon mounted light on my guns when I was up in the woods of Pennsylvania but I also choose to put a flip on red lense because I learned in Boy Scounts that bright lights can ruin your vision at night.

The old Army Flashlights had multiple lense on them for variations on lense width always came with a red or blue lense.   I don’t know why people forget this when they buy high lumen Streamlight Flashlights and thing 300 Lumens of light is going to win a fight when having low light abilities and being fast on your feet is a much better strategy.    Streamlight is a very good company to choose from and their price points and warranties are going to make our customers feel like they spent their money wisely.   Remember that the light you have on your firearm is not the light that you should always use for searching for something.  Having two flashlights on  your person is really the way to go.

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Custom Kydex and Tactical Nylon Companies, what are the differences?

There  are a lot of differences in the designs of various tactical nylon companies but if you care about getting something that is not stamped with the Made in China on the tag, you’re going to spend a few bucks more but you might get a better warranty and customer service.   Customer service is something that is less common than quality products.   We’ve dealt with some major gun manufacturers that had a level of elitism about their products and would refused to acknowledge design flaws, while others valued our opinions and hinted that they were on the ways of making some changes.  We are still up in the air about what types of Kydex holsters we should be stocking in our store and it’s basically because we have not got consistent customer feedback about styles or brand names.

When it comes to which brand of tactical nylon gear, we have narrowed it down to only about 5 companies.   The 5.11 bags 5.11 bagsthat we have in our store are extremely popular with EMS and Paramedics because so many people have held them in their hands and know what they are getting.   The Rush messenger bags have been widely used in Hospitals in our area and several Chester Police Officers here in Pennsylvania are using the 5.11 bail out bags for their bug out gear.   Having a good active shooter bag means having foot, first aid, ammunition and possible something like bottled water or a juice box.  It’s always nice to to walk into a store and be able to open the bags up and check the zippers and stitching quality out.   5.11 Tactical might not be the best for everyone, but they make a lot of goof products.

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Major Changes to lubrication and gun grease

gun cleaning suppliesLots of gun owners are starting to realize that they should consider using a form of gun grease on their firearms.  Now that so many people are using .308 rifles the heat and friction rates are much higher than 5.56 guns.    Long term storage and larger mechanical parts means harder banging and clanking around and it’s not just the guys that had the Springfield M1A rifles that still use gun grease.   I have been looking for a good gun grease for a long time ever since my Colt gun grease started running out.  We found out about the Slip 2000 gun grease after becoming a Slip 2000 dealer and I have used it on all of my AR15 recoil springs to smooth out the action and also to get rid of that AR15 gun ping that makes the firearm sound like sometime of BB gun.

With all of the Sig and FN SCAR Rifles becoming more and more popular, it’s not just M1A vs FAL as far as durable and reliable 7.62 MM guns.   I have been cleaning out all of my old gun cleaning supplies and bringing in new stuff.  Frog lube is another lubrication we hear about but it’s really up to the customers what works best for them.  M-Pro7 has greatly improved it’s product line and we are moving further away from the old Hoppes #9 that probable 90% of gun owners have used in the past.  The best thing about many of these lubricants is they are also as good with rifles as they are with handguns.  The gun grease are not sticky and thick like they use to be.

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Dealing with Narcotics and the ever changing environment Police are subjected to

Turtleskin glovesWhen we first heard about the Turtleskin product line it was when they actually called us up and asked us if we wanted to be a dealer for their products.  We knew this was a niche market when we first got into it, but frisk gloves like this are something that nobody really deals with and everyone wants to walk into a store and try them out before they drop $65 on a pair of gloves.  Sure you can get kevlar gloves or something possible less expensive, but the dexterity on these gloves especially the Turtleskin Duty Gloves and the Turtleskin Alpha gloves give  you much more.   There is a level of puncture resistances as well as slash resistances and both gloves will not interfer very much with your ability to use a firearm if need be.

These gloves have been hard to keep in stock because many corrections officers have been finding out about them from the various demonstrations and trade shows that the Warwick Mills reps have been giving.   We deal with a lot of new hire Police officers and Turtleskin gloves  are  something that is usually on their list of things that they need before they hit the streets.   With all of the crap out there that EMS and Police have to deal with like HIV or HEP C and God knows what else.  Some people are really just dirty according to some of our Police.   You have to have the protection on your hands just like you need body armor that can protect you from knives or bullets.

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Backpacks, range bags, and customizing.

5.11 bagsI have so many brand names of nylon gear in my house it’s not funny.   I don’t even know some of the manufacturers names because they weren’t tagged very well.  It seems with the number of sales calls I get every year, there are about as many nylon makers as there are custom kydex holster makers.  There are certain things that we just push off to other companies because it’s too time consuming.   People are very particular about the type of bag they want and they will know it when they see it, but the problem is they want to hold it in their hands.    There are different points of placing molle straps and sometimes a bag has too much and sometimes too little.   There are is an endless supply of so called “tactical” backpacks, but unless you have the time to travel, good luck trying to find a store that  has evertything.

One of the main reasons we opened up a tactical store was so that our local customers could check stuff out before they purchased it.   5.11 tactical is a monster of a company and they have so many cool products that many of our Police and EMS personnel prefer the 5.11 bags primarly the Rush products.  The Rush messenger and Rush 24 and 72 are extremely popular with paramedics and ambulance companies.  Some military guys have been buying just about everything that we sell in multicam which makes the 5.11 Rush 72 backpack very popular.   We normally stock all of these items in our Broomall, Retail store so stop in and check them out.

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Shopping online or Shopping in a brick and mortar store

philadelphia Law Enforcement suppiesThere are a lot of things we learned in the last year about the Law Enforcement Community and sometimes its the small things that people want in your store and not the fancy stuff.   There are plenty of times we go to places like Youtube.com to watch the products that we sell to try and learn how to use them or to market them.   You can only read so much about a product but if you don’t know how something is used, certain terminology about a backpack might just confuse you.   There are so many differences between all of the bags we sell and sizes are something people have a hard time explaining.   The differences between the Rush 24 and Rush 72 5.11 bags is significant and sometimes people don’t know which one they want until they hold it in their hands.

Police Officers loose handcuffs and handcuff keys all the time and sometimes that 20yrd old holster needs to be retired.    We know have a Law Enforcement inventory and we are doing everything from Blackington badges and whatever else Philadelphia Law Enforcement Supplies like Safariland holsters, Blackhawk Serpa holsters and all of the pepper spray and batons that are used.   We have a pickup on location option on our website and stock a good bit of AR15 upper receivers and Magpul accessories.   Our Smith Optics Elite ballistic eyewear was used in the US Open here in Merrion and we are looking forward to bringing on even more products this Summer and Fall.

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Walking in and being able to walk out with what you want!

law enforcement supplies in Pennsylvania There’s been a lot of discussion on the news about internet taxes, sales taxes and other things that are very much in the minds of companies that sell online.  Ebay and amazon have differing opinions about what should be done, and States like Delaware aren’t going to be happy about it.   Now that we have an actually store in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, many local Law Enforcement and security companies have been very happy that we actually stock inventory and that we aren’t just a drop shipping company.   Many of the gun shops in the area sell ammunition, firearms and magazines but their prices are usually higher than what the  internet companies are selling them for.   An internet sales tax will have a big impact on what things are sold for online.   Things like tactical boots, ballistic eyewear, waterproof pants, rain gear, and SWAT Team gear is something you want hold in your hands and fit it to your body.

Along with many tactical products like Magpul, VLTOR, AR15 upper receivers and magpul pmags, we stock gun parts and magazines for Glock, magazine springs and followers from Wolff gun springs.   We have an expanding showroom of law enforcement supplies in pennsylvania where our 1500 sqft showroom is expanding every year.  This year we will be bringing in products from Tactical Tailor, 5.11 tactical and more Tru-Spec and Blackahawk tactical clothing.   We expand our products based on customer feedback and our ever growing tactical apparel and gear are the best there is.

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