All posts in Tactical Gear

J-frames should never be underated

I recently did a ballistics test between a j-frame 38 Special and a Smith & Wesson Model 19 with a 4″ barrel.   I thought that I would get better ballistics out of the obviously longer barrel, but I was wrong.   It’s amazing what a chronograph will do to your belief in gun energy.   I’ve seen ballistics out of M4 Carbines that nobody would believe.   I’ve read lots of stuff online about how weak the M4 Carbine is and that 2800fps was what they normally shot at.  Well, I was clocking in ballistics that were 400 fps above that.   I’m aware of the amount of stress and wear you can put on a firearm if you shoot it that much, but let’s just walk about capabilities within a certain threshold.

There are so many .380 pistols showing  up out there that people are more content with small pocket pistols like never before.   I finally got to shoot a Ruger LCP .380 a few weeks ago, but wasn’t blown away.  I know why people like them, but a j-frame in a pocket or even in Galco holsters, like a paddle  holster are just fine for me.   The Rohrbaugh guns are the race cars of small compact semi-autos, but the j-frame will always have it’s grip in that mode of CCW.   Considering that all of these .380 pistols are usually 6 or 7 shots, going with a 5 shot and a speed loader isn’t much to loose sleep over.

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More feedback from Original Swat customers

The beauty of having a retail store and not just being and e-commerce business is that you get face to face and hands on experience working with customers and products.   You can talk about something over the phone all you want, but sometimes you can learn things just by watching someone use a tool.   I just got a demo on how to draw a firearm from a shirt that I never saw before and it looked like something from a martial arts movie, but it was funny watching a big fat guy show you how he busts bad guys.   This cop was explaining how he made an arrest on a criminal a few days ago and seeing the reasons he moved that way was interesting.

When it comes to what people want with boots, the ability to shine boots seems to be pretty important to many of our customers.  Original Swat footwear comes with a 1yr warranty on all of their stuff.   It’s great being a dealer for a product that is backed by it’s manufacturer.    The newest bit of info we got from our customers is the arguments over lace up boots and original swat side-zip boots.   Some guys have had bad experiences with zippers but I think like many things, it’s how you handle something. Some people don’t know how to close a car door and they end up messing everything up.  Last month I watched somebody ride a door shut and he bent the door so bad it didn’t close right.  I bet he has problems with his zipper, too.

 

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Now this is going to get interesting

I have walked many a gun show floor and walked by the booths that had all of the assemble and disassemble books.   Those are useful, but at many times very hard to read.   Little arrows and pictures can still make it hard to comprehend.   Along comes the VHS and DVD world and AGI has done a good job on this.   I’m also a very big fan of Clint Smith and his DVD collection although pretty expensive really turns out to be worth the money spent.   For the most part they are well produced, but a few spotty parts should have been re-shot.

Panteao Productions has there shit together.  I just saw a glimpse of the next in line, Travis Haley, who recently left Magpul, and started Haley Strategic Partners, is working with Panteao Productions to release “Adaptive Carbine” his first production since leaving Magpul.  Travis is kinda the rockstar of the gun DVDs.  The production on the Magpul Dynamics DVD series are outstanding.  I’ve only been able to watch the Make Ready Series a few times, but I haven’t been let down.  If I pick all of the best firearm instructors I know,  I’m betting there all on the schedule with Panteao Productions.

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Streamlight and it’s competition

I was at several tactical conferences over the last few months from the NYTOA, NJTOA, and the NRA Convention in Pittsburgh.    I got into using Streamlight flashlights because they were well within my price range and seemed to be more worthy of being used with firearms than anything that Radio Shack had in stock.   I really didn’t  know what I was doing when I purchased a CAA mount on my M4 Carbine, but it got it to work after using a good bit of super glue.   I’ve found that everything you need to mount on a M4 rail needs loctite or super glue.  The mount I got for my Streamlight scorpion didn’t hold and it wasn’t just because of the mount, the rubber cover on the Scorpion didn’t grip the mount well at all.

Streamlight seems to have a good foot in the door for Law Enforcement and Firemen.   I was not impressed with the price margins on some of the Surefire flashlights that I cam across because spending more than $200 on any flashlight is something disturbing if you ask me.  Streamlight flashlights are price well and I still primarily push the Streamlight Scorpion and the Polytac flashlights for weapons mounting.   There are pressure switches you can use, but I have not had the need for them. The Profession Series are really nice for CCW because they are smaller to stow in a pocket but not too small they they need to be on a keychain or easily lost.

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Sometimes eye protection means eye protection

I may have sounded redundant, but I didn’t mean to.   When we first started carrying eyewear for Law Enforcement we kind of thought that all of the eyewear was for Police guys to look like Police.   I have to admit that the majority of the eyewear are the Ignitor Smith Optics, but I’m shocked at the number of emergency responders that wanted the clear lenses.   The Lifestyle lenses look like they are for the sun, but there is a reason there are clear lense and not the gray or polarized.

In the age of blood diseases and what Cops are exposed to,  sometimes looking good on the job and avoid blood born diseases means always having eyewear on.  Smith Optics Elite Lifestyle lenses were designed for this.  If you are out in the sun  you have the choice of the gray, ignitor, polarized gray and clear lenses.  If your job is that demanding you may want to look at the outside the wire turbo fan googles.

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New product from Woolrich Elite

We’ve been carrying the Woolrich Elite Series clothing line before they added the name “tactical” to the brand name.   When we first brought the product line on board we were new to the tactical clothing market and were in a learning stage of our business growth.    The people that design tactical clothing rarely put a perfect product on the line and we have seen on many occasions there are product modifications and tweaks.   One of the biggest disappointments we have  had with some of the Woolrich Elite product lines was how fast some of the products were discontinued before the product got legs and people found out about it.  One of my favorite products to this day was the Woolrich Elite barn coat, but it was discontinued way too fast.

The Woolrich Algerian jacket got a lot of complaints about the arm lengths and you can do a few searches online and you’ll see this is true, but the last one i got in seemed to be different.   When I got the Woolrich Elite Discreet Carry Twill jacket my fingers were crossed because I didn’t want to get something that I knew wouldn’t sell because there was a design flaw.   I believe the Woolrich Elite Twill Jacket may be the best outwear design that we have seen from Woolrich in the last 5yrs.  The jacket is cut right for CCW and the feel of it kind of reminds of the Sigtac jackets,but not as heavy and smarter pocket designs.   I could fit a Glock 19 in the hand pockets and the inner accessory holders are larger in size and easier to fit magazines and flashlights in them without wiggling things around.

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I may make another attempt at replacing my IWB holsters

I switched to carrying a Glock 26 this Summer because I got tired of rusting out all of my other firearms.   This year I have gotten use to my new CCW gun and it hasn’t really bothered me at all.   It was a little thicker than my previous firearms, but it gets the job done and my Galco Tuck-n-go holster seems to be working.  The only real problem I have with the holster is that it does not hold up when I go to re-holster the weapon.

I have been looking at Crossbread holsters for some time now, but it’s one of those things where I’m afraid of ordering something online that I have not held in my hands, and then you gotta worry about return policies and shipping costs.  Galco holsters has something fairly new, I don’t know how new because I just learned of them, but the new Kingtuk holsters look like a Crossbread knock off.  Well, I’ll give this a try and see how comfortable they are.

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Something to think about when buying a rifle case

One thing people tend to forget about when they are packing up all of their guns and gear for a shooting match is how heavy everything gets when you load up all of the pockets.   I’d say that about 90% of assault rifle cases I own have stowed and empty rifle magazines and people forget there is a difference between 5 empty Pmags in a gun case and a rifle case with 150 rds of 5.56 ammo.   Especially if you have using 75gr ammunition.   I learned the lesson about ammo weight when I went to a gun show and tried to leave with a thousand rounds of 7.62×39 ammunition and 1000rds of .223.   It was impossible for me to carry it and I learned to appreciate the 5.56 ammunition.

When it comes to choosing a rifle case for a battle rifle, I think it’s really a good idea to consider a drag bag.   That gun is heavy enough and even the designer of the FAL knew that it would be more comfortable to carry that gun with a carry handle than over your shoulder at times.   When it comes to carry 15-20lbs or more, you really gotta carry on your back.    Gun cases may come with a strap, but a drag bag is meant to be thrown over both shoulders.   I have a really nice rifle/drag bag from Elite Survival Systems and use it for my DMR configured DSarms FAL STG 58.

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The Atlantic City Police and Security Expo

We will be attending the Atlantic City Police and Security Expo for Original Swat footwear and this will be our 2nd time attending the event.  It’s always nice to work at these conventions because we get to meet our customer base and learn about new products.   There are always new products coming out and slight production changes.   Nobody designs the perfect product in a Laboratory, the perfect product usually comes after it is fielded and then customer feedback and design improvements take place.   Just look at the number of F15 fighter planes we have and also the changes that have taken place.  You can make a nice design, but there can always be application differences that can broaden your product line.

Nobody in the Security field wants to wear steel toe boots, considering how so many locations will have metal detectors you can’t be setting off all of the beeps every time you take a BG through.   The Classic 9″ safety toe from Original Swat boots has a composite toe that gives you the same protection.  Other options are the Air 5″ and the Classic 9″ light safety toe.   It’s not common to have boots that are lighter than the old steel toe boots but still give you protection like the Air 5″ boots give you.   There are many more products that we will be having on display at the Police and Security Expo.

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The hard part about ordering tactical gear and accessories

I recently got into a conversation with an old timer in our area that talked about the good old days where gun shops and hunting stores had everything you needed. Now you gotta drive an hour or more to find a decent gun shop and most of the time you’ll find disorganized merchandise and even unpriced items with knowledge lacking individuals.   I remember taking a trek to a shop looking for an LWRC upper and the guy tried to sell me an LWRC upper receiver for $1700 and told me that they were hard to get.   I stopped at another shop and ordered the exact same one from another dealer for $1200.   Sometimes knowing what you are looking for, holding it in your hands and knowing  you like it before you buy gets consumer confidence going.

Ordering gun parts and tactical gear and accessories is no different.   We sell an awful lot of clothing and many of our customers show fear of ordering until they hear a voice on the other side of the computer monitor.   We can do quick searches on the internet and find out that some of the top responses are companies with over 300 complaints by  the better business bureau.   Tactical gear and accessories like Original Swat boots and tactical pants are big sellers but people want to hold them in their hands or try them on their feet first.   Now that we have a retail store it’s nice to have people stop in and know they got what they came for.   Unfortunately there is still the need for people to try stuff on and the internet hasn’t killed every business.

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