Archive for April, 2011

Somewhat depressing but we’re hopeful

The Eotac website is down and there is plenty of fluttering going around the internet about their sudden disappearance.   As a dealer for the Eotac line, we were sent a notice that Eotac was going through their SKU numbers and re-evaluating the entire product line.  That doesn’t sound like Eotac has fallen off the face of the earth, but shutting down the tactical clothing website was alarming.   We recently heard that another clothing company has pulled out of China and is now making tactical clothing in Haiti.

If you listen to what Donald Trump has been saying for recent weeks, it’s obvious that China has this Country by the balls on clothing manufacturing and It sounds like some have actually taken the leap and moved out.   Considering the customer feedback we have gotten on the Eotac tactical pants,   I think in a worst case situaion, Eotac may have been bought out or should have been bought out to keep the superior desings from going out of existance

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Laser grips finally being accepted?

I remember when they first started showing up in law enforcement circles and then there were the debates about how cops were getting show because they were not using instinctive shooting skills and worry about trying to get the dot on target and ended up getting killed.  I can’t name a story to back that up, but with my experience in shooting and training on the firing line, I believe that it is true.  I jumped back into the laser grip world with my Smith & Wesson Model 637.   There is a place for laser sights, but it really seems to have caught on with smaller pocket guns than duty guns.

I think it’s not a debate that getting hits on target is more important than taking your time and trying to get the perfect hit.   In the real world one stop shots are not a reality.   Crimson trace laser grips are pricey, but i can’t complain about battery life.   I’ve put clost to 1000rds through my Smith & Wesson j-frame and I have not had to change a batter yet.  The real advantage I see with having a laser like this on a carry gun is to get a little bit more range out them and be able to use them in low light situations.

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Concealement holsters and durability

I have recently been getting harsh on some gun holster manufacturers about the clip on IWB style holsters.  I got a dud from Galco recently and I was greatly disappointed.   I picked up a Galco Triton holster because i am trying to get away from using leather holsters in the Summer time and moving towards Glock and Springfield XD firearms for primary carry.   The problem is the clip on belt design.   Why do people not put some thought  into these.   I have had holsters fail me even though I had a good Wilderness Instructor belt on.   There are movements and things that can happen that can dislodge the holster.  That is not something that should ever occur.   People that are not that physically active may not notice it, but it can happen.

The Galco tuck-n-go is a nice holster but leather holds sweat and I don’t want to ruin guns or damage them nor do I want to have to clean them every week.  My Sig Sauer collection shows the rust on the grip screws and it’s not the fault of Galco holsters, it’s just something that can happen if you carry often.   Glock firearms don’t rust anywhere near what my Sigs do and it’s time for me to move on to doing something else.   I am trying to avoid having to get a custom firearm holster done, but I am not happy with the IWB Kydex holsters I have tried out so far.  I will continue my search for a non-leather holster and let you know how it goes.

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The Beretta 92FS still going strong

I remember when the 9mm gun started showing up in  Military service and the stories about them cracking and not being reliable were all over the place.   Now that I’m about three decades older,  I think I have heard the same exact stories from other people about different types of guns.   The real situation with firearms is there are almost always alterations or improvements that take place after the first run comes out.   Just think about the Glock Perfection promotions you see everyone where.  Glock supposedly got it perfect, but now we are seeing the 4th Generation with back straps.   I’m not bashing Glocks because I am a Glock owner and I’ve seen them out run most handguns and they are an elite firearm.   In all honesty most firearms really are just different types of candy.   Sometimes it’s just preference.

The Beretta 92FS is an extremely reliable firearm, it also is a full size auto that needs a good holster.    Our top 2 selling holsters from Blackhawk are the gun holsters made for those carrying the Beretta 92FS in the military also known as the M9 and the Glock 17 and followed closely by the Glock 19.   Blackhawk holsters are outstanding duty holsters and secondary firearm holsters.   Our top level tactical customers prefer the Blackhawk finger release design over tradition thumb break holsters and we have yet to have someone come back to us about quality control issues.    The Beretta 92FS is the stronger version of the original Beretta 92F gun holsters.

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Sometimes it’s not about the holster, it’s how big the gun is

I’ve been more aggressive in attempting to try out various types of firearms for concealed carry and i’ve found more than a few holsters that I will be adding to my rotation.   I think it’s a good idea to have more than one type of holster for each gun  you have because there are situations where you can get yourself into where one method of carrying will not work very well.   I have been growning tired of carrying guns IWB because I’ve hurt  myself one too many times and sometimes it takes weeks for the discomfort from a bruise to go away.   Rolling around on the ground with a paddle holster can be a revealing experience and you will quickly find out where all of the sharp ends on your firearms are.   It’s all necessary to know what different positions feel like so you hope your body will understand discomfort under stress and you can concentrate on getting hits on target.

I find ankle carry to be very close to dressing  up for Halloween.   It’s not really practical but it’s fun to do every once in awhile.  I find ankle carry to be a good backup method for someone that does a lot of driving.   Pocket carry is nice when you don’t have to carry a lot in your pockets, but I still always prefer to carry with a Don Hume Jit holster because I really can’t feel the gun on me unless I grab it with my hands.   I’ve been working my way towards smaller and smaller firearms and the Galco holsters that I am using now are all the Speed paddle holsters for a j-frame.  This gun is so light already that the paddle holster barely bothers me.   I’ve found the heavier the gun the less I’m going to want a paddle holster, and this is my least uncomfortable paddle carry holster.

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Blackhawk guns for CCW and Duty

I am replacing many of my Fobus gun holsters for the Blackhawk Serpa CQC holsters.   The CQC holsters can be attached to the belt or they can be made into a paddle holster, so you are actually getting 2 for one.   I have had circumstances where I needed to change the way I carried a gun and there are times that certain firearms really begin to wear on you and paddle holsters and IWB can get uncomfortable. Much of it depends on what type of physical work I am doing, but once you get a bruise in that area, it’s not going to heal if you are constantly carrying it in that manor.  A few years ago i hurt myself while bending over and couldn’t CCW with an IWB holster, but didn’t have many options to try out, I picked up a Blackhawk Serpa holster and tried that, but even though it was advertised as Concealed Carry, it really protruded out to far for me to wear under a shirt, and it really only could have been used if I wore a vest.  I guess I’m too thin to do that in the summer around here.

I have through pocket carry into the mix because I have had one too many times that I was extremely uncomfortable with the way I was carrying and couldn’t enjoy the places I was going.  Ankle carry has been tried, but it still feels funny to have something on one leg and not the other.  Blackhawk holsters are very good for duty work and Winter carry, but carrying a small Kahr PM9 or a Walther PPK is enough Semi-auto for me, but I have tried a Smith & Wesson lightweight 637 and have been very happy.  Throw a knife, flashlight and mace into the mix and you’ve got plenty of self-defense to go around.  No need to try and get too frisky with larger firearms and end up being made in a bad situation.

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Less lethal weapons in the home

All I have to do is give  you a ballistics demonstration in a modern home to show you how dangerous it would be to fire off a 9mm round and at what point it would actually stop.   That modern construction may be efficient in keeping the cold out, but an exacto-knife and a hammer can get into your home faster than the big bad wolf could huff and puff and blow your house down.   Many police departments moved from the MP5 to the M4 Carbine because of penetration issues and I would highly recommend people consider using a Carbine or shotgun instead of  handgun caliber weapons.  One shotgun blast of size 4 shot can do an awful lot of damage in short ranges and the liabilities of bullets going astray and hitting neighbor are very limited.

I have seen ballistics testing where an M4 Carbine with frangible ammo penetrated less than a 38 special and if you live in a home with other people. Missed targets mean unstopped bullets.   I would not hesitate to tell people to consider less lethal weapons in their home.  You can use a gunvault gun safe to hide them in for the same reason you might want to lock up your guns.   Being on a second floor and spraying mace or pepper spray down the stairs is enough to prevent an attacker from coming up and a taser can easily fit into a gun safe.  Why not think about less lethal weapons, hide them in various points in your house for the what ifs and hide them in something like a gunvault microvault or minivault.

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Firearm Instruction from a DVD

I remember that I use to walk around gun shows all the time and see some really out dated military training books and firearm training VHS tapes.   I skipped over these because they looked old, but eventually I ran into a few friends that owned some of them and I got to watch them.   I remember the first time I heard somebody run through firearm safety, and gun assembling and disassembling on a AR1 5 it was new to me.   One of my sponsored firearm instructors has a pile of DVD’s in his home collection that were all taken from his VHS collection.   Some of the best information about gun fights has been out there before and they are what most people call the fundamentals.   You can win a gun fight with a faulty firearm if you know how to deal with malfunctions.

If you want to get a well produced and highly informative instruction and don’t have the time to take a 2-3 day Carbine Course.   I am a big fan of the Mapgul DVD series.   I though the Aerial Platform DVD was the least interesting, but it’s also the least expensive.    The Art of the Tactical Carbine volumes I and II are outstanding and there is information on them that I have not see other places.  I have not watched another Carbine DVD series that comes close to be as informative about the M4 Carbine and team training.   The Art of the Dynamic handgun is a very well produced video for concealed carry and duty carry situations.

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The Beauty of owning an AR15 Carbine

There was a time when I bashed the AR15 time every time I heard somebody rave about them, but that part of my outlook on the design has ended.    The differences between AR15 rifles as varying as the differences between cars.  You can get a compact car, pickup truck, van or monster truck and they all basically work the same on the outside, they roll, drive and turn, but internally they can be different and they all have different operating purposes.   The AR15 upper receivers you see now can be direct impingement, piston driven, 22 caliber converted, 6.8 SPC, 50 Beowulf, and on and on.  I can’t back it up, but I’ve read there are up to 40 different calibers you can get them in.   I really only could ever seen the need for 3 or 4 of them, but the design is so well received, that there is still plenty of new things to come for the design.

I have always been a fan of piston guns and not direct impingement.  Modern technology has made firearms more reliable even if they are still DI guns and arguments about gun reliability really only get blamed on the operator and not the designs.  If you want to compare an M16A1 to a piston driven gun it’ll be a slaughter over reliability, but AR15 really give you what you pay for them.   I am an LWRCI upper receivers fan.   If you still have an old Bushmaster DI gun laying around and wants something really different, you gotta spend the dough, but it’s fun with less cleaning time.  If I think of the last 20 times I went shooting, and did no more than 10 minutes of cleaning each time, I’ve saved hours of slopping gun cleaner around.  Gun cleaning supplies don’t cost much, but if you shoot often and clean your guns,  you will save time and money on just those things as well as bolt carrier life ect by switching to a n LWRCI upper receiver.

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Things that go nicely with a 1911

I can feel it, but I’m not afraid to admit it, I’m starting to desire carrying my rack queens again.   I started out with the old 45acp gun, but switched to a 38 Special and stuck with Sigs for over a decade.   I’m a Sig Sauer guy, but I’ve been wanting to carrying Glocks and try to adjust to them for a few months now.   I believe I am comfortable with the Glock firearms I am carrying, but I’m still not won over to them.   I’ve seen that Glocks are far more reliable than many of the Semi-autos I own under some conditions, but most of those would be either neglect or extreme circumstances.   I am not looking to get in gun fights that last for 1000rds with a handgun and I certainly don’t clean my guns every decade to see how reliable they will be.    My Glocks are going to be put to the test this year at a few training classes where I have had Sigs fail, but I’m still of the notion that I’d rather have an M4 pistol driven carbine than get too much into a bitch fest over handgun reliability.

My 1911s are always number one in my heart.   I like the idea of having 8rds of 45acp because I don’t think handguns should be expect for big gun fights.  I’m a strong supporter of having every cop keep an M4 Carbine in the trunk instead of expecting them to carry 100rds or more of 9mm ammo.   Galco holsters are outstanding companions to the 1911 because they look so darn good together.   The Galco holsters I have used are the Combat Master and the Galco concealable gun holsters.   They are belt through holster that are securely mounted on  your belt, you will have to get use to the grip angle which is another debate, but it’s another one of those things that is all about preference and adaptation.   The reasons for every accessory and holster being designed for a certain mode of deployment.

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