Archive for July, 2014

Are your knives sharp? Most suggested answer to “what should I use to sharpen my knife” are the Gatco Knife Sharpening Systems

Knife Sharpening KitsI was lucky enough to work the NRA Show at Pittsburgh with the guys from Great American Knife & Tool Company and got to witness first hand the number of people walking by the table that were carrying dull knives.   People tend to shop for a knife based on it’s size and what they think they need it for, but many people don’t understand how knifes are sharpened or how to put an edge on a blade.   I’m in no way an knife expert, and in all honesty, I’m not that interested in knowing everything there is to know about knifes, but the one thing I do know how to do is sharpen a knife.  I’ve other sharpening 2 stone pocket sharpening kits as well as a sharpening stone, but none of them worked as fast as the Gatco Sharpening System and with the 10005 which is a 4 stone sharpening kit plus a serration sharpening stone, this is by far the best kit if you ever want to bring a serrated edge back to life.

Sure the quality of whatever knife you are sharpening is going to hold an edge above or below average but I’ve done enough cutting for shipping and handling packages to know when knives are losing their edge and can easily tell which one is holding up.    There are tons of people that are carrying flashlights and knives on them but if you aren’t using it all the time, you might want to check to make sure that its still got an edge on it.   In emergency situations like cutting seatbelts or rope, you don’t want to spend more time than you need trying to free yourself or someone else in harms way.   For around $30-$40 you getting knife sharpening kits that also work very fast and you won’t spend all day sitting next to a camp fire doing it the old fashion way.  There are replacement stones you can buy if you break or wear something out and Gatco like many of the other products we sell have outstanding Warranties on their products.

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White lights, Surefire Flashlights has always led the way

Surefire FlashlightsAll gear has it limits and it’s tolerances and not everyone will push gear to the limits, but in this industry, we have so many different lines of work that report back to us that it’s always part of our job to listen so we can relay that to our customers, as long as it passes our bull shit meter.   You get what you pay for and Surefire Flashlights are not in the “cheap” or “inexpensive” category although their history in the Military is well known and complaints about the cost are the only thing we hear that are negatives.  You have to read the product specs and what a flashlight is designed to do to understand what you are paying for when you are shopping for an LED Flashlight for your M4 Carbine, M16 or Remington 870 or Mossberg 590 Series shotguns.   Having a hi and a low power setting means longer life of batteries and be careful you don’t just buy a light based on the lumens.   A 320 Lumen flashlight is going to burn faster than one that can be set to 15 Lumens and only use what you need to use.

Flashlights, just like lasers are often not used properly and I would also highly recommend getting a red or blue flip up lense at the end of any weapon mounted light because there are more times than none, going to be situations were you don’t want high output because shining a 200 Lumen to 600 Lumen light in low light or darkness is like turning the sun on and it is true that you may more likely draw attention to you which can give a burglar, home invader or prowler or felon a return firing point.   The Surefire Flashlights like the Scout Model went from 110 Lumens to 200 lumens and considering how small and lightweight it is,  I’d highly recommend that you pay attention to the pros and cons of using pressure switches because they do break and it’s also recommended that you keep spare ones close to  you incase of failure.   We’ve seen a big up tick in the sales of the Surefire X300 Ultra due to the fact that this is easy to put on a handgun or a rifle and doesn’t require a pressure switch to activate.

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A time and a place for extended magazines, Wilson Combat 10rd Magazines

Wilson Combat 10rd MagazinesI remember back in the day of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and what it was like to go to Gun Shows and all you saw were after market magazines and many of them being not very reliable, if you wanted standard capacity magazines that were factory made, you had to pay a pretty hefty price for them.   One of the reasons I ended up going with the Beretta 92FS was because that had the most availability for used standard capacity magazines and reliability was what I always wanted.  The Colt 1911 was the first hand gun I owned but the AWB really didn’t impact that firearm, and as a matter of fact, there was actually a trend towards firearms like this because if you were stuck with 10rds and less for a firearm, why not go with 45acp.   For some reason I thought I still needed more than Wilson Combat 7rd or Wilson Combat 7rd magazines but I ended up going with a cheap aftermarket 10rd magazine, and the mags barely lasted more than 3 range sessions before they crapped out on me.

I learned that lesson real fast and just went back to 8rds +1 but on my learning curve, I stopped doing the +1 on my guns because after several training events, started noticing that this was over stressing the springs and if you have cheap springs, they are going to slow down and throw off the timing on your 1911 and it’s either going to stove pipe or fail to feed properly.    I’ve made the decision in the past that any time I change the magazines springs on my handguns, I change the recoil springs because I’ve seen “timing issues” on many occasions and I don’t own unreliable handguns.   There are always tweaks you can do if you have the patience to salvage magazines that don’t work but why waste your time and get Wilson Combat 10rd Magazines that are very popular with our IDPA Competition shooters.  I personally find anything over 8rds for 1911s to throw off the balance of the gun but there is a time and place for extended magazines.

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If you go to a firing range or own a gun, you must have First Aid and Medical Supplies with you

Combat GauzeWe have a lot of range bags to pick from but the number one thing I say to someone ordering one online or in our Showroom after picking one out is “don’t forget about medical supplies”.   We have plenty of Combat Medical Instructors coming into our store that who us how they pack their bags and about all of the features various bags from Voodoo Tactical, Elite Survival Systems, 5.11 Tactical and Condor and all of them have their pros and cons, but “The Mission Drives the Gear” so it really comes down to preferences.   Anyone that steps foot on a firing line should always know who and where medical kits are and since there have been so many major advancements in medical supplies, just having a box with band aids and gauze is not tolerable.   I was recently shown video of a kid that got hit by a car and how even after a tournequet was applied, there was still bleeding that needed to be stopped and the technician had to use Quickclot.  Between the cost of the various Sport Medical Supplies and a Swat T Tourniquet, your talking about $30 on up, how much of a joke is that to not justify putting that in your range bag,  your car, and in your home.

I’ve had enough life experience to keep supplies in all of the previously mentioned locations because I’ve been in my home where I’ve had people knock on my door and tell me a kid was in a bad bike accident (no car involved just a single bike accident) to date its the worst bleed out I’ve ever seen.   The kids ankle was sliced open when he lost his footing and the pedal slid up the side.   When you move up to the Z-Medica Combat Gauze, your starting at about $44 for the smaller packs but can watch one minute of Youtube and see how to use a Tourniquet and Combat Gauze.   The next time you pickup a gun case, range bag, tactical vest or firearm accessory, make sure you put some thought into upgrading your first aid and survival gear because the more you are around firearms, statistically speaking, the more likely you are going to witness an accident and if you look at all of the training events, Carbine Courses, you’ll see that they do, which is also another good reason to always be wearing body armor while on the firing range.  Also, you might want to check out Doc Spears Combat Lifesaver DVD that we sell.

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Visibility, Blindspots, Proficiency and the Smith Optics Elite Pivlock

Smith Elite PivlocksSometimes people get sticker shock when they see some of the prices on ballistic eyewear, but we always have to remind people this is insurance for the “what ifs” that can and do happen.   There are many combat veterans that are coming back with damage to their eyes due to fragmentation that occurs when bullets fly and bombs go off.   In the real world, a small fragment of rock or metal is all it takes to alter your life and wearing cheap stuff to the range that people use for weed wacking.   I actually ran  into some local customers recently that were wearing Smith Optics Elite Sunglasses on a Sunday trip to the local hardware depot because they were wearing them while doing lawn mowing and yard work, that’s getting your moneys worth!

In the real world of Law Enforcement, shooting ranges, and Military Operations, there are a lot of issues with fogging with eyewear from ballistic goggles, to Eyeshields.   In extremely active situations that is something that can as does occur and I have reports from many of the S.W.A.T Teams that operated during the aftermath of the Boston Bombings that had major complaints about moving from exterior to interior situations and ended up throwing there goggles off because they couldn’t operated proficiently indoors with the eyewear on.   Goggles can be very clunky and also have a lot of blind spots due to the frames being so large so the reality is that ballistic protection with high visibility is really the best thing to look for.  The new Smith Elite Pivlock has two lense sizes, the Pivlock V2 and the Pivlock V2 Max, check out the Youtube.com video attached to the product to see how easily the lense interchange and the lense and kit options.

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Do you still need a cleaning rod for your rifles and what gun cleaning supplies should you consider?

Gun cleaning suppliesI have atleast 2 Hoppes gun cleaning kits that I purchases probable more than 20yrs ago and never finished off all of the gun oil that they came with because I never really needed to use that much lube on the bolt action rifles I first owned.   The one thing I learned real fast with a 22 Caliber rifle is to not get your 30 caliber gun cleaning patches mixed in because any 3 piece gun cleaning rod is not going to handle being stuck in a barrel and will easily get bent up and you might as well consider it trash due to the fact that it’s highly likely you’ll damage the riflings in the barrel.  I learned that lesson and picked  up a one piece rod and it’s still in great condition.   There are several different types of metal brushes you can use but in my opinion its more about how  you clean the firearm and not so much about the make up of the brush.   Brass rifle brushes, Nylon brushes and even Bronze gun cleaning brushes.

Most of the type you can use a given rifle caliber brush on several calibers that might be close to it and it will get the job done.  I’ve actually avoided worrying about cleaning all of my firearms after every range trip because I’ve seen so many semi-auto guns run just fine for thousands of rounds just because they were properly lubricated, and not because they need to pass a white glove test.   Whether you are looking for a kit or few gun cleaning supplies to cut your time down, the type of gun you are using and the configuration the kit comes might mean not needing much more.   Some of the Otis gun cleaning kits are caliber and rifle specific which is pretty cool if you want to keep it in a range bag or you are going to be on a road trip.   Some of the .308 or 7.62 gun cleaning kits have optic cleaning tools which is something you might not have thought about until reading this blog post.  A Leatherman Mut might be another accessory to keep in the same bag.

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