Best backup or self defense pepper spray?

That’s a hard answer to give because there are many variables in deploying pepper sprays but the best for the price that is easy to use and lasts a long time is the Kimber Pepper Blaster.  This design is much better than the previous guardian angel which felt more like a TV remove than a firearm.  I personally have demonstrated several of these for students and everyone thought they were very easy to use and a better option than bottle pepper sprays.    Everyone still comes in here to pick up the same old bottle pepper sprays and although these work well on sober attackers, overly aggressive men, they are not the fastest deploy.   Sure, if you train hard you can probable become more proficient but not everyone is going to have the time to do so.

There is a holster you can use with the Kimber Pepper Blaster but putting it in your pocket or a designated area of a purse is just fine.   It’s not like the Kimber Pepper Blaster is going to jam up on you from pocket lint.  There are no mechanical parts to move other than the trigger.  You get almost a 4yr lifetime out of these pepper blasters and they are very easy to toss in a your pants pocket.  The Tru Spec tactical pants and Woolrich Elite pants all have pockets that you can use that will fit these quite nicely.   I highly recommend these for gifts or for backups for personal protection.

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Kydex holster options from Leather Holster Companies?

I’ve seen several places online where people are offering customer kydex holsters and although I know that is a niche industry that people can excel at, I’ve had too many fit and quality control issues to want to deal with it.  There are also customer leather makers but that is even more expensive.   Now that so many people a running lasers or lights on their .380 pistols or their duty guns.   Gun holsters can get very complicated.  I have had issues with the depth of holsters and also what I call “holster flop” and that is the reason I have so many holsters sitting in a box in my walk in closet.   Some larger frame or even medium frame semi-auto guns like the Sig 228 are difficult to put in those Don Hume Hit holsters, but the Desantis Speed Scabbard offered a little bit more sturdiness.

We are looking at bringing in more blue guns for people to try out in our Broomall, PA showroom because so many people want to know the fit and feel of a holster.   There are new holsters designs from Desantis holsters like the Scorpion and the Desantis Intruder.  There give you more comfort for larger size firearms.  This contoured paddle holster design is something I have worked with for  years and it really does make it more comfortable to wear.   At first it may seem bulky and hard to get on, but it’s something you just need to learn to adapt to.  You won’t get the bruising that many kydex will give you if you are bending over to your side.  Sig 229 and Glock handguns like the Glock 17 work really well in this holster design.

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Holsters vs. Holsters

There are so many variations of holsters and certain holsters are a must for certain environments.  I never understood people that take a firearm or a holster and don’t use it the way it was intended or try and cut around corners.  For instance, I have a friend that carries a Safariland holster around with the ALS system but he doesn’t keep the hood up to lock the gun in.    The locking system design is actually being skipped over.  The real problem with this line of thinking is under stress, the locking system can get knocked back and then the person with the firearm will get a surprise when he or she pulls the firearm and it does not release.  Practice with the guns and gear the way they were suppose to be otherwise unintended issues will arise.

The same thing goes for people that carry 1911s and keep the thumb safety off.  I have seen thumb safeties on 1911s come back on and this is the same issue that can occur on Safariland holsters with the ALS design.   The one thing I do like about kydex holsters over the leather holsters that we sell is that re holstering in a kydex holster is easy and there is hardly the need to wiggle the gun around or adjust the holster before re-holstering.  Some leather holsters can start to flop over time and that can be an issue under stress.   Choose your holster and firearm and be careful your short cuts don’t end up becoming a liability.

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Retetion holsters, open carry and concealed carry

There are many areas of this industry where it is all about preference and it’s not really a problem using holster A, holster B or holster C in a situation.   I realize that not everyone is going to be handcuffing a suspect and needs to worry about a bad guy grabbing his gun while stopping someone during a frisk, but there is more than that reason to have a locking holster of some sort.   There are plenty of youtube videos out there showing you the difference between the level 2 and level 3 holsters from Blackhawk and Safariland land and every one of them is for a different level of Law Enforcement or tactical applications.   Retention holsters like the Blackhawk Serpa are now military issued because in the middle of combat things can and will go flying if they are not locked down.

I know the Blackhawk Serpa holsters advertise that they are for concealment but I really have to put my foot down and suggest to any civilian that is carrying a firearm, that these are not the best holsters for hiding under a garment.  I personally suggest that the Blackhawk Serpa holsters be used for open carry or law enforcement because going under cover means the concern of snagging, and putting in another potential slow down like a locking holster in the mix is more of a liability.  There are plenty of holsters from Desantis or from Safariland that give you some level of retention that can be adjusted with a screw that don’t need to have a button release to get them out.

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Hunting Season is here and it’s time to sight in your guns

This is usually the time of year that I avoid gun clubs becaues the season shooters usually show up around now and sight in  their guns for deer season.  In Pennsylvania it’s almost time to put your crossbow down and pick up a rifle.   They have recently opened up many areas of the State to hunting with crossbows because firearms are too dangerous in the highly populated suburbs but but archery is something for those in better health and strength than others.  Crossbows do not take as much energy up as compound bows and many people with disabilities are actually taking advantage of the new rules and getting out for deer season.   Some crossbows now have really good sights and optics on them and you can even see that Trijicon has some nice sights and mounts for them.

Trying to find a good gun club or gun range that will allow you to sight in your gun for 100yds, sight in your crossbow and maybe shoot archery is hard.  Many people looking for a gun club listings in your State have a hard time getting email addresses or phone numbers to even get information.  Some gun clubs want to be off the radar but this actually hurts them in the long run when long time members die off and nobody even knows how to join up.   We’re doing some work to the website  but trying to do more than just talk about guns and tactical gear and get information out to people with feedback about gun range conditions and options.

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All those gun sights and no idea what you want until you pick it up and loo through it

As a retailer of Trijicon rifle and handgun sights, we hear it all the time that customers had no idea what the products were like until they looked through them.   There are so many variables with the Trijicon ACOGS and the differences between each, even though not much to an experienced shooter, can be some what overwelming when  you have no idea what the lines are.  I had to have a meeting with my Trijicon Sales Rep to find out what all of the specs were and how some of these were sighted in and aimed.   Those simple X crosshairs are somewhat a thing of the past and what use to be the M16 gunsight on the Eotech is now a low tech combat optic.
Low tech might be the way you want to go with your optic but chosing between having optics that are battery operated and fiber optics can also be a hard one.  Many people have moved away from 4x optics on their guns because they don’t do you all that good in close up fighting, the Trijicon Reflex sights for sale are a good competition to red dot and Eotech sights.  You can get a wide field of view from the Trijicon RX30A-51 which we have in stock in our store with the amber dot.  This gives you a defined illuminated dot that does not haze or look blurred like red dots.  You get a similar field of view as the Eotech 512.

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Magazines and Magazines with windows

I learned a very long time ago to be careful what you say when you are in the middle of a fight.  I’m no combat veteran but it was good that I learned my lesson a paintball course and not on the battlefield.  When you are running low on ammunition the last thing you do is announce it in the middle of an engagement.   A long time ago I, along with a friend of mine were in the middle of a paintball engagement and it was the last battle of the day.  We were both running low on paintball ammunition and the odds were against us.  The teams were 14 vs 15 and the two of us had 9 of the 15 players coming towards us.  We both had less than 40rds left and none of our fellow team members were around to back us up.

As we were engaged and almost cornered my friend retreated to my position and yelled “i’m almost out of ammo, I only have about 20 paintballs left” I announced ” I only have 20 paintballs left. Meanwhile It hit me like a ton of bricks that that was the last thing I should have annouced to 75% of the team, after that I learned to keep my mouth shut, but having magpul pmags  with the windows was something I thought about after that day.  Knowing approximately how many rounds of ammuntion you have left before you move forward in an engagement is a good thing.  Under stress it’s real hard to tell if you put 8rds off or 15rds.  Knowing you are half full rather than finding out you made a forward advance with 3rds left in the magazine.

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100% cotton ripstop pants and comfortable tactical pants

We’ve tested the waters in the last year after Eotac faded away, and we have over a years worth of feedback about customers that have moved on to Blackawk tactical pants, TruSpec tactical pants and even Vertx.   Vertx seems to have gotten great reviews but not everyone is moving in that direction.  I have found the Vertx product line to be the most well received tactical pants amongst our window shopping operators.  You should see more and more products like this on our inventory in 2013.  In the meantime, most of our customers have told  us that they want cotton canvas pants, 100% cotton ripstop pants or the poly/cotton ripstop.

There are always slight differences with each pant that make it a selling point to a certain market.  Most of military contractors prefer the 100% cotton ripstop cargo pants from Woolrich Elite Series Tactical Clothing because it is really the only tactical pant to go back to or stay with since Eotac has gone. Many of our Law Enforcement Officers need a pant that has some time of lining in it to keep your pants tucked in, those customers go to 5.11 tactical pants or Blackhawk tactical pants.  Some tactical  pants are good for the office and others for Iraq.

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The diffferences between 5.11, TruSpec and Blackhawk Poly/Cotton Ripstop

We’ve been in this business for so long we’ve seen Companies come and go, products have come and gone and in the end, only the best product lines hold up in this tough market.   We know our customers and the differences between their needs and that not all of our customers are going to want the same thing.   I found  out the hard way after trying on several 5.11 tactical pants and finding out that the stories about shrinkage we’re true.   Some tactical pants don’t hold your wallet as well as others and I’ve had some pants fail on the firing line where as soon as I knelt down my wallet immediately would fall out.   Tactical clothing like the Woolrich Elite and the Eotac lines were very similiar but the differences between getting your wallet out while pulling into a toll booth with one over the other, were considerable.  I hated those times I couldn’t get my wallet out and got tired of wearing them on the road.

Some tactical pants come with knee pad inserts but not everyone feels these are practical.  They don’t necessarily work on all tactical pants but Blackhawk tactical pants have a special teflon coating that makes them more water resistant that the TruSpec or 5.11 tac lite pro pants.   I have heard from numerous customers that there is a big difference between the breathability of these pants in hot weather.   Some of our 3 gun customers only want the 100% ripstop pants because the slight differences between polyester cotton blends and 100% cotton ripstop are considerable if you are running and jumping.

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Expanding TruSpec product line into 2012

We have been continuing our expansion of the TruSpec product line in our store and online.   Many of the new soft shell products like the TruSpec tactical soft shell and the 3 in 1 Parkas are flying out the door, but the TruSpec tactical polos are the new products we are bringing in.  The color options are much larger with the TruSpec product line and we have heard from more than a number of our customers that they need white or tan color polos which is something many of our previous product lines did not have.   The TruSpec polos are lighter weight than the Woolrich Elite polos which is something that many have asked us for.  These tactical polos are slightly longer than some of the other polos you might find in a store.

There are many other new tactical shirts coming in this Fall and we will continue to add to our product line.   We are always looking for customer feedback about which product they want and the truspec shirts we are  now carrying was something that our customer have asked for.   There is a new conealed carry shirt that is very different in desing than the Eotac and Woolrich Elite product line but it also has a very office friendly look to it.   We have heard there is a new TruSpec tactical shirt coming out as well as another lightweight tactical vest.   Keep your eyes on the website and join our newsletter for up to date information.

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