All posts tagged Philadelphia Police Supply

Blackhawk Serpa holsters for sidearms

I have taken several courses with my Carbine and I still am sticking with my Blackhawk Serpa holsters even with all of this brewha that has been going on.  I’ve seen it so many times at the range that ceratain holsters or gear is more likely to cause accidents with shooters that are not as disciplined.  It’s not the gears fault its the shooter and everyone knows that even though so many instructors have banned the holster.  They get tired of the “new guys” always doing the same mistakes.   The thigh rig for my sidearm is a great way to carry because i do not like having a sidearm on my vest or on the belt line if I am toting my LWRC M6A2.

Keeping as much gear off your belt is a good  thing and new shooters will find that out after the first hour on a firing line.   With a full range of holsters for medium and large frame sidearms the Blackhawk Serpa holsters are still the hottest selling thigh rigs for students heading off to the range.  They are about $50 less than the Safariland holsters and I really can’t argue one being any better for the chore at hand.  We stock a large supply of these holsters for the most popular Sig Sauer, Glock, Beretta and 1911 firearms.  Even the XD45 is one of the most common we see carried in this type of holster.

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Concealed Carry Flashlights, this time we’ll tell you what to buy

We always get asked for advice from customers about sizing and durability, but like many things, it really is mostly about preference and the job you need to perform that drives the gear you want to use.   There are so many options out there for holsters and firearms and at points, the New Products that we see come out really stress us out because it means adding them to inventory, having to learn about them, and waiting to see if they are any good and people actually buy them.   The new .380 pistol rave is still going strong and we have had to pickup new product lines just to stay on top of the holster buying.  The Smith & Wesson Body Guard seems to have almost caught up with the Ruger LCP.

One of the most common questions we get when customer walk in our stores is do we carry knives and flashlights.  The next most common question is do we have any flashlights like the Streamlight Flashlights available that they can hold in their hands.  I personally prefer the Streamlight Professional series flashlights and we keep them around the store for customers to hold and try  out.  The best feature about them is the hi and low power option.  For concealed carry it is nice to have a flashlight that can really light things up, but you don’t always need that much power to find the car keys you just dropped or to find the keyhole in your backdoor.

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Trijicon ACOGs and thinking ahead

Trijicon optics are probable the most complicated rifle optics we sell.  Not only has there been a major trend away from red illuminated reticles towards green reticles, there are so many reticles that if you don’t think about what you get ahead of time, you might spend $1200 and find out you should have gotten something else.  Being a showcase dealer for the Trijicon product line means getting listed on their website and having traffic directed towards you, but we still get a lot of confused customers and always have to break out the Trijicon catalog and explain it to them.  It really helps to have product in stock because a good look through is really what sells the product.

Which reticle should you choose?  The horseshoe and donut reticles seem to be very popular but for those that want the tradition crosshairs the Trijicon TA01NSN is the best option.   Many people realize that the ACOG is mostly a medium range optic with some long range applications but it is definitely not a close combat optic unless you mount a red dot or iron sights on it.   The good thing about the TA01NSN is that it has the tradition reticle and has a night sight iron sight on it.   This is an easy sell for those that don’t want to get too fancy with the reticles.

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Getting the most for your money

We’ve been selling the Original Swat footwear for almost 2yrs now and we have a good track  record on the product  line.  Nobody has  a perfect product line, but we have a very good customer satisfaction rate with this line of boots.   The best thing about selling the Original Swat footwear is that our customers are guaranteed to get at least a year out of their footwear for their money.   We have guys stopping in every day that ask us about various product lines and many times they never heard of Original Swat footwear.  The first thing we show people is how light the boots are, they look solid but are very light weight.

In the last month we’ve had 3 customers show up at our door driving Harley Davidson that found out about Original Swat footwear company from  some of their biker friends and it was all about comfort. We are a stocking dealer and have lots of Original Swat boots for sale at our retail location here in Pennsylvania and online.   Check out the new product line the Chase Series footwear for a better Athletic footwear.   Some of the new boots are actually replacements for the previous line namely the 1230 footwear.  We have a few of the SEK900G and SEK9000 boots left on clearance.

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Beretta 92 vs 1911 and locking holsters

There has absolutely been a trend away from handguns with manual safeties for a very long time, but for some reason somebody is always trying to put one back on them.   The Springfield XD is probable the latest handgun that has a grip safety, but that still won’t cause you to not fire if you are are reckless.  Most negligent discharges occur when holstering firearms and if your hand is pushing down, which it mostly likely is, you still might set off the gun.  And now you have played your hands into Glock ownership.

The nice think about Sigs and Beretta firearms is decocking them after shooting and having a not so much safety, but just a heavier trigger which is somewhat of a buffer to prevent negligent discharges during holster ect.   The Beretta 92FS or M9 has a safety, but carrying with the safety off is far safer than carrying a 1911 with the safety off, the Blackhawk Serpa holsters seem to be a very good combination for the Beretta 92 handgun and the carrying them with the safety off gives you the above mentioned heavy first trigger pull and you won’t have to fumble a thumb safety then have to release the holster, and then get to the trigger.

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The Otis gun cleaning system

It’s kind of like being in a cult when you acquire certain firearms.   The Kalashnikov crowd is a cult and so is the AR15 crowd.   AR15’s are so common now that it’s  not really as much of a cult anymore, but the furniture  you use on  your firearm and the  optics you use may put you in a certain cool category.    When I first heard about the Otis gun cleaning systems, I was wondering how someone could have devised a system that would be so much better than a cleaning rod and a cleaning patch, so I walked around at a trade show and went right up to the guy running the Otis booth.   I was lucky enough to have asked enough questions that I was given the AR15 buttstock cleaning kit and the Pistol cleaning kit.

When I got home, broke out several of my AR15 guns and a could handguns and tried to use the system.   I found the Otis cleaning kits to be very complicated but I have enough life experience to know that that just means having patience and find out why gun cleaning supplies were designed the way they are.   I have never had to use a scraper or a brush on any of my AR15 guns because I clean them so often there is really rarely any long term build ups that I missed.  I do think that the Otis Cleaning Systems do slow down the cleaning process because of all of  the fumbling I do with the accessories, but the compact bags make

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Philadelphia Mob’s it’s only a matter of time

Today I was listening to a local talk radio host who had a local reporter on and they were talking about the Flash Mob stuff that was going on there.   In some people’s minds these incidences are not racial, but that is absolutely absurd.   We’ve had at least 3 mob incidences against young white males or old white men and it’s always black on white.   In some camps of our society, racism only applies to things that a white man can do and not the other way around.  Racism exists in all societies and cultures but only those living in the world that Political correctness has created think it only exists when a victim is black.

One of the callers challenged the local news writer about what the news article would be if a gun owner shot one or more of these individuals when they were committing the crime.   The news reporter basically said it at this point it would say something about a “gun owner defends against a mob” I’m paraphrasing, but I thing it was bullshit.  We know that if a gun owner shot one of these individuals and reloaded with using spare gun magazines that it would be excessive or bull  shit that someone that trained to shoot shot 5 or 6 of the criminals and it was unfair that someone would do that against un armed youth.   Considering the ages groups of some of these Flash mobs it would probable not sound justified if a 65yr old man shot 11yr-19yr olders, but the reality is it may well be if things keep up like this.

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CCW options, gun, knife, mace, fists, flashlights and strobes

I think those about sum up your options for fighting and maybe if you are in good shape a good kicking foot will do.   I primarily count on firearms for self defense because there are levels of threats and levels of criminal intent and showing a gun is enough to deter most crimes when a knife or flashlight really might just make a bad guy laugh at you especially if he’s bigger.  I’ve seen first hand that a untrained person with a knife isn’t going to inflict much damage and unless you actually know how to move with a knife, don’t even try and wield it.   A tactical knife is a good accessory to concealed carry, but not something for the amateur to fight with.

Something to consider which is showing up more and more in CCW flashlight courses I have sat in on are the strobe flashlights.   Now, first of all, I’m not going to tell you that it’s something that is going to stop a threat, I’m just saying that it is something else to consider especially when Streamlight Flashlights only cost you about $50+ dollars and might give you something else to use on a dumb drunk that is really just an annoyance rather than a threat.  An unsuspecting drunk isn’t going to like having a 180 Lumen flashlight and a ” Hi, how are you” from a friendly CCW that flashes him in the eyes and then gets into a car and drives off.

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