Tactical gear and clothing
There are a lot of words that get thrown around in the firearm industry that are fairly broad. Tactical clothing these days may sound like BDUs to one person and 5.11 tactical clothing to another. Tactical gear can mean anything from a folding stock to a knife, or a $1500 rifle scope. The word “tactical” doesn’t really tell you what something is going to be used for in the field. I have some pretty dressed down AR15 rifles that to some people, just look like violent weapons and scare them, while most of us that are familiar with the accessorized M4 Carbine, will find a A2 style AR15 to be pretty bland.
The so called tactical clothing and concealed carry markets seem to be new markets and these terms get thrown around a lot but don’t really tell us much. To the trained individual, they can spot a knife in the pocket and 5.11 style pants from a mile away and loads of pockets full of tactical gear and usually that’s a dead giveaway that someone is carrying a firearm. Think about what purpose your clothing is to serve and adapt to it. There are more than a few good clothing companies that are making concealed carry friendly apparel.
I first stepped into the world of tactical carbines after years of toting around an M16A2 for close to 10yrs. We basically had to clean and maintain our firearms daily when deployed and I often wondered what we might have been able to do during the day if we didn’t have such a high maintenance rifle. Looking back, I realized there wasn’t much else to do and this was something that we did to just occupy time. The M16A2 is not a very clean running firearm, but it can go for hundreds if not thousands of rounds without cleaning if it was lubed correctly from the beginning. In all of my years of service with the M16A2, and the years standing next to operators with AR15 rifles, I’d say 90% of malfunctions were bad magazines or improperly loaded, and bad ammo. The next was improper lubrication. It’s been a few years since I’ve been on the range during hunting season, but It was about 5yrs ago that I ran into an AR15 owner that said the key to running an AR15 reliable is to run it dry. Well, if you own an AR15 and you think this is true, I can’t help you.
I was not a big fan of putting flashlights on rifles until I started working in the field and realized that having a light on a rifle was the most practical thing to have with a firearm after having bullets. It may sound funny to hear such a simple observation, but it’s true. How many times during the day do you think you’ll need to pull a firearm for defense in your home and how many times do you think you may need it at night? Most criminal activity occurs in low light and not having a light means not identifying your target.
Every time I get asked a question about which firearm or accessory someone needs I follow up with the question “For what?” I have seen plenty of well trained concealed carry owners walk around with a 5 shot j-frame and none of them feel under gunned. The reality is that in some nightmare situation, you’ll never be full prepared, and sometimes we just have to be practical when we are CCW every day. For most practical purposes, I’d recommend keeping a spare magazine in your gun safe in your home, or keep one in your car if you don’t think you can comfortable carry a backup. When most of us are out and about, the ammunition you have on you is all you’re going to be able to fight with, but keeping something near your car and easily accessible in your home is a good idea.
Promag and Mec-Gar make decent magazines, I wouldn’t suggest them as primary magazines, but factory new magazines can be pricey. I would suggest regardless of which number of magazines you are normally carrying, keep 3 or 4 range mags for each handgun you own.
Promag magazines have gone through the decades being one of the top end of the replacement or after marketa magazines and they are still holding up. Pistol reliability has drastically increased over the last 15yrs and so has the machining and manufacturer of rifle and pistol magazines. Whether you have a Keltec P32 or a Mini 14, you can find Promag magazines at a reasonable price and use them for primary or secondary uses. During the assautl weapons ban of 1994 until the sunset of the ban,