Category Archives: Gear

MADE IN THE USA : THE SAM® SPLINT

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Whether flat or rolled, they take up little space, and weigh almost nothing. Proven highly useful in everyday civilian aid, search and rescue, military, sports, and back country applications.  From the sammedical website: “Built from a thin core of aluminum alloy and sandwiched between two layers of closed-cell foam, the SAM Splint can be bent into any of three simple curves, becoming extremely strong and supportive for any fractured or injured limb.”   And yes, there is a guy named Sam — he’s an MD, and the company’s founder and CEO. Continue reading →

One Weird Trick To Shoot Better

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am here today to share with you a trick that the “BIG SCHOOLS” don’t want you to know.  If you don’t want to shoot better like a NAVY SEAL in just two hours, please leave this blog now.  This is for those who are serious, for those who want instant improvement in their practice.  This one “Weird Trick” discovered by a stay at home mom wanting to learn to defend herself from the upcoming zombie apocalypse.  Please, stay until the end of this blog if you are serious.

This one “weird” trick is called PRACTICE.  There are no slick fixes.  There are no pills, no potions that will take a D class shooter, and make them a Master class.

It seems the “ONE WEIRD TRICK” “HOW TO LOSE BELLY FAT WHILE EATING PIZZA THREE MEALS A DAY” or “FIND OUT THE REAL REASON OBAMA WANTS YOUR GUNS” meme has started to lurk into the firearms community. The sideshow barker lures you in with an instant cure for diabetes from an ad showing a Jelly Doughnut. Or warns you that “For those not serious about defending your family with the tricks of real world special forces operators need to leave this video now” all the while showing a bearded, multicam clad meat eater with his face blacked out.

I get that the firearms community has been hawking stuff for years with the claim of making us better and faster.  Variations of the sights that I call the “Alien versus Predator” sights that claim that it makes you faster on target.  Yet, every special ops unit and top tier competitor I know is using standard sights.  Some with a fiber optic front, some with a standard front blade.  If these huge, colorful sights that come together making an homage to the pharaohs were so good, you’d think they’d be on every gun in USPSA,, and CAG would order 500 sets of them.   Apparently, these folks haven’t discovered how fast these sights make you.

There is no magic fix other than practice. The more you dry fire, the more you practice, the better you will become. Say it with me, the faster you will become. Recently, I had a buddy of mine who is just getting back into shooting USPSA after a lay off come to me with a question.  At his last match, he won his division by a hair. He said that he sucked, but everyone just sucked a little more than he did that day. He was concerned that some of the younger guys were faster than him. He was sure that he was too slow, and wanted help putting a plan together to get faster. I asked him when the last time he devoted 15 minutes to dry firing and he replied “Oh, I have not practiced in months”.  There your problem, you’ve got mud in your tires.

We as a nation seemed to be fixated on quick fixes. Time and practice makes us better.

The one “WEIRD TIP” is the same that it has been for decades. Practice. Train with a plan.  Dry Fire. You’ll like the results.

THE POLICE MARKSMAN —- CURRENT ISSUE : LEO, GET SOME!

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What’s not to like, free and on line.

  “a legacy of advancing tactical excellence in law enforcement training. Our mission is to arm law enforcement with the tools and knowledge to survive and win real-world encounters. We maintain a laser focus on delivering cutting edge articles on tactics, firearms and officer safety to law enforcement of all ranks nationwide. We achieve this through our roster of leading topic experts and our long-standing reputation of integrity and commitment to law enforcement.”

Current Issue

“Officer Down” column (last article link below in list) — a must read comprehensive analysis of an OIS, with a buffet of food for thought.   This one has particularly important lessons for traffic stops and other encounters where repeated challenges are issued to a non-compliant. In one case where a non-compliant subject was holding a weapon, a federal appeals court said: “We accept for the present purposes that, once past Sergeant Carr, Montoute never turned to face him again, and Montoute never actually pointed the sawed-off shotgun at anyone. But there was nothing to prevent him from doing either, or both, in a split second.   At least where orders to drop the weapon have gone unheeded, an officer is not required to wait until an armed and dangerous felon has drawn a bead on the officer or others before using deadly force.” The case, Mountoute v. Carr, is here.

Kyle Dinkheller, EOW 1/12/1998:  The dashboard video is here.  Watch it and then read the column.  As Rod Serling would say, submitted for your approval:  Repetition makes good practice, but in the real world, use it at your own risk.

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Disclosure:  PM once (IIRC, in a prior century) sent me a box of 45 Auto +P Federal® Premium 230 HST, for free.  I have most of the box left.

Stay safe,  whether in or out of uniform.

Battle Belt Smack Down!

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I come here today to review some of those super awesome belts that make your life better.  I’m guessing that someone smarter than me realized that wearing 50 lbs of mags, med kits and more mags on your chest rig led to pain and encumbered movement. They came up with MOLLE on a belt so you could carry more stuff on your waist and still have room for more mags on your chest.  They called it a “battle belt” (how cool…)  So now, if you want to be tactical, you need to “run” your gear on these new belts.  I do admit, it is more comfortable and functional than a standard “bat belt” I wear as a LEO.  Depending on your agency or unit, you might be able to ditch the old “leather” gear for one of these beauties.

The first one I’d like to talk about is the HSGI Battle Belt $79.  http://www.highspeedgear.com/hsgi/sure-grip-padded-belt-31PB.html

Continue reading →

Review: First Spear Nylon Duty Magazine Pouches and the Missing Link

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First Spear’s Missing Links turns any MOLLE attachment accessory into a belt mounted accessory. The pictured pistol magazine pouch offers excellent combination of speed and retention.

Back in the day, I was a huge fan of Eagle Industries, a family-owned “tactical” nylon company with then forward thinking designs. They brought us products such as the MC-CIRAS releasable vest and an excellent modular plate carrier system that I still use today. The company was eventually sold to ATK, who also bought out Blackhawk Industries and also owns Federal, Speer and CCI. They still make tactical nylon, but most of their products go straight to government contracts and is generally unavailable unless purchased on the secondary market.

One of the products I liked quite a bit was the FB magazine pouch. This kydex reinforced pouch features a cloth backing for retention. A velcro secured strap folds back to front which allows the user to decide whether each pouch needs the additional security of the flap. These are now hard to find, especially in a belt mount model. Most pouches now are made for MOLLE type webbing. Continue reading →

REVIEW: Garrett Industries “Silent Thunder” OWB Holster

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Having rekindled my love affair with the wheelgun, I found it necessary to procure a quality holster.  My usual, off the shelf, brand turned out to be a dismal failure.  Again, I turned to the Internet for answers.  While there were numerous high end options available for wheenguns, pricing and wait times were more than I was willing to endure.  I also saw Garrett Industries mentioned frequently in the same sentence as “fast”, “quality” and “customer service.”  I took a look at the website and saw the Silent Thunder OWB holster and felt it would be well suited to range and class duty.  The website listed a 7 business day turnaround time.  Seven business days later I had a shipping notice in my email and tracking information to show that the holster actually shipped, not just a label printed. Continue reading →

In Search of the Perfect Pack: Vertx EDC Gamut

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The Vertx EDC Gamut (shown here in Smoke Grey) is functional and fits into an urban setting without screaming “I’m tactical!”

For as long as I can remember I’ve had a sickness for backpacks. I’ve gone through the variety of tactical packs to include Eagle AIII packs in every conceivable color, the popular RAID pack, and countless other brands. One of my longtime favorites was the 5.11 COVRT 18 pack, which had quite a few well thought out features. Build quality wasn’t terrible, but it still left me wanting more. So when Vertx released their EDC Gamut pack, I had to have one. My first impressions after receiving the pack is that the build quality exceeds that of the 5.11 pack by a noticeable margin. It has a semi-flexible frame sheet that helps the pack stand and keeps its shape. Zippers glide smoothly (the 5.11 never had a problem in this regard) and materials are rugged where needed. So what about the design? Continue reading →

Should I suppress for home defense?

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“Sorry folks, the park is closed….Moose out front should have told you”  John Candy-“National Lampoons Vacation”.

The words of John Candy’s character kind of sum up my advice on the most of the “should I do XYZ for my home defense gun”.  The fact is I only give advice on suppressors for home defense because there are thousands of variables.  I can’t say with any kind of authority what might be right for your situation.  Using suppressors doesn’t seem to be a one sized fits all.  Juries and prosecutors might view a suppressed rifle in a deadly force incident one way in one location, and another way some place else.  What I can do is give some things to think about, and the individual can decide for themselves based upon their situation and their needs. Continue reading →

Vendor Spotlight: 44MAG.COM

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Even robust Glock magazines should be considered consumables.

It seems that magazines are always on the national stage when it comes to the debate on gun control legislation, and there are always forces focused on restricting “standard” capacity magazines to some arbitrary number in the name of public safety. It is not my intention to turn MSW into a political forum, so let me just point out that in an autoloading pistol, the magazine is a critical component. Without a magazine, our fancy modern service pistol is nothing more than a sophisticated single shot. Continue reading →

Mini Review: Vertx Phantom Ops Airflow pants

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I was lucky to receive the other day a pair of the new Vertx Phantom Ops Airflow pants.  If you don’t know who Vertx is, well then you’ve been asleep behind the wheel of the tactical fashion industry.  Vertx (from their website) “is the tactical brand of Fechheimer, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, Inc and makers of Flying Cross military and law enforcement uniforms.”  I also heard the name Arc’Teryx mentioned at SHOT one year as having input into the design (haven’t got confirmation yet..). Continue reading →

Surefire P3X Fury

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The Surefire P3X Fury makes 1000 lumens for over 2 hours. Good to have on hand in case you don’t have access to a tanning booth. Photo from Surefire.

It doesn’t seem long ago that the 500 lumen output of the SureFire 10X Dominator was more light than you would ever need. The Dominator was big, bulky, but delivered a retina searing amount of light. With the advancement in LED technology, we now live in the golden age of small, bright, and efficient handheld and weapon lights. A few of my coworkers have recently purchased Surefire’s new P3X Fury. A conveniently sized light for patrol operations, this little beast is powered by 3 DL123A lithium batteries that cost a fraction of what they used to back in the 1990s when I was still carrying my 6P that cranked out an amazing 60 lumens for almost an hour. In contrast, the P3X generates nearly 17 times more light for more than twice the time (1000 lumens for over two hours). While a bit big for daily carry, for those on the job it may be just the perfect searching tool. When’s the last time you were in the field and asked yourself, “Boy I wish my flashlight wasn’t so bright”?

SOURCE: Surefire, LLC

LaserMax LM1141P Streamlight TLR-1 Test Results

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Robar/10-8/MSW Glock with Streamlight TLR-1HL WML, Lasermax Guiderod Laser and MDFA Kydex Carry Gear

In a previous article I revisited my Robar/10-8/MSW Glock. At that time I had installed a LaserMax LM1141P Guide Rod Laser and a Streamlight TLR-1 WML. Since that time I have fired approximately 1500 rounds with them installed. The Laser came from the factory shooting POA/POI and has had absolutely no issues. I find that I sometimes activate the Laser when my trigger finger is in register on the frame of the pistol, before I intend too however. My fault not the Laser’s.

I really like the fact that the LaserMax is internal. This means your holsters will all fit, you won’t block the Laser with your hand or finger when gripping the pistol, and the sight/barrel offset is minimized with the system. Continue reading →

First Look: MDFA Kydex Holsters

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Here are a couple holsters made by our very own MSW contributor Bob Henckel of MDFA.

Our loyal readers will recognize the name Bob Henckel as one of our regular contributors here at MSW. Bob owns and operates the Maine Defensive Firearms Academy and has recently reincarnated his Kydex holster operations. I was happy to discover this, as I’m always on the lookout for intelligently designed, functional kydex holsters. MDFA makes each holster to order, and the customer can select from over 50 colors and/or patterns available. The holsters are formed from .080″ Kydex, and can be had with 1.5″ or 1.75″ interchangeable belt loops. I chose two different rigs to try out: an IWB and OWB rig. The fit and finish are excellent, and every edge is hand finished. I’ll be carrying both over the next few weeks and will report back with my impressions. MDFA is still working on adding the holsters to the website, but you can order directly through them by hitting them through the contact portion of their site. Continue reading →

PHOTO OF THE DAY: MEDICAL KIT ADDITIONS

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[I was looking to make this one of the “Made In The USA” posts, but it turned out the two items I reference here are not.  They are nevertheless worthy of consideration as additions to your comprehensive home/tactical medical kits.  My prior MSW post pictures of tactically-oriented medical items I stock at home and carry are here and here].

I recently added two kit items as a result of my never-ending quest to be fully prepared to play first responder on myself and to provide others (who might attend to me or need items for their own use) medical kit items I have determined are easy to use and effective. They are: MEDIHONEY®  (gel, paste, and dressings; New Zealand by way of Canada) by Derma Sciences, Inc., and the four-inch version of the OLAES Modular Bandage (China by way of South Carolina) by Tactical Medical Solutions:

Continue reading →