Archive for April, 2012

Diversifying our product line with cool stuff

I didn’t think about it too much when I thought of the subject title for this blog post after doing some playing around with the Recon Sleeping bags.   We sell a ton of clothing and tactical apparel to military contractors and security forces but there are some products that they have asked for that we did not carry.   Some of the outdoors type of products line the rain gear and camping type things are products we may bring in stock in the near future but right now we gotta sell what people are asking for now.   The vast majority of our next day air shipping orders are for military customers that have been quickly deployed and usually less than 3 days notice.

Special Forces are being used more and more around the world and that’s not going to stop anytime soon.  We’ve add the Recon Sleeping bags to our product line to fill in the holes in our inventory that customers are looking for.   Sleeping bags have come a long way and like every good product, it usually needs to be compact and lightweight.  You may want to even consider leaving something like  this in a car or vehicle for emergency or use them for camping.  The Recon 2 sleeping bag is pretty much considered to be the Jungle Sleeping bag while the Recon 5 is your coldest weather.  I saw a recent critical review of the Recon 4 online and stated that it wasn’t good for cold weather but somebody forget to mention there is a Recon 5, oops.

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A recent stock failure and no time to mess around

I’ve had 2 stock failures in recent  years and one was my fault for not checking the carbine to make sure it was tight after thousands of rounds of use and the other was during a Carbine course where I showed a student how to clear a malfunction by slamming the butt stock on the ground.  There is a YouTube video of someone hurting their  hand with a CTR stock but there are obvious limites on how much banging around a gun or accessory can take.  When there is a fire and you have to break the glass to get to an axe, you don’t need to hit the glass hard that you break the axe handle and end up with a metal wedge.

I’ve had issues with firearms in the past, usually finicky handguns where I just got tired of the intermittent magazine failure that I just replaced all of the mags springs and recoil springs and was done with it.  If you are looking for gun accessories and not sure what you want, take a serious look at the Magpul accessories for the AR15 rifle and  you’ll probable find what you are looking for.   You can’t beat the MOE stocks and accessories but there are always unique things out there that the major firearm accessory companies don’t have.

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Should you skip steps when teaching people about defensive shooting ?

Ok, yeah, from a scenario stand point there are always variables which can change things, but there are some steps that you should put all of your efforts into transmitting to a new student before  you can take a step back and have confidence they can stand on their own.   First, safe gun handling skills are important, but there are some things that should be taught immediately after that.   I have in several situations had people call me up and ask me where to get a firearm because they were under serious security risks and they had almost zero firearm handing experience.

There is always a balance that needs to be met with each new shooter.  Some people progress faster than others but you really have to watch you don’t skip steps.  Mounting high optics like the Trijicon rifle scopes, namely the ACOGS on a gun may make a novice shooter more proficient but what about close up engagements? Do they know that those crosshairs are going to be several inches above the point of impact if someone was 10ft in front of them?  What would the ramifications of missing by 2 inches ? I can think of scenarios where they could end badly.

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What do you want in an AR15?

So many people have that itch to constantly modify their firearms, and there is nothing wrong with that, but the one thing that I have constantly seen happen on firing ranges, especially Carbine courses, is people simplifying their firearms and accessories.   The different between a 7lb Carbine and a 10lb Carbine is considerable and you really feel it at the end of the day.  Even the best shot will have trouble keeping up the consistency under stress and physical stress will always occur at some point in the field.  If  you think about it like this, if you had to use a firearm in your home and hold it in a ready position, a double stack 45acp is going to be hard to kept upright on a threat for very long. People with experience in  using firearms always trend towards simplicity.

The trend towards simplicity actually occurred almost 50yrs ago when the Army adopted the M16 and replace the M14.   That was the first major transition towards simplicity and a lighter firearm.   The AR15 complete upper receivers that we sell have very diverse applications.   Some are for designated marksmen applications with longer and usually heavier barrels and then some are for Patrol vehicles and are as short and light as possible.  Right now the Daniel Defense uppers that we sell win the lightest AR15 contest but it’s been too early for us to claim they are as tough as some of the others.

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Training with new gear and being consistent

There is no debate about firearms safety, you either follow the rules or you will have an accident.   The problem with fireams training is everyone has an off day, not everyone wakes up in the morning and is at 100% mentally there.  Everyone trips or falls at some point, every slips on the ice they didn’t see and not everyone can think straight until they’ve had their cup of joe. I’ve seen more accidents with Glocks than any other sidearm, but I would say that Glocks are the most reliable firearm I’ve seen at training courses.

One thing that I have seen happen with gun owners, is they juggle firearms around too much.  It really is not a good idea to switch up your holsters and firearms too often because mental lapses can occur.  This seems to be the problem people are having with the Blackhawk Serpa holsters that are getting on the news.  If you don’t use this holster all the time, you may have a problem keeping your hand in the same spot and you’re more prone to curling your finger and causing an ND.  I very much like the retention design and the strength of the holsters, but I would not let a novice shooter start out with  one.

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What is the job at hand and will your pants hold up?

There are so many different types of tactical pants on the market  and so many people will rant or rave about a certain brand.  Sometimes they just brag about how they got a great deal on the clothing and and they fit, others will talk about the features while others will talk about the comfort.   Not everyone is going to like the fit of a certain tactical pant because body types can vary.   I won’t get too much into discussing this but in the 8yrs we’ve been selling clothing, not everyone can be happy with the same product.   In recent years the discussion has been about gussetted crotches and if the pants will blow out on the range, well that still can happen with any pant.

The real issue is with lightweight clothing, the lighter the material the more likely it will be to blow out if it does not have a gussetted crotch.  Some of the Tru Spec tactical pants they we have tested out do not have this type of stitching but we’ve not heard of anyone blowing them out.  I would claim that these are fence jumping tactical pants, but the fit gives you pretty good movement.   I’ve seen some of the Eotac pants blow out but that was due to design it was really a manufacturing issue.   There are so many variables in getting a good clothing product on the market and if we use consistency, quality and price points, the Tru Spec pants are probable number 1.

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Tru-Spec promo in full swing

There are so many choices in the tactical clothing market and even though I am shocked by the number of boot and clothing companies that are still emerging, we won’t touch those as a dealer until we hear from enough of our customers to warrant bringing it in stock.  When we first got in on the tactical clothing market, it was pretty much a 5.11 tactical clothing market and many, many in the tactical clothing consumer market were not happy with what happened to 5.11 tactical.   It seems that the original founders of the company turned it into a major money making tactical accessory and forgot about quality control and comfort.

Not every good idea can work and we’ve seen several discontinued shirts, pants and jackets in recent years that were good idea but they just didn’t sell.   When it comes to being able to find a stocking dealer for tactical pants that have a proven track record, you really can’t argue that the Tru Spec tactical pants are a very good pant for under $40.   We saw another tactical clothing company raise their prices on tactical clothing almost $10 a item and that really hurts in a bad economy.  The Tru Spec poly cotton rip stop tactical pants are very similar to the 5.11 tactical pants in regards to material, but have a very unique pocket design.

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And the most popular concealed carry firearm

According to all of our holster requests are hands down Kahr firearms.  I don’t have a ton of experience with these firearms, but I will say that they are the smallest 9mm handgun that I would ever consider carrying.  I find them to be a little too harsh to shoot for that size, but depending on the on the circumstances I would not feel under gunned with one of these.   I actually first found out about the Kahr firearms from a retired Law Enforcement Official that work in the NYPD for 3 years.   He was the first person I ever met that actually carried two firearms, and  one was a Kahr PM9.

The .380 is a buzz, but every time I look at the ballistics of the firearm, I just cringe.   If I’m going to carry a gun, the 38 Special is the smallest caliber I will carry, but the Kahr PM9 and some spare Kahr Magazines fill my pockets.   I have several friends that pocket carry these firearms and 6 or 7 rounds of 9mm and a spare magazine is not minimal.  Maintenance on the firearms is not different than any other,  it is always wise to keep up with your recoil spring replacement and magazine rotation.

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Differences between less lethal devices and firearms

There has been a huge surge in the number of people that are carrying firearms and it’s not the people you would originally have thought.   A friend of mine has recently picked up her CCW this year and was shocked at the type of people that were applying with her.  Almost 75% of the people applying on the day she was, were all women.  There seems be me very good science telling us that crime is up the upswing in certain parts of the Country and Mob type attacks have been occuring in Philadelphia on some of the weakest people.   Recent attacks were on retired individuals and sometimes didn’t even see the threats coming, others have been on small businesses.

Now that the .380 pistol is so popular, many people that  understand the ballistics of the weapon will tell you that this is not something with a lot of energy and if you want to immediately incapacitate a threat, you probable should consider a taser.  Tasers can more more cumbersome to carry, but Sabre Defense Pepper sprays are still very good backup options.  Actually, I take that back, they are really a primary defense.  For liability reasons, carrying small pepper spray can be a way to avoid the legal ramifications of using a firearm, especially after what happend in Florida, I wonder what would have been the outcome if pepper spray was used.

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Gun holtsters for the M9 firearm

Every time we get an order for a Beretta 92 holster we pretty much know it’s a Military customer.   Since we deal with so many soldiers deployed over seas and have been an established business for 7yrs people are finding out about us.   There are some new finishes for the Blackhawk Serpa holsters but most people still stick with the Black versions.  One reason I believe the Beretta 92FS has survived all of these  years is that it for the most part is easy to  use for left handed shooters.   I don’t know what the percentage of left handed shooters are in the Country but it’s a fairly high number to market to.

We’ve been getting more and more traffic at our retail location and a shocking number of our customers are left handed.   We were not sure which gun holsters we should be bringing in, but we did order many of the left handed Blackhawk Serpa holsters for the more popular firearms.  Having ambidextrous magazin releases and charging bolts is very important because a left handed individual is really forced to re-learn mechanical movements that his body doesn’t want to learn.  With defensive shooting training, it is important to practice things that you find uncomfortable but starting out with gear that isn’t up to your primary hand movements just royally sucks.

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