All posts tagged Elite Operator Tactical

Think about the magazine holders before you buy

I was at a Zombie competition over the weekend and I have to say that this was by far the most professionally run competitions and some of the best tactical gear and firearms I have ever seen on a firing range.   There were several shotgun courses which meant there were plenty of people showing up with shotguns and gear, part of the fun of the competition is that every that competed in this everyone that was there had to lug the gear that used with them at all times.  Even though you still have to see a lot of Made in China on the gear, the designs of holsters and magazine holders has improved.

There were a few tactical vests that I got to see that were specifically designed for shotguns.   I’m doing a little research on what kind of vests these were, but it was impressive.   Uncle Mikes and Fobus make kydex magazine holders which work very well for IDPA or competitive shooting, but they are not the most vesatile for real hard use.   Eventually these holders will get a little loose with hard usesage and you will hear a rattle when moving fast.    Carrying magazines that have straps on them are not the best for competition or CCW because I personally think it’s one more thing to have to flip out of the way.  For combat these work fine and for some competitions they work, but I strongly recommend the use of the Blackhawk single and double stack holders.

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Another word about the Eotac Field Jacket

We’ve done several Law Enforcement or Military Conventions in recent months and we got to meet some of our customers up front.   One of the first things our customers asked us were “when are the black and navy blue pants coming in?”.    There have been several tactical clothing companies stepping into the market in the last 5yrs, but only 4 or 5 really seem to have held their ground.   I won’t claim that one is the best and everyone sucks because it’s mostly about preference.   Some people prefer Glocks over Sigs and for most applications, there really isn’t a difference in durability and reliability.

The same goes for some of the top apparel lines.   Proper, 5.11 Tactical, Woolrich Elite and Eotac make a lot of good products, but some do have products that stand out and are unique.    I have to admit that I have heard a l ot of complaints from 5.11 tactical customers due to production changes once the company go so big, but this time I’ll just discuss one product.   The Eotac Field Jacket looks like the Woolrich Elite Series Algerian Jacket, which in itself, looks like the Original Algerian Jacket.   The Eotac Field Jacket, which is known as the Style 502, is the best tactical jacket. Although the Woolrich Elite jacket is well made, it looks like a first generation run compared to the Eotac jacket.

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A literal test run on Original Swat

I got to sit on another Carbine Course last weekend here in Ohio.   We wrapped it up at the NTOA Conference a few weeks ago in Pittsburgh and I was invited to sit in on a Counter Terrorism training session.   The students practice truck stopping and clearing a tractor trailor.   One of the things I noticed when the students were preparing for the class was that they were all complaining about how hot their clothing was and in late September, we were still having 90F weather.  The truth of the matter is you really have to prepare for that kind of discomfort and be prepared to be sweating it out in your gear.  When you gotta wear body armor, it’s going to be uncomfortable in hot weather.

Since we have started carrying the Original Swat boots in our inventory, I was keeping an eye on the students that were wearing our stuff.  I wanted to see how fast these individuals were moving and see if I could see any slippage.  One of the biggest complaints I got from students when asked about what they liked and didn’t like about boots was durability.   We’re still waiting to hear back from the students we sponsored  on the boots we supplied, but it’ll probable take about 12 months to get an accurate response.  I did hear a lot of positive things about the traction of the boots and how well students could move on roads without slipping  because the high humidity did give a slippery startup in the morning.

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Zombie tools for survival

This coming October will be another fun filled Zombie hunting adventure.   I will be reviewing and attending several zombie competition events in the Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware and New Jersery area.   Everything from pistol shoots to bring your fighting carbine and hike through a 6 stage zombie adventure.   One of the best things to learn from a competition event like this is that hits count especially good hits.  It is a forgone conclusion that to take a zombie down, you need head shots and this isn’t a bad thing to practice.    Various stages that I have witnessed where basically 3 gun competitions and even some of them were airsoft.

The only thing I haven’t seen yet at a Zombie shoot was a crossbow, but I did shoot a stage with a long bow.  A good set of tactical pants will get you through the day a lot easier especially if you don’t have a fancy tactical vest.    The Elite Operator Tactical pants we have on promotion right now are the Digital ACU pants.   The pants are hands down the number one tactical pant you should be wearing if you are toting a carbine.   In all honesty, unless you are wearing a leg holster you should be able to get full use of all of the 6 magazine holders in the pockets and these are easily accessed while in the prone positions.   The digital patter ACU pants have been on sale and we are down to limited sizes, but now is the best time to pick them up for your October Zombie adventures.

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Ass kicking gear

Original SWAT has grown as a company and we’ve been told that production has been way up in the last year due to the demand.   Original SWAT boots are meant for those that are actually out in the streets even though they do have an Oxford dress boot for more office type environments.   The tactical boots are very comfortable and to be honest, the first thing I noticed about them was that they were not as heavy as I thought they would be.   One other thing I really liked about them was the ability to change the insoles out.   I’ve toted an M4 Carbine with about 20lbs of other gear an ammo and after about 6hrs of standing with it on, I could really feel my fit getting sore.   The people at Original SWAT knew that even if the boots don’t wear, the insoles do wear and it’s best to design the product around the ability to swap this part in and out.

When we were at the Atlantic City Police and Security expo, we did a lot of browsing for products we were  interested in carrying in our show room.   We are very happy with the Eotac tactical apparel line basically due to the improvements we saw over the previous product lines and due to our customer responses but we needed to add to it with Original Swat Boots product line.   The Wilderness makes a great belt that our customers love to wear and even our employees.   Eotac has their own logo on some of The Wilderness belts, too.    When it comes to footwear, quality control is extremely important to us.   We’ve seen some pretty bad knock off tactical pants that either fell apart after hard use or were not user friendly.   We did  a lot of research and testing and asked around to our customer base on what type of boots we should carry.  The Original SWAT boots were the winner.

 

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Looking for Zombie killing options

Do search for gun clubs and shooting ranges in your State to find out if anyone is holding a Zombie shoot.   They usually occur in the September to October months.   Having some good tactical clothing that will securely hold your gear.   The Eotac Style 201 pants are my favorite because they hold 6- 30rd PMAGS and they are easy to run in.   Tactical vests like the Style 101 are not heavy and don’t make you feel like you are wearing a flak jacket.   There is a time and a place for different types of tactical vests, but mobility is important.  You may want to try getting your magazines loaded up with all of your gear and then try running 100yds with it and see what it feels like and if stuff starts to fly out of your pockets.   Mobility is extremely important.

There seems to be a new craze in competition shooting in recent years.   I’ve seen more high school boys coming home from class with Zombie survival guides, the recent 28 Days later type movies and the doomsday virus outbreaks.    I guess IDPA has lost some traction to the present generation, but I’ve attended a few Zombie survival competitions and they were very good training events.   The best thing about it was the amount of tactical gear that I watched fail, and the number of really novice mistakes people made.   Out of the 5 stages I attended, there was 1 stage that we saw about 18 firearms go down.   About half of those were AK variants and they were mostly magazine related.  Some guys never knew how hard it was to do a tactical reload on an AK if there was a round in the chamber and a fully loaded 30rd magazine.  People found out what happens after firing off the 1st round and the magazine falls out.

 

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Eotac Field Jacket #1

Eotac field jacketThe jacket may look heavier than it really is.   I would suggest that you wear this in the Fall or Spring and use it as a surface layer and just add on base layer clothing is the temperatures get colder.   We are discounting the Lizard patter jackets and the lizard patter Field Vest which also has similiar pocket designs.   We have had virtually zero complaints about the fit of this jacket as long as the user reads our sizing guide and measure themselves properly.  You will easily be able to carry fully loaded double stack magazines as well as flashlights and knives comfortable and not have to worry about printing.  You will be able to carry small autos or j-frame guns in the outer pockets but I am not really a fan of carrying guns in coats, jackets or vests.

We have been selling a few brands of tactical clothing that from the pictures you see on  our website, may look like they are the same thing.   The reality is much of what you saw from Woolrich Elite over the years was marketed and designed by the people behind Eotac.   While we let our customers debate over which products they prefer, the item we are selling now that we absolutely have an opinion about and aren’t afraid to say it is the new Eotac Field Jacket.   This field jacket is designed for modern gear and is based off of the Algerian jacket that was issued in the 1950s.  The fit and design of the pockets is superior to any simliar jacket and according to our customers this is the better jacket.   The only complaint we have gotten on the jacket is that it doesn’t hang low over the belt line so you will have to take that into consideration when thinking about CCW options.

 

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Hot weather and clothing

tactical shirtsThis summer has already been  hotter than the summers that I remember in the previous decade.  Since I’ve been wearing the same clothing or similiar types of clothing for the past coupl years, I can really feel the changes in seasons.   In New Jersey we get all 4 Seasons, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring.  Good luck in trying to wear the same pants or shirt through all of that!  5.11 Tactical has probable the most diverse product line, but we get an enormous number of complaints from them.   Eotac products have been on the market for bairly more than a year and we’re still hoping for more new products.   In the summer months we can really feel the need for more lightweight products.    The concealed carry clothing that works the best in really hot weather are the Style 403 and Style 404 shirts which are basically as light as a t-shirt, but designed for concealing a firearm, and they allow for easy access under cover.

Eotac has tactical shirts that I would highly recommend for those still wanting a shirt for range use.    The style 401 Eotac shirt is highly recommend by our operators due to the fact that it is short sleeve, vented properly and the shirt has a zipper that looks professional even when zipped down. For the remaining parts of July and August we are running a huge promo on these items.   Considering how hot it’s been in most of the Country and the fact that these are already a big seller for this time of year, they may be sold out before the end of month.   See our sizing guide for the proper measurements and feel free to call or email us with any questions.

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Great responses over Eotac Womens pants

tactical pantsWe have been waiting for the Eotac womens pants for almost a  year.   We expected them to arrive in June of 2009, but there were production delays which we suspect we’re due to re-design changes.   Later we were expecting them in the Fall of 2009, but once again, there were shipping delays.   We’ve been holding backorders for the Style 702 pants and just got around to fullfilling the orders in April of 2010 and we were crossing out fingers that the design would be well accepted.   When the tactical pants first arrived, we shipped a lot of them out to associates as beta testers to see what there opinions were before we started stocking the product.   We have carried other brands of womens pants in the past, but we dropped them because statistically speaking, the return and complaints about them were about 85% complaints about fit and sizing.    You may think that is a really bad stat, and it certainly is, but desigining womens tactical pants are much harder than designing mens.
Eotac has the connectios in the manufacturing industry to bring in the right people that know tactical, and know how to make products for women.   As of today, we have not had one single return where women could not wear these pants, we have had a few that had to return the pants for differernt sizes.    The production for the Style 701 womens tactical pants is still ramping up so there may be some shortages in certain sizes and colors, but we defanitely have a winner here when it comes to the product line.   Overall, the demand for the Eotac tactical pants has far exceeded the production capabilites at this time, so please keep in mind that this is something you need to jump on now before there is a 6-9 month gap in our inventory.   We recently sponsored a Ladies shoot at the Langhorne Rod and Gun Club and the top 3 scorers each received a pair of Style 702 womens pants.   The responses we got were great and we’re waiting for them to get more range time in and tell  us how they held up.

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Competition shooter polo options

tactical shirtsElite Operator Tactical came out with a new tactical shirt a few months ago and although we like to test products out for a few months before we become too critical  about them,  we defanitely got a winner here.   The Eotac style 410 Shooting Sports Polo is made of a 100% polyester material and is excellent for breath-a-bility.   It’s been getting  up in the 90F temps here in Virginia and it’s time to clear out the Spring weather clothing and get into summer gear.   The Style 405 feel slightly lighter weight than some of the Woolrich Elite Series Polos I have worn in the past.   We all have different styles and needs when it comes to what we want to wear, but I’d have to admit that the Polos I wore in the past were extremely hot and I could absolutely not wear them in 85F temps comfortable.

The Competition shooter polo is whole other issue.   We’ve been up to the IDPA State Championships on several occassions and guys there always want to look good for their team and not sweat unneccessarily.   Another thing you will noticed is the shirt is designed for an operator that is moving.   On many of the tactical shirts, you will constantly have to adjust the shoulders or sleeves.   I won’t say that everyone will feel comfortable in replacing their usual polos for these because we know from the years we’ve been in business that everyones body is different and not all pants and shirts are going to fit, but from the customer feedback we’ve been getting we’ve not gotten a single complaint about the fit on these.   You’re either a competition shooter or you aren’t,  but these will look good in an office or professional environment.

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