Tactical Cargo Shorts
The lightweight 100% cotton ripstop pants are very comfortable, but in 90F+ weather I’m always going to go with shorts even if they are made of heavy material. Protecting your legs from bug bites is also something to consider when wearing shorts and clearing out woodlands because you never know what is going to be swarming around you when you start sweating up a storm. There are some bug repellents that can be worn on a belt, but with the work I will be doing, I prever to bring a spray bottle with me and store it on the cargo pockets. Since I am also always carrying flashlights, radios, guns and other items, not having enough pockets means putting more on the belt line. I find wearing too much on the belt being a real pain when having to do a lot of lifting so just about everything except my Glock 26 is stored in my Woolrich Elite Pants.
I have another trip up in the sticks where we have to do some land clearing. The State is asking us to clear out a mountain range for fire prevention. Working in emergency management we get everything from clearing car accidents and hostage situations. One thing we also never know from day to day is what type of clothing we’ll be needing. Most of us started out wearing 5.11 Tactical clothing because they pretty much held the market for years and there wasn’t much else out there. A few years ago Woolrich Elite Series clothing arrived on the market although Woolrich has been in the clothing industry for over 150 years. Woolrich Elite cargo shorts style 4905 are made of a cotton canvas material which makes them very hard to tear. Unlike many of the lightweight style shorts out there, these have side cargo pockets which are great for storing lighters, bug repllent, hand wipes ect. Due to the fact that wearing pants in certain hot weather means unnecesary sweating and water loss, you really have to think about how much clothing is necessary. I’ve had shorts on in hot weather and felt comfortable until I came home with poison ivy.
If you are looking to carry mace or pepper spray, I would absolutely have to urge you to do some research on the Kimber Guardian Angels also known as the Life Act. At first you might get sticker shock, and I think you may want to consider buying 2 of them and test firing 1 of them before you really get comfortable carrying one. I’ve earned my merit badges in seeing evil in the world I know walking around with the smallest pepper spray bottle to fend off a potential rapist, robber, or worse isn’t going to give you much of an edge. There are many reasons to consider carrying a less lethal defensive measure. You can blast someone with something like this without much of a worry about legal ramifications. I’ve seen pepper spray used against 0bnoxious drunks which in my opinion were justified.
The Eotac Style 202 pants are basically an improved pocket design over the Woolrich Elite 4429 pants. The Eotac 203 are similiar to Woolrich Elite 4441 and the Eotac 201 are similiar to the Woolrich Elite 4447 styles. Each may look the same at first look, but try stuffing the pockets with various items and you’ll quickly notice the design differences. The ID pocket on the Eotac pants have a pull tab that make it easy to open the pocket and I have absolutely zero problems using my gear with this design. The side cargo pockets are bellowed and although not as wide as BDU pants, you will be able to use these for mag dumps much easier.
For most of the United States, we are moving towards warm weather. It’s time for us to think about our summer CCW and for those of us that were tactical apparel for work, time to switch to lightweight tactical pants. The military learned this the hard way in the Pacific Theatre during WWII. Wearing the wrong type of clothing in certain environments can mean freezing to death or unneccessary sweating. We don’t recommend wearing shorts in the winter for obvious reasons, but sometimes we still need to wear pants even though it’s pretty darn hot out.
To Members of TheRallyPoint, In Hopes of helping to promote TRP.org and our Mission Statement,We running a giveaway for the NEW Elite Operator apparel line from Rogue Elite,Eotac Shirts, Eotac Pants Shorts, Eotac Vests and Jackets, 1st Place-$250 of 
This military style jacket is designed for modern flashlights and single or double stack mags. When we need to do a lot of heavy lifting, I don’t like loading my belt up with a belt that looks like Batmans utility belt. The pocket designs are very well made and the snap buttons on the pocket are what puts it in a A+ category for tactical gear. When you hear the click of the buttons you don’t have to worry about watching your 15rd doubel stack 9mm mags flying out of the pockets while your doing physical work. This jacket is defanitely not as heavy looking as it is in some of hte pictures and can easily become a Winter jacket by wearing a good base layer under it.
When it’s that hot out that your risking dehydration, you seriously need to consider the type of clothing you are wearing. Those wearing body armor or carrying more gear than the usually CCW gun owner need as many pockets as possible. Trading your tactical pants in for tactical shorts that have almost the same pocket designs is hard to find. There is also a very diverse opinion on the inseams of the shorts that people wear and there’s no real in between.
Open carry isn’t stopping Police Officers in Philadelphia from being shot at. Wearing a blue uniform in that City and wearing body armor meant over 6 police officers being killed at more than double that being shot in the last 2yrs. If you are that concerned about being “Made” with a firearm, carry a different gun. Pocket and ankle carry are suitiable for white color environments and I don’t know any BG that wants 5 or 6 shots of 32acp-44 Special in their chest from a well trained law abiding gun owner.
There is a huge difference in what kind of pants are tolerable in warm enviromnets. Once you start hitting the 80 F weather those cotton canvas pants will really get heavy. The styles 4441 and 4447 are your hot weather pants, and if those are too hot to wear, try the shorts. Everyone has varying degrees of tolearance in the type of apparel they can wear. We’d consider the 4441 pants to be the most worn unless you’re taking a carbine or tactical class or you’re toting and M16 or Ar15 all day, and then we’d recommend the style 4447 Lightweight Operator pants.
The 4904 Cargo pants were originally designed for operators that migth be in the seated position and find it easier to pull a wallet or accessory from an ankle pocket rather than reach into hand pockets. Try sitting in a car and pull your keys out of your pocket, then try them from your ankle if you had a pocket down there. We have mostly 4904 OD Green pants at a blowout deal for $25.00 a pair, we do have a few Khaki and Black pants left but not many.