Category Archives: Gear

Gear

TankVest.com

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I’m a fan of something called TankVests… check them out there at TankVest.com.  Adding your Gear Packing Accessories to your Bike like that, that’s brilliant.  Completely brilliant.  It’s one of those Forehead Slap things.  How come this hasn’t been out there for 20 years?

I want of these for my KTM.  Unfortunately they don’t make then for the 525 MXC… And there is not a lot of call for it since that bike has been discontinued by KTM.    If you have a 525 MXC and are near West Virginia, or could ride over there on your machine… TankVest might be able to make us a set!  Cool eh?

If you have a KLR650 though… Just get one.  They are making something pretty cool and it’s a good company that can use some support.  So check them out!

Gear

Gear Alert: Primos Light

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I’m a gear whore when it comes to some things… especially Lights.   I love a good flashlight.  Primos has an interesting new Weapon Light out now.  It’s designed for Night/Low Light Predator Hunting. Check it out.

It seems fairly large for a weapon light, but it has some good qualities that make it worth a look.  Rechargable is a nice feature, as is the 220 Lumen LED head, and a 5 hour run time.  A High Low switch would be able to extend that life cycle by double I’m sure.

On the side is a small dial switch that turns a red filter to give you a 220 Lumen white light, or red light as the situation warrants it.  Well, maybe not red… more light a soft pink.  The white light is nice and bright, but I’m not sure our example is 220 lumins.  Maybe half of that… but it’s still nice and bright.

It has a very narrow profile and could potentially do very well on the side of a Quad Rail, or on the top with a rifle with a fold down flush front sight post.  However, this light from Primos has a couple problems I’m not real pleased about…

The mount is crazy tall.  It’s designed to clip to your 1″ Hunting Scope Body, and be able to rise above the scope’s objective bell and such.  Which is find for what it is… but a low picatiny mount would give this some nice tactical applications, not just hunting.

The light does come with a pig-tail switch.  But if you have charged batteries in the light, the light is on.  When you attach the pig-tail switch, you can then turn it off.  Oh, it also turns off if you plug it in to recharge… but then you can’t have the pig-tail switch plugged in when you do.  This retarded power on/off thing is a deal-breaker for me on the light for my purposes… but might be just fine for yours, so it’s worth looking at.  I think to make this light more ulititarian would have been to include a simple freaking ON OFF BUTTON.  Also, it’s not water proof.  WTF was Primos thinking here?  Fix these issues and give it a low profile pic mount and you could have a heck of a good Weapon Light for the Tactical Shooter, not just the Critter Shooter.

Gear

Meopta Optics

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There is a fairly new line of optics out.  If by fairly new you mean 80 years in the industry and people have still never heard of them.

This is a set of Meopta 10×42 HD Binos sitting next to a set of Swarovski  SLC 10×42’s.  The Meoptas are retailing for $999.99 and the Swarovski’s for 1500 bucks MORE money.  Looking through both sets, I really can’t see any difference.  Maybe the SLC’s are just oh so very slightly better.  But really I can’t see any difference at all.  Certainly not any difference I’d pay 1500 bucks more.  The Meoptas are a No Brainer Buy.  The best comparo would be to the Zeiss Conquest 10×42 which also retails for 999.99.  The Meopta is pretty much a dead ringer but I like the Meopta better in that it required less movement of the focus knob to get something far away and something farther beyond that to get into focus.  Almost no movement at all to get from Far to Further, if you know what I mean.   Considering that Meopta makes the Zeiss Conquest rifle scopes – I found this to be no surprise.  I don’t know if they are making the Binos for Zeiss or not, but they do build the scopes.  So if you’ve never heard of Meopta, you’ve probably looked through some before if not own some.  Meopta also makes a lot of other optical products for other countries.  Even other industries.  The Periscopes for Subs, Prisms for other optics companies the periscope prisms for the M1A Battle Tank, the windows in the Space Shuttle that have to take High Temp and sudden deep cooling… So they are a very technically advanced optics company.  They make everything in house, unlike some optics companies which sub-contract and dont actually manufacture anything.  (Vortex)
Looking through a Meopta Rifle Scope is like looking through any comparable Zeiss Conquest, but generally for about 200 bucks less.

I also like the fact that they throw in an iPhone Adapter for Digiscoping… taking pictures through your spotting scope.  It’s easy and it works.  Put the phone in the adapter, then putt out the scope’s Eye Cup and put the Adapter/Phone to the Spotting Scope.  Crystal Clear.

Remember how I have said that if I am going to spend my own money on Optics its going to be on Nikon or Zeiss… Throw a 3rd option in there for me.  I’m really digging the Meopta HD Binos and their rifle scopes.

Automotive, Gear

Ordered a couple things for my bike

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Let’s see… shopping list.
New chain.  Current chain is past the “OMG you need to freaking replace this NOW!” point. I really don’t want to experience a 4th chain breakage.  Those instances have a habit of putting me on the ground.  So I got me a nice 530 O-Ring Chain that has some solid reviews for strength and longevity.  I’ll need a hand putting it on.  (Hint to M)
Oil filter.  Past time to change it.  I’ve never gone this long before without a change and its making me feel itchy.  I am almost to the Recommended Miles for an Oil Change.  *shudder* The oil is still pretty clean and same color as new oil, so I’m not worried… but I want to change it soon.  I’ll sleep better.
New brake lever.  When I dumped it shortly after my second concussion, it bent my brake lever to hell.  It’s harder to reach and because of the angle, when I pull it in, it does so with no feel and too much “grab”.  This makes braking… not so smooth.
And I finally ordered some luggage for the Superhawk.  A tank bag.  After spending a couple hours reviewing tank bags and taking everything into consideration for size, style, and how I’m going to use it… I selected the Joe Rocket Manta XL which seems to be just about right for my needs for an Over-Nighter in SLC or a couple days worth of Road Tripping with the additional use of a Backpack.  And the price was right.
Once I get this stuff in and the chain and lever on… I’ll be ready to go the distance.

Oh, and I welcomed a few new additions to the “ATTACK MODE” Play List.
Rob Zombie’s “WHAT”, “SUPERBEAST”, and “DEMONOID PHENOMENOM”  and Prodigy’s “OMEN”.

 

 

Gear

Super Sonic

5 Comments

Been cleaning a lot of old guns at work.  Part of that process as involved using the Hornady Magnum Ultra Sonic Cleaner.  They sell this primarily for cleaning Brass for Reloading… but Hornady has a Cleaning Solution formulated for Gun Parts.

Hornady's Ultrasonic Cleaner, bathing a Colt Huntsman.

The stuff is AMAZING.  I love it.  Especially useful when cleaning something very delicate and you don’t want to scrub it with a brush… something really valuable.  The Ultra Sonic cleaner did the trick nicely.  It takes some time to warm up completely from Room Temp, but once warmed up, set it for 15 Minutes, it will save you a lot of work.

As you can see, it’s not big enough to dunk a gun whole… I wish Hornady made one that was actually “Magnum” sized for guns specifically… but dunk a pistol on one side, then flip it over and hit the other side.   But still… a nice BIG tank would be awesome.

Gear

Killer Hoodies

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Geraldo is just nuts.  He blames Hoodies, which is a different take on the Travon-Zimmerman incident… but one that is about as stupid as it gets.

Speaking of Hoodies… the idea of the Tactical Hoodie caught the imagination of some of The Horde.  I’ve been thinking about this.  It’s very doable.  I have some very good ideas at different levels of Tactical.

1.  Low profile, looks completely normal on the outside.
2.  Condition Black, looks tactical on the outside, has some reinforcing matterial on the outside that would allow quick attachment of needed accessories.
3.  Fangs Out.  Using technology from motorcycle jacket armor and ballistic nylon to provide max protection in a tussel and look completely badass.

Only question though is who would be willing to buy and how much would you be willing to pay?  A normal good quality Carhart Hoodie is what, 60 bucks?  Would you be willing to go $99.99 for a Custom Made Tactical Hoodie?  I have a friend that is about to launch a Tactical Accessories Business, and he could make these Hoodies if the interest was really there for a Seriously Killer Hoodie.

Gear

Dear MagPul

11 Comments

Dear MagPul,

I know you guys are working on a Quadstack Magazine for the AR-15/M-16 Family of weapons.  Surefire beat you to the punch as you well know and this leaves you trying to enter a market that has competition.  You will do well with it, but you wont do as well as you had once hoped.

So I have an idea for you.  Take that Quadstack concept, and apply it to a weapon system that could really use it.  The AK-47.  As you guys are locked on and high speed, you guys know that the AK-47 is a great weapon with a lot of fans world wide.  You also know that the AK is limited when the Shooter has to drop down into the Prone shooting position.  You are forced to be up higher from the ground than you may want to be in a dynamic active situation, or you have to tilt the weapon or even go all the way sideways.  This is less than optimal.   So I propose that you make a Quadstack AK Mag that is as short as possible, while still holding 30 rounds, and then another one of higher capacity going no longer than standard AK length, maybe 40, 50, or even 60 rounds.   Personally, I’d stick with the Short 30 for most situations.  This would allow the AK Operator to prone out nice and low and still have a full capacity mag on tap.  Every serious AK Operator in Western Civilization would be lining up to buy these.

You make a Short 30, and you’ll have a Home Run product that isn’t a cell phone case.  If you hustle, you can get some of these ready for SHOT Show.

Please consider this.  Thanks.

George Hill
The Ogre from MadOgre.com, WeTheArmed.com, and Crusader Weaponry

Gear

A failure of oil or logic?

59 Comments

Got this in the email tonight.

From: Joe M.
Date: Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 10:00 PM
Subject: I was afraid you’d say that

The background is, I bought my XDm 9mm N.I.B. on September 1st of this year. I only used Slipstream on the slide rails. I’ve fired 660 absolutely flawless rounds through it and the factory fired 1 that I assume was also fine.  Then I decided to use Slipstream to lubricate almost everything in the slide. I used less than a drop and I applied it with an artists paint brush that is very small.  It leaves a line the size of a fine point pen, so Slipstream was not over applied.

The next day I loaded up a 19 round magazine and went out to shoot. I fired 7 rounds and before I pulled the trigger again I noticed the slide hadn’t moved to battery.  There was a round jammed in the chamber and the slide was locked up tight.  No clearing procedure worked.  After an hour I was able to free the slide and get the round out.  The attached pictures are of the jammed round.

I scrubbed every atom of Slipstream out of my weapon that was humanly possible to remove.  I applied M-Pro 7 LPX which, with the exception of the slide rails, was the only form of lubrication on the weapon for the flawless 660 rounds.  I have subsequently fired 75 rounds, using only M-Pro 7 LPX, without any further problems at all.

The facts of my experience indicate your product is crap.  I bought your oil and grease combo. I considered using them on a rusty old lawnmower I have, but I decided the best use for your products is to put them in the trash.

Have you got anything to say for yourself?

Joe M.

What do I have to say for myself?  I think you didn’t use enough Slipstream.  Here’s the deal… you used a very tiny amount of Slipstream… one applied in such a way as to almost insure that none of the Slipstream Particles really got into your gun and you only had a tiny bit of the carrier oil, which is of a similar composition to your beloved MPRO7.   To say that Slipstream is what caused this jam is a complete failure of logic.  You didn’t use enough to be either good or bad.  You had a bad round.  Simple as that.  To get what you described we would have to use Super Glue as our carrier oil, and other folks – pretty much everyone that used it – would have the same results.  Not a really good way to promote a lubricant, eh?  Go get your Slipstream, and apply it the way we suggested.  Shake it up, and pour it on generously.   Sorry you had a bad round of Ammunition, but we don’t make Ammunition.  I suggest you take this issue up with whoever did.

Slipstream is being used by US Forces all around the world.  Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan… Army Infantry, Marine Infantry, Airforce EOD, Navy mechanics…   and thousands of shooters around the country.   And you think oil is what caused your NIB XD 9mm to lock up like it was glued.  Uh huh.

Guys, is it at all possible in any way shape or form that a tiny amount of oil, any oil, applied in the manner indicated, could have caused this?  Or do you think it could possibly be a bad round of ammunition?  Which is more likely?

Gear

Nook Color or Kindle Fire?

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I contacted Amazon about the Kindles.  2 are getting replaced free of charge.  The third was out of warranty.  40 bucks to replace that one.

These Kindles are for my boys, wife as an iPad.  I like my Smart Phone, but doing a lot of reading on it is less than optimal.  Id like a larger reader than my phone for myself…  I’m kinda digging the specs on the new Kindle Fire.

What says The Horde?