Archive for the 'Tactical Gear' Category

Via Kenny, Matt Bracken weighs in on the use of bicycles.

I used to jog a few times a week for cardio until I passed age sixty and my knees said no más. Since then I’ve switched to cycling instead, which doesn’t bother my knees in the least. Obviously there are cardio benefits to riding a bike, but less appreciated is how much riding does for your sense balance, coordination and agility, especially as we grow older.

I’ve owned the big steel-frame Schwinn bike in the photo since the 1980s and it’s still going strong. I use it to run errands within 3 or 4 miles of home base, which allows me to recon all of the back streets and trails inside that radius in a way that cannot be replicated in a car or on foot. I made the big rack so I can carry 30 pounds or so of cargo with no problem. In the front pouch I carry a cable lock, a basic tire repair kit, shock cords and so on. A pistol or other weapon can also be carried there.

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By day or night, I also routinely pass within yards of people who have their backs turned to me who are totally unaware that a person is rolling right past them nearly in touching distance, such as when they are checking their mail box. As long as the pedal crank is kept moving, there isn’t even the quiet sound of clicking gear ratchets. The only sound is that of the tires rolling on pavement, and that’s not much.

For patrolling your neighborhood a bike fits an ideal mid-point niche between foot and automobile patrol. Here are the numbers: a brisk walking pace is 4 mph. The posted speed limit for cars in my neighborhood is 25 mph, but they often go faster. An easy cycling speed is about 12 mph. A car or truck obviously has the biggest visual signature, and its fast arrival speed once it’s spotted is expected. However, a person on a bike only has about the same visual signature as a pedestrian, yet he’s moving three times as fast. The relatively fast speed while retaining a small visual signature probably explains the remarkable stealth properties of the patrol bike.

As readers know, I bike single track, but I’ll bike literally anywhere.

I ride a Norco, and while you must get what you can afford, I recommend that you spend what you need to get a good ride.  I still ride a “hard tail.”  The dual suspension bikes are very expensive, and if they’re name brand carbon frames, they are prohibitively expensive for me (they can run $6000+).

Matt goes on to recommend tools, all of which I have.  They tear up, especially if you abuse them on single track like I do.  I dry-lube my chain before every ride.  Because I beat mine up so badly on mountains, I’ve learned to carry zip ties with me.  I’m always knocking cables loose.  I also carry a bike hex-wrench set, a mini-pump, spare tube, water, gun, energy bars, 550 cordage, rain gear, gloves, tactical knife and sun glasses.

My knees don’t bother me as much as some folks, probably because I never got into running.  The impact force on knees from running is a good reason not to do it, and a good reason to ride a bike instead.  My rides are usually at least 8-10 miles (single track), sometimes 20-22 miles, but rarely over 30.

I confess I had never thought of the virtues of the neighborhood patrol using bikes.

News from Atlanta:

Officials at Georgia’s leading power provider faced tough questions Monday, a day after a massive power outage grounded travel at the world’s busiest airport for nearly 11 hours at the start of one of the biggest travel weeks of the year.

Georgia Power officials said the investigation continues into the cause of the fire-related outage at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. However, they said a piece of the utility’s switchgear in an underground electrical facility may have failed and started the blaze. A switchgear helps to manage the flow of power.

The utility had backup equipment, officials said, but it was in an adjacent room and was also damaged in the fire.

“We are doing what we can to make sure this never happens again,” Georgia Power spokesman Craig Bell said. “We truly apologize for the inconvenience.”

Well, it will happen again, somewhere.  He shouldn’t have promised that.

The outage hit about 1 p.m. Sunday, plunging the airport into darkness, grounding nearly 1,000 flights and leaving 30,000 people stranded. International flights were diverted to other airports. Planes sat on the tarmac for more than six hours.

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Videos posted on Twitter showed passengers using the lights on their cellphones to make their way through darkened concourses. Other photos shared on Twitter showed TSA officers carrying wheelchairs up stalled escalators.

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“The straight answer to that question is: We absolutely do” have a redundant power supply, Reed said. “But because of the intensity of the fire, the switch that accesses the redundant system was damaged, which caused damage to two systems rather than one.”

Bowers said the utility will work with the airport to prevent a repeat of such an event. Among the strategies the company may consider: encasing the cables in concrete [Ed: dumb idea] or putting the cables in separate areas.

“Our focus is on reliability and making sure this never happens again,” he said.

“Train” separation is a good idea, because it’s not redundancy if the trains aren’t separated.  But here’s the point.  Power outages will happen, darkness comes every day.  If you don’t have light, you’re disabled.

Do you carry a tactical light when you travel?  I do.  Always and everywhere.  I carry a tactical light when I travel through the neighborhood with the dog.

From TFB.  1000 lumens.  Maybe it’s just me, but I think we’ve beat the lumen horse dead.  There’s essentially no difference between 800 lumens and 1000 lumens to me, or even less than that.  They are all so bright that it can blind you when the light scatters off of walls, especially if the walls are white.

Here’s what interests me.  A simple tactical light.  As they grow more powerful, they have also grown more sophisticated.  In a high stress situation a person won’t be able to go through the various settings to select the right one unless it’s pure muscle memory, and it won’t be muscle memory unless you use that light all the time in tactical situations.

I had been looking for a while for a good range and field bag for more than one Carbine, and I’m very pleased with my new Drago double gun case.

It’s made of a heavy fabric with heavy duty zippers, and it seems to hold up very well.  It has molle straps on the outside of the case for attachment of other gear.  It has a good look and multiple pockets.

It’s outermost pocket is perfectly sized for the height of 30 round magazines, and it would carry many more than I have shown in this picture.

It has two inner compartments separated by padding, each with a pocket for the rifle ends and velcro straps for holddown.  That’s an AR-15 with a 16″ barrel.

That’s an M1 Carbine.

This is a compartment between the case and the outermost magazine or tool pockets.  It has multiple compartments as you can see.

This may be the best feature of the bag.  The heavy duty backpack straps allow for hands-free carry in the field, and I especially like the large straps as opposed to the thin straps that typically come even with good backpacks.  The shoulder straps puts most backpacks to shame.

There is one qualifier.  It is a 36″ bag, so don’t expect to put longer barrel rifles in it.  The bag is made for Carbines.  It’s a bit pricey but overall I’m very pleased with it.  Disclaimer.  I haven’t received any gear or a single penny for this review.