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Old 03-17-2008, 22:39   #1
Air.177
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A Completely Subjective look at Gear

Most of you folks know me, and as many know, I am an Operator (phone type, one each; Used good condition) I am not, nor will I ever claim to be High speed, nor do I consider my useage of this equipment to equate to a pimple on an ants ass compared to folks downrange doing the deed and shooting dirty bearded men in the face. That being said, Here are some pieces of equipment that i have been using for a little while now for various things here and there. and without further ado, Air.177's completely subjective list of things I like.


High Speed Gear:

I have pretty much had one piece of Gene's kit or another since I became awakened to all things nylon; now is no different. I am currently using the following:

Moose Pack - Damn Nice Pack, I find it to be very well laid out for my purposes, but did remove the "hydration pouch" from it almost immediately as it made the pack so multi-layered that it was like a Grands Biscuit. I like the contoured shape of the shoulder straps and the "neoprene-esque" lining of the straps but I am still not sure how well they will last, Time will tell. This pack is pretty much a blank slate, with PALS webbing inside and out, the sky is the limit as far as what you can hang in on or around this pack. I find that when you open the zippers all the way, the lid lays flat and exposes all that is within (held by aforementioned PALS Webbing on the inside of the pack and the inside of the lid) There is a partitioned section on the back of the pack to allow a hydration pouch, radio, or similar object with protruding tubes to be mounted and allow said tubes to be routed outside via one of three ports which feature velcro lids to limit foreign material's ingress into the main body of the pack. I personally have attached the Medium GP/6 mag pouch that also came with the Moose Pack to the outside toward the bottom of the lid and use it for snacks, extra water bottles, rain gear, etc. I also have an Eagle Smoke pouch inside for a Purple smoke, and occasionally an Eagle pop flare pouch on the outside side containing, well, a pop flare should I feel the need to carry such a device. I have been carrying this pack pretty regularly on 6-12 mile jaunts into occupied Austin via the Green Belt and the Town Lake Trail system. While I am by no means breaking records for weight, it often runs 35-45 pounds with water, and the Moose pack serves my purposes Nicely.

Admin Pouch - While Gene's version is larger than most others of it's type, I find that it is a great addition to the CountyComm Demo bag and is a fine place to carry pens/pencils/notepads, a cell phone charger, business cards, and it's plastic Map compartment is a fine place to stow Form 4s when out an about with shiny toys. Complaints: the Plastic of the map pouch is hell on anything photo copied or printed, sticks right to it and wicked hard to get inside to clean it off (this has been addressed in a later design to be discussed...well, later) There are eyelets and an interesting loop of 550 cord that allows you to limit how far this pouch can fall open, I feel this could be a fine chest mounted item for a SAR type, or anyone not burdened with Mags and frags on the front of their kit. It does have PALS on the front and back and a very heavy duty Zipper, but I am still hesitant to hang too awful much weight on the front of something like this. By and large, Very nice piece of kit, allows administrative items to be easily accessed without spelunking into the depths of whatever pack you mount it to. Be advised that this pouch breaks from others of it's class in that it does not have velcro panels on the outside, (I know how some of you guys are with your Team America and Hey F*&%k Face Patches, but you'll rally)

Mini Modular Admin Pouch "MMAP" I got one of these back in October/November and it answers some of the pathetic little complaints that I had about the standard Admin pouch above. This one is roughly half the size of the standard, which is much more convenient for non Pogue types who need space on their gear for ammo etc. This version also incorporates a section of Velcro that is large enough for Name Tapes, Blood type, or the small raunchy Morale Patch of your choice. The document dividers of this version are also constructed of very fine "No See Um" mesh that allows documents to be seen, but does not stick to them as the plastic does. This smaller size would not necessarily be as good for maps and such, but would be great for Frequency Cards, small note pads, pocket dictionary, etc. Mine is making the rounds with a Medic Buddy of mine at the moment, as I felt he could better use it than I.

Blowout pouch "Bleeder" This small pouch is an extremely handy way to carry a pair of Shears behind a Pocket that you can cram an Israeli bandage, Tourniquet, and a pair of gloves into. I keep one of these in my range bag, one on a plate carrier, and have one floating around that can be carried on a belt on the range. Not a boo boo kit, but damn handy should it become necessary. This pouch is smaller than a lot of the other "IFAK" stuff that is out there now (think about the same footprint as a double M4 mag pouch) and as such it is obviously able to carry less, but I find it is an easy way to carry some oh shit Med stuff which makes it more likely that it will be there if it's needed.

Eagle:

I'm not about to lecture you guys on Eagle, You know who they are and what they do.

E&E Pouch: I picked this up at SHOT and it is a Damn handy general purpose, vcarry in the truck "Man Bag". Mine keeps a surefire G2 (hi vis YLW thanks much), a dozen batteries, a Mk13 day/night signal (I'm big on visual signalling, Sue me), a spare Glock mag, a J-Frame and speed Strip of .38 spl, my PS.com Leatherman, My checkbook, a general purpose drug kit (Rubbers to Allergy meds and all in between), a Zeiss Mini-quick monocular, small roll of Duct tape, Bic Lighter, some 550 cord, zip ties, pens, pencils, notepads, a Ken Brock Combat option Recurve fixed Blade, and a LT Field Survival device. This thing is badass, it rides great in the truck and stows next to the desk at the shop. It's replaced the CountyComm Demo Bag as my "Felix the Cat Bag of Tricks" for daily use. I like the hell out of this bag, but I have not acquainted myself with it's backpack straps as the top drag handles have been fine for me so far.

TAD Gear:

These guys build some pretty cool stuff. They are expensive and they are out of San Francisco, but despite all of that, if you can justify the price, consider some of their Kit.

Fast Pack Gen one and Two: I have had several of these, including my current 2nd gen. They are decent packs, much better suited to "day pack" use than the Moose Pack would be. I find the feel of the nylon from which they are constructed to be slightly different than many others out there, not a bad thing, they just feel different. They have a boatload and a half of extraneous features that I have not fully exploited, but as a general purpose pack, or possibly a carry on bag for travelling they are not bad at all. Now you can occasionally snag a first or second gen FAST pack used on a number of boards and they are coming down in price to where they are downright useable.

Scout Hoodie (discontinued): I snagged one of these and the boss liked them so much that we bought them out. Extremely lightweight fleece hoodie that has been replaced by their Merion Wool line up. Very stowable, great intermediate layer. Yes, it is Puke Green color, and it doesn't cut wind worth a damn, but it's a light fleece.

The Leather Arsenal:

Elmer McEvoy Up in Idaho is an old guy who worked for Milt Sparks Back in the Bad old days and now has his own line of IWB Concealment leather. He is damn reasonable in his pricing and delivered me a non-standard variant of one of his Glock holsters within 4 weeks (as opposed to the second week of never like Sparks) I ahve carried this nearly every day since I got it about a year and a half ago and it is AWESOME. His Double Deep Concealment special is very similar to the original Sparks Summer Special. If you carry a common pistol (1911, Glock, Sig) concealed, I highly recommend Elmer.

Garmin:

Yup, GPS, I am GPS retarded and I have recently been using some of their stuff and haven't managed to get particularly lost yet despite several cross country attempts.

Garmin 496: Aviation GPS, I'm no Pilot, but the Boss handed it to me and said, "Go Forth and Conquer" Who am I to argue. This thing has XM Weather and is awesome! I'm sure there are other models that are more reasonably priced that do not have the Aviation functions of this model (the operation of which I am completely ignorant of) but if you have an opportunity to snag one with the XM Weather capability, do it, it is downright awesome!



These are all that I am able to wring out of my Guinness Addled brain at the moment, and I am sure that I will be updating this list throughout the next week, but I hope that at least some of this stuff may be at least a bit helpful.

Good times,
Blake
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Old 03-18-2008, 04:08   #2
optactical
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What about the "Guinness addled brain"? Can you post your review of this piece of kit? I have had one for years and absolutely love it! It's easy to work with, robust, takes a beating, and best of all, I never get sick of it. Although in hot weather it tends to make me tired early on, I find that just relaxing and enjoying it helps in that sort of situation.

Seriously though, good review.
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Old 03-18-2008, 04:49   #3
The Reaper
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Good gouge, Blake.

I'd like to see more of these.

TR
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Old 03-18-2008, 06:39   #4
Air.177
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OPT: Can't say for sure, I've only had this one for 24 years and only about 7 of those have been guinness addled, will advise as the testing continues.

TR: Thanks, I just remembered some other stuff on the way in this morning, would you prefer add ons or another post?

Good times,
Blake
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