The Loadout Room
Professional Gear Reviews
I wasn’t around to see the fad but rumor has it back in the early 2000’s hydration bladders were so in you could find them in every school, shopping mall and skate park.  I was busy filling up my hydration pack (downstream from goats and cows) a few thousand miles away in the sandbox, but I’m confident the […]
As a product review writer, I find excitement in the big, fancy products just like everyone else.  Equally, I find the little components that incrementally improve the machine to be fascinating.  I don’t believe the next generation of service rifles or sidearms will be a revolutionary leap forward, I believe they’ll be sum of all the improvements […]
XS Sights (formerly XS Sight Systems) is packing some nice tritium sights into a little package. Â When given the chance to shed the stock blocks from my Glock 17 franken-tester, how could I say no? Â The question isn’t really whether XS Sight’s product is an upgrade over stock, it’s whether the 24/7 Big Dot Xpress […]
Thank you, Safariland. Â That’s the big summary from my time with the 537 open top concealment holster. Â It is the answer to a number of my complaints from other holsters. Â My initial impressions can be read here. Â Having been able to get some range time with this unit recently, I have more confidence than ever […]
The Atibal MROC (modern rifle optic component) is another entry in the short but growing list of optics based on the same patent as the venerable Trijicon ACOG. Â That patent (having lapsed in 2008) has opened up a big niche in the optics market for those who want something close to what the ACOG provides, […]
As one of the premier knife makers in the world, Emerson knives has always been proud to call America home. Despite their name being ubiquitous with handcrafted excellence, I haven’t had a chance to run with one of Ernest Emerson’s blades until recently. In the mail arrived… the CQC-14. As stated on Emerson’s website, the […]
We finally got a stretch of weather here in the Pacific Northwest worthy of being called winter. Â Still mild by the standard of bearded northmen, but cold enough I finally got to put Thermacell’s Proflex Heavy Duty heated insoles to use. Thermacell has a pretty neat setup here. Â The padded Li-Ion batteries fit in the […]
After leaving the Marine Corps, Noisefighters owner Neal Brace had more in mind than drinking a few beers and picking up some odd jobs. He set his sights on inventing and producing upgrades and improvements for a number of different products. From scope throw levers to improved AR charging handle designs, Neal’s had no shortage […]
Today we’re continuing our journey through the ultralight AR15 build, covering the lower receiver, version 2.0. The upper receiver article is covered here, while the full rifle article is coming next. To recap, originally I wanted to build a tough, accurate rifle that came in under 6lbs, with the suppressor and optic included in that […]
Condor Outdoors has been making products for over 20 years now. Starting with camping supplies, the Irwindale, CA based business soon expanded their product lines to include tactical gear. While their foreign-produced products gained some notoriety years ago for lackluster quality-control, I’ve heard from a number of people that Condor has tightened up their program […]
© Copyright 2026 Military Content Group · All Rights Reserved.