The Loadout Room
Professional Gear Reviews
A couple favorites: my Sig P226 and Chronosport UDT Timer watch. The SIG P226 always felt like it was built for my hand. The Chronosport is a classic! I’ll need to track one down that’s new in box at some point. I first noticed a Chronosport on @officialslystallone wrist in Rambo III when I was a kid and had my sights set on one ever since. The SIG was customized by Rodney May while he was instructing for Mid-South Institute of Combat Shooting.
*Photo courtesy of Jack Carr
Team members from SWAT prepare for night training. Training in low light settings is imperative to a successful SWAT team. You can’t expect to be successful in an environment unless you train in it.
SWAT recruits getting smoked in an attempt to weed out those that should not be there. Every day started with a few hours of PT (physical training) in full gear, which sometimes included your gas mask. The goal; PT until someone quits. Simple concept, easily achievable. Go home, rest, and do it again the next day.
As elite Special Operation shock troops, the US Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment is constantly on (or behind) the front line of battle. Their gear is required to be as tough as the men themselves. After leaving the service having finished my 5th deployment, I still hold my equipment to the same high standard: as if my life and the lives of the Ranger’s next to me depended on it.
One blade that has impressed me greatly is the Morakniv Tactical. These Swedes know their steel, having been making blades under one company name or another for more than 100 years. If it’s cutting you want, trust these descendants of the Vikings to deliver.
I set out with one goal. To create the lightest full-size, accurate, functioning AR-15 using commercially available factory parts. I didn’t cut anything off nor drill holes: every one of these parts is as strong as when it left the manufacturing floor. The end result was a rifle under 4 lbs. Even with a suppressor and red-dot optic, it came in under 5 lbs. The result is Ignisspir or Firebreath.
Check out the final article in the “Ultralight AR series” here.
Spartan Blades CQB tool. Real world tests on blades are a challenge when that blade has one primary purpose: to push through flesh quickly, again and again. To test the edge as well as the CQB tool’s durability, I took it out commercial fishing in Alaska. For 30 straight days, I used it in an abrasive salt-water environment. I didn’t clean it or even wipe it off. It saw the insides of dozens of sockeye salmon, countless coho and a handful of king salmon. At the end of the season, I washed it off and checked the blade: still exceptionally sharp, having lost little of its edge.