ZULU Tactical is showing their new CAOS Admin pouch on their blog. It looks like a great compact admin pouch. If it is anything like the MEGA Admin, it will be excellent.
Archive | Tactical Gear
New Product: Daniel Defense EZ Rails
Daniel Defense (DD) has released their EZ Rails for the AR-15. They offer a drop in fit for carbine length gas systems. These are non-free float rails at a very attractive price. Hopefully, DD will release these for different length gas systems soon.
It has been my experience that free floating is often unnecessary for most applications. If you are building a home defense carbine and using a red dot style optic, it is not really necessary to free float. Don’t spend the extra money on free float rails if the only reason you need a rail is to mount a white light and sling. Spend the money that you would have spent on free float handguards on more ammo and training!
ESEE Light Machete – The Cadillac of Machetes
Machetes may be the most versatile tool that anyone could carry into the woods. A good machete is part field knife, part hatchet, part draw knife, part wood splitter, and all utility. Most machetes come without an edge, without a sheath, and with a handle that needs a lot of work before it can be used comfortably. The ESEE Knives (formerly RAT Cutlery) Light Machete comes ready to work with a polished convex edge, a nylon sheath, and an ergonomic micarta handle.
These are the result of a collaboration between 3 companies. ESEE Knives designed it, Imacasa/Condor manufactures the blade, and Rowen fits the handle. Condor is Imacasa’s premium machete line. They make phenomenal machetes for the US market. Rowen is the manufacturer for all of the other great ESEE Knives cutlery products.
If you are looking for a truly premium machete, check out the ESEE Lite Machete and all the other great ESEE Knives at the ESEE Knives website.
The Lite Machete is in stock at Knives Ship Free.
Source WXP Hydration Bladders – Brilliant!
Source has really upstaged the competition with their WXP Hydration Bladders. At first glance, they appear to be no different than any other hydration bladder on the market but take a closer look. Not only can these be filled via the typical screw off wide mouth opening, but they also have a clip at the top that can be removed. Once the clip is removed the entire top of the pouch can be opened up wide enough to stick your hand inside the bladder! That means easy filling and, perhaps more importantly, easy cleaning.
They are priced very competitively and come in a wide variety of sizes. There are civilian colors and more subdued military colors available.
Review: Nite Ize Figure 9 Rope Tighteners
There is no substitute for a working knowledge of knots but sometimes a well designed piece of gear can make your life a lot easier. This is the case with Nite Ize Figure 9 Rope Tighteners. These little things are deceivingly simple in construction, extremely versatile in application, and shockingly easy to use.
The Figure 9 comes in 3 sizes to handle different diameters of rope and different sized loads. They appear to be cast from aluminum and are very light weight. There are directions for their use laser etched directly on the Figure 9, though you will probably never need to reference them once you have used them a couple of times. Nite Ize makes them in both bare aluminum and black-coated finishes.
I have some of the largest ones (“big” size) that I use with climbing rope in my truck in place of ratchet straps. I have found them to be much more versatile than ratchet straps for securing loads, though there may still be times when the compound leverage of the ratchet strap is needed.
I also have several of the “small” size. My favorite use for them is to tighten the guy lines on my poncho/tarp tents. I have really come to appreciate the usefulness, light weight, and small pack size of a simple poncho or tarp in place of a tent when hiking. There are few more versatile pieces of gear than a simple GI Surplus or Ultra Sil-Nylon poncho. These Figure 9s make pitching a tight, crisp tarp/poncho tent fast and easy. They also make taking it down fast and easy. I can take down my poncho tent in less than 1 minute thanks to not having to pick apart knots.
The “small” size works well with paracord which I am sure many Jerking the Trigger readers use frequently. It also works well with braided spectra line, tether cord, and my favorite, jute twine. I typically keep a roll of jute twin in all my kits since it is cheap, it doesn’t stretch like paracord, and it makes an excellent tinder for fire starting. Nite Ize does not recommend that you use twine with the Figure 9 but so far I have not had a problem. Twine can fray relatively easily so I certainly wouldn’t use it to secure a heavy load in any application where I had to keep reusing the same piece of twine.
These Figure 9 Rope Tighteners make a great addition to your emergency shelter or general purpose tool kit.