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Review: SaltStick Electrolyte Caps

By on July 19, 2018 in Reviews, Tactics and Training

If you are reading this blog, it is probably safe to assume that you enjoy a lot of same pursuits that I do and a lot of those pursuits, like shooting, training, and hiking, happen outdoors. If you enjoy these activities, you know the importance of hydration. No one wants to get sidelined on a hike or feel wrecked on day two of a carbine course because they didn’t monitor their hydration. You can’t get that lost time and money back.

I used to play organized sports year round and I drank a lot of water to try to stay hydrated. However, I still found myself dizzy with headaches, cramps, and sick to my stomach on a regular basis. That was likely because I was taking in too much water without also being intentional about adding nutrition and electrolytes. I added sports drinks to my hydration regime which helped dramatically.

As I have grown older, I’ve become more conscious of the amount of sugar that many sports drinks contain (especially when you are drinking them one after the other) so I started looking for a way to add electrolytes while reducing my sugar intake. That search lead me to a number of products that work very well but the one that has been the most convenient is SaltStick Electrolyte Caps.

Basically, these are capsules that contain an electrolyte mix that mimics the types and amounts of electrolytes actually lost in sweat during 30-60 minutes of strenuous activity. I like to take one with my first drink of water and then take another every hour or two based on my activity level and how much water I am taking in. Since SaltStick Caps contain only electrolytes (no other nutrition or sugars), I am able to keep my electrolyte intake and nutrition intake separate which makes it easier for me to keep track. I make sure I am drinking water and periodically adding solid nutrition like fruit, nuts, granola bars, etc. and the capsules handle the rest.

I don’t have any quantifiable lab results but I can offer some long term anecdotal evidence. These capsules have worked for me for more than 3 years. I deal with temps in the 90s and humidity below 20 percent during the summer months. If you hike, run a chainshaw for a few hours in protective gear, or do some training on the range in that kind of weather… you will need to be on your hydration game. I have not had a single dizzy/headache episode since I started using SaltStick and, for me, that is really saying something.

I should also mention that at a cost of about $.20 per capsule (when you buy 100 at a time), they are less expensive than pre-mixed sports drinks! In my experience, they work better. You also don’t need to clean them out of your bottles and hydration bladders like sticky drink mixes!

I have only used the regular SaltStick caps but they also make SaltStick Plus cap which have some caffeine and SaltStick chews. I have never found SaltStick locally which is kind of a bummer but they are readily available online. I have purchased all of mine from Amazon (affiliate link): SaltStick on Amazon

Review: ThruNite TH20 Headlamp

By on April 30, 2018 in EDC, Flashlights, Reviews

Headlamps have come a long way. Gone are the days when you were limited to lights with a chunky plastic housing with a hinge that will eventually break, multiple batteries, and anemic outputs. Today’s headlamps boast impressive output, useful beam shapes, great runtimes, durable aluminum housings, and extremely compact sizes thanks to the ability to be powered on a single battery.

I’ve owned multiple Zebralight headlamps for a while now and they are easily the best I have used. However, they can also be a little on the spendy side. So, I went looking for something similar but a bit more affordable for my family to use. After sifting through online reviews, I settled on the ThruNite TH20.

Here are some quick stats on the TH20:

 

  • CREE XP-L V6 LED
  • Mode & Runtime (Tested by one Eneloop AA 2450mAh NIMH rechargeable battery):
    -Firefly (0.3 lumens, 14 days）
    -Infinity Low (1.6 lumens, 21 hours）
    -Infinity High (230 lumens, 95 minutes )
    -Turbo (250 lumens, 93 minutes)
  • Batteries Applicable: 1x AA battery, 1x 14500 battery.
  • IPX-8 water resistance
  • 2.7 ounces (without the battery)
  • Aluminum body with hard anodized finish

Why I Like It

There were a number of things that drew me to this headlamp as a backup to my other headlamps. First, the price was right at $30. Second, it runs on a single AA battery and had documented runtimes/ouputs with Eneloop batteries (I don’t use 14500 batteries). Third, the output was more than sufficient for my needs. Finally, it was available with a neutral white LED for better color rendition and depth perception.

I am not the kind of flashlight nerd that dives deep into lumens, candela, and the latest emitters. I am more the flashlight nerd that is always trying to find lights that are the easier to live with than my last light so the ability to power the TH20 with a single AA battery is very important to me for a number of reasons. It makes the light more compact so it fits unobtrusively in a coat pocket and my kids can use it. It also makes it easy to carry spare batteries. Finally, the light is very economical to keep fed with the primary AA batteries and Eneloops that I already have on hand.

My little corner of the world gets dark very early in the winter so this light sees heavy use. A hard anodized aluminum housing means I don’t have to baby the light. A balanced beam shape means it can handle everything from hiking to swapping a bearing on a 74″ snow blower. I even use it when I am on the tractor, blowing snow after dark. Our open cab tractor has no interior lights so the TH20 helps keep the controls and dashboard visible even while it is absolutely soaked and pummeled with blown snow. The abuse it has weathered in this role is impressive.

The band is comfortable and it surprised me with its great quality (cheap headlamps usually have terrible bands). I haven’t noticed any parasitic drain on the battery – it always seems ready to go. The silicone light holder seems durable and is very comfortable against the wearer’s head. There is a lot to like here but it isn’t perfect.

Why It Isn’t Perfect

The switch is easy to operate, even with gloves but it can be a little too easy to operate. I have twice found the light turned on in my pocket from the switch being accidentally touched. Now, I wrap the head band around the light to cover the switch when I put it in a pocket and that seems to help.

Speaking of the switch, there is just one and the user interface controlled by that single switch has a learning curve. If you click once from off, the light comes on at the last level you used. Then you can also press and hold the switch to ramp up and down through the brightness levels. The light blinks at the upper and lower limits of the brightness scale. You just let go of the switch when you are happy with the light level. Finally, you can double click from on to access turbo mode, double click again for SOS mode, or press and hold from off to access a sufficiently dim firefly mode.

I like having the ability to fine tune the light level but it usually takes me a little fiddling with button to get the light right. I would prefer to just have the ramping feature without all the other click options.

Wrap Up

I have found the TH20 to be a great light for the price. It feels more like a tool in its usefulness and construction than most headlamps. It is also very easy to live with thanks to its compact size and common battery.

I have never seen ThruNite lights in a brick and mortar store so I purchased mine on Amazon. I have actually purchased several and given them as gifts.

ThruNite TH20 on Amazon (affiliate link)

 

Review: Black Rhino Concealment Oscar Mike Wallet

By on January 5, 2018 in EDC, Reviews

I’ve spent the last 2 months with Black Rhino Concealment’s Oscar Mike Wallet in my back pocket… and I don’t plan on that changing after this review is completed.

Overview

The Oscar Mike Wallet (or On the Move Wallet) is an ultra-compact wallet created from rugged materials. The wallet is built around a webbing sleeve that can hold around 10 cards. The sleeve contains a simple webbing pull tab that allows you to lift the cards partially in order to sort through and find the one you need.

The front of the sleeve has a nylon card slot sewn to it that can be used to provide immediate access to your 2 most used cards. The back of the sleeve has an elastic strap used to hold folded cash.

Observations from Use

There are lots of wallets on the market. Some offer great access and organization. Some are extremely compact. The impressive thing about the Oscar Mike Wallet is that it offers great access and organization in a very compact wallet.

I have 9 cards in the sleeve and 2 in the nylon card slot and this wallet is still very compact. It pretty much disappears in the back pocket of a pair of jeans. Yet, in spite of how small this wallet is, I have immediate access to everything in it. I keep my ID and the only credit card I used in the front pocket where they can be accessed without even having to unfold a wallet.

The rest of my cards like insurance cards or reward program cards are kept in the sleeve where they would be real pain to access if it wasn’t for the “Quick-Draw Tab”. This is a simple strap that wraps under the cards so that when you pull it, it lifts the cards out of the sleeve. I usually just lift them about 1/3rd of the way out of the sleeve so that the elastic is still holding them tight but I can fan them slightly to find the card I need. It is a dead simple system that works perfectly and it might be the coolest thing about this wallet. I never would have thought you can stack that many cards into a deep elastic pouch and expect to be able to easily retrieve the one you want.

The one issue that I always have with these compact wallets is how they handle cash and coins. When ever someone hands you change, you have to deposit the loose change in your pocket, then fold the bills before putting them on your wallet. It takes longer than something like traditional bi- or tri-fold wallet but then again, you get to avoid the chiropractor visits that come with carrying an overloaded traditional wallet.

Wrap Up

This is probably the smallest wallet I have ever owned and that is a nice thing in and of itself. However, compact wallets can be more of a pain than a convenience if you can’t access what is inside of them easily. That is what sets this apart from other wallets I have tried. Sure, it’s small… but it also gives you easy access like a larger wallet.

I like it enough that it is still in my back pocket as I type this even though I really, really liked my previous wallet.

Oscar Mike Wallet at Black Rhino Concealment

Disclosure: This wallet was sent to me, free of charge, by Black Rhino Concealment.

Review: V Seven Weapon Systems 10/22 20 CAL Barrel

By on January 3, 2018 in Guns, Reviews

The 10/22 20 CAL Barrels from V Seven Weapon Systems (V7) are pretty interesting to say the least. They offer excellent accuracy and make use of a tapered bore (or maybe some voodoo magic) to generate increased velocity and more energy down range.

Overview

These 416R stainless steel barrels are a direct drop-in replacement for your Ruger 10/22 rifle. They are available in a 16.1″ sporter profile (the subject of this review) and an 18″ bull barrel profile. Both barrels have a fluting option, feature a match chamber, threaded muzzle, and have oversized extractor pockets to ensure the extractor can move freely.

Both barrels also feature a relatively fast 1 in 10″ twist and a tapered bore that swages the projectile down from .22 caliber to .20 caliber. V7 claims that this feature leads to improved accuracy and reliability, increased ballistic coefficient (from reducing diameter and lengthening the projectile), and more energy down range. I actually saw a small but notable increase in velocity as well (more on that later).

Observations from Use

The barrel that I tested is the 16.1″, sporter profile version with fluting. I selected this barrel because, based on V7’s claims, I was hoping to use the barrel on my franken-22 to increase its effectiveness as a small game hunting and field rifle. My hope was that I could increase accuracy, increase range, and reduce the overall weight of my rifle just by replacing the barrel… and it worked.

There are some bold claims associated with these barrels and I wanted to test them to the extent that I could. I first installed the barrel on a rifle that has become an absolute mish-mash of parts over the years. It has a Weaver 2.5-7×28 Rimfire scope mounted to a mostly original 10/22 receiver and action. The rifle is full of various other replacement parts like an upgraded extractor, a Ruger OEM laminate stock that I picked up cheap years ago, and upgraded trigger parts. The rifle ran great before the barrel install and ran great after so there was no change in reliability.

The next step was to try to recover some projectiles. This was done fairly easily and it did confirm that the projectiles are swaged slightly smaller and longer than a projectile shot from an OEM 18.5″ Ruger 10/22 barrel.

I gathered a chronograph and two additional 10/22 rifles – one with a Ruger OEM 18.5″ barrel and one with an Ruger OEM 16″ barrel – for velocity testing. Both of the OEM barrels that I used for comparison have very high round counts and that may be playing a role in the data. I used CCI Mini Mags for the testing and saw numbers from the V7 10/22 20 CAL barrel that were more in line with velocities from the Ruger OEM 18.5″ barrel.

The V7 10/22 20 Cal barrel averaged 1227.2 FPS over 50 rounds of CCI Round Nose Mini-Mags. The standard 16″ Ruger OEM barrel averaged 1219.2 fps and the 18.5″ averaged right at 1224 fps. The 16.1″ V7 barrel was producing velocities faster than the longer 18.5″ barrel. Some of that could have to do with the round counts on the barrel in question and some with the properties of the V7 barrel.

Accuracy was excellent with CCI Mini Mags. I generally sight my .22 rifles at 50 yards and that is also where I did my accuracy testing. The groups averaged just over .69″ in max spread at 50 yards with the group pictured below being pretty typical. I suspect a better shooter could print more impressive results as I often had 1 or 2 fliers that had a large effect on overall group size.

Aside from all the performance numbers, I should also point out the less tangible qualities of this barrel. It is light, short, and looks great. So many after-market barrel makers neglect the sporter profiles barrels. Not everyone wants a heavy target rifle. Some of us want to actually spend time with our rifles in hand, walking the woods and that is the domain of the sporter profile barrel.

Wrap Up

These barrels could really stand to be tested beyond my capabilities to truly flesh out their claims – especially regarding down range energy. However, here is what I know… The barrel offers a great accuracy improvement over an OEM barrel. The V7 10/22 20 CAL barrel shows a slight increase in velocity over OEM barrels (even OEM barrels that are longer). Finally, the projectiles actually are swaged to a smaller diameter and increased overall length which should theoretically increase BC and thus down range performance to some extent. All of that points to confirmation of the claims.

I am impressed with the performance and handling of this barrel. I have found it to be a source of endless fascination and conversation with other gun guys… and it shoots.

V7 10/22 20 CAL Barrels

Disclosure: This barrel was sent to me by V7, free of charge, for this review.

Bargain or Just Cheap? – Cold Steel Trail Boss Axe

By on December 27, 2017 in Bargain or Just Cheap?, Reviews

Welcome to Bargain or Just Cheap? This series reviews budget friendly knives for a variety of uses in a short format. All of the knives will cost less than $50 (in most cases, much less) and will be purchased out of my own pocket. I’ll buy them, carry them, and use them in an attempt to determine if the knife is a bargain or just cheap.

It isn’t hard to find an axe at the hardware store but finding one worth owning is another story. There are lots of tools that look like axes but much of the nuance of what makes an axe good has been lost. You can still get great axes but they tend to cost a fortune. Is the Cold Steel Trail Boss an a bargain pack axe for the budget woodsman or is it just cheap?

Specs:

Head weight: 2.5 lbs

Total weight: 2.77 lbs

Overall length: 23″

Steel: Forged 1055

Observations from Use:

The Trail Boss is probably a bit of an odd duck to the axe purist. I have seen its head referred to as a Hudson Bay pattern but it really has more in common with German designs thanks to its larger, fan shaped bit. Its 23″ handle has some shaping but it is mostly straight overall, likely to save cost. It really is a mish-mash of design elements but… it works really, really well.

It is always best to be able to inspect an axe in person when purchasing but I bought this one on Amazon per the rules for this series of reviews. The hang is quite good – straight, tight, with wood pushed out, filling the eye. The handle is quite good too with good grain orientation, no heart wood, run out, etc. I have been able to handle several of these and they have all been quite good.

The Trail Boss carries very light for an axe this size. It is large enough and heavy enough for light felling (especially when used with a compact saw of some kind) and compact enough to lash easily to most overnight or larger bags. This would be an extremely handy tool for packing into a winter camp.

The bit has nice thin cheeks which is surprising on an inexpensive axe. The head comes with only a courtesy edge that you will need to finish when the axe arrives but once you do, you will be treated to an axe that bites deep thanks to the efficient shape of its cutting bit. It also splits surprisingly well for a compact axe and splitting is likely the most important thing you will ask of a camp axe. This attention to head geometry is what makes an axe work and what is largely missing from most hardware store axes.

I am not exactly breaking the news that this is a great budget axe so there is already a solid after-market for this axe. That means that if you want an axe mask (bit cover) or sheath, you can easily find them and they aren’t expensive either.

There are still a few things I would change and most of them have to do with the haft. The are of the haft above the flared butt is where users are likely to grip the Trail Boss most often. This area has been left slightly square which can easily be fixed with a rasp or belt sander. It’s odd but also not that uncomfortable. The haft also comes with a lacquer finish. Boiled linseed oil would be preferable as lacquer finishes cause blisters on bare hands but this too is easily fixed… I still haven’t “fixed” mine because it works and I wear gloves.

Bargain or Just Cheap?

The Cold Steel Trail Boss is certainly a BARGAIN. It shows, in its design, an understanding of what makes an axe functional. It won’t have the camp cache of a swedish axe but it also won’t set you back nearly as much and will perform nearly as well. It is functional as delivered and the knowledgeable axeman can really transform it into something special.

I am probably going to buy another one.

I use Amazon as the price base line for this series. All knives (and axes) were purchased by me, from Amazon:

Cold Steel Trail Boss

Our goal is to represent knives for a variety of uses from EDC, to outdoor, to tactical knives. Do you have a favorite affordable knife? Let us know about it in the comments!

The above article contains affiliate links.

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