Saint Patrick’s Day will be here before you know it. Get your gear ready with a Shamrock Laser Cut Morale Patch from Wilde Customer Gear. These patches are laser cut from 1000D Cordua and backed with hook material. They are available in 9 different camo patterns!
Chase Tactical is holding a flash sale this weekend. You can save 10% just because they like you! Just use code FLASH10 at checkout.
Zulu Bravo Kydex just rolled out the newest addition to their line of non-metallic defensive tools – the Dart. This compact tool has a push dagger-like shape and is ground from G-10. The geometry of the blade hints at is purpose as more of a puncturing device than a slashing device.
The Dart isn’t available on the Zulu Bravo website yet but it will be shortly. It is expected to retail around $75.
This article is about an exceedingly simple and safe way to control your AR (or AR pattern) rifle during movement in the backcountry. This is not a sexy technique. This is probably not even the right technique for some user groups. This may not even be original to me (though I didn’t learn it from any other source). This is just something that works.
Moving through areas with a lot of brush or areas that require a lot of bending over to pass through, your slung AR can swing on its sling or interact with your surroundings or your own gear in strange and unsafe ways. This is doubly true in winter when you wear heavier layers and you are more likely to do things like ducking under trees bent over by snow load. Snow can turn even wide, well maintained trails into a backcountry travel experience.
I enjoy snowshoeing in winter for exercise and adventure. Just this winter alone, I have seen someone’s selector swept to the fire position and I’ve had my own magazine ejected. Both of these events happened while moving through or under natural impediments and by no intentional interaction on the user’s part. Sometimes it is the brush itself that causes the problem. Sometimes the user’s gear causes the problem when the rifle dangles and rubs against the wearer while they move.
This also starts to get a little bothersome when you think of what your muzzle is doing while you navigate these kind of obstacles. It may be swinging across your feet and legs or dipping into the snow. Neither of which are safe.
There is a natural solution to this problem… just maintain some control of the firearm. This can be difficult when traversing difficult terrain but it must be done. The conventional wisdom is to maintain a firing grip with your strong hand but, truth be told, I want my strong hand free for work when doing things like holding back branches that would otherwise go at my eyes, hanging onto the something during a steep side traverse, or stabilizing myself with a third point of contact while I duck under low limbs.
What I do is simple. I use my support hand clamped around the back of the receiver where it meets the buffer tube. I hold the rifle here and use my thumb (and my middle finger too if I have an ambi safety) to hold the selector in the safe position. I also apply some very slight downward pressure at this point on the rifle which, when using a two point sling, automatically rotates the muzzle up and to the side so it doesn’t dangle across my legs or dip into snow. The more downward pressure I apply, the higher the muzzle rotates.
This technique blocks the safety, controls the muzzle, and keeps the rifle from swinging all at the same time. It also keeps all my digits away from the trigger guard and allows me to immediately free my support hand should I start to fall because my hand is coming in from the top of the rifle. Controlling my AR in this manner has become second nature to me.
This article is already way too long considering I am just talking about a way you can hold your slung AR with one hand. Honestly, it is such a simple thing that I hesitated to even write about it. I can see how some user groups would be hesitant to take their firing hand off the rifle but that isn’t me. I’m just a guy in the woods. This works.
Maybe I need to come up with a catchy name for it like… the “North Idaho Reach Around”. Nah.
TOPS Knives passed 20 years old in October 2018 and they have been releasing some very special knives to celebrate. This is their second 20th anniversary offering…
From TOPS Knives:
TOPS Knives turned 20 years old in October 2018 and to commemorate the accomplishment, we released a limited run of the Tom Brown Tracker #3 made with special steel, handles, and sheath. The success of that model led us to make this next 20th-anniversary edition model.
The Tex Creek is an excellent all-around knife design. It’s perfect around the campsite, if you’re out on a hike, fishing for the day, and makes a great hunting knife as well. The original was designed by Leo Espinoza to be his personal hunting knife for deer season in Idaho a few years back. Tex Creek is the name of the unit where he grew up hunting in Idaho.
This will be a one-time run made with CPM154 steel hardened to 58-60 on the Rockwell C scale. It has thick, well-rounded handles with a white liner sandwiched between black canvas Micarta and a gorgeous red/black carbon fiber on top. The sheath is red Kydex with black Kydex on top and a burgundy leather dangler to finish off the package.
Specs:
