The padded Vickers Combat Applications Sling is the same concept as the original VCAS with the added benefit of wider padding for greater comfort.
When I received this sling BFG had also just started selling their Multicam and ACU patterned slings. I've come to like the Vickers Combat style sling for it's ease of use, simplistic design, and very few extra straps and buckles. I have always used 3-point slings as a tactical sling and never really gave much thought to a 2-point sling. I always thought the 2 point sling wasn't as versatile as the 3-point and didn't work well as a tactical sling. My mind was changed greatly when I received Blue Force Gear's slings for review. Here are some things I've found advantageous in the 2-point sling...
1.There isn't the extra material there is in the 3-point sling to get in the way of the functions of the rifle. With the 3-point sling there is the extra material that runs down the side of the rifle and can get in the way.
2.Can perform the same functions as the 3-point sling in a simpler format.
3.Quick and almost instant adjustment to length (on the Blue Force style slings).
4.When switching to your weak side you're not "locked" into the sling like 3-point slings that utilize a release that lengthens the sling but tightens it around your body.
5.The sling can be tightened around your body for things such as fast roping and then instantly loosened for action if set up this way.
The Blue Force 2-point Vickers sling uses a pull tab toward the hand guard end of the sling for instant adjustments. All you have to do is grab that tab and slide it forward to tighten the sling and slide it backward to loosen the sling. It's that easy. This is very useful when transitioning to the weak side. Just loosen the strap and drop your weak side arm out of the sling to grab the pistol grip and transition to your weak side (see video below). The pull tab is a contrasting yet tactically colored webbing in order to help you differentiate it from the rest of the sling in your peripheral vision. This helps you grab it in a hurry.
Another good use for the quick adjustment is when using a collapsible stock. If you want to extend the stock but have the sling set up for when the stock is collapsed you can easily adjust the length of the sling to accommodate the length of the stock. When taking a more precise shot you can lengthen the stock and sling and get a good shooting position. The sling can then be shortened to pull the butt stock back tight to the shoulder and give you a good shooting platform for a better shot.
For those with a standard M16/AR15 butt stock there is a separate sling adapter for that style butt stock.
All hardware (ITW) and webbing is high quality. This sling is also made in the US, Georgia to be exact. The webbing used in this sling is 1.25" wide with the padded area being 2" wide material covering the closed cell foam padding. For those of you with a lot of gadgets on their rifle, or with a heavy barreled rifle you're like the added benefit of the padding when holding the rifle for long amounts of time.
With this sling being in the Multicam pattern it can be seen in the pictures how it blends right in with the Multicam uniform and doesn't silhouette the sling like a solid black sling will. I really like having the camo patterns available. BFG is the first I've seen do this with a weapon's sling and it makes a big difference if stealth and camo is what you require.
I highly recommend this sling if you like 2-point slings. If you've never tried a 2-point sling...try it...you won't be disappointed!
Colors: Black, Coyote, OD Green, Multicam pattern, Universal Camo (ACU), Foliage Green
The SEAL Pup Elite, created by SOG knives, is an absolutely excellent knife. I've used this knife for a little over a year and it hasn't let me down at all. In fact I haven't sharpened it yet and it's still cutting like it was new. I've used this knife during training and while camping and hiking. While camping I've split tons of logs with this knife...making tinder from logs was super easy. The features on this knife are very thought out and useful, whether using it for camping, hiking, utility use or for military use as it was intended.
For features I'll start out with the knife itself.
Knife
- Blade length of 4.85 inches. Excellent for utility purposes and just as good for fighting. Some argue on the length of the blade for fighting, but I think this blade is fine.
- Overall length of 9.5 inches. This seems to be a great length. Good for it's intended purpose, but not too long to be bulky.
- Weight 5.4 oz.
- Partially serrated blade. I love the partial serrations for use in cutting rope and cord. This saves on the blades edge.
- AUS8 Steel blade. AUS8 is a medium-carbon, high chromium stainless steel, which offers a good balance of toughness, edge sharpness and corrosion resistance. I've had this knife in the water and wet environments a lot and it's still had no rust buildup, keeping in line with it's SEAL name!!
- Black TiNi tiger striping.
- Blade spine rasp for notching, filing, and thumb placement. This is a great feature for striking a flint as well!!
- Injection molded, glass reinforced Zytel handle feels great in the hand. The perfect size with deep finger grooves. The handle is scored for a sure grip in all conditions. Lanyard hole.
- MOLLE attachment system. This system can also be used to attach it to the belt. The loops for the MOLLE system are a little tight on this sheath. The snap tends to get caught up on the loops especially when removing the sheath. If you remove the knife from the sheath when attaching and removing the sheath it helps a little with this.
- Kydex inner to protect the sheath from the blade.
- Strap holding the knife in the sheath has a snap and also velcro to help in case the snap doesn't catch.
- Cord holes in bottom of sheath for tying around the leg or as additional mounting option.
- Front pocket is great for a multi tool, firesteel, extra magazine, etc, etc.
I love this sheath because it offers great versatility. It allows you several mounting options and also the ability to hold extra tools in the front pouch.
Kydex Sheath (additional option)
- This sheath has a cool attachment system. It attaches to the belt with a sliding belt loop. To open the belt loop you squeeze 2 tabs at the bottom and half of the loops slides up. To put it on your belt just slide the sliding portion under your belt until it clicks. The only thing I don't like is that it digs into your side when worn under an untucked shirt.
- The sheath has a notch cut out of the blade portion for cutting cord without taking the knife out of the sheath. This is so when using it in a maritime environment on a boat such as a RHIB (rigid hull inflatable boat) the knife won't puncture the RHIB if cutting cord. It also makes it safer to cut cord and webbing.not bad....my birthday today so I guess I'm good.
- Drain hole in the bottom.
- One other thing you'll see in the video is that if you don't put the knife in in the right manner the shape of the blade can cause it to get caught up on the Kydex. Not a huge issue, but something to be aware of. Watch the video to see what I'm talking about.
Overall this is an excellent knife. As I said before.. I've used this knife for over a year and I've not babied it....and it's still in excellent condition. I had never used SOG brand knives in the past and had no clue of the high quality of their knives. I can see this as an excellent hard use knife, for military or otherwise. The only thing I would change would be to make the back of the belt loop portion of the kydex sheath a little less abrasive on the skin. Otherwise, everything on this knife is perfect!
The Maxpedition Universal CCW Holster is one of many items in Maxpedition's hook-and-loop modular accessory line. The holster is simple in design yet works great. It uses the hook portion of hook-and-loop to attach to the loop portion inside many of Maxpedition's bags. You can also find items in 5.11's line that this holster and Maxpedition's other hook-and-loop products will attach to.
The holster is made out of 2 inch wide webbing and you lay your pistol on the flattened out holster and then wrap the retention strap around it and then place it on the loop portion of velcro in your Maxpedition bag. It's that simple. The retention portion of the holster has some rubber like grip material added to it to help retain the pistol, so, you'll want to take that into account when adjusting the holster for the pistol. You won't want it too tight or that rubber will grip and make it difficult to draw your weapon.
I've found this holster to be a great value. It allows you to hold your pistol inside a bag in a safe manner and gives you yet another concealed carry option. Once adjusted right, drawing the pistol is easy and the holster stays in place and doesn't move around.
MSRP: $9.99 Black Only
Will work with the following Maxpedition items (at time of writing)
Real Action Paintball (RAP4) is a company that provides military, airsoft, and paintball gear for training and gaming purposes. They also make a good majority of the gear in their catalog. One item I got for testing was a set of RAP4 BDUs in the German Flecktarn pattern. I choose this pattern because it's a pattern that you can't normally find in new BDUs. Normally you have to settle with surplus gear in Flecktarn. RAP4 also has paintball and military load bearing gear, knee/elbow pads, vests, and belts in the Flecktarn pattern.
The Flecktarn pattern is comprised of 3, 4, or 5 colors depending on the pattern you get. It's "splotched" pattern creates a dithering pattern that's disruptive to the human eye.
The set of "cammies" as us Marines call them came with the top, bottom, and boonie hat. They feature the same good features that standard BDUs have and are made of 65/35 polyester/cotton blend material. The material is up to par with the other BDUs that I have in this material. The durability so far has been very impressive.
Chin strap with plastic cord lock, a nice improvement over the leather slider on most boonies.
At the time of this posting only available in Large size...this is about a 7 1/2 size. If it's too big, you just put the chin strap around to the back and tighten it on the back of your head and this helps to size the hat for you.
3 button wrist adjustments. These are a little off from the standard BDU in sizing. I normally use the middle button on the sleeves, but on these I use the last button. Not a big deal, just a note. Also, I would make the cuff adjustment tabs a bit wider...they start out narrow and get slightly wider.
adjustable waist via pull tabs. These are wider than mil-spec and have plastic instead of metal adjustable buckle. They're more comfortable than the standard take up tabs.
Belt loops
Button fly.
RAP4 has really impressed me in not only their quality and design of their BDUs but their unique selection of camo patterns you can't find elsewhere. This style of BDU comes in:
Woodland
Flecktarn
OD
Urban Camo
Black
CadPat
British DPM
3 color desert
Digital Woodland
Realtree
Tigerstripe
They also have an 8 color desert that closely resembles Multicam in a different pattern of BDU and a tactical tiger stripe in a different pattern as well.
Sizes: small medium large X-Large XX-Large XXXX-Large
Update (11-27-09): I was wearing these BDUs and ended up chest deep in mucky water. I had a pair of gloves and a Balaclava in the cargo pocket and only the top portion of the Balaclava, which was on top of the gloves was wet. Also, the shorts and t-shirt I had on underneath were only wet in a couple areas. The material these are made out of seems to be slightly water repellent in nature.
The Gorillapod by Joby is a really awesome product. It takes the portable tripod and improves on it ten fold. I used to use a small flexible tripod that was very cheap, but I thought served it's purpose, until I got a Gorillapod. A friend of mine mentioned them to me so I checked out their site. The first thing I saw was an animation of a Gorillapod holding a camera jumping from tree to tree. The Gorillapod was holding on to the branches with it's legs wrapped around the branches. Right away I knew one way or another I needed to try this product out.
First off, the Gorillapod came with 3 different attachment options. A screw on option for the bottom of cameras, a adhesive option (2 included), and a suction cup option. Now, you don't need to use one or the other, you can use all of them since these attachment points can be removed from the Gorillapod. When it comes too all these attachment options, they can not only be used for cameras, but also for things like an Ipod, where you may want to have the tripod hold it in place while watching a movie. To remove the mount from the Gorillapod you simply rotate the locking mechanism and push the button and the mount slides right off and another can be put on.
The legs of the Gorillapod are completely flexible. They are basically ball joints. The end of the leg is covered in a rugged rubber cap, and each leg has rubber grips up the length of the leg. The gray parts on the pictures are the rubber grip.
The Gorillapod is very durable and versatile. I like it because you can get your camera at different angles and place it on uneven surfaces. The legs can also be wrapped around railings, tree branches, etc, etc. You can basically place your camera anywhere with the Gorillapod.
The only improvement/change I'd make is to make the suction cup a little better. It takes some playing with to get it to stick. You definitely need to moisten it to get it to work.
If you have a digital camera, a compact tripod is a must. And I highly recommend the Gorillapod. There are different styles, sizes and colors of Gorillapod. The one shown here is the original Gorillapod. Functioning and quality are top notch!!
Price: $21.95 Suggested max camera weight: 11.5 oz. Colors: Gray, Blue, Green, Orange, Pink, Red, Yellow
If you're a gear manufacturer or retailer and would like me to do a review of your gear feel free to email me and we can set something up. I will give and honest review and not only include it on the site but also email results and suggestions back.
