Krushr

GOT YOU COVERED – Combat Uniforms & Duty Gear

Nov 092011

PremierTactical.com Product Review: Uniforms & Duty Apparel

Multicam Combat Uniforms

Here at Premier Tactical LLC, we have quite a few opportunities to wear various uniforms while out testing gear and guns as well as at events and tactical training and field exercises. Of course, I wear and try out and use as many products as I can that I offer on our website, Premier Tactical & Preparedness. In this blog, I will discuss the various Propper Combat Uniforms that they offer so you may become more familiar with their products. Before I get into the description of their products, I would like to state that I have worn both their Battle Rip 65/35 polyester cotton and their 50/50 nylon cotton ripstop combat uniforms and have found both to be extremely functional and durable, but let’s face it, Propper is the leading manufacturer of military uniforms since 1967 for all of the branches of our armed forces! This being said, of course they are the best out there, they are manufactured to military specifications and in my opinion are the best of the best! Propper ACU (Army Combat Uniforms) uniforms are sewn to military specification (FQ/PD 04-04A) with vat-dyed 50% Nylon / 50% Cotton ripstop fabric. Hook and loop-faced patches can accomodate rank insignia, unit patch, and name tapes. The mandarin collar can be worn up or down, and the hook and loop sleeve cuff closure provides positive closure. Its 3-slot pen pocket on the left sleeve and shoulder pockets are designed to fit optimally with the OTV. Nametape and patches not included. Battle Rip version available in A-TACS® only. I have only one thing to bring up about their trousers, they still use the button fly even though they have replaced the buttons on the coat with a zipper and hook and loop, go figure!! Being an aging man, my bladder is very active and even though I enjoy the Propper trousers, I commonly use the 5.11 Multicam trousers with my Propper Multicam coat as they incorporate a zipper instead of the button fly.. Being located in the desert southwest, the camo pattern of choice is both the Multicam and the new A-TACS® pattern recently released by Propper International. Both of these patterns work incredibly well in the desert and the forested regions of Arizona with the Multicam being probably in my opinion better suited for the forested regions of AZ. However, both work very effectively in concealing a person in both terrains. Also important to note is that Propper does not provide the hook and loop strips above the left and right pockets for name tapes on their 35/65 polyester cotton ripstop uniforms except for their A-TACS® pattern, only on their 50/50 NYCO or nylon cotton uniforms. For those of you out there that are sensitive to the infrared signature of your uniform, Propper offers their Near Infrared Technology in only their 50/50 nylon cotton combat uniform, please see our product descriptions for verification whether the product is NIR Compliant.

What is NIR Technology?

NIR Compliant

Near Infrared (NIR) Signature Management Technology is used by the U.S. Department of Defense to prevent detection by NIR Image Converters. These photocathode devices do not detect temperatures, but rather infrared radiation variances. NIR-compliant uniforms use a special fabric that allows soldiers to appear at the same radiation level as the surrounding terrain, thus making them more difficult to detect. NIR technology also make uniforms less visible in low-light environments by reducing the reflection of light. To ensure that our military personnel avoid any danger connected to the use of uniforms, Propper has clearly labeled products that are approved for military operations. Similarly, products based on military uniform designs (such as the ACU) without NIR technology are also labeled to prevent any error in purchasing. If you do decide to select the NIR compliant uniform, please see Propper’s website to determine which detergents are best to use that do not contain optical brighteners which will tend to defeat the purpose of the special fabric.

A-TACS®

A-TACS Coat

A-TACS® stands for Advanced Tactical Concealment System and the A-TACS® pattern represents a radical step forward in the science of concealment systems. A-TACS® was developed by Digtal Concealment Systems, (DCS) to answer the call for better and more effective camouflage system integration for duty personnel in any service branch from military to law enforcement. A-TACS® is designed as a universal pattern for a wide range of operational environments with additional supporting color and design variants to follow. Many of the modern digital camouflage patterns currently in use by the tactical community have flaws. The square pixels used to create the distortion effect do not replicate the shapes, forms and shadows of the environment they are deployed in-especially when viewed through optics. The ninety-degree angles and limited use of natural colors can in many cases, make detection easier.

Additionally, the “visual noise” in these same patterns tends to make them close-up into a solid color, producing a “blobbing” effect when viewed from a distance. A-TACS® addresses and improves these critical issues in three ways.

1. – Replace un-natural square pixels with organic pixels. Utilizing our patented process, we created a palette of natural colors digitally sampled from real-world elements in carefully controlled lighting. The pattern is then created using a mathematical algorithm that writes “organically-shaped” pixels using the specific color information given. The resulting pattern while still digital, is far more organic in appearance.

2.- Use small patterns to create larger more distinct shapes designed to work at a distance. Small shapes create larger shapes and larger shapes are organized into a distinct pattern with no horizontal or vertical orientation. This unique “pattern within a pattern” concept allows A-TACS® to effectively break the human outline at great distances thereby, minimizing the “blobbing” effect of other patterns when viewed from a distance.

3.- More effective use of color-range produces a better concealment system. A-TACS® is created using a far greater range of inter-mingled natural colors than was previously possible. The overall base color for the cast is a neutral tan which is designed for use in open, rocky or arid environments.

Hence, the abstract and intricate nature of this pattern gives it a unique “fingerprint” which is not only adaptable to various service branches, but also makes it difficult to copy.

Multicam – Proven effective in Multiple Environments

Multicam Coat

MultiCam® is a single camouflage pattern designed to help the wearer hide in varied environments, seasons, elevations, and light conditions. It was designed to address the real-world need for concealment in different environments, with one basic kit of gear. While there are many great location-specific patterns, MultiCam® is designed to work well across a very broad range of environmental conditions when observed in both the visual and near infrared (night vision) spectrums. The pattern is designed to reflect some of the surrounding colors of the environment. It takes on an overall green appearance when under a green forest canopy and an overall tan look when in the open desert. By adapting to varying local lighting conditions, it blends well in many environments, elevations, seasons, weather conditions, and times of the day. The design takes advantage of the way the human eye and brain perceives shape, volume, and color. Since only a very small portion of the human eye perceives color, the brain does a lot of “filling-in” for the eye. The unique design of MultiCam® takes advantage of this principle and helps the observer to “see” the pattern as part of the background. MultiCam® relies more on a blending effect than a contrast effect to disguise the wearer. This effect allows it to perform in a wide range of environments, and keeps the pattern effective even at close distances where pixelated or “blocky” patterns often stand out against natural, non-blocky environments.

I hope that this information has been helpful in your selection of a combat uniform and go check them out at Premier Tactical & Preparedness.

Emergency Food – Get it while you can!

Preparedness

Oct 142011

Preparedness: Emergency Food

EF7P2E8WX2KX

Well, where do I begin? Do I need to remind everyone about the unrest that is surrounding the globe including the streets of these United States of America, or the fact that our government is spending like a teenager with their parents credit card, or that the natural disasters from a extremely cold winter last year to the heat wave in the Midwest this summer or all of the flooding, all of which has taken a serious toll on the crops for this year and next. I could go on and on but I covered a lot of the reasons why everyone needs to be stocking up on food in my previous blog called “Preparedness – Be Prepared” below. Everyday I turn on the news, I hear of more and more peril and the experts are all saying that everyone should have enough food and water to sustain them for a year, every man, woman and child in your household. That preparation should also include your elderly parents if they are living near you as well. So, what’s the answer? There are many different food options out there to pick from, there’s grains, beans, dehydrated, freeze-dried, MRE’s and pre-packaged meals. It is my recommendation that everyone have some of all the kinds of long term storage food. At PremierTactical.com, we provide a wide variety of options for families and individuals that are interested in storing long-term foods in case of emergency. We provide from Wise Foods an assortment of great-tasting gourmet food storage entrees that you and your family will enjoy! These pre-packaged ready-made freeze-dry and dehydrated meals are prepared in minutes by just adding boiling water! We are confident that once you try these delicious breakfasts and/or entrees you’ll be a believer. Now, finally, there’s dependable, simple and affordable food storage that will meet your family’s needs for many years to come. These Wise Foods pre-packaged meals can be stored for up to 25 years, which makes them a great investment in the future, whether it is the near future or down the road.

The Wise Foods Product

I have tried these freeze dried meals and have found them to be incredibly good, certainly not what my mother or my wife would prepare, but most certainly food I would be happy to eat and feed my family. So, let’s look at the Wise Foods products in detail further. The Wise Foods products are freeze dried meals, not individual ingredients, that are prepared in individual mylar pouches that have a 25-year shelf life. These Wise Foods meals have breakfast, lunch and dinner varieties and a great selection at that. There are two different types of meals, those that you cook out of the pouch and those that you cook in the pouch. To cook out of the pouch, you simply boil you water in a container, add the contents of the pouch to the boiling water, then cover and wait, just like making minute rice. To cook the meals in the pouch, you simply add boiling water to the pouch, close the pouch, and wait for the meal to re-hydrate and then serve. The latter option is a little more expensive because of the extra packaging required, but you will find it to be very convenient for those bug out bags. If you are home or at a camp, the first option will work great, but will leave you having to clean up your pot with water you may or may not have extra of. I just heard from my Wise Foods representative the other day and he informed me that they now have freeze-dried meats in four serving mylar gold pouches with a selection of roasted chicken, southwest style chicken, teriyaki style chicken, stroganoff style chicken, cheesy ground beef and savory roasted ground beef. Finally! These meats are designed to rehydrate in as little as 12 minutes in boiling water and have a shelf life of 15 years!

Wise Food Meal Options

Now, for that 72 hour bug out bag, you can use any of these pre-packaged Wise Foods pouches, but you will need to use your precious water to prepare them, so it is a good idea to have some Mayday Calorie Bars along with some MRE’s stashed in that bug out bag. These are handy to have available if for some reason you are on the go and do not have the extra water or time to heat the water and to pour into a pre-packaged pouch, just whip out a calorie bar and munch on the go, or pull out your MRE with a heater and activate the heater and wait a couple of minutes and your entree is steaming hot and ready to eat. And with hunting season upon us, why not have any one of the above mentioned meals or two in your hunting pack to have while out on your stand or while out hunting! Be Prepared!

Keeping Your Firearms Clean

Firearm Tips

Sep 202011

Firearm Tips: Keep it Clean!

EF7P2E8WX2KX

If you are anything like me, I love to go out and shoot my handguns, rifles and machine guns, but cleaning them is always a pain and in the case of machine guns, very time consuming! I have to say that there are some of my handguns that are extremely easy and quick to clean like my Colt 1911 and then there are some of my handguns that seem to never need a cleaning as they just continue to run time after time without a cleaning. While volunteering as a range officer at a local shooting range, I meet quite a few shooters that are firing their Glocks or XDm’s just to see how far they can run them without cleaning them and some of them are approaching 2500 rounds. Now, I do not recommend that you treat your guns in this manner, I certainly don’t, but there’s times that I get back from a machine gun shoot where I have shot ten different machine guns and have literally put a mountain of rounds through them and am just too busy when I get home to clean them. After several months of getting back into the daily routine, I think to myself, oh shoot, I have to clean my guns! I am fortunate to have a good friend at the machine gun shoots that has an ultrasonic cleaner that I tear down my guns and throw the bolt carriers, bolts, op rods, gas pistons and anything else I can pull out of the guns and clean. Let me say that this helps enormously in getting the gunk off those parts, but I still have to clean the barrels, receivers and trigger groups the hard way, with elbow grease and some great products and tools that I have found and offer on PremierTactical.com. When you are talking about a machine gun that you have run over 3000 rounds through it in a weekend, I start with Gun Scrubber to break down all that powder residue and then concentrate on cleaning the barrels with the good ole fashion rod and brush and Hoppes solution. After numerous passes with the brush, I switch out to the jag and patches with either Hoppes solution or BreakFree until the patches come out clean, then one final pass with a patch with a light gun oil or BreakFree to make sure the bore is left with a slight protective coating.

I have to say that during a long day or weekend of shooting, I always have available my Bore Snake in all calibers, handy to run through my bores to give them a quick cleaning and for those handguns and rifles that you only put a few rounds through, a bore snake does a wonderful job. Over the years and years of cleaning guns, I have found that there’s a handful of gun cleaning tools and products that I always have with me while cleaning gun parts, they are a gun cleaning kit, cotton swabs, an old toothbrush, dental picks, an old dull kitchen knife, gun patches and rags and rags. Of course there are specialty tools made these days especially for the AR class of firearms that are very handy to have and use, like the AR Multitasker that has a radiused tip carbon scraper, a front sight adjustment tool, a dental pick, a 8-32 thread for Otis cleaning accessories, a spanner wrench for the castle nut, a receiver pin punch and of coarse screwdrivers, all in one tool. These tools are available from a variety of manufacturers. Another extremely handy product to have for an AR style rifle or a bolt gun is the o-ring bore guide that slides on into the gun’s receiver and chamber which helps guide the cleaning rod into the chamber end of the firearm, you know that is the only way to clean a gun barrel, is from the chamber end. And, speaking of the chamber, do not forget to have a chamber brush handy to clean those chambers out, especially after shooting that Russian made ammo! Speaking of ammo, I have purchased surplus military ammo for decades and one thing that you need to be aware of is that if the surplus ammo is corrosive, you MUST clean your gun immediately after shooting or the corrosion will start pitting your precious gun. So, if you have any firearms at all, you must have all the necessary cleaning equipment to properly care for those guns. We all know the basic ways of cleaning firearms and we all have our own developed techniques that maybe unique, feel free to reply to this post with your own special tools or gadgets that you have found that work great in getting into all those nooks and cranny’s of the your favorite firearms. Let’s get a steady supply of responses to your favorite tool or methods going on this post! Wow, after sitting here writing this blog, it has got my mind going over all those firearms in my gun vault awaiting a thorough cleaning, better go and get to it!