Thursday, January 08, 2009
Santa: Better late than never
I suppose that an introduction is in order. My name is Mark, youngest of three boys and born of a military family. My interest (obsession, if you ask my wife or close friends) with military and law enforcement equipment came pretty early on. My Dad was a World War 2 veteran, seeing action in the Philippines. My Mom found that a good way to keep me occupied for hours at a time was to let me page through the photo album of his service.
I was 5 years old in 1965, and my Dad had been out of the service for about 20 years. And in MY mind, he was Captain Balls, single handedly responsible for winning the war. I was fascinated by the things that I saw in that album - my Dad standing guard in basic training with an M1 Garand, my Dad kneeling in the jungle sporting a mohawk haircut and holding a monkey. I was still years away from appreciating the photographs of the topless locals or understanding the notation "hubba hubba!", but I'm told I kept asking about the things he was using - the gear he was carrying, the objects that he and his buddies used.
Being fortunate to grow up in an era when it was not a Bad Thing to be interested in firearms and all things military, I spent a fair amount of time (and lawn mowing earnings) at the Army-Navy Suplus store in my hometown. The smell of musty web gear still takes me right back to happy hours spent digging through packs, boots, canteens, gas masks and assorted other unidentifiable items. I was never allowed to purchase the gas masks because of - according to my Mom - "what might be left in them".
Although that store is long gone, I still have some of those purchases - an aluminum canteen and faded cover, an "Ike Jacket", which was too large then and too small now - and I am grateful to have inherited most of my Father's firearms and associated gear.
Our family subscribed to Popular Mechanics. PM made it a point each month to keep a kid like me on the edge of my seat reading about new technological advances in the equipment being developed for our fighting forces, you just had to find it among the lawn mower repair and cabinet building articles. While nothing much came of the .99 cent plans I ordered for the personal hovercraft, getting to see the cutaway drawings and pictures of the military gear was mighty heady stuff in grade school. Who among us hasn't spent hours doodling battle scenes, fighter planes and guns on our notebooks? As I understand it, doing that today can get you kicked out of school. By God, we had it good. And we didn't shoot each other, either.
I was unable to follow in the footsteps of my Father (Army) and my brothers (both were in the Air Force) as the flat-footed diabetic division was not in need of enthusiastic recruits in 1978. However, my fascination with the pieces of equipment in those faded photos, and the gear I saw in the pages of Popular Mechanics has not faded.
And I still doodle battle scenes, fighter planes and guns. I'm just better at it now.
Assuming you are still with me after that introduction, I'm going to start out with a product that I purchased multiples of before coming to work here, the Blackhawk CQC Serpa Holsters.
The founder of Blackhawk, former Navy SEAL Mike Noell has a few memories of his own concerning equipment. Operating well inside northern Iraq, he had a pack give up the ghost and dump "a ton" of gear onto the ground. Inconvenient at best, a situation like that becomes more memorable when the ground is mined. Understandably, that made an impression on Mike, and he said if he got out of that situation alive, he would make equipment the way it needs to be built, so his buddies wouldn't have to go through the same experience. I imagine the language may have been a bit more colorful at the time, but you get the idea.
True to his promise, the Blackhawk Serpa CQC holster is made like it should be. In technical terms, this thing flat out rocks. It's hard to even pick a feature to start with, there are so many good things designed into this product. In case you're not familiar with the Serpa CQC, it is a polymer holster - in all but the lowest level holster, it is a carbon-fiber composite, which makes it exceptionally resistant to impact. Your firearm slips into a holster that is molded to the correct shape and size (no generics here) and once seated, a retention device automatically locks the firearm into place with a satisfying click.
When I say "locks", I mean just that. I had the good fortune to work at the largest gun shop in Illinois last summer. On the sales floor, we had a display supplied by Blackhawk for the CQC. The intention was that one would step on a metal plate with both feet, and the adjustable vertical tube would position the Serpa CQC in about the right spot to practice a draw with a dummy gun. In a move that would not surprise my wife at all, I decided that the best use of the display was not as the designers intended, but to demonstrate the retention power of the holster. I liked to have a customer stand NEXT to the display, grab the gun and lift the gun, holster and the heavy all-steel display off the floor, all suspended by the retention mechanism in the holster.
So how do you release the firearm when you need it in a hurry? You need to remember to bring one piece of gear with you, each and every time you leave the house. You may even have it with you now: Your trigger finger. If you practice good discipline, and draw your weapon with your index finger aligned with the frame of the gun, your fingertip engages a small paddle. When the paddle is pressed, the firearm is released. It takes about thirty seconds for it to become second nature. If it takes more than a minute for you to master, please send your firearm to Mark H., in care of Tactical Store. You should not be allowed to have that firearm.
Just kidding - don't send it in, please have it transferred through your FFL holder...
Check back, we will link to a couple of video clips that demonstrate how fast this holster is.
Because this is a composite holster, it retains it's shape - so reholstering is just a matter of shoving it back in, two hands are not required. A good thing, as law enforcement and military users may on occasion not have the luxury of using two hands to squeeze a leather holster open and fasten a thumb break. As soon as the firearm is returned to the holster, the retention engages again. Again, nothing new to learn.
We've established that it is not difficult to learn how to use the Serpa CQC. I can almost hear you wondering, "so what's so special about it?" How does "free holsters" grab you? Well, maybe not technically "free", since you have to buy the first one, but you are getting 10 holsters in the basic system. How? It's like this: Take the holster out of the package, and you have a belt loop, vertical holster. If you own a phillips head screwdriver, here's where the fun starts. As a strong-side belt holster, you have the choice of three angles - vertical, and two degrees of forward cant.
That's three holsters.
If you move the holster to your off side, and use the two degrees of rearward cant, turning it into a fine crossdraw holster, useful if you are fortunate to live in a state that allows CCW, and you spend any time in a car.
That's five holsters.
Remember that large object remaining in the package? The Serpa CQC also comes with a paddle, that allows all the same angle adjustments.
Two times five is... hold on - ten! Right? Yeah, ten! If we wanted to get really technical, the belt slide is adjustable for belt width, and also for ride height, but we'll call it ten for the sake of argument.
If that level of customization isn't enough for you, Blackhawk also offers a new-for-09 product, the Serpa Quick Disconnect System. It installs between the holster and the belt loop, paddle, shoulder harness, drop-leg tactical platform, duty jacket slot, or Mod-U-Lok. In addition to being able to move the holster quickly between mounts, it allows you to position the holster at any angle - all 360 degrees, in case you need a specific angle that isn't covered in the standard holster.
The Serpa CQC is just one of a growing number of products from Blackhawk that seem to be designed by people that actually USE these products, and realize that the products may literally mean the difference between going home or going down for good.
And speaking of people who actually use the products we sell, with the exception of a certain unnamed suburban Chicago Commander who writes tickets for avoiding obstacles in the road such as cones that have fallen from telephone trucks, I am personally grateful for the tough and often thankless job that you all do. If you are reading this from another country, we all owe you a debt of gratitude for the job that you're doing. If you're reading this stateside, I appreciate you working to keep order and make it possible for me to be out and about.
If you're like me, and are not involved in military or law enforcement, go buy a police scanner and listen in and see what these fine men and women have to go through that we never hear about on TV or read in the police blotter.
Hopefully, over time, we can let you know about products that can help you to do your jobs, be safer and come home at the end of the day. If there's something we don't carry, and you think it's the greatest thing since perforated toilet paper, let us know. We listen to our customers. And let us know what's not working for you. Many of the manufacturers welcome input, and respond.
And thanks for reading.
Now go doodle a tank, or bomber, or firetruck or something.
Mark
Posted by Mark H. at 12:38 PM Read Article 