Events: SSAA SHOT Expo 2013

I went along to my very first SSAA SHOT Expo last weekend and had a great time.

I've watched with envy as the American SHOT Expo's have been reported in the past and it was great to find out there was one in my own city of Melbourne.

Having missed out on the Land Warfare Conference last year I made sure that I would make it to this one.

I wasn't disappointed! Here's me plugging some pixelated piggies at the Australian Deer Association booth.

I met up with a friend of mine who has been working in private security, and we had a good wander around. The crowds were quite something, even for a Sunday afternoon, but I got to see it all. It was great to finally meet Ben Doyle Cox from Platatac as well

 I was able to make some great new contacts, like the fine folks at Alpine Country, distributors for Stony Creek who took a bunch of time out of their day to go through their whole range with me. I look forwards to seeing some more of their stuff soon, and perhaps giving it a go in the field.

McMillan Rifles had the big guns ... .338 Lapua, .50 cal, and all manner of reach out and touch someone shiny.

I had a good long chat with Joh Dahlgren, of  Dahlgren Trading, importers of Swedish hand made knives, axes and  wrecking bars.

These were some very nice pieces; handcrafted from Swedish steels and some very nice handles in American hickory.

I especially liked the four archeological replica style viking era axes.

There were all kinds of fun things in cabinets, and on the walls for us to check out like this Colt .22LR

I was surprised to see so many pistols, considering the Victorian pistol laws, but it was great to see them up close.









We also saw a whole bunch of taxidermy...

A whole bunch of rifles and scopes at the Gun Emporium, a veritable smorgasbord of shooters.

The Outdoor Sporting Agencies stand had a wide range of longarms fro ma variety of vendors.

Lightforce had a great range of on-scope lighting as well as vehicle mounting lights.

The Beretta stand had partnered with Pelican cases, as well as showing off their own large range of irons.













Probably my favourite pieces of hardware were these two bulpup conversions at the Frontier Arms stand.

I really liked these, and were I in the market for a longarm, I would probably look strongly at these.

They also had a cabinet of target pistols seemed a lot more in keeping, and they are gorgeous pieces of precision machinery.




























 I enjoyed checking out the Moroka.30 Stand, especially their Snakebuster Gaiters and meat carrier packs.












I had a great time catching up with the guys at LEGear, especially Josh, for whom I've done some reviews (1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ) in the past. 

I also met the visiting CEO and Vice-President from FENIX who were there with LEGear. Look out for some more from them soon!

Lastly, I dropped in on 5.11 Tactical, and caught up with them too, chatting with Bill over from the US. I had a great time, and got the low down 
on a variety of their products, and scored a set of their Stryke tactical pants, stay tuned for a review soon.








All in all it was a great show, and next time I will have a real agenda, and a plan to cover it all a lot more systematically.

Review: HexBright - FLEX Programable light

I'm really excited to be bringing this one to you. This is another Kickstarter project that I backed ages ago, (Launched: May 21, 2011Funding successful : Jul 19, 2011) that finally arrived about a month ago. 

That's a long time, you might say. It was. However, creator Christian Carlberg made it up to me and all the other backers with his constant step-by-step updates, keeping us up to date with every design iteration, testing run and exchange of parts. The included videos of the whole process kept the faith, and my interest the whole, long, wait.

When it finally arrived, I was as thrilled as could be. This is the HexBright FLEX, open-source programmable, rugged, high-performance light. (Here, stacked up against my Surefire 6PX)

Christian pitched the HexBright as "a stylish, rugged, high-power compact light you can use as-is or reprogram however you want using open-source code." and yes, it is all those things!

 

The Flex has a max light output of 500 lumens thanks to the
CREE XM-L U2 LED super bright LED light source that sits at the pointy end behind the TIR Lens. The lens is made from PMMA, optical grade acrylic.

What does that give me? According to the Kickstarter page, and the Hexbright site, that means you have a High Mode output of 500 Lumens for 1 hour, a Medium Mode output of 175 Lumens for 8 hours or a Low Mode, 50 Lumens for 30 hours. Five HUNDRED Lumens. The Surefire 6Px is listed with a 200L output, and the 5-11 ATAC A1has a 103 Lumen output rating.

For those interested in color temperature, the FLEX sits at  5380K - which apparently is "just shy of daylight". Thanks to all that circuitry, you also have regulated light output, the light stays constant and has a 1.6amp max output, thanks to the USB rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery, which is apparently 3.7 VDC 2400 mAh, 4.8 Amp Protected). All that circuitry however, isn't just for power-metering, it also houses the programability of the unit.


The HexBright Flex comes shipped with default program modes of high (500 LM), medium (350 LM), low (200 LM), and blinky. but by plugging the FLEX into a computer via the micro-USB port, and then loading code with Arduino software. (You need to do some downloads first, both the USB drivers, the Arduino application and then the Arduino code files for whatever programs you want to run.

Part of the fun about this light is that versatility. As well as the press button at the tail-cap, the circuit board also has a temperature sensor, which can be used to monitor the lights heat for emergency shut-off due to overheating, but also can be used to report ambient temperature (reporting through flashes of the tail-button LED's). It also features a accelerometer which enables rotation and tap based signals to be used to govern the light (ie, rotate to dim or brighten, or tap to change settings, or message)

The inner housing rotates out via heavy set threads at the -tip- of the light, rather than the tail, which was a cool addition, and seals up with a well-seated o-ring gasket at the tail end. Accessing the USB port can be achieved by simply unscrewing the tail cap enough to expose it. It also means I can charge it via my solar chargers.
 

The body of the FLEX was machined from solid hexagonal aircraft-grade aluminium bar stock. both the tailcap, and the internal carrier body with its threaded end are made of the same stock, giving you a rock-solid construction. The tailcap button is a translucent rubber, also fully sealed, allows you to see the green and red status lights (charging, and mode-changing).

 
 At 145mm by 34mm, and weighing in at 215 g  (5.7" long by 1.3" , 7.6 oz) this is big for a pocket torch, but all that body houses the electronics, AND acts as a heat sink for the mighty CREE XM-L U2 LED. The knurled tailcap end is ever so slightly raised above the hexagonal sides of the main body, so the FLEX doesn't sit quite as flat as i'd have liked, but the meaty finger groves and that hexagonal body make it an ergonomic dream to wield or stuff a pocket with. A couple of narrow lanyard holes in the tailcap give you a carry-loop option.

Here's me doing a bit of an indoor test and comparison with my Surefire and ATAC A1, turning a cave into day.

Outside, the limitations of my iPhone to capture good night footage don't do the FLEX justice, but all the same, 500 Lumen is nothing to be scoffed at. I'm not sure if my car-headlights are this bright (bigger, yes, but as bright? I'm not sure).

Once I connected my FLEX to a PC, and messed around with the Arduino programs I found online, I settled with LOW-MED-HIGH, hold for flashy, hold and tap for strobe, and using the accelerometer, "go to sleep after 20 seconds of inactivity/wake on movement" for that "find your light in the dark tent" option. 

Going LOW-MED-HIGH at the tap of the button means I dont dazzle myself unnecessarily, or give my self away too badly if I am being careful about light discipline.  

Here's the comparison shots of the LOW-MED-HIGH settings indoors.

The HexBright FLEX is an awesome piece of engineering, I was really pleased to have received mine, even after the deliciously long wait, thanks to Christian's awesome updates and cute videos. This is definitely going into my EDC load, and my main concern is learn how to code new programs for it!


Non-US enquiries,  contact Christian directly at christian@hexbright.com

Wish Lust: 5-11 Tactical - Tactical Duty Kilt

Last April Fool's Day, 5-11 Tactical issued a statement that they would be producing a Tactical Duty Kilt, to go alongside their Tactical Duty Shorts and little did they know that they would be swamped, inundated with demand for it. They actually produced a small run of them, and unfortunately I was unable to get one here in Australia, even getting in touch with Alex Kavgas in Inside Sales at 5-11 Tactical (Australia).

All for naught.

In the last few days, following on from this years April Fool's Day, Scruffy Wallace of the Drop Kick Murphys issued a challenge to the CEO of 5-11 Tactical, Tom Davin and news was out!




Today in my Facebook feed, I saw that Mr Davin not only accepted the challenge, but upped the stakes, the winnings to us the kilt wearers, and to the charities that will benefit.



As a long time kilt-wearer, I am fully looking forwards to seeing this come to fruition!

Events: Tough Mudder #2 Melbourne 2013

 I ran the Tough Mudder again this year, January 19th, which was a lovely sunny, breezy day here in Melbourne.

The event was held at the Phillip Island Raceway again, which lays an hour and a three quarters drive from Melbourne, and backs onto the Bass Strait. I had only recently been given the all clear from the ankle troubles of late last year, and had not had a lot of preparation, baring three or four runs, of 2 - 5km, so I wasn't sure about how I would cope, not only with my ankles, or my general lack of CV fitness as a result of my injury, the prednisone treatment (25mg daily, dropping 5mg each week to wean away).

Regardless, I had booked in, and was raring to go. I had tried to drum up interest from the folks I ran with the previous year, but no takers (although it turns out, a couple did the event as it happens).

For those who don't know what the Tough Mudder is, it is a 20+km endurance challenge, with 25+ military inspired obstacles. The events run world-wide, in all conditions, and feature some signature obstacles, namely, lots, and lots of mud, electrical wire filled corridors, and pools swimming under barriers, ice filled pools and all manner of climbing, crawling, and of course, running. I hate running.

The above pics are me before the race, in my running kit, pretty much the same outfit that I wore for the previous endurance event I did, the Stampede with the First Spear OAGRE vest, with my Source 3L bladder in the back, and snap-fixed to the 5.11 Tactical TDU belt, keeping the vest snug to me and my TAD Amphibious Shorts with my trusty Blackhawk! kneepads, which were again, a real bonus, so, "i told you so" to all the scoffing runners out there. You can see me, fresh from the Arctic Enema/Chernobyl Jacuzzi ice bath and dunk, fishing a couple of ice-cubes out from my kneepads. I also wore my iPhone, in its SLXtreme case mounted in the Platatac PRR pouch I got specifically for the event. On my head I wore one of my caps, which I had modified to carry a picatinny rail, in order for me to mount my Contour GPS helmet-cam to, via the Strikemark adapter I have. I also added a chin-strap to the cap, to help deal with the added weight of the camera, which seemed to work pretty well. I wore one of the Under Armour t-shirts from the previous Tough Mudder and my Ironclad gloves.

I also swapped out boots, having put my Altama's into retirement and for this event, I wore my Bates Delta-8's which really held up well, and cleaned up tremendously.

Here's one of me having scaled a 2m "Berlin Wall" and torn my number off in the process. Lesson learned, bring my own safety pins or lashing system. Their little pins were ineffective!

This is me and my running-mate, #7819 :) doing the SHINBASHI salute after coming over the Bale Bonds.

She and I knew each other socially, and upon hearing my interest in a running-mate, signed up, regardless of trepidation and obstacle-shyness. Far better a runner than I, we kept a good pace, she kept me going on the straights, and I helped her along on the climbing, jumping and swimming, crawling and squelching.

She started the race with a black headscarf to match her all-black running slicks. I was referring to us as "day-ops" and "night-ops". My gear was already mud-coloured, and my head higher up, so don't think that I was getting away unscathed ...

We did the course in just under 4 hours, I felt that it was actually a lot easier this year, even without all the extensive running I did prior to the previous events. This may be in no small part to mental preparation, and experience. There were no "I haven't done it before" nerves. I made it over every obstacle on my own steam, climbed every wall, made it across the slippery monkey-bars, made it up the Everest half-pipe on my first run. I was rally pleased with not only my pace, but the speed I overcame the obstacles in my path, but also how I was able to help me fellow Mudders.

Here I am, following the event, having stripped off the OAGRE, sporting my celebratory headband, and working up the guts to pull my boots off. Not a blister, or scratch, but a lot of grit and muddy water. It turned out that the time-lapse application I had hoped to run on my iPhone hadn't begun, but the SLXtreme and PRR combination had worked like a dream. The Picatinny rail I had mounted the Contour cam on needed to be at more of a down-angle, I took a lot of 3/4 sky footage, but see below for my links.

I dinged my shin whilst hurdling a log, and gave myself this exciting bruise on the back of my left thigh. Last year I had two of these, one on the back of each thigh. This year I pegged the moment when I got it ... scaling one of the 4m Berlin Walls, lesson learned? major muscle groups do not make good leavers!

A great event, a good challenge, and certainly a good conditioning and preparation experience.

Will I do it again? hells yes. As many, and as often as I can manage.

http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-1-1
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-1-2--6
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-1-4--3
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-1-5
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-1-6
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-2-1--3
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-2-2--2
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-2-3
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-2-4--4
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-2-5--3
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-2-6
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-3-1
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-3-2
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-4-1
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-4-2
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-4-3
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-4-4
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-5-1
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-5-2
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-5-3
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-5-4
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-5-5
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tough-mudder-jan-2013-6-2

Review 5.11 Tactical - Taclite Pro Pants

Here are the pants I mentioned in my belt post recently, these are the 5.11 Tactical Taclite Pro pants, that I picked up form LA Police Gear, online. I got them in their mid-grey "Tundra" and the light sand "Coyote" colours. These are some pretty feature packed pants, and quite comparable with the Blackhawk Performance WarriorWear pants i reviewed not long ago. These are made of a lightweight 65% polyester and 35% poly cotton ripstop material, which have been treated with HT Teflon® Wear Resistant Finish for stain and soil resistance. Tefglon pants, how cool is that? Actually, its very cool. I've been sprayed with water and food several times thanks to the combined efforts of Tactical Baby and Triceratops Girl whilst in these pants and they have beaded and wiped clean on almost all occasions with ease. Water droplets just bead and roll off.

 Very impressive. Apparently that same Teflon® coated fabric dries 25-40% faster than untreated fabric,something I also put to the test recently as I sweated through several days of 39oC Influenza fever. These pants were actually comfortable to be in.

Lets have a look at the pocket options. On the right face, a reinforced open knife pocket graces the front of the thigh, ( keep my Gerber multitool on a lanyard in it) The left thigh features a hook-and-loop closed pocket, big enough for an iPhone or possibly a magazine. Two standard bellowsed cargo pockets sit down the thigh, also with hook-and-loop closures.

There is a brass clip D-loop on the front right belt loop, good for keys, phone or lanyards, I've found. The front hand-pockets are deep and well angled, and also feature reinforcing to protect against fraying from knife or flashlight clips that may be attached here. The pants themselves close with a press-stud snap, a hefty zipper and an internal button.

At the back you can see the hook-and-loop closing rear "slash" pockets. I'm really digging this style of pocket, over the more traditional "up and down" style. It gives me easy access for stowed items quickly and securely.Also on the back right side is the long reinforced cotton webbing utility strap, which would be a great place to sling items such as my Dead-On Super Hammer.

A couple of other really good features are the double knee and seat reinforcements. The knees have an internal inward facing pocket to allow knee pads to be added. The fully gusseted crotch is also a godsend, it allows for full range of movement, especially for us long-legged critters. Behind the belt line are a couple of built in elasticized patches on the waist, which give the pants a stretch point when bending,m kneeling or crawling, whilst not interfering with the sizing or comfort of fit. The belt loops are wide and broad, taking the 1.75" TDU Belt by 5.11 Tactical perfectly. The one problem I had with these pants were that the Coyote pair were somewhat TOO rugged on the inside seams, as I "go commando", this led to some uncomfortable chafing and me having to resort to boxers for a little while. I presume this is just due to their newness, as my other pair which I wore in a bit more, same sizing, gave me no problems.

Review: 5.11 ATAC A1 flashlight

Along with the cool belt that I got free-bee'd with my recent pants purchase, I also scored a handy pocket flashlight, in the ATAC A1 flashlight from 5.11 Tactical. Now, we've had something of a moratorium on me buying more lights, as I have QUITE the collection (in my tent peg, IR flashlight, LazerBrite LED glowstick, Packlight LED Strips, Surefire 6PX, and various keychain fobs, so when one just magically falls in my hands, I'm always happy.

This aluminium bodied, 87g (3.1oz) light, with a max 103 Lumen Cree-XP-E LED powere3d by a AA battery, packs quite the punch for its pocket-size. The lens end has quite broad crenelations for heat dispersal and ouchy-wackiness for those close-encounters .

The rubber end-button allows for silent "momentary-on" and by sequentially tapping it, give you access to the three modes: High / Low / Strobe. The "High" being the 103 lumen setting, with a purported 50 minute runtime, and "Low" having a 11 lumen output with 28 hours of runtime, whilst the strobe again packs 2 1/4 hours of 103 lumen razzle-dazzle. 5.11 Tactical report a 99m throw at "High" and 32m at "Low".

The tail end also plays host to three additional features; a steel clip for belt and pouch retention, nothing special here but it'd nicely made and mated. There is a squared ring of rubber projecting from the base, which gives you no-clank, anti-roll functionality. A drilled lanyard hole connects to 5.11's Break-Away Lanyard, the lanyard of which features a no-slip rubber slide, and the Break-Away component is sturdy and rugged, requiring quite a yank to pull loose, but certainly less than arm-trapping amounts. No accidental de-luminations here.

This is a petite light,as matches its single AA power source, as seen here beside the 2 CR-123 Surefire 6PX. This makes it ideal for off-hand use, pocket or EDC stowage, or in your car. I found the momentary-on mode-switch a little fiddly to use, and had to practice to get from "High" to "Strobe" smoothly, but with everything, practice, practice, practice.

Review: 5.11 Tactical - TDU belt 1.75"

A quick one today. I got some pants from LA Police Gear recently, and a tasty treat was thrown in with each pair, a colour matched belt! At first I was skeptical. The pants themselves were already on special, what kind of belt would just be thrown in for free. Well, let me show you the TDU Belt from 5.11 Tactical.

The belts are 1.75" (about 45mm) wide and made of a really heavy nylon webbing, stiffer and thicker than seatbelt material. A very sturdy polymer buckle sits low and flat, with only a slight tab protruding from the belt-facing side. Being a non-metalic polymer, this buckle will be metal-detector safe, meaning it's one less thing for me to take off when I visit an airport. I have yet to fully field test it with my partners, but initial studies indicate that being of a more traditional style, it not as tricky as a Cobra buckle to undo at first pass.

The webbing is triple stitched, with a broad bartack, giving it a stiff connection to the buckle, without adding any more bulk. The tongue of the belt is heat-cut at an angle, for easy feeding through the buckle, with plenty of slack at the size I have to double-back for extra security, a habit I picked up both in SCUBA and rock-climbing.

This is a lightweight but very sturdy belt, simple in the extreme and made to last. Even though I've had no problems going through metal detectors with my Ultimate Riggers Belt, the all-plastic look of this one would make it less of a drama.I'm really happy with this, and it (and its tan-coloured counterpart) give me a couple more belt options to add to my collection. Having your pants fall off at the wrong time is BAD for survival.