Category Archives: VIDEO REVIEW

TACTICAL GEAR – FIELD TESTED: Zulu Nylon Gear M4 Double Magazine Pouch – An Innovative M-4 Mag Pouch in a Sea of Mundane

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Zulu Nylon Gear M4 Double Magazine Pouch – Flap open/flap closed

These days you don’t see much Innovation in the tactical nylon market outside of a few companies like HSGI, SO-Tech and OSOE. Most Tactical Nylon products are basically rehashes of the same old designs with the only difference being a manufacturers tag.

But one Tactical Nylon gear company over the past year has been pushing the envelope of new and innovative tactical nylon products. And that company is Zulu Nylon gear headed up by Joel Z. They first burst onto the market with what is [in our opinion] the best admin pouches out there.

Zulu then jumped into the Tactical man-Bag arena with the solidly built Emissary Messenger Bag. Both are unique tactical nylon products that have raised the bar in both categories.

Recently we here at DVM were fortunate enough to participate in the field testing of Zulu’s latest offering, the Zulu Nylon Gear M4 Double Magazine Pouch.

When Joel first mentioned them to me honestly my first thought was “Really, an M-4 Mag Pouch? The Tactical Gear market needs another M-4 Mag Pouch like it Needs More Chinese Sweat-Shops”. But considering how fresh Zulu’s other gear is I kept an open mind that Zulu’s M-4 mag Pouches would be as good at their other shit is.

When the pouches arrived the first thing I noticed was the unique top flap that held the mags in-place. I am a big fan of a flapped double-mag pouches [but I like a bungee for singles] but one of the biggest problems is the flap. After you open it either re-secures itself down in an awkward angle [in the case of Velcro secured flaps] or it flops around when you run [for side-squeeze secured flaps], I call this “Crazy Flap Syndrome” [CFS].

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KNIVES: Blackhawk Be-Wharned Review

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The Blackhawk Be-Wharned – used by Team DVM in Iraq

I have been looking for a wharncliffe folding knife for some time now, but most of the wharncliffe folders I have seen were custom jobs [= $$$]. I did take a look at the wharncliffe folders made by Spyderco but I am not a huge fan of Spyderco knives, I think the hole they use for opening looks ugly and they don’t work that well with my Neanderthal thumbs.

I also wanted a liner lock, a blade length around 3 ½” and a price under a 100 bucks. Now, I am cool with paying a premium price for a blade but in this instance I was looking for a wharncliffe folder for the specific purpose of only using it as a fighting knife. So I would not be using this knife for doing EDC things like opening boxes or utility cutting, basically it would stay in my pocket unless I was going to cut a fool.

I ran across the “Be-Wharned” when I was on the [oddly, not painfully slow anymore] Blackhawk website looking for Plate Carriers for an upcoming Hostile Environment class I am teaching. And when I saw it was designed by famed knife designer and knife fighting instructor/author Michael Janich it definitely sparked my interest [Janich is the reason why I like the wharncliffe blade for fighting knives].

At first the 99.00 dollar price on the Blackhawk website sort of put me off, but when I checked the LA Police Gear website they had it for only 69 bucks so I ordered one up.

The Blackhawk Be-Wharned is a 4.2 oz liner locking 3.4 inch [overall opened length 7.8 inches] AUS8A stainless steel wharncliffe bladed folder with G-10 scales. The G-10 scales on the Be-Wharned stick to your hand like superglue, even when wearing gloves or with wet sweaty hands. The pocket clip can be mounted in 4 different positions for left and right handed tip-up or down pocket carry.

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TACTICAL CLOTHING – FIELD TESTED: LA Police Gear Operator Tactical Pants

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LA Police Gear Operator Tactical Pants Being Field tested in Iraq by James G.

No matter how much I loathe tactical clothing it is something that is a part of my daily life, especially considering my occupation as a Security Contractor in Iraq. I remember getting a big box of 5.11’s on my first gig in Iraq and thinking “cool, free Tactical Clothing for James G.

And after a week of dealing with the saggy ass, flat leg pockets that were just small enough that nothing really fit in them, the “grandpa height” waistband that rode half way up your stomach and the tons of metal hardware that sets off every other airport metal detector I was pretty much sick of 5.11’s.

But at that time I really didn’t have any other option outside of buying pricey climbing gear pants like North Face, and being the cheap type that idea passed in and out of my mind in like 3 seconds.

Fast forward a few years and the Tactical Clothing market was flooded with Tacticool pants… At prices that would make you piss your ill-fitting 5.11’s. So I was pretty much content with wearing issued Tactical Pants that even had my grandfather making fun of me because they rode too high.

Ahhh… but then the Tactical Fairy came and visited me one night right before my latest gig in Iraq and stuffed a pair of LA Police Gear Operator Tactical Pants under my pillow.

I tell ya, it only took a week of wearing them for me to give away all but one pair of my 5.11’s [got to have something to wear on laundry day] and replace all of my work Tactical pants with LA Police Gear Operator Tactical Pants

These pants have every feature that an active Security Operator working in War Zones would need. Diamond Gusset Crotch [great if you have a big package], Double Fabric on the Knees and Ass, fits riggers belts like a glove, a lower leg pocket on each leg right around the calf [I keep my smokes in them] and are tough as nails.

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KNIVES: Boker Plus Credit Card Knife Review

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Boker Plus Credit Card Knife – Don’t Leave home without it

I first saw this cool little folder about a year ago, it was made by custom knife maker John Kubasek out of Massachusetts. I thought it was a clever idea but the 175.00 price tag sort of turned me away from picking one up.

So when I was browsing some of my favorite knife retail sites I was surprised to see that Boker had licensed the design from Kubasek for production, and at a wallet friendly price of 19.95. At that price [and considering I had wanted one for quite some time] I went ahead and ordered one up for myself.

I am actually not really familiar with Boker knives outside of seeing them for sale in the PX. But from looking over a few Boker folders that some buddy’s of mine here in Iraq have they seem like ok blades, especially considering the price [all the Boker knives in the PX are under 30 bucks].

The Boker Plus Credit Card Knife is a cool little knife that opens by rotating the blade across the handle/liner where it locks into place. When closed, the blade lays on the handle/liner, at first I thought the exposed blade may be unsafe but it fits snug enough as not to expose the sharpened blade.

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WEAPONS: the D3 Protection “Fatty” Sap

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the D3 Protection “Fatty” Sap – Almost too beautiful to beat the shit out of a fool with

There is nothing quite like the feel of an Old School leather sap in your hand; it’s just like you’re channeling the spirit of a 50’s Chicago beat cop in the palm of your hand. The Sap was actually the first impact weapon I ever owned, I picked one up at a local army surplus store in Virginia when I was 16.

Since then I have owned a couple dozen different saps, picking them up everywhere from a street stall in Bangkok to [oddly] amazon.com. But as much as I love Saps the biggest problem with buying them is Quality.

99% of the Saps you will buy are quite frankly shit; lousy 3rd world machine stitching that comes apart in a few months, cheap thin leather and lead powder that turns into a solid block when exposed to the slightest amount of moisture.

I was pretty much content with just having to buy a new Sap every year until I came across D3 Protection. D3 is a custom leather maker shop out of Canada that specializes in high quality [yet surprisingly reasonably priced] handmade Saps and Impact Weapons.

D3 has a bunch of different styles of Saps but the one that caught my eye was the D3 Protection “Fatty” because it had a metal pocket clip [something I have never seen on a sap before]. As soon as you hold the “Fatty” in your hand you will immediately feel the work and quality that goes into hand making each one that separates D3 Saps from every other Sap on the market.

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