Fifty Shades of FDE

Read about my Cerakote adventure over at Los Angeles Cerakote!

Read my Op-Ed over at Breach Bang Clear:

My second article as a guest writer for Breach Bang Clear is now live:

I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been guest writing for the guys at Breach Bang Clear. Don’t worry I’ll still be writing and posting on here in between!

To read my review of the Burn Proof Gear Blast Shield Cover click here:

For many years, those that run the Surefire HL-1 Helmet Lights have been looking for a specific mount for their OpsCore Helmet rails. Their options included a kit from Tango Down which requires some assembly. Surefire recently developed the solution to this problem, and it’s available now! The model number is: ADPT-HL1-OC and goes for $37 MSRP.

My buddy Steve from Surefire let me borrow one for T&E. It is very quick and easy to attach to the OpsCore rails *Please Note: it’s designed specifically for OpsCore spec rails, I’ve tried them on other brand rails and they don’t seem to lock in place. I would only recommend this mount if you have genuine OpsCore Rails!

To attach the mount to your rail, turn the mount 90° either way from the base. This takes the tension away from the locking mechanism. Once you have at your desired position on your rail, rotate it back and you’re done! It’s that simple.
It’s not on their website yet, so to order, give their service representatives a call at: 1-800-828-8809
To check out other Surefire Products:
www.surefire.com

Special Thanks to Steve from Surefire for letting me borrow the mount to review!

I have more sets of gloves through the years that could fill up the trunk of my car. The reason behind it is because there simply isn’t one single glove that can do everything you want them to do. I’ve had all of the top brands over the years and some fit better than others, some are more durable than others.
I was asked by the Safariland Group to be a brand ambassador for them and I agreed in a heartbeat because it is a brand that I’m very familiar with and I use their products everyday to do my job as safely as I can. Right away, they sent me a box full of their products to test and evaluate. This included five sets of their new Hatch Gloves.

Hatch is a company that specializes in Law Enforcement gloves and duty gear, they are a part of the Safariland Group.
I’ve had several Hatch Gloves in the past for frisking and duty tasks. I can say from my personal experience with the old and the new, that they’re improved in many ways with fit, function and dexterity.  I’ve been wearing them ever since and used them in each of their specific tasks in order to run them through their paces and see how well they perform.
Before I get into each specific glove, I will describe features that most of them share. They are all well thought out and designed. I got all sets of gloves in Small to fit my hands and they are all very close and fit very nicely for me. Each of the tactical gloves has a patented trigger finger cut ring that allows the user to choose whether or not they want to cut off the shooting finger tip off if it interferes with their shooting without having the rest of the glove unraveling. One of my favorite features: if the gloves aren’t touch screen compatible, then there’s a little patch of touch screen compatible fabric on the middle finger knuckle. If you’ve ever had to work with gloved hands, you’ll know how difficult it is to use your smart phone with gloves on. Chances are that it is a futile exercise, with you having to remove one of your gloves. This touch screen compatible knuckle allows you to manipulate your phone in a basic way; you could answer a phone call and do simple tasks with your gloves on. All sets of the gloves I was sent are part of Hatch’s Task Specific Series. I will describe each set in an order from light to heavy duty tasks with a set of mechanical gloves at the end.

Task Light Leather (TSK323)
This set is great for most of your duty needs, it was designed for weapons handling allowing for fine motor and tactical work. The palms and fingers are made up of thin goat skin leather that will keep your hands protected from minor scratches and cuts, while on the back of the hands, there is breathable stretchy fabric that helps keep your hands cool. These fit my hands like a glove, pun intended. The fingertips are thin enough that I don’t believe that they would interfere with shooting my duty pistol. If it did, I could cut the fingertip off without worrying about the rest the glove coming apart. I didn’t get to shoot my pistol with these on yet but I will definitely do that at the next range session. I wore this and all of the other tactical sets in this series at work everyday, whenever I handled my Patrol Remington 870 Shotgun.

I have to check out a shotgun everyday, make it patrol ready and lock it up. At the end of my shift, I have to download it and put it away before going home. If you’re familiar with shotguns, you know how painful it could be when you are unloading it-the correct way: by squeezing the detent holding shells in the magazine tube. Sometimes your finger will get smashed or bit. All of these gloves are finger savers when it comes to weapons manipulation! The TSK323 will cover you for most of your patrol duty needs.

Task Medium Kevlar (TSK325)
This set of gloves focuses on the task of searching and frisking, utilizing DuPont Kevlar to line the palms. I’ve had a set of Hatch Frisking gloves in the past and they were good with the slash resistance but they were too thick and made dexterity very poor. Not the case with new set. The Kevlar lining is so surprisingly thin that it doesn’t sacrifice dexterity. Dexterity is very important because with the older set, I was stuck in frisking mode; if I had to face a lethal threat and draw my weapon, I would be hard pressed to make an accurate shot and manipulate it. The TSK325 is thin enough in the fingers, that it wouldn’t hinder weapons manipulation if needed. The fingertips are touch screen compatible. On the back of the hand, it has breathable mesh like fabric that helps with keeping your hands ventilated, the older set was solid all the way and that made your hands hot and sweaty everytime you wore them. The main important feature and task for the TSK325 is the Kevlar palm lining to protects you from sharp objects. To test this, I took my pocket knife and ran the blade with medium pressure across my gloved palm and I didn’t have a bloody palm afterwards. The area that was slashed hardly even showed any damage, in fact they still looked brand new! The TSK325 would be great set for those on patrol because it protects you against sharp objects while giving you the ability to manipulate any weapon system.

Task Heavy Knuckle (TSK326)
This set is probably my favorite of them all. It’s task specific for tactical patrol and rugged environment shooting. This set has many different layers, thin where it needs to be (in the finger tips), grippy and padded where it needs to be (in the palms). The trigger fingers are touch screen compatible on this set, with the palms lined with “diamond grip” material. On the back of the hand, you have the stretchy breathable fabric along with some unique rubberized knuckle padding that looks like bat wings (something Batman himself would approve of).

Some people think the design looks weird or even ugly, I myself think it looks good and more importantly, it’s practical and functional. Also on the back, near the thumb, there’s a small area for wiping sweat. The TSK326 is the most ergonomic, giving younger most dexterity when it comes to weapons handling, while at the same time offering you protection from the elements if you’re outdoors.

Task Heavy Soghk (TSK329)
I saved the last set of tactical gloves for last! By the appearance of these alone, you could tell they were meant for some heavy duty use. The most prominent feature are the hard knuckles that protect against shock by absorbing it. The palm is lined with goat skin leather with the back lined with nomex, making them fire resistant. Since this is an all covered set, there are finger vents to help keep it cool. In the palm, there is an extra layer of leather and foam to add shock absorption.

The TSK329 is the solution to cover those officers/deputies assigned to tactical teams, it protects against hard impacts and flames that are present in their environment i.e. breaching and exposure to explosives.

Mechanic’s Glove (HM6100)
Last but not least, the Mechanic’s Glove. It is a heavily padded glove in order to protect your hands from getting banged up while working around machinery. I’m no mechanic,  so I used them while I was chopping down some trees with my powers at home. They have thick foam padding in the palms to absorb shock and I was impressed when the job was completed. My hands and arms didn’t feel numb or sore from the vibrations that normally are present when I perform the task without the gloves. These would be good to have in the trunk of you vehicle if you ever need to change your tire or do anything that requires your hands to be protected from getting banged up.

Gloves are important in protecting your hands and at the same time, assist you with the task at hand. Hatch did an awesome job with the design and manufacturing the Task Specific Series. They are all well-made and thought out. They fit my hands well, I would suggest that if possible, go and try any set of gloves in a store before you buy them to ensure you get the right fit.

To find more info/to purchase, click here:
http://www.safariland.com/our-brands/more…/hatch/?gclid=CPf244vbr80CFUVsfgodW-kLqg

Long before I thought about joining the ranks of the Law Enforcement profession, I’ve always viewed our nation’s Peace Officers as our protector/warriors for our communities. I knew then that they were the front lines for the home front in America, while our service members in our military were our ‘Away Team’, keeping our enemies abroad in check.
With my experience over the years, my views haven’t changed; it just got more refined. Law Enforcement is a very difficult job to do and a lot is expected of the Officers that have to carry out their sworn duties. Officers in today’s world wear many different hats and are expected to be law enforcers, social workers, mental health experts, and the list goes on and on with being warriors near, if not the bottom of that list. Don’t get me wrong, I’m speaking of the Warrior Spirit, because we aren’t at War with anyone or group. That’s the difference in duties between Law Enforcement and that of our Military. Our main function and job is to protect citizens from anyone who would try to harm them. Without the Warrior Spirit, it would be difficult to have the ability to overcome a criminal with murderous intent.
Complacency and public opinion has had it’s toll on how we do our jobs. The world is changing and unfortunately, it’s no longer popular to have that kind of mindset. Looking aggressive is frowned upon, because it might or does offend certain members of society. A lot of Officers get complacent over the years and some forget that part of their job is to be a warrior.
I myself call it my Warrior’s Edge; what it means to me is having the right mindset and physical ability to perform the most important part of the job: protecting life, whether it be a citizens or your own.
Having the right mindset is probably the most important factor in an Officer’s survival. I’ve written about it in the past. I’m not a SWAT Team member or part of any high speed details in my department, I’m simply a regular guy. In this line of work, it doesn’t matter where you’re assigned, you need to know how to react and deal with whatever comes your way. Some assignments are more risky than others due to their nature. For the most part, you do not choose when and where something is about to go down, rarely do you have that opportunity, for the most part things will happen when you least expect it to.
This is where complacency kills. Since we’re reactionary in nature, the criminals already have the advantage over us because they know what they’re planning on doing while we don’t. Any further delay in your reaction will hinder your chances of success in overcoming that incident.
Instead of having the mindset of, nothing’s ever going to happen; replace it with if (fill in blank) happens then I will do (fill in blank). It’s called scenario training, it’s thinking outside the box, mental preparations for the worse case scenario so that when something does happen, you won’t be surprised.
Now that you’ve got the right mindset, you will have to be able to apply that mental knowledge with your body. Just because you want something to happen doesn’t mean that it will if you haven’t trained your body. It has been said before: “You will not rise to the occasion, you will fall back on to your training.”
I will be honest, the firearms training I received in the academy was top notch and I learned a lot of fundamentals, fired thousands of rounds but it was just basic skills and in my opinion, it’s not nearly enough time training. I understand how expensive and difficult it is for departments to put their Officers through training, therefore I’ve seeked further training with highly experienced instructors on my own time. I do all of this to keep my Warrior’s Edge sharp. Most Officers go their entire careers without ever having to fire a shot at anyone, I hope that I may never have to, but we must always be ready to do so with accuracy because we are accountable for every round we fire. Shooting at a stationary paper target from a stationary position isn’t realistic at all. When you attend classes, you will be put through drills that reflect more realistic engagements with your firearm.
A lost art is hands free fighting skills. I’ve practiced martial arts over the years and having the ability and physical knowledge of fighting with your body can save your life.
So it’s time for a reality check. You have to ask yourself, what have you been doing to keep your Warriors Edge sharp?
Remember the number one goal in this line of work is to go home safe at the end of the shift.