Well That's An Oopsie In Order Processing!

I recently ordered a Sealife Underwater Case for my iPhone. 

Given the camera on the iPhone is rather good, between it and a Go Pro I should be rather set when diving.  Bringing along a DSLR for underwater work is both bulky for travel, and the underwater case for the DSLR is extremely spendy (which makes reasonable sense as it is to protect a spendy DSLR).

The Sealife underwater case is rated to a depth of 130 feet and has two different leakage alarms which is rather reassuring.

So I received the case from Scuba.com (which is also known as Leisure Pro and they are both owned by Adorama).  It came in a box sealed with Adorama markings.

Unfortunately, opening the outer box revealed a bit of a problem.

The box for the Sealife case had clearly already been opened.

Indeed, I had been shipped a used case. 

So I called up Scuba.com to report the issue, and noted I had paid for a new case and definitely didn't want a case that had been returned, as I didn't know if it had been returned as defective or not, and I had after all, ordered and paid for a new case.

They asked me how exactly did I know it was used.

Well, I noted that the fact that the product box and the case inside the  porudct box inside the shipping box was open was a clue.  

A blonde human hair visible on the outside of the inner case inside the product box was a further clue.

Further clues included all the contents inside the case being rather jumbled up, and the fact that the case itself had scratches on the windows, which is not great for photography.

But, the most telling clue that it had been used was the fact that it had a really cool sticker placed upon the case - with the prior owner's name on it:

The customer service rep then agreed with me that yes,  that would certainly  make it a used item.

They immediately shipped me a new one, expedited (as I have a need for it sooner rather than later), at no cost to me for shipping, and sent me a return label for the used case.  

The only downside is I had to pay for the new case in addition to the original order and I will get a refund issued when they get back the used case. 

The customer service rep apologized for the mix up and believed what happened was the picker had inadvertently picked it off the used pile when shipping. Mistakes do happen, but they took immediate steps to fix it, and all should end well and that was good customer service.

I should get the new case soon.

It is however definitely a cautionary tale to immediately check goods bought online to make sure you're actually getting a new item when you buy new.

New Bulbs And New Life For Old Tac Flashlights

I've got quite a few flashlights around with older incandescent bulbs. While they were bright at the time I bought them, they've been outshone by the LED flashlights that have come along since.

My Surefire G2, with all of 65 lumens was bought back when it used to be the most awesome of blinding lights that could fit in your pocket. Now I can get more light and longer battery life from a $2.50 flashlight that is smaller and more portable. What to do? Well, upgrade it.

The Flashlight Bulb LED CREE XM-L T6 Single Mode 1-Mode 1000 Lumen LED P60 is a drop-in replacement for the Surefire incandescent bulb P60 type. Whether it is truly 1000 lumens is kinda iffy, I'd say it appears less, but it is a solid ten times brighter than the original bulb and the battery life is not measured in minutes with a dimming bulb anymore. It's also cooler running than the Surefire original bulb, which is good after using it for a long duration.

Installation is as easy as removing the old bulb, removing the spring on the outside of the new bulb and then dropping it in. It sealed perfectly and works better than the original bulb and is brighter by far.

If you've got a C or D Cell Maglite, and who doesn't?, there's a way to get these enhanced for more usefulness.

Rather than the dim glow of the Maglite as compared to today's flashlights, There's an excellent LED replacement for the Maglite, For $15.99 the LITT LED bulb gives off more light at 350 lumens than the standard Maglite incandescent bulb, and it is far longer lasting as well.

If you have a Maglite, you can make it a lot more useful with one of these LED drop-in replacements. I've found it to be considerably brighter and whiter light quality, and the batteries last a lot longer, making it far more useful in case of power outages. Plus its still as impressively hefty and durable as it originally was, if not more so as the LED bulb is more durable than the incandescent it came with originally and is more drop resistant.

I've had both LED upgrades for almost a year now, and both have stood up to lots of use and abuse without fail and cast much needed light during camping and power outage occasions, of which we've had quite a few since I got them.

I'm rather pleased with these LED upgrades, if you've got some older tac flashlights around, you may want to look into upgrading them with drop-in LED bulb replacements.

A Nice Knife Upgrade

I recently picked up a Kershaw 6034 Emerson Designed CQC-6K Knife from Amazon.

The Kershaw version of the Emerson knife has both a disk for opening and the wave feature that can help open the blade as you remove it from your pants pocket.

Priced at $21.95 and free shipping its one heckuva nice knife at a great price.

So, is it sharp? Yes, yes it is.

On arrival the plastic casing was starting to get beat open from the blade hitting it during shipping.
How sharp is it? The wave feature is quite neat, but if you open it along with a backwards movement form your pocket, and don't fully clear it away from your side, well...let's say the knife is so sharp I had no clue this had happened at the time and only noticed it afterward:

Ah, It was time to retire that old pair of jeans anyways....

The lock on it is nice and solid and it fits the hand very well and the grip shape and texture keeps it steady in your hand for all tasks that may require a pocketknife. I'm quite pleased with the purchase.

Propper Holster Concealment

Two items just recently arrived and are of considerable assistance in enhancing concealed carry.

The first, as the title of the post suggests, is the Propper Covert Button Up Shirt.

It's straight out of the package so it needs an ironing, but you get the idea. It's quite the excellent cover garment. Comfortable, breathable material, long and thick enough to both conceal the firearm and break up its outline with its pattern, and it has a raft of features.

Most useful is the fake button front.

While the top two buttons are real, the rest are a clever facade covering quick snaps that let you quickly open the shirt to access your firearm.

There are also velcro closures at the lower side of each seam that are easy to open to get access to a firearm that you may have on your hip.

In addition there are also two semi hidden chest pockets closed by magnetic closures that work quite well. Possibly useful for storing cash in a hidden location or important paperwork, but less valuable than the snaps and velcro.

Overall, the shirt is excellent for carrying concealed, and a full-sized M&P pistol hides beneath it with no issues at all. The only downside is it is very square-cut which is not my personal style and I look very blocky wearing it. For people that don't know me it won't be an issue, for people that do know me they'll likely wonder why the heck I'm changing my style of dress quite that much.

We'll see how it stands up to being washed and worn, but for now it's excellent casual concealed carry wear.

The second item that just arrived yesterday is a JM Custom Kydex AIWB holster.

To say this holster is carry-lifestyle-changing is an understatement.

Much more comfortable than the Vanguard 2 (which is still an excellent minimalist holster, don't get me wrong), it fits the M&P like a glove and completely changes how you go about carrying appendix style. I decided to get it after reading this extensive discussion on pistol-forum.com and decided to try it out.

The holster is made from a single piece of Kydex superbly molded to the shape of the pistol. Rounded edges prevent it from digging into your body and yet with the extra tuck option in rides in close and disappears under a dark loose t-shirt. It is both thinner and far more comfortable to wear than I expected.

I got it with the extra tuck option, and after a couple months wait I've received it and it makes carrying appendix position both more comfortable and much more secure than the VG2.

I didn't realize how much the holster would really improve carrying and it truly does: sitting is easier, holstering is much easier and safer, unholstering is faster, concealment is if anything easier, and the solid belt loop really keeps it in position. Most importantly, with the JM Custom AIWB holster, the front sight stops digging into spots most tender, which is really, really gratifying.

This holster is quite simply life-changing in terms of how much it improves safe and efficient concealed carry.

While everyone is different, if you intend to carry appendix style, a JM AIWB would be a really great choice and seems to work very well for most people who have ordered one, and it's worth the wait.

Note that I paid for both of these items with my own money and neither manufacturer requested nor knows that I'm doing this review.

Both the Propper Covert Shirt and The JM AIWB will really enhance your concealment of your pistol.

Zen And The Need For Dive Gear Maintenance

As the ice melts, a diver's mind turns to the need for the annual inspection of their dive tanks and maintenance on the dive gear.

Tanks need to be inspected annually in order to be certified to be refilled at dive shops, and they're hydrostatically tested every five years. Luckily this was not a hydro year and all I got dinged for was the annual and the annual O2 cleaning of the tanks that allows for them to be filled with Nitrox mixes, mixes that have a higher oxygen percentage than standard air.

O2 cleaning removes any impurities or hydrocarbons from the tank and makes sure only oxygen rated parts are used. Hydrocarbons and 100% oxygen do not mix - or rather they do mix, and very violently.

After passing inspection and being cleaned, the tanks were given a new sticker and they're good to go.

Also, my regulators had their annual maintenance and the annual wear parts replacement. Regulators do have parts that wear out,and replacing the high-wear parts on an annual basis can prevent a nasty surprise when you're 100 feet below the surfaceand your regulator decides to keep flowing after you'd prefer it had stopped. Regular maintenance helps prevent nasty surprises. One surprise found was a small tear in the rubber mouthpiece of the regulator that I had not seen. It was replaced with a fresh piece before any serious failure could occur, and all is well. This is life support equipment after all. Take care of it, and it will take care of you.

Picking up my gear I found a problem. The Phantom hi-pressure hose, the hose that connects from the left tank valve to the pressure gauge developed a leak and had to be replaced. This hose, made of braided Kevlar rather than rubber is nice because its a lot more flexible than the ol' rubber hose and makes for a very flexible pressure gauge that's easy to get to and swing around the arm and stage tanks for easy reading. This is the first Phantom hose I've had that has failed, if this happens again, I'm going back to the standard rubber hose as those have never failed me.

With the hose broken, the hose gave an evil hiss of escaping air and when closing the valve from the tank, the air would leave through the hose and the pressure gauge it was attached too then looked like this:

Now, a high pressure hose leak is not something to panic about if you're underwater as the air escapes quite slowly through it and you have tons of time to deal with the issue, unlike a low pressure hose where it comes gushing out when it bursts, and even when an LP hose goes, you still shouldn't panic but instead work your options namely calling the dive and making a slow ascent if you're on a single tank, or closing the valve to that tank if you're on doubles and calling the dive accordingly. Still, it's not something you want to deal with before you even get in the water, so it needed to be replaced.

After replacement, it would hold pressure and the gauge gave a much happier reading:

Regular preventative maintenance for life support equipment, whether its dive gear or guns or anything else your life may depend on makes a lot of sense.

Don't wait until you need it to think that you really should have had been maintaining it properly.

Oh, and for those who are curious, here's a humorous video demonstrating the difference in failures of a high-pressure and a low-pressure SCUBA hose underwater.

After all, as the text accompanying the video says:

"If you want to kill a scuba diver, should you cut the high pressure hose, or the regulator hose?

You don't want a scuba accident to go wrong - this video will show you the best hose to cut!":

Shedding Lots Of Light: The Streamlight TLR-1 HL

I sadly just missed the sale Amazon was having on the Surefire X300, as I decided to buy one right after Murphy's Law showed me his.

All was not lost however, as AMAzon has the Streamlight 69260 TLR-1 HL on sale. This is a good thing considering I had yet to own a weapon-mounted light and the kids like to play with and misplace my old trusty Surefire G2 light on a regular basis, which means it's not always back at the bedside where it's supposed to be. With the light mounted to the Glock 23 in the bedside Gunvault, that's not a problem anymore as it is safe and secure from little curious and prying fingers.

Mounting the TLR-1 to a railed pistol is a snap and easy to do and it fits the Glocks (the one I have with a rail) and M&Ps that I have with no issues. You can also change the mounting key to match Picatinny, Beretta 90two, S&W 99, and S&W TSW rails if needed.

The HL stands for High Lumens, and it is indeed a high lumen beam - 630 lumens, and it truly does throw a ton of light.

So much so I believe it gives off more than ML's Surefire.

Even in a daylight-lit room, when hit with the beam my eyes hurt (note: light was not attached to a gun during this test), with after-flashes remaining long after the beam had passed.

In the darkness, anyone hit with the light is going to be momentarily blinded. This flashlight transforms two CR123 batteries into one solid nasty light beam.

For those inclined to tactical disco, there's also a strobe feature that is not the most intuitive to activate and which I don't think I'd need or use much. Tactical disco? For some, I guess it's all about Stayin' Alive folks.

In addition to strobe, there's also momentary on and constant on modes, and the finger paddles are ambidextrous and easy to reach on either side.

The Glock 23 now has night sights, a laser, and now the light, so I'd say it's pretty much all setup for a nightstand gun now.

Snow and Winter Boot Blogging

With yet a few more inches of global warming falling upon the Driveway of Doom™ and the snow falling continuously all day today up until now, it was time to break out the Bates boots and give them a go.

This was especially so as the plow company had failed to fully mark the driveway and left the upper 15 feet unploughed. Apparently, they had not marked the driveway fully and couldn't figure out where the top was even though I had already shoveled a strip along the garage the night before and they could have used that as a marker to line up with their existing flags, but no.

Note the cleared strip at the top by me, the lower area pushed by them, and the sad unploughed middle looking all snow-covered and forlorn.

Here's a nice view of the driveway from the upper side to help you appreciate the angle of ascent and descent.

So it was time to break out the new boots and clear the driveway.

I had mentioned the boots before when Amazon had them on a pre-Black Friday sale, and I've worn them around the house to break them in a bit and get used to them.

The boots have a nice appearance, with leather and nylon intermixed. While you wouldn't wear them to the office, they'll do nicely for walks, hikes and snow-shoveling duty.

The side-zip is rather generous and makes removing the boots easy even while still tied. The side-zip feature assists in getting them on, but I've found my feet won't fit in while the laces are still tied shut, so I have to unlace, sit down, get the foot in and then zip and tie up. The boots are not as fast to put on as I had hoped, but they are reasonably quick to take off, again as long as you're seated or standing leaning on something for support.

The Thinsulate insulation is excellent - so far it has kept my feet warm while walking, snow-shoveling and even prolonged sledding with no problems.

The boot offers excellent ankle support which helps when the dog decides to run over snow-covered hill and dale and you can't see the rocks you know are there. They're very comfortable and feel darn good and they're tall enough to keep the snow out.

The tread on the boots is almost magic, with a sure grip even climbing up the Driveway of Doom™. No problems with slipping and between the ankle support and the aggressive tread its been a definite upgrade from the worn-out slip-o-matic boots I wore last year

Out with the kids today sledding there was no problem walking up or down any of the hills or through the mounds of snow on the unploughed streets and sidewalks. Hours outside and the feet stayed warm, toasty, and dry,

Fit seems dead on and no rubbing points or blisters have occurred. The boots aren't heavy and are a joy to walk in, and best of all, they really are waterproof even when covered in snow. While they're not going to win any fashion awards, the Bates GX-8 GTX Boots are very utilitarian and just what I need for what promises to be a long and snowy winter. Recommended.

Gear Review - The Vanguard 2 For The M&P Pistol Line

I had recently purchased a Vanguard 2 holster for the M&P pistol.

A minimalist holster, is superior over both the original Vanguard, and the MIC holster that I have for the Glock, by both fitting the M&P and having a belt loop and mount to allow it to be more firmly fixed to the belt than just by use of the cord alone.

The Vanguard arrived super-quickly and was nicely packaged:

Having used the MIC with the cord and liking it quite a lot, I was eager to see how the strut/loop system worked on the belt. Also MIC doesn't make holsters for the M&P just the Glock and it was time for a minimalist holster for my new M&P40c.

Here's a close-up - from back to front - holster, strut, belt loop - the holster goes inside and the belt loop on the outside):

On the belt:

As seen from the inside of the belt (if you were standing upside down):

The triggger guard goes into the sytem without the loud snapping sound of the MIC but seems to stay put very nicely. The hole is on the bottom of the holster when worn, tucked into your pants along with the rest of the holster and gun and the strut connects it to the lkoop on the belt, allowing for you to adjust the position of the holster yet it remains rather fixed in place unlike using just cord alone.

The pistol inside the trigger is then placed inside the waistband and only the outside loop is seen on the belt. As a minimalist holster, only the trigger guard is covered and it adds no appreciable width to the pistol, making concealment and comfortable carry a breeze.

The acid test was shooting from it.

Interestingly enough, a FAST drill with the M&P40c, from the Vanguard 2 was actually quicker than that done with the NTAC "normal" OWB holster, at 8.76 seconds vs 9.26 seconds. Of course, this was likely due more to gaining familiarity with the M&P40c and not boggling the reload, but the Vanguard 2 didn't slow me down.

The draw from the Vanguard 2 does feel different than from a typical OWB or IWB holster. The gun doesn't pull straight out of the holster, instead the Vanguard "rides" with the pistol as you draw, with the pistol breaking free slightly above where you'd expect. it's a "feeling" issue and doesn't hamper a smooth draw, but it does take a bit of getting used to.

Re-holstering a pistol with the Vanguard 2 or any similar minimalist holster is, in my opinion, a two-handed job if you're going to do it safely. No point rushing as, after all, you're re-holstering a loaded gun into a pretty narrow holster that you need to flip out of the pants, place on the trigger guard and then "flip" the gun and holster back into your pants. Slow as they say is smooth, and it prevents extraneous and undesired holes from appearing in your body. Why rush?

In short, the Vanguard 2 is a definite quality buy if you're looking for a minimalist holster for the M&P or indeed the Glock to assist in maximum concealment and decent comfort. The loop/strut combo is an enhancement over the string in terms of fixing the location of the pistol.

I'll have no worries carrying my new M&P40c or my full-size M&P9 in it and can recommend it.