AT Overland exhibited their latest creation featuring their Habitat Top with a NEMO Tent.
Archive for the ‘Off-Duty’ Category
OR – AT Overland
Saturday, August 6th, 2011Artillery Pry Bar System
Monday, August 1st, 2011
The Artillery Pry Bar System is modular, allowing the user to combine handles, fulcrums, and blades to increase reach and get at some tough problems. As you can see in the video below, it works great for destruction. However, it might work well for some tactical applications. It’s made from great materials: zinc-plated tempered steel blades (durability), steel handles (durability), fiberglass handles, vinyl foam handle grip (all-weather comfort). Artillery Tools offers multiple pre-assembled kits. Their Disaster Recovery set pictured above includes about every implement of destruction you could wish for.
PrimaLoft – Warmer Drier Softer
Monday, July 25th, 2011The most remarkable thing about this photo of Navy SEALs undergoing cold weather training at Det-Kodiak in Alaska is the expression on their faces. Or, better yet, their lack of expression. The reason is simple. In addition to training they are wearing garments insulated with PrimaLoft. In fact, PrimaLoft is used in cold weather loft layers used by all four services as well as SOCOM. If you’ve deployed in the past few years, chances are good you’ve relied on PrimaLoft.
Originally developed during the 1980s, the US Army commissioned Albany International to work on a water resistant synthetic alternative to down. What they came up with is PrimaLoft, used for military as well as commercial applications. However, in the meantime, they hardly been sitting around resting on their laurels. For instance, they’ve recently improved the performance of PrimaLoft Sport with their Convection Technology to offer 15% more loft than previous versions.
One of several things that PrimaLoft has going for it is a waterproof treatment that is cured into its fibers. This process results in PrimaLoft fibers adsorb only about 100 to 250% weight in water while many other polyester fibers will absorb up 400% to 1000% of their weight in water. Take a look at the diagram above. As you can see, PrimaLoft Sport does a pretty good job of retaining its CLO value* whether wet or dry. Additionally, PrimaLoft uses fibers that are less than one denier (a single strand of silk is essentially one denier) in thickness. This translates to increased compressibility.
If you’ve been using clothing insulated with PrimaLoft while deployed, you might want to know that numerous manufacturers also rely on it for their commercial products. For instance, you might be interested in this Spindrift Jacket from KUIU for use while hunting. You’d be amazed to see who’s using it. What’s more, you can even get bedding featuring PrimaLoft. To learn more, visit www.primaloft.com.
*One Clo represents the amount of insulation required to keep a resting person warm in an indoor room at 70°F (21.1°C). Clo ratings in oz/sq yd allow you to compare relative thermal performance of one insulation versus another.
Epic Thrills
Thursday, July 21st, 2011Epic Thrills is an aptly named new website that will offer members substantial discounts on adventure travel opportunities. Right now it’s a member-only site and requires an invite. Each week, Epic Thrills will put a new trip up on sale which will be available for 7-14 days at a discount of up to 30% off the regular price. Their first trip, unveiled yesterday, is an 11-day mountain biking excursion through the Himalayas hosted by Pedlars Pub & Grille, a well recognized cycling company. Imagine cycling through more than 200 miles of trails in Nepal by day and staying in tea houses by night.
Check it out…www.epicthrills.com
Gear Hog Launches Next Week
Saturday, July 16th, 2011Looking for great deals on hunting and fishing gear? Then sign up for an invite to gearhog.com and get a few bucks toward your first purchase. It launches on the 19th of July with daily deals.
Switch Vision
Sunday, June 5th, 2011
Extreme Outfitters just added Switch Vision to their lineup. They use earth magnets on the lens and in the frame to switch out lenses, making lens changes a snap.
For a limited time, Extreme Outfitters is offering them at 25% OFF retail plus a free pair of low light lenses in Yellow. This is an exceptional deal considering Switch glasses already come with Polarized Non-Mirror lenses as well as an extra pair of Rose Amber Lenses. That’s free sets of lenses as well as a matte Black frame.
To order yours visit www.extremeoutfitters.us.
Osprey Luggage System
Tuesday, May 10th, 2011I need to start out by telling you that I am going to keep the article on the product level and also let you know that Osprey works and guys are using it.
So then, why Osprey? That’s a darned good question. There are a couple of successes we can talk about. It’s a privately held family business owned since 1974. Their business is solely focused on Packs and Luggage and according to “Leisure Trend” is the #1 manufacture of back packs in the outdoor industry. Finally, you can’t talk about Osprey without mentioning their Almighty Guarantee. It’s retroactive to day one of the company and applies to any product, whether or not you are the original owner. No lost registration cards. You send it back, Osprey repairs or replaces and ships it back to you. Now that’s a guarantee.
Now that we’ve gotten the why out of the way, let’s get down to the what. Osprey offers a lot of products but for this article we are going to talk luggage. If there was a de-facto “Osprey Tactical” it would be our friends at Outdoor Sports Marketing. They spend most of their time on the road talking to customers and based on this experience have packaged three civilian line products into a luggage system that they feel best suits the Warfighter or Government employee. It consists of the Shuttle 110, Porter 46, and Daylite. This gives the Traveler 1 bag under the plane, 1 bag over head, and 1 bag in hand. These bags can be purchased individually or as set. Additionally, they are intended to work in tandem. For example, the Daylite can also be attached to either the Shuttle 110 or the Porter 46. You get modularity, scalability and flexibility in one kit. Let’s take a look at each of the bags (photos not to scale with one another).
Available in Earth and Charcoal, the Shuttle 110 gets its name from the number of liters it can accommodate which translates to 6600 cu in. It also features a 16″ wide chassis with large protected wheels as well as plenty of pockets to organize gear of different shapes and sizes including main compartment, large base compartment, side pockets, top slash pocket, and a zippered side pocket. I got one of these last year and it great to travel with. It’s easy to maneuver and the wide stance of the wheels doesn’t teeter like cheapo luggage I’ve used in the past.
The Porter 46 is Maximum Legal Carry-on size and converts to a backpack using an easy-stow harness and fabric wing hipbelt. It can also be carried with a strap for over-the-shoulder carry. Once again, the 46 denotes the number of liters which equates to 2800 cu in. This makes for a great carry on bag. It’s a roomy, duffle-style bag with four carry handles that make it easy to manipulate. The Porter 46 comes in Earth, Crimson, and Charcoal.
The Daylite offers 750 cu in of load carrying capacity as well as a padded backpanel, a small zippered front pocket, open topped side pockets and a laced bungee. The Daylite can also be attached to the other bags in this article to facilitate movement. It’s available in Granite, Alpine, Tundra, Pepper, Salsa.
Inquiries for Tactical Distribution should be directed to Outdoor Sports Marketing at info@outdoorsportsmarketing.com or 866-893-8676.
Ops-Core Base Jump Helmet in Red 
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
Up to now all I have seen are artist renderings of the Base Jump helmet in red. The colors weren’t coming out quite right, but Ops-Core had one fresh out of the mould on display today at the Warrior Expo West. Additionally, they attached the new Contour HD camera mount I recently wrote about. With its ARC rails and NVG mount, the Base Jump is unlike anything that has ever been available.
As you can see, it is a very vibrant red and will be perfect for locating bobbing heads in the water during water jumps or other MAROPS training as well as for high adventure and extreme sports use. You can configure the Base Jump helmet with a variety of lights, cameras and other accessories using the VAS shroud and ARC rails to suit your activity and it is a great lower cost alternative to the more expensive carbon fiber FAST Bump Helmet for many applications.
For more info visit www.ops-core.com. It is featured in their catalog which can be downloaded here.
All of Ops-Core’s products are available through www.ADSinc.com/Ops-Core.
