Zane Mungillo

September 12, 2021

Review

EDC Knife comparison

Zane Mungillo

September 12, 2021

Review

If there’s one thing I’m not, it’s a knife expert. Steel type, brands, grip material, I don’t know what I’m looking at or what is quality. So the only metric I have is in my personal use.

Recently I embarked on a journey to find a new EDC knife and it was time to upgrade from whatever caught my eye at the local Walmart. So I took a look at my life and decided on some basic features I “need” in an everyday knife. Remember, these are what I want in a knife, your preferences or needs can vary wildly.

One, the knife has to be a worker. I’m not that guy who carries several knives for different things, I want one knife, that will accomplish the tasks I find myself needing to do throughout my day. Anything with a point can be forced into a defensive role, that’s not the purpose of my edc knife.

Two, the knife has to have a partially serrated blade. I don’t know much about knife steel and what holds an edge, or what gets sharper better, but I do know, when the knife gets dull, serrations still cut. I do not, however, want a fully serrated blade as that makes it a saw.

Three, it needs to be a folder with a secure locking blade and decent guard. Fixed blades are cool but my edc knife needs to fold. It also doesn’t need to fold unless I want it to, and I don’t want my hand or fingers contacting the blade in any way, inadvertently.

Four, the knife needs to double as a rescue tool, with at bare minimum, a window breaker and stand alone strap cutter. Both need to be usable with the blade closed.

Wanting to keep the price in the $50-$100 range, I found four that interested me, all with slightly different designs and features. So I got them, and carried/used them, all for at least two weeks each. The four I settled on were: CRKT M16-14ZLEK, Gerber Hinderer CLS, Kershaw Funxion EMT, and the SOG Escape. So I’ll go over each one in no particular order and explain what I like and dislike about them all.

CRKT: The biggest of the four, coming in at 9.25” overall and a beefy 6.2 oz, is the M16-14ZLEK. The CRKT boasts it uses an “InterFrame construction, with tough, textured glass filled nylon scales over a 420J2 stainless steel liner, InterFrame and solid glass filled nylon back spacers.” This thing is a beast. With a 3.75” AUS8 high carbon stainless steel, titanium nitride finished, tanto blade, and is very capable of handling all the abuse I threw at it. The strap cutter is on the very generous blade guard, and the tungsten carbide glass breaker is sufficient. The pocket clip can be configured in left or right side tip up or tip down (CRKT says it’s not designed for pocket tip up carry, it’s for gear webbing only). While it’s not my favorite clip, it works well enough. I prefer tip up, left side, so that’s how I have it. The knife cuts, pries, stabs, etc., anything I need to do just fine. They do make this knife in smaller sizes but you lose the tanto blade or the four position clip.

Pros:

Tanto point, hefty blade guard, four position clip, liner lock with a secondary lock

Cons:

too large for some pockets, clip could be sturdier, no additional cool features like some of the others.

MSRP - $99

Street price - $60-$70

CRKT Score: 8.00 Great

Gerber: the Hinderer CLS is the sequel to the rescue model. Scrapping the blunt full serrated blade for a clip point, partially serrated blade, this knife comes in at 8.5” overall and 5.6 oz. The 3.5” 440a steel blade sports a black finish. The glass filled nylon handle has good texture and it is pretty comfortable, with and without gloves. The window breaker also has a lanyard hole (that I should have utilized but more on that later) and the strap cutter swings out from the butt end of the knife. Hope you like right side tip down carry, because that’s the only configuration for the pocket clip. It also sports an O2 wrench in the handle that can be used with the blade closed and it comes in quite handy if you have that need. The knife felt sturdy, and while it is a liner lock, the release mechanism is a pull stud on the handle that makes closing this knife with gloves much easier. The blade guard is ok, definitely could be a bit more pronounced but it works. I really appreciate this strap cutter on this knife and found it to be great at everything from clothing to zip ties. Probably my favorite design of the 4, however it was a bit stiff at first and the detent had to be worked in a bit. My biggest problem with this knife, is that I no longer have it, because a random tree branch or vine took it one afternoon in the woods, in other words, the pocket clip is lacking.

Pros:

Great size and weight, strap cutter, locking release, grip texture

Cons:

Blade guard, pocket clip, thumb stud only

MSRP - $76

Street price - $60-70

Gerber Score: 7.50 Good

SOG: The only lockback style knife of the bunch, this one comes in at 8.2” OAL and 4.8oz. A lockback is not my favorite style,. I was willing to overlook that, as the knife was overall quality. While SOG says this is a clip point, it’s more of a spear point. The stand alone strap cutter has spare blades stored in the knife handle, which is super cool if you ask me. I do not like the glass breaker, as it very small and sharp, like needle sharp. This knife also sports several holes in the grip that, when the blade is closed, work as wire strippers. I can’t comment on how well it works because I don’t strip wire on a regular bases, but if that’s your thing, it’s a nice added bonus. The satin blades finish on the 9cr18mov blade looks nice, and is a nice departure from the black on black that the other three have. Being the only one of this bunch with a 6061t6 aluminum handle, the grip isn’t bad, and the texture is ok. Again, hope you’re like right side tip down carry because the clip is fixed in that position. It’s a good solid clip, when it isn’t loosening up. The blade opens by thumb stud only and the hand guard leaves quite a bit to be desired.

Pros:

Replaceable strap cutter.

Cons:

Lockback, lack of blade guard

MSRP - $49

Street price - $40-$45

SOG Score: 6.50 Okay

Kershaw: The only knife in this article sporting assisted opening, and a built in carabiner. The EMT comes in at 7.25” and 4.8 oz. It’s the thickest knife of the bunch at almost 3/4” wide, this one falls into the “meh” category for me. On paper it looks great, but I can’t say I was extremely impressed overall, but it’s still a decent blade if you want a budget knife, and assisted opening is important to you. The strap cutter feels flimsy, but I had no issues with it, and it cut anything I needed it to. It swings out from the back and has a 1/4” wrench and bottle opener on it. While the bottle opener works, my job frowns upon me using it at work and, at home, I have dedicated bottle openers. I found no use for the 1/4” wrench and feel this would be better served by an O2 wrench. The glass breaker is fine, but it’s on the blade end instead of the butt end, which I found strange. The carabiner, when deployed, locks the blade closed and will not allow you to open the knife until you have closed the carabiner. While I understand why I wish it would lock the blade open for my use case. It is a flipper style, so that’s nice, and the flipper doubles as a beefy hand guard. The grip is glass filled nylon and it is a tad slippery, and the Kershaw “K” grip pattern isn’t the best. The 3” 8cr13mov blade is listed by Kershaw as a drop point, but it looks and feels more like a clip point to me. This knife is thick. like too thick to be carried comfortably in my back pocket. The pocket clip allows for pretty deep carry, and is right side tip down only once again. Final thoughts on this knife: it feels cheap, it’s hard to explain.

Pros:

Carabiner, hand guard, flipper assisted opening.

Cons:

Thick, glass breaker isn’t intuitive, lock on the strap cutter feels weak

MSRP - $58

Street price - $32-$50

Kershaw Score: 5.50 Mediocre

So what does all this mean? Well hopefully this can help you pick out an EDC knife, if rescue type knives are your thing. I would have no problem carrying any of these blades in different contexts, except maybe the Kershaw, but in all reality, it will probably find its way into my gear for something.

My order from favorite to least favorite

I will be replacing the Gerber most likely, but I wish they’d update the clip. What I would really like (in case there is a knife maker reading) is the blade and the clip placement options from the CRKT, the glass breaker, size, weight, and O2 wrench from the Gerber, the assisted opening from the kershaw, the clip from the SOG. All these knives have attributes I like.

FIREARMS INSIDER REVIEWS - 8 KEY POINTS

CLAIM TO FAME:

Rescue style knives

TARGET MARKET:

First responders

FNBS (FEATURES & BENEFITS OF THIS PRODUCT):

See individual write ups above

WHAT OTHER AESTHETIC OPTIONS OR FINISHES ARE AVAILABLE?

See above

What others are saying:

Not much

Price point:

$ 35-100 listed above

I need it now availability:

Amazon, bladeHQ, or the manufacture websites

Our Rating:

Pros: see above

Cons: see above

Score:

See above

Zane Mungillo

October 13, 2020

Review

Discreet Carry Concepts belt clips

Zane Mungillo

October 13, 2020

Review

Those familiar with me might describe me as a holster snob. This isn’t because I want to “flex on the poors” but with the plethora of holster manufacturers out there there’s really no reason to use a subpar holster.

One thing I’ve been super unhappy with are the mounting attachments available for concealed type holsters, more specifically, AIWB holsters. I’ve tried them all; from fomi clips, rcs struts, spring steel, ulticlip, soft loops, j-hooks, you name it. While some are far superior to others none offer the level of security, concealability, and comfort I desire. I’ve lately just defaulted to soft or “pull the dot” loops as they are the most secure but they lack in ease of use and concealment.

This is why when Discreet Carry Concepts (DCC) came out with their line of holster clips, I was curious but not very enthusiastic. Well, wrong I was. I have three DCC equipped holsters and don’t see myself ever going back to any other attachment method. As of the time of writing I am retrofitting the last two holsters I actually use with DCC clips and by the end of the month I won’t have a holster in rotation without them.

Holsters currently equipped include:

Armadillo concealment lux

2 black rhino concealment custom pieces

One of the black rhino’s is exactly how it came from the company and the other two holsters were retrofitted with the clips by me. I currently have a Henry holster spark awaiting them and a philster spotlight that until recently wasn’t able to accept DCC clips but that is a whole review in itself.

The clips are super secure, in fact if I had to point out a con it would be they aren’t the easiest to get off. But not unmanageable and in my opinion no worse than soft loops. And if you think about it, the holster’s clips’ job is to securely attach the belt/pants. So ease of removal isn’t very high on my priority list. I have three different types as of writing but behind the belt variants and a monoblock that works over a belt or behind the belt.

The holster isn’t going anywhere. It is attached, it’s more secure than any metal or plastic clip I’ve tried and on par with soft loops if not a tad more secure because movement of the holster is practically nonexistent. It stays where you put it. And the best part is they are more low profile than even the thinnest of clips to include the terrible fomi clip. No more printing from the attachment point.

Installation is straight forward. If you own a screwdriver, you can install these. I would use loctite or some kind of thread locker because I’ve had screws on holsters back out many times without it. I loctite everything.

The behind the belt style clips are a tad more challenging to put on the pants but it’s not rocket science and the monoblocks are pretty much as easy as those stupid fomi clips. The monoblock can be used with or without a belt. Seriously, it’s just as secure either way. While use without a belt isn’t fun with my g19 or g17 with the LCP it’s fantastic.

Long story short, every holster I use will have these or I just won’t use that holster. And they don’t break the bank. That’s always a nice plus.

FIREARMS INSIDER REVIEWS - 8 KEY POINTS

CLAIM TO FAME:

Low profile secure holster attachment

TARGET MARKET:

Concealment of iwb specifically aiwb holsters

FNBS (FEATURES & BENEFITS OF THIS PRODUCT):

Firmly holds the holster in place
Low profile with little to no printing
Durable spring steel
Can be retrofitted to most holsters

WHAT OTHER AESTHETIC OPTIONS OR FINISHES ARE AVAILABLE?

Black or black with no logo

There are several belt sizes, ride height, configuration and cant options available

What others are saying:

From bigtexoutdoors.com

Brendon B. - 5/5 stars

Great for keeping the holster extra concealed w/o printing

Link to other reviews:

Recoilweb.com

Price point:

MSRP = $4.99 - $11.99 for the clips

$3.50 for hardware

I need it now availability:

Discreet Carry Concepts

Select holster manufacturers

Our Rating:

Pros:

Low profile
Very concealable.
Secure attachment
Cost

Cons:

Can be hard to remove
Catch on clothing during draw (I’ve not personally experienced this through thousands of draw and multiple classes, but I’ve see one or two people talk about this online. So it’s worth mentioning)
Cost depends on your holster setup

Score: 8.5 Great

Zane Mungillo

June 5, 2020

Review

Blackhawk Omnivore

Zane Mungillo

June 5, 2020

Review

After recently getting into the pistol red dot world I quickly realized one thing, duty style holsters are slim pickings. You basically have safariland and that’s it. Or so I thought. Enter the Blackhawk Omnivore! Yes Blackhawk, the same company that makes the (in my opinion) terribly designed serpa. But the omnivore is different, it doesn’t require trigger finger manipulation to deactivate the retention, and the retention mechanism seems to not be subject to locking up with foreign debris. Since my safariland was on 90 days back order and this Blackhawk was shipping immediately. I figured I’d give it a fair shake and put my Blackhawk bias aside.

The other very notable feature of this holster is it’s pretty much pistol agnostic. It retains and indexes on the light (or rail attachment if you get the non light bearing model) and Blackhawk claims it fits more than 200 different pistols. This would normally be a huge red flag for me as holsters, in general, should be designed to fit a specific gun. But with holsters like the Phlster floodlight and Armadillo lux being two exceptions, it’s not a deal breaker. I opted for the TLR-1/TLR-2 model.

What the TLR-1/TLR-2 version is, it’s better than a serpa, but it’s no safariland.

While I’d prefer to judge this holster on its own merits, it’s pretty much impossible to not compare it to it’s only competitor.

So my first impressions were not good, there were a bunch of plastic pieces and screws that you can/should add into different places and/or mounting platforms. I felt like I had ordered something from Alien gear. Turns out not only do none of these things work, but none are needed at least for my application. There were three different inserts for where the top of the slide meets the holster. I can only assume this is to reduce the play or wobble in the gun. None worked and only made reholstering more difficult. They were held in place by a tiny plastic peg, that I wouldn’t trust, anyhow they are labeled s,m,l. Then there was a piece of plastic labeled “for TLR-1”. Since the instructions/paperwork that came with the holster made no mention of what this was or why to use it, I can only assume you’re supposed to use it if you’re not using the TRL-2. To fill the space where the laser would be. More on that later. It also came with two different height attachments for the thumb drive release button. There are two different mounting platforms included, a paddle and a belt slide but with plastic things for adjusting ride height/belt size. The mounting platforms are the two that come with most “concealment” serpas that are plagued with problems, but the belt slide is the better of the two, so I attached it with the screws provided and attached the clips for my belt size.

Upon inserting the chosen gun, a g19 with trl-1 and Holosun 507c with irons mounted forward, it clicked into place with only a little play, good news! The thumb drive is way too low so I immediately installed the tallest option with the screws provided. I see no reason to not use the tallest option, as it’s the most intuitive, but not quite as intuitive as the safariland als.

I then installed the “tlr-1 adapter” since that was the light I was using. This was the best I could figure, since the instruction manual made no mention of this adapter or how to use it. It clicked into place and seemed semi solid, so I figured I was good to go. On draw strike number two the adapter went flying across the room, “must be operator error” I thought, so I spent a few minutes ensuring I installed it correctly, while looking for YouTube tutorials to help, there were none. As far as I could tell, that was the only way to install the adapter. So I reinstalled it, spending several minutes making sure there was no other way to put it in and it seemed good, then 6 more draw strokes later, it went flying across the room again. No worries though, the gun is retained just as well(as far as I can tell) without it. I later reinstalled it two more times and on installation number four it seemed to stay put. No idea what the problem was.

The draw is smooth enough, again it’s not a safariland, but it’s plenty fine. I certainly appreciated the natural thumb drive motion. Gun is retained well and the retention mechanism seems to be more than adequate for the “gun grab” situation.

The mounting platform isn’t very comfortable but it’s not extremely uncomfortable either. All that said, the mounting platforms are extremely flimsy and not something I would trust for serious use. But deep in the “box of bad ideas” I had some Blackhawk duty gear, that included some more robust mounting platforms. As it turns out, that doesn’t matter. Blackhawk uses a different thread pitch for their duty stuff than their concealment stuff, so none of it would work without going to the hardware store and figuring out what thread pitch, length and head size screws I would need, a task I had no interest in doing.

So I snooped around the interwebs and found a video on this holster from Chuck Presberg. He had run into the same issue and confirmed what I had found about screws and thread pitch. He had mentioned a safariland qls hack, so I looked for this. Turns out it’s fairly easy to modify a qls plate to work with the omnivore for mouthing to safariland attachments, which I prefer anyway. A little dremel and drill work and it was mounted and felt very secure. I should point out I wouldn’t recommend this for duty users since I’m sure the plate is somewhat structurally compromised, but it still feels much more solid than the mounting platforms it came with.

I carried the gun in this bastardized setup on both a ubl mid and a flex adapter, the draw and overall carry experience was pretty much on par with the same setups, as with a safariland holster. Again, the draw stroke is only slightly less efficient than safariland, but that could definitely be because of the thousands of repetitions I have from the competitor’s holster, so I can’t knock it. Maybe my initial impressions were wrong, maybe this is a quality holster.

This is when things took a turn. Several hundred draw strokes in, out came the gun but not the light. The light was still in the holster, held in place by the retention mechanism. Since the holster indexes on the light, not the gun itself, there was nothing holding the gun in the holster. Had I fallen or had someone grabbed the gun, it would have come out freely. Extremely concerned, I tightened the screw on the light as tight as I could without tools (streamlight says not to use tools to tighten the light) and added a whiteness mark, with a paint pen, to keep and eye on this. Hoping this was operator error, I continued the evaluation process, checking the whiteness mark every couple dozen draws. About a week and several hundred draw strokes later, my whiteness mark wasn’t lined up. Sure enough, the screw was loose yet again. The holster seems to be unscrewing the light from the gun. Now the instructions say to line up the slot in a specific orientation, I did that, same issue. I tightened it down as tight as I could get it and no issues drawing but it still would loosen up eventually. This is an issue for me. Now, checking the light screw is part of my daily PMCS. I’ve not had this issue with any other light bearing holster. Is it the end of the world? No, but something to be aware of? Yes

But wait there’s more! Not long after I started the review process, I got word from a friend that his agency (a large law enforcement agent in Florida) had circulated a memo disallowing the use of the omnivore for uniformed and non uniformed duty use, because of the opening at the trigger guard. According to them, it poses a risk for a negligent discharge because the opening for the light is large enough that it’s possible to depress the trigger of the gun while it’s holstered. A Blackhawk holster that can help facilitate a ND? You should see my shocked face. While this isn’t a new issue with light bearing holsters (there are cases of this happening with safariland) I had to explore this and see if the agency was being overly safe, or if this is a real concern, it’s a real concern. With my gun and my hand/finger size, it is absolutely possible for me to get my index finger inside the holster, inside the trigger guard, and press the trigger while establishing a grip on the holstered gun. Uh oh. It should be worth noting that I can indeed press the trigger while the gun is in some safariland light bearing holsters as well, but not while attempting to establish a grip. It has to be from a different angle and is much more difficult. This is a problem.

Overall, if you are an instructor that has a need to use a variety of guns depending on who you’re teaching, or need a range holster for reddot guns this might be an okay option to look at. If you carry a weird gun, that safariland doesn’t offer s rds holster for, this might be your only option. If you have to use a Blackhawk, it’s better than a serpa, but all that said, I’d pass on this holster. And I really wanted to like it.

Firearms Insider Reviews - 8 Key Points

CLAIM TO FAME:

Near universal retention holster that is red dot compatible

TARGET MARKET:

People needing a retention holster for use with a red dot and light or for a variety of guns.

FNBS (FEATURES & BENEFITS OF THIS PRODUCT):

Thumb drive retention
Red dot compatible
Indexes on the light
Fits numerous handguns
Thumb activated retention

WHAT OTHER AESTHETIC OPTIONS OR FINISHES ARE AVAILABLE?

TLR-1/ TLR-2, x300u, no light(rail still required)

What others are saying:

Denis B

5.0 out of 5 stars

Works perfectly with my Glock G22 and S/W M and P 40.

As a range/competition holster this product works great. It's not suitable for duty carry and it says so right in the instructions. I carried a Blackhawk Serpa Level III for years but none of the ranges I shoot at or companies offering instruction will allow it. This has saved me the trouble and cost of 2 rigs. One holster does it all. Very happy with this product.

Anthony M.

NOT SAFE!!! DO NOT BUY IF LAW ENFORCEMENT

I've had this holster for about 18 months now and it seemed okay, a little wobbly but overall a good fit, as the time passed it became more and more loose and I had to tighten the screws every other day. Well today, I got in a foot pursuit with a dangerous felon and the piece that secures the gun to the holster snapped off causing my gun to fall out. The part that attaches to the picatinny rail detached from the rail and remained locked into the holster. My gun fell out WHILE IN A FOOT PURSUIT!!!!! This could've very well cost me my life. Because of this, I no longer trust this holster or any holster that attaches using the picatinny rail. I will immediately get rid of this holster and purchase a safariland holster.

Price point:

MSRP - $59.99

I need it now availability:

Blackhawk, Amazon

Our Rating:

Pros

Near universal
Thumb drive retention
Red dot compatible
Actually available for purchase without a 90 lead time (Safariland, looking at you)

Cons:

Mounting platform
Trigger guard opening
Unscrewing the light
Slight play

Score: 5.00 Mediocre

For duty/serious use: 3.00 Awful

Zane Mungillo

February 27, 2020

Review

Rescue Essentials ankle kit

Zane Mungillo

February 27, 2020

Review

There has been rise in the addition of medical equipment to the “EDC lifestyle” and rightly so in my estimation. With more and more folks realizing, as the old cliche goes, they are their own first responder and unintentional trauma being of of the leading causes of death and, according to some sources, the leading cause for people under 45; it seems like a no brainer to carry some equipment to buy some time in the event you or a loved one needs medical attention right now. Things like tourniquets, gauzes, pressure bandages, chest seals and the like are all the rage right now and with proper training can absolutely save a life.

But how the hell do you carry all that? What with the stuff you already have, which of you’re anything like me includes: gun, knife, flashlight, OC, spare ammo, wallet, keys phone etc.

On your ankle of course. Enter the rescue essentials ankle medical holster. I will start by saying, I had low expectations for this as it was one of the cheapest ankle rigs I could find on amazon that would meet my basic requirements. I understand that “you get what you pay for” ordinarily. But before I dropped bigger money on an ankle kit I wanted to see if I could even get used to the thing strapped to my leg. I should also point out that the carrier is about the only thing medical related that should ever purchase from amazon.

About $25 and two days later the ankle pouch arrived. Seems to be made well but more about that later, has one main pouch with a flap and two narrower slots. It also has a small area of molle webbing. So I stuffed it with all the goodies and strapped that sucker to my leg.

According to rescue essentials, this rig is designed for one tourniquet (either a CAT or SOFTT-W), a 4” izzy bandage, and two pair of gloves. They also claim a SWAT-T and decomp needle can also be accommodated. Not one to be told what to do, I packed it how I saw fit for my lifestyle. While I have switched a few things here and there. I currently load it with (1) CAT gen7 TQ, (1) hyfin vented chest seal, (1) pack of celox gauze, (1) pack NAR compressed gauze, a CPR face shield, two pair of gloves and a small admin flash light.

After the initial few days it became quite comfortable and now, two years later, I don’t even notice it anymore. I have very few concealment problems with it, in “tactical” pants it’s a nonissue. In some jeans I have to remove the chest seal, and if you wear cowboy boots on a regular basis you might want to explore other options. It’s not impossible and I’ve done it a few times but it’s a pain. Obviously, if you’re a shorts or skinny jeans kind of guy/gal this isn’t gonna work either. It is comfortable although I prefer to wear it over socks but will occasionally not. It holds everything in place very well, the only exception to this was the sharpie I tried to carry on it. But ridding on my ankle in the environment and elements that close to the ground, the damn thing is would never write when I needed it to anyway so I ended up not carrying it anymore. I never put a decomp needle in it so that’s the only thing I can’t really speak on, however, for the vast majority of people I don’t think that is a necessity, especially in an on body kit. I do have one in my vehicle kit. But that’s a different article.

My biggest complaint is the molle webbing (actually PALS because it’s the host not the attachment). I can’t see adding any molle accessories and it still be the slightest bit concealable. I did attach a few things like a multi tool pouch, a mag pouch, and a handcuff pouch. None proved to be useful. I do keep the small flashlight in the web and did the same with the sharpie. Not the intended use but I do what I want. I would much prefer to see this section replaced with another flapped pouch for another 4” Izzy. This would allow me to carry an additional chest seal and a compression bandage (Like the NAR ankle rig is set up for) the only other complaint I have, which is minor, is I’d like to see a flap to cover the TQ. Not a huge deal but it would protect the “time” strap from fraying as quickly.

Overall, I think this is a good choice if you’re looking to build a small persona trauma kit and not break the bank.

FIREARMS INSIDER REVIEWS - 8 KEY POINTS

CLAIM TO FAME:

Low cost ankle medical pouch

TARGET MARKET:

People looking for a way to add medical gear to their edc without filling their pockets even more

FNBS (FEATURES & BENEFITS OF THIS PRODUCT:

Lightweight
Comfortable
Cost effective
Elastic storage bands and pouches
Customizable to user preferences
Main Pouch has a red tab for instant identification
Three pockets plus a 2 x 3 PALS ladder

WHAT OTHER AESTHETIC OPTIONS OR FINISHES ARE AVAILABLE?

Black with a red tab

What others are saying:

Amazon - Luis N. B

I’m only 5’1”

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2020

I purchased this product because I like being prepared for the worse but I don’t have a lot of space on my belt or vest since I’m smaller than most. This product fits well on my ankle after putting all the products shown on my picture. I carry my tourniquet on my belt so I use one of the pockets for a naloxone and needle decompression. On the big pouch I carry chest seal and quick clot. On the other pocket I carry compressed cause and a space blanket. You can also see I carry an NPA and the medical scissors. One thing to be mindful is not overpacking it If your pants can’t stretch as much. I recommend practicing with whatever uniform you have. Overall, good product.

Price point:

MSRP = $30.00

Retail = $27.49 on Amazon

I need it now availability:

Rescue Essentials or Amazon

Our Rating:

Pros:

Works as intended
Stays put
Comfortable
Inexpensive
Durable

Cons:

Limited space
TQ isn’t covered at the top

Score: 8.00 Great

Zane Mungillo

February 27, 2019

Review

Kagwerks Extended & Raised slide release

Zane Mungillo

February 27, 2019

Review

One thing that has plagued me and plenty of others with the Glock brand of pistols is the slide stop placement. The guns just don’t lock back on the last round for me all the time. For some people, they never lock back on the last round. I’ve had plenty of shooters, albeit none with much training, tell me I need to change my grip and that will solve the problem. And that is true, I could alter my grip to a less optimal one for shooting but more optimized for getting lock back. I suppose if I wanted to compromise my ability to get first second and third round hits in order to perform a reload better 17 rounds later I could do that. Those people apparently don’t really understand the concept of “most likely to least likely”. That is if I did find myself in a situation that I needed to employ deadly force are the first few hits more important or that sweet IG video like sub second reload more necessary? Obviously the former is better so maybe my grip is fine.

I’ve always worked around it and never really considered it a problem as if I don’t get lock back, I’d get a click and tap/rack, then it’s locked back so it’s reload time. Or, if able to recognize that I’d been on the gun for more than a few shots a “click” means that mag gets dumped immediately and a new one goes in. A quick overhand rack and we’re back in business.

Neither are perfect but there is really no other solution, or is there?

Enter the Kagwerks extended slide release. When I first saw this I thought “neat, maybe one day i’ll check it out” and thought no more about it. That is until I saw all the hate it was getting from internet operators. Everything from “a solution looking for a problem” to “it’s a slide stop not a slide release” , and my favorite “shearing forces could cause that to break”. These claims seemed unfounded at face value and it appeared no one making them had any time with the product.

So I reached out to the company and they were happy to send one out for review. I needed to see what the hate was about.

Spoiler alert: I have no idea what the hate is about. I love this thing.

It is installed easily, like any other slide stop but the company recommends a gunsmith do it. One can only assume this is for liability reasons.

I had no fitment issues with any holsters I have, so that was nice. After some dry practice it was off to the range. Long story short, it works as advertised. I had zero failures to lock back. One benefit I noticed that I hadn’t thought of is it puts the release back just enough that it’s a tad more intuitive to hit. There was very little learning curve and I don’t recall ever “missing” on a mag change. I did, however, inadvertently lock the slide back a few times during administrative racking. This gave me cause for concern so I spent a good portion of my next training session on malfunction clearances. The “problem” didn’t manifest itself at real speed in real time once. Despite operating the slide several different ways this only time I unintentionally locked the slide back was during administrative tasks that arguably I should have done anyway or should have done at full speed for positive reps. Personally I’m chalking this up to a nonissue, but your mileage may vary.

Overall the Kagwerks extend slide release gets a huge two thumbs up from me and I just can’t wait for the gen 5 version to come out as I’d like it on both of my carry guns for commonality.

Do you need this? Well, probably not. For the casual plinker or ccw’r its likely to never be a problem if you don’t have this, unless it is. A buddy of mine who is a patrol cop, who trains regularly and shoots competition told me after using one for a while “I like the concept it’s just not worth the thousands of reps to retrain myself on something radically different to maybe shave 1/10 off my reload” he also went on to say he fails to get lock back only about 10% of the time and uses his support hand to release the slide. I use my primary hand thumb to release the slide and saw very little learning curve so there could be something there.

I suppose if the gun always locks back for you it’s not for you either, got it. But, if you do experience failures to lock back from your Glock, I would encourage you to take a good look at this product. I also would really like to see a g42/43 version as the problem is much more common for me in the single stack glocks.