review

Alien Gear Offers New Lines of Holsters, Accessories

Clip ProfileEarlier this year I bought a pair of Alien Gear IWB Cloak Tuck holsters for some carry guns.  I liked them enough (see review here) to pick up another one on the secondary market.  The folks at Alien Gear have been keeping busy and I recently had the opportunity to try out some of their new products and accessories.

One of the big features of Alien Gear products – aside from comfort – is their modularity.  The Cloak Tuck IWB holsters consist of the leather backing, the Kydex shell, and front and rear belt clips – each with three different mounting positions to adjust for cant and ride height.  The removable shell allows for swapping out shells if you change carry guns or if the shell gets damaged.  This modularity is also the driving force behind a lot of Alien Gear’s newest offerings. Continue reading

ReadyShot Lets you Train at Home with Your Own Carry Gun

Ready Shot Kit

ReadyShot kit. Glock Not Included.

To keep any skill sharp, it is important to practice that skill.  Shooting is no different.  If anything, practicing your firearms skills is more important than many other skills since your life may one day depend on it.  However, whether it is due to ammo costs, range restrictions, lack of time or some other reason, many of us might not get to train as often or in the manner that we would like to.  We recently had the chance to try out a new tool that can help keep shooting skills sharp – the ReadyShot system.

We met ReadyShot founder Brent Backhaus at the 2014 NRA Annual Meetings where he introduced us to his creation- a laser training system that lets you train how you want, where you want, when you want, with your own firearm.

We have used laser training tools before and have done our fair share of dry fire/snap cap practice, and each of them have their own benefits and downfalls.  For instance, dry fire practice with snap caps is a great way to work on draw-and-fire drills, work on grip and trigger manipulation and other fundamentals but, without feedback on where your “shots” hit, it is of limited use.  Some laser training tools give you various degrees of feedback but, with simple bullseye-style targets or cans, they more closely mimic plinking practice rather than practical firearms use.  Further, many of them may be difficult or tedious to use, requiring the user to cycle the slide or hammer to reset the trigger to allow for follow up shots.

The ReadyShot overcomes many of those issues through its innovative target system and gun insert for single action striker fired pistols like the Glock and XD.  Additionally, each component of the ReadyShot system is available a la carte and is, for the most part, compatible with other laser training systems.  We had a chance to try out the ReadyShot Glock Kit both as a standalone unit and with other training system components. Continue reading

Out of This World Holsters from Alien Gear

Alien Gear holster in use at GunLink NRAAM CommandAlien Gear Holsters has been generating considerable buzz since they flew their UFO full of holsters onto the scene last year.  The Alien Gear business model is to “make and sell gun holsters directly to the public at below wholesale prices.”  It all sounds too good to be true, but I want to believe so we probed around a bit to learn more.  We already have a big Box o’ Holsters at GunLink HQ, so we were hesitant to order more but at this price point, resistance is futile.  After all… It’s the only way to be sure, so we ordered a couple.

Hybrid Holsters

Alien Gear IWB holsters are of the hybrid type, which means that they have a Kydex shell attached to a leather backing.  The wide leather backing allows the belt clips to be further apart than some other holster types, more evenly distributing the weight of the pistol and making carry more comfortable.  The Kydex shell provides a completely custom, form fitting scabbard that securely holds the pistol.  Being an IWB holster it, of course, rides inside the waistband of the wearer’s pants, attaching via the belt clips leaving only the clips and the grip of the pistol exposed above the waistband.

Price

The first thing CCW-ers will probably notice when comparing Alien Gear holsters to similar hybrid holsters is the price.  Alien Gear holsters start out Continue reading

The Gun Stock Refinishing Project

We decided to make a project of doing some gun-stock refinishing work and getting a brand new GB LinSpeed MicroMesh Kit was the perfect impetus to get the ball rolling.  The stock in question comes from a 31 year old shotgun we have taking up safe space.  While certainly no “safe queen” and not a firearm you’re likely to see in the velvet-roped, mahogany-clad Gun Library at Cabela’s, the practical single-shot 12ga has served us well to harvest more than its fair share of small game and clay birds and it deserves a little TLC.

This isn’t the gun’s first trip down the revitalization path.  Being a relatively simple, utilitarian firearm, this piece has no doubt seen a number of bumps and bruises throughout its nearly third-of-a-century tenure in various forests, shooting ranges, safes and other locales.  The stock isn’t particularly beautiful from the factory, but it is composed of a decent (walnut?) hardwood.  A number of years ago the barrel was re-blued and the stock was sanded and given a quick finish-job with ordinary hardware store Linseed Oil.  Despite the passing years, the finish still seemed a bit soft or tacky or otherwise “not quite right.”  Plus, since then, it has received a few more bumps and bruises and, while the metal parts still look fine, a little time spent on the furniture wouldn’t be wasted. Continue reading

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