Category: Review

Scot’s Product Review: Chinook Level 1 Emergency Preparedness Medical Kit (EPMK)

Chinook Medical Gear, Inc. is a Durango, Colorado-based company that provides medical gear to first responders, military, and all the rest of us. They supply pre-built first aid kits, custom kits, packs and cases, individual items, and pretty much anything else medical you might need for an emergency. I’ve written about some of the modules they sell to help you put together a kit on a step-by-step basis. The kit I’m writing about here, the Level 1 Emergency Preparedness Medical Kit (EPMK) is a different strategy. It is a pretty complete package you can purchased in one fell swoop. It …


Scot’s Product Review: Panteao Productions, LLC

The ability to learn is, in my view, about the most important of the many gifts God gave us. During my stint as a teacher, which continues as I homeschool my son, I got to study learning styles and the ways people manage to accumulate knowledge. Some of us best learn to do something by reading about it. Others best learn if someone tells them how to do it. Then there are those who best learn by seeing others do it, and finally there are those who can only learn if they do it themselves. While I remain convinced that …


Scot’s Product Review: Valley Food Storage Meals

The angst of buying the right storage foods made me feel as if I was stuck in a drama, so I turned to Shakespeare and found a suitable quote in The Comedy of Errors: “Unquiet meals make ill digestions.” Although it wasn’t his best play, by a long shot, and the character had more on her mind than food, the thought does have some application to my household. I mentioned in another review that my wife is a pretty intense food person, who loves gourmet meals and is a serious cook. My ten-year-old son is surprising in liking a large …


Scot’s Product Review: Streamlight Weapons Lights

Bad things can happen in the dark, and one of the great comforts we have is being able to make light. Light allows us to perceive our surroundings and make our way without stumbling. One thing I am seldom without is a good compact flashlight in my pocket. Over the last few years, weapon-mounted lights have become popular, especially in law enforcement circles. They are probably even more popular in Hollywood entertainment, and if you can stand the stuff, you will probably see at least one scene in almost any action TV show or movie with the hero searching about …


Scot’s Product Review: Crimson Trace Rail Master Laser Sights

Crimson Trace is a Wilsonville, Oregon based company that sells laser sights and weapons lights. They have two basic strategies to attach them to firearms– dedicated ones that work with a particular model gun and universal ones, which will attach to the rails found on more and more of today’s firearms. The dedicated laser sights for handguns are subdivided into two variants– ones that are attached to the handgun’s grips and larger ones that attach to the front of the trigger guard. The ones that are part of the grip offer the most compact package and can often be used …


Scot’s Product Review: S&K Scope Mounts, LLC

I have been growing more and more fascinated with older military rifles. You can often find them at good prices, and they are legal even in some restrictive locales. Most of them are bolt actions, and some of them are better made than most current production rifles. It is tough to beat a Mauser 98 or Springfield, and the Enfield is no slouch either. The venerable Mosin Nagant is certainly capable, and the M1 Garand is one of my all-time favorite rifles. They almost always come in cartridges that are excellent for hunting medium game in the U.S. or for …


Scot’s Product Review: Legacy Premium Food

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If anyone out there isn’t convinced that we need to store food for an emergency, then they might not have been paying attention to the news. With the need clear, the question we each must ask is, “What kind of food should we store?” Personally, I like a variety of foods– fresh, dehydrated, freeze dried, grocery store cans and boxes, and retort packed foods, which include MRE’s. I even think frozen foods are good to have, though if the power goes out, that’s the first thing to eat. Each type has advantages and disadvantages, based on how easily and long …


Scot’s Product Review: Brass Stacker Products for the Mosin Nagant

I recently reviewed the Russian Mosin Nagant 91/30 bolt action rifle, and while I really like the old rifle, I did see some problems with using it in today’s world. Fortunately, there are so many of them out there these days that there is a market for improving them and some savvy folks stepping up to the chore. The thing I really hated was the safety, but I doubt if the Russian Army ever had the same concerns that we have today about negligent discharges. While the safety is effective, it is very difficult to apply and release. You have …


Scot’s Product Review: Hatsan Model 125 Sniper Vortex Air Rifle

For the prepper, air rifles offer quiet shooting that can be done for hunting, pest control, or practice. Quiet is always good. While these guns do make noise, it is a lot less than virtually all non-suppressed firearms. The sound signature is different as well; they sound more like an air nailer or stapler than a gun. They also can cost less to shoot, since you are just buying pellets and not a cartridge case, primer, and powder. There is even a chap in England selling kits to make your own pellets http://airgunpelletmaker.weebly.com/ , if you want more independence. When …


Scot’s Product Review: FLIR LS-Series Thermal Imaging Camera

Seeing in the dark is something we poor humans aren’t good at. The term “cover of darkness” is an apt description, and if we can penetrate it we have a serious advantage over those who can’t. This also applies to anything that obscures visibility, such as smoke, haze, or other obstructions. We often hear the buzz phrase “force multiplier”, and anything that helps us see when our opponent can’t is a big one in my book. Being able to detect attackers first or control our own people is pretty huge, as the perils of being clueless are obvious. Besides the …


Scot’s Product Review: CMMG .22 LR Conversion for AR-15

We can have a lot of discussions about the good and bad points of the AR-15 and the .223 cartridge it is usually chambered for. Some think they are worthless junk, while others feel they are the cat’s meow. A lot of folks, myself included, are somewhere in between those two ends of the argument. I find the ergonomics to be quite good and very adaptable for left-handed shooters, like myself. You need to add an ambidextrous safety, and I think an ambi charging handle also helps. An ambi magazine release really rounds it out, but I can live without …


Scot’s Product Review: Blastmatch

Fire is cool stuff, though I may have said that before. Much like a nine-year-old boy, it needs to be carefully controlled, but when it is, it is indispensable. Getting fire when you want it is pretty easy when you have access to store-bought matches that have been kept dry along with nice dry tinder, kindling, and fuel. The problem with fire is how to get it when you lack matches. All the tinder, kindling, and fuel on the planet won’t do you a whit of good, if you don’t have something to make the tinder hot enough to burn. …


Mike’s Product Review: Roschworks SLM1 combination front sight and light mount

For those of us with AR type rifles or those with similar sights, this is a useful piece of kit. One of the issues with a tactical rifle can be the light mount. Should it be under, to one side, and where should the switch be mounted? How will it work when shooting over or beside a barricade? Roschworks’ SLM1 (Picture of the SLM1) avoids all this by mounting the light directly over the barrel, with an iron sight above it. The unit is milled from one piece of 7075T6 aluminum, and mounts solidly to a standard rail. The profile …


Scot’s Product Review: The M1 Garand

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You can’t write an article on the M1 Garand without quoting Lt. General George S. Patton, who called the rifle “the greatest battle implement ever devised”. That was incredibly high praise coming from one of the greatest leaders of combined arms in WWII and considering the number of superb weapons that were developed in the conflict. The Garand is the semi-automatic rifle adopted by the U.S. Army in 1936. It was the first standard issue semi-auto adopted by any army. The Russians tried next with their SVT 38 and 40 rifles in 7.62mmx54R, but the combination of technical difficulties and …


Scot’s Product Review: Mosin-Nagant M91/30

A reader suggested that I take a look at lower cost firearms, particularly military surplus ones, and I thought it was a great idea. The one he told me that would make a good start is the Russian Mosin-Nagant, which is currently the easiest to find and cheapest surplus rifle on the market. It is chambered in a .30 caliber round, 7.62x54R, and there are a lot of them available at the moment coming from old war reserves in Russia and Ukraine. They were refurbished and put in storage when replaced by more modern arms. Russia and Ukraine are both …