Category: Review

Zero Tolerance Model 180, by Pat Cascio

I hate to admit it, just hate it, but I’m a knife addict! I always have been, since I was a little kid back in Chicago. I’ve always carried some kind of folding knife in a pocket, and, to be sure, most of the kids in the neighborhood also carried pocket knives, even to school. Guess what? No one got stabbed, murdered, or expelled from school. Today, that’s a different story. In most states, it is a mandatory one year expulsion for students who have a knife at school. Instead of using good ol’ common sense and talking to the …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Tristar L120 9mm CZ-75 (clone-esque)

For many years, I longed for an original CZ-75, but alas there weren’t very many in the USA back in the 1970s, and the few that could be found were high priced, to say the least. Then, we had the sorta clones, imported from Italy, including Tanfoglio and FIE. It was a hit or miss proposition whether you got one that worked, and they were a decocker model. I wanted a CZ-75 (clone-ish) that I could carry “cocked ‘n locked”. Then along came an almost dead-ringer for the CZ-75, imported from Switzerland, if I recall correctly! I don’t recall the …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Cold Steel’s Survival Edge

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For many years, I’ve looked that the Cold Steel web site as well as their printed catalogs, and saw among their fixed blade knifes a survival-type knife, with a hollow handle – called the “Survival Edge” and I just didn’t understand why it was in the line-up. To my mind, it just looked like a “cheap” hollow handle survival knife – one that doesn’t really belong in the Cold Steel line of fantastic knives. Lynn Thompson (Cold Steel’s owner) and I have been friends since the early 1900s and if there is one thing we have learned about each is …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Ruger’s Precision Rifle

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When I worked full-time for the Illinois National Guard I was on their rifle and pistol team. At the time I was only 18 years old – but I was an Expert (military earned) shot with a long gun. We were issued match-grade M14s and all matches were shot with open sights – and our team used to beat the pants off of other shooters, with scoped rifles. I was a “novice” or so they rated me as such, and I handily bet every shooter I was placed against. I can’t attribute my shooting skills to the military training. I …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Day One Response Water Filter

Depending on which survival expert you talk to, they all have a slightly different list of things you need in an emergency, and what order you should do things. Some say shelter is the first thing on your list, followed by fire, then water, and lastly food. While all of these things are important, and I have no argument with them, one of the first things I would recommend is that, whatever brought on your emergency should be looked at closely. If a tornado is headed your way, the first thing to do is get to safety – whatever the …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: GLOCK 43 9mm Subcompact

Back in 1987, while living in Colorado Springs, CO, I used to haunt Longs Drugs. It was a huge drug store chain that carried a pretty good selection of handguns, and plenty of ammo was available, too. I only recall purchasing a couple of firearms from them. The first one was a new GLOCK 17 9mm with a 17-rd magazine, which was unheard of, for the most part, back then. Most 9mm handguns had a 15-rd capacity, and then there was that “plastic” frame. Everyone back then just knew that you could sneak a plastic framed handgun on a plane. …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review – SIG Sauer P320 .45ACP

It’s hard not to like any handgun chambered in .45ACP, with a few exceptions. I cut my teeth on a 1911 .45ACP and have owned hundreds over the years. There are some I really regret selling or trading, too. While on the Illinois National Guard Rifle and Pistol Team, back in the early 1970s, I was issued a match grade M-14, as well as a match grade 1911with all the ammo I wanted. (You’d better believe I took full advantage of that, too.) I had .50 caliber ammo cans stacked high in my bedroom. However, most of the matches we …


Scot’s Product Review: Katadyn Pocket Water Filter

There is the rule of threes for survival, which says you can go three minutes without air before you’re dead, three days without water, and three weeks without food. That’s not exact science, of course, and there are variables. Someone in great shape can last longer, and a moderate climate will let you go longer without water. In my part of the world, it gets really hot in the summer, and I suspect three days might be optimistic. Luckily, down here in the southeast, it rains a lot, especially in the summer. There is also a lot of standing water, …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: BearOps Rancor Folder

BearOps is a division of Bear & Son Cutlery and is an up and coming cutlery business. BearOps is producing tactical-types of cutlery, whereas, Bear & Son, produces some more traditional cutlery. When Tom Ables, who handles the PR from Bear, contacted me with a press release on the BearOps “Rancor” folder, I placed an order for one right away. The Rancor isn’t just a tactical folder; I also consider it a gentleman’s folder. Over the years, I’ve been accused of a lot of things but rarely has anyone, other than my own wife, called me a gentleman. Still, I …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Cold Steel/Rawles Voyager Limited Edition

Disclaimer: Neither Jim Rawles or Hugh J. Latimer asked me to do this article, nor did Lynn Thompson from Cold Steel. I received an e-mail flyer on this limited edition folder and requested a sample for review. No one involved in this project, including myself, are profiting from the sale of this folding knife. All proceeds are going to charity! ————— The Cold Steel Voyager folder is one of the best-selling folders in the Cold Steel stable of knives. It’s always in demand. I really like the Tri-Ad locking mechanism on this line of folders. It’s super strong, to be …


Letter Re: Cold Steel Voyager-JWR Edition

Hugh and Capt. Rawles, I’ve been following SB.com for about three years now after reading How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It. That book and others opened me up to the insanity surrounding us, and I suddenly felt sadly under-prepared. Since then I’ve trolled the web, bookstores, and gun shows for tools to help me protect my family. My enthusiasm can probably be attributed to wanting to ensure my two little girls never have to suffer through the times depicted in Jim’s works of fiction. I have held out, for the most part, from purchasing …


Scot’s Product Review: Burris 2-7xx32mm Handgun Scope on the Mexican Mauser

I have long been a fan of Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper and his Scout rifle concept. It’s not the best tool for every application of the rifle, but his idea was to create a general purpose answer to the problem of striking a decisive blow on an animal up to 200 kilograms (440 pounds) at any distance the shooter could place a bullet into the vitals of said animal. He further specified that it should be handy and defined it as being one meter (about 40 inches) long and three kilograms (a bit less than seven pounds) in weight unloaded …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: CZ Scorpion Handgun

Some many months back, I viewed a video on YouTube about the CZ Scorpion EVO 3 S1 handgun. (That’s quite a mouthful, so we’ll just call it the CZ Scorpion.) I was really impressed with the video testing the CZ Scorpion. I’ve had some other semi-auto only versions of full-auto sub guns in the past, and most didn’t impress me. They were just too bulky, or they flat out weren’t reliable. However, there was just “something” about the CZ Scorpion that caught my attention when I watched that video. So, I kept a watchful eye out for one at my …


Scot’s Product Review: Liberty Suppressors Mystic X

I am unsure when the term “force multiplier” came into use, but unlike many trendy phrases I think it is a good one. The concept is a military one, but it is useful in any endeavor. The basic idea is that we find something that makes us more effective than our competition whether in business, sports or combat. A force multiplier can be having more knowledge, better tools, strategy, or tactics or the ability to deceive. Another term for force multiplication might be competitive edge. A force multiplier can allow an apparently weaker opponent to triumph in the end over …


Benchmade’s Model 665 – By Pat Cascio

Having toured the Benchmade Knives factory several times over the years, one thing that has always struck me about it is how clean it is. I mean their plant is super clean. How they manage to keep the place “that” clean while operating several shifts is beyond me. Additionally, it is pretty darn quiet in the Benchmade plant. I was amazed some years ago when I watched the laser cut knife blanks in almost total silence; it was amazing to watch the laser slice through the sheets of steel. The one problem Benchmade has is that they have a difficult …