Black Friday: Top 12 Gifts for Christmas

1) New Leatherman Charge Tti  $119.39

Still the best multitool there is. Check my video review if you’re still not convinced.

2) Eagletac D25C   $54.90

My current EDC light. I’ve used it all year long and cant say enough good things about it. Very compact, 397 lumens, clicky operation, recessed button, so it can stand on its tale and doesn’t get turned on accidentally in your pocket, yet easy to click on when needed. It has low, medium and high mode along with strobe and SOS, the low mode can be set at a very low “moonlight” mode that will last for days. Pretty tough too. Since its so small, it ended up going for a ride in the washing machine inside one of my pants. It still worked and didn’t corrode or rust later on. I have my eye on the titanium version, would make a nice present.

3) The Modern Survival Manual   $22.46

Oh sure, why not. The more I read other preparedness and survival manuals out there the more confident I am about shamelessly recommending my own. It’s packed with practical, real-world advice and based on the Amazon reviews and feedback I get from you guys I know you’ll like it.

4) Xbox One $1,099.99

Sure isnt a priority but I know I’m getting one eventualy.

In the old days you were supposed to have cards, toys and board games in a fallout shelter. Today, in the modern version of bugging in, that’s been replaced by video games. I said it back in 2005 and still think the same way: Based on my experience, when inflation kills your purchasing power and a dinner out and movie means you have to sell a kidney along with the chances of getting shot if you are still out after the sun goes down you start having a new found appreciation for home entertainment systems. Alone or with friends, its cheap, safe entertainment for when when things are bad out there.When I take a break I’m currently playing a bit of GTA V (excellent game, by the way).

5) DPM Systems Glock Skull Cracker/Glass Breaker  $34.95

I know of a few “like minded people” in Argentina that have these in their carry Glocks. Some are cops that had to give up the skull cracking ability of their old steel framed Hi Power 9mm but not any more! Sure, its intended for breaking glass and for that it would also work well I guess, but that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t use it on an attacker’s head if you had do. At first I thought it was a weird gimmick, like the pistol bayonet, but then I saw that it doesn’t hurt your hand when reloading (its not sharp, simply a solid tip) and that applied with force to a bad guy’s skull carbide metal makes more sense than plastic.

 6) Pathfinder Triple Sensor Tough Solar Digital Multi-Function Titanium $259.35

I’ve been using mine for almost two years now. Titanium, solar, bomb proof and tons of functions. Maybe the one I use the most is the barometric pressure chart. Just looking at it lets me know what the weather is going to be like. Graph going up, its getting nice, dropping, then there’s rain coming, if it shows a steep drop then you better find shelter soon!

Mrs. FerFAL Officially Approved Gifts

7) Leatherman PS4 $24.14

Its small, sturdy and packed with useful tools. The pliers are for light tasks only but what she uses the most is the small blade for opening boxes and the screwdrivers for replacing batteries. She mentioned liking the flat Philips screwdriver that “fits everywhere” and has a magnetic tip so as to not lose those small screws. I like the PS4 as well but if you want something even smaller and lighter (no pliers though) try out my personal favorite keychain multitool, the Victorinox Midnight Minichamp.

8) Fenix E05  $20.95

This one has been living in my wife’s keychain for some time now. At first she thought it was “cute”. Now she uses it all the time.

9) Victorinox Rescue Tool  $73.60

This was wasn’t as much a gift as it was my wife one day stealing it for some reason. She liked how it looked, and what it did. For most practical purposes its not that different from the German Army knife, with the saw replaced for a seat belt cutter.

10) Spyderco Delica $60.56

The Delica is a classic, solid knife for its size and a favorite for those with small hands. Great knife for the ladies.

11) Maxpedition Fatboy Versipack $77.23

A lady’s man-purse I guess. It looks good and women seem to like it. My wife finds these type of bags pretty handy.

12) SABRE RED Police Strength Pepper Spray – Compact, Pink Case with Quick Release Key Ring   $7.32

Wifes, daughter, a must have for all women and guys too (but maybe not in pink).

Also, don’t forget to check our sponsors Jeff “The Berkey Guy” and “Camping Survival”. They have some great Black Friday Discounts.

Take care people, hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving day!

FerFAL

5 Politically Incorrect Christmas gifts for Kids

Oh, Christmas. That magical time of the year, Santa, Christmas trees, presents and sanitized “Happy Holidays” signs that make you throw up in your mouth a little.

As Christmas eve approaches, we hurry to buy something for our little ones.  Nothing beats busting our brains thinking of neat gifts, only for our kids to leave them all over the living room and the small parts going straight into the vacuum cleaner not 24hs after they opened them.

But you know you’re going to buy them anyway so for this Black Friday week I made a short list of politically incorrect toys that will at least counteract some of the garbage out kids are exposed to on daily basis, maybe even teach them a thing or two about life.

5-Playmobil Nativity Manger with Stable

Playmobil Nativity Manger with Stable $29.99
Christmas may be banned in New York schools and various government buildings but not all hope is lost. While most toy companies play along, others like Playmobil actually have nativity toys. There’s even a little baby Jesus. 

4-Playmobil Advent Calendar Police with Cool Additional Surprises

Playmobil Advent Calendar Police Cool Additional Surprises $23.49

In case you didn’t notice, Lego “cops” don’t have guns any more (no Nativity toys either). They run around with handcuffs instead.  God forbid, should a child play imagining that a toy cop shoots a toy bad guy. Well, Playmboil thankfully isn’t like that. In this set both cops and the bad guy have plenty of guns, both handguns and long arms as well as holsters that actually fit the tiny sidearms. Go Playmobil! I got this set for my son a few weeks ago and he loved it. It comes with a small motion detector alarm (not loud, safe for small children) and they can set it up so that it goes off when someone moves or approaches the museum treasure. 

3-Daisy Outdoor Products 693 Pistol Kit

Daisy Outdoor Products 693 Pistol Kit $49.99

This was the first CO2 pistol I ever owned and man did I have fun with it. Mine was a Daisy just like this one but the color was black with brown grips. The construction is plastic but it doesn’t really matter, it has plenty of metal where needed, its tough and packs a punch. Careful though, the price is pretty low but it does not reflect how powerful this thing is.

The one I had was accurate for a gun that fires round pellets and has fixed sights. It is powerful, punched holes into thin wood and cans.Decades later after forgetting about this gun I found it in a drawer. Some CO2 and a few pellets later and it was working again.

This is not a toy and should be treated like a firearm. Pay special attention to eye protection which is the most common type of injury with air guns. The rule is very simple and this is what I do with my oldest son: You put on your eye protection before picking it up, you take it off after you  put away the gun. Break that rule and you lose your air gun for a month, or until you are old enough to handle it responsibly.  

2-Daisy Outdoor Products Red Ryder Gun

Daisy Outdoor Products Red Ryder Gun $46.20

I never had one of these but everyone seems to remember them fondly and it seems to be a great choice as a kids first gun. Comes in pink too for girls.

I see how the Red Ryder can be lots of fun, but its more of a plinking kind of air gun,a true “fun gun”. If the intention is to use it for shooting pests too, within the same budget you have better, more powerful guns such as the Crosman 2100 or Daisy 880 which is better suited for it.

1-Crosman Remington Vantage Hardwood Stock Break (.177)

Crosman Remington Vantage Hardwood Stock Break (.177) $109.99

Here’s where things get interesting. I got a similar air rifle for my 15^th birthday, brand Mahely. It wasn’t as nice as the Crossman Remington Vantage but my Mahely was also a break barrel action that generated nice power and had good accuracy.  If you want to go all the way there’s the Gamo Silent Stalker. The .22 version is a serious small game hunting air gun. It has a Shock Wave Absorber and noise dampener reducing noise up to 52%. 

Gamo Silent Stalker Whisper IGT Air Rifle air rifle  $203.68 

Glock vs 1911: Why Glock is the best gun for you… and everybody else.

Hello Fernando,

  Hope you're doing well in Ireland my friend. 

  I couldn't get my comment to work on the blog so I thought I'd drop a quick note in response to your comment in your M&P post about how people should just save time and "get a Glock" cuz it's the best fighting handgun around. Umm, maybe not. :-)

  I posted a thread on www.whenshtf.com entitled "Why I HATE the Glock" and really stirred things up. Basically  I opined the reason Glucks aren't for everyone is their grip angle closely resembles a length of 2x4 in comfort and their "safety" is on the friggin trigger! 

I know, the mind is the ultimate safety, but maybe John Browning and Gaston Glock both knew people were likely to be dumb with weapons but just came at the problem from two different angles. JMB put active safeties on to keep people from shooting themselves in the ass, GG put a passive safety on so people wouldn't forget to undo them.

If you read Glock; the rise of America's pistol by Paul M. Barrett, it explains that's exactly why GG built the Glock the way it is; he couldn't remember to swip off a safety on a P-38 he carried and figured no one else could either.

So those are the two reasons I love my 1911; grip angle and safeties. Oh and it's much better looking than a Glock.  :-D  No, I don't think they're for everyone, but if someone is willing to learn more about their gun than just which end the bullets come out, I think the 1911 beats Glock, IMHO. 

You get a chance, check out our forum. Lotsa good people and discussions, good info too. I can also recommend a thread I posted "the 1911 is it's own toolbox". Good article on stuff I never knew.

  Have a blessed day, sir!

William

Never send a Glock to do a 1911's job.

......  ............  .......

Hello William,

Thanks for your email. You make some interesting points. They are wrong, but still interesting. Just messing with you, we all have our opinions and I appreciate the debate so thanks for making yours heard. 

A Norinco 1911 was actually the first big bore handgun I ever owned and learned to shoot well. That Norinco was of course perfectly reliable until I put a few $1000 into it, made it ¼”  more accurate at 25 yards and messed its reliability. A few thousand dollars more, including a fancy finish, nice grips and a bunch of very expensive magazines it was almost as reliable as it had been out of the box. My advice definitely is, if your 1911 works well, don’t mess with it! 1911s aren’t Glocks, you cant just drop a part in it and expect it to fit and work. It wont. A lot of tweaking and filing, polishing and buffing is needed to make parts fit and work well.

I believe that the old saying “Beware of the man with only on gun” is true. I learned to shoot that gun well, took my first defensive shooting classes with it.

Eventually I realized that other shooters taking the classes that had twice as much ammo in their magazines clearly had an edge on firepower. I told myself “I’m firing a manly .45, not some puny 9mm!”. Well, there was also the matter about those ugly Glocks being lighter, less prone to failure, more likely to keep working when dropped in the dirt and mud during some of the drills. Eventually I gave up and went first with a Bersa Thunder 9, which I will say was better than trying to keep up with Glocks with my 1911, and finally I got myself a Glock.

Sure, at first the trigger felt like a toy compared to the Chip McCormick trigger I had in my 1911, and the groups at 25 yards spread just a tad, but other than that it was lighter, still very accurate, had more ammo and was easier to reload fast. The 1911 is all I had known, so for months I would still try to disengage a safety on the Glock that wasn’t there anymore. Not a problem, the Glock didn’t seem to mind. 

Eventually I “learned” the Glock just like I had learned the 1911. The grip wasn’t a problem for me, I liked it straight away much better than the 1911 slab feeling and the Glock gen 4 is even better. The Glock pointed more naturally and I appreciated the lower bore axis. My 1911 hadnt been “melted” or dehorned so I also learned to appreciate the lack of sharp edges in the Glock. My hands felt much better after 10 hour long classes and training sessions.

Every now and then someone would show up with a 1911, some more expensive than others but all of them having the same shortcomings I have noticed. They would fail more often, the slight accuracy advantage wouldn’t be noticeable in those guns that may have had it, but the slower reloading and magazine capacity limit sure was.

Up until the Glock showed up, the 1911 was king of the hill. You had some great double action autos already but you could still make a case for the single action 45. But when the Glock came into the picture it marked a clear end of the 1911 era as the king of combat handguns. Everything a 1911 does, there’s a Glock in some caliber, bigger and with more capacity even, that does it just as good or noticeably better.

I’ve taken several men and women to the range for the first time. I cant think of one that didn’t do his or her best with the Glock rather than any other handgun. If we take into account durability, reliability, simplicity, accuracy, capacity, availability of parts and accessories and ease of repair, no other gun beats it and that is why most law enforcement and defensive shooting experts use it.

The 1911 I will keep for my kids when they grow older. It belonged to my father so it has sentimental value as well. But when it comes to a reliable tool for defense, the Glock will be my choice in handguns until something better shows up.
FerFAL

Customize your S&W M&P…

So that it's more like a Glock.

For over three decades now Glock has dominated the auto handgun market. Eventually every manufacturer ended up with a Glock copy of some kind. S&W was no different and they had to pay Glock for copying their gun with their Sigma. The M&P is the “evolution” of such a pistol, so basically the M&P is a nicer looking Sigma, which is a copy of the Glock.

Now here’s the funny part. It seems that if you want the latest tricked out M&P you can customize it by adding this $140 Apex trigger kit, so as to make it a state of the art handgun by well… putting a Glock trigger into it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it DOES improve the M&P , but it is hard to avoid noticing that it does so by putting a Glock trigger in a striker fired polymer framed gun that copied the Glock on everything except for the trigger.

People, I like most guns, there’s thousands of great designs which do their intended job and are fun to shoot, but if you want the best defensive auto pistol there’s only one way to go and one gun you should master. The rest have simply been trying to reinvent what Gaston Glock got right the first time. 

FerFAL