Well, it's getting to be that time of year again. I remember when the Christmas season waited until after Thanksgiving to begin, but not any more. My wife works in retail and the Christmas season has already started. So I figured it was about time to put out my wish list to include a long gun, handgun, knife, light, multi-tool, boots and some tactical emergency medical kit. Feel free to let me know when you're going to send any of these items along... or steal the ideas to get your contemporary warrior a fantastic Christmas gift. Here we go!
My first item is the second most expensive item on my list - but it's a gun so I feel obligated to list it first. The above pictured rifle is the Rock River Arms Pro-Series Government Model. Chambered for .223/5.56mm the rifle sports a 16" Chrom Moly barrel with a 1:9 twist. It has a standard A2 flash "hider" and a fixed front sight. The rear sight is a flip-up model that is usually kept folded down out of the way unless the optic dies. The optic? It's an EOTech Model 552 which, in my opinion, is one of the easiest to use and most intuitive optics available. The pistol grip is a Hogue Rubber grip and it helps provide traction to pull the adjustable stock into your shoulder. The handguard is the SureFire M73 quad rail system, and on it is mounted a SureFire M951 light. The rifle is delivered with ONE 30-round magazine, a VTAC Sling and an Eagle Discreet Rifle Case. For the MSRP of $2,315 I think Rock River Arms should put in SIX 30-round magazines, but that's my only complaint. Anybody going to pony up and send me one for Christmas?
The next item on my list isn't as expensive, but it isn't cheap either: the Five-seveN 5.7mm pistol from FNH USA. Delivered with three 20-round magazines that hold the 5.7x28mm ammunition the gun weighs just over a pound (19 ounces) and recoil is so light that my ten year old son laughed and giggled as he fired a magazine of ammo. The downside is that one magazine of ammo cost about ten bucks. The pistol retails in the $900 price range so I don't think my wife will put one under the tree for me this Christmas, but if I'm really lucky I might see one for my birthday next year.
Having listed a long gun and a handgun a knife is obviously the next thing on my list (what'd you expect?). This year I'm asking Santa for a Schrade GI-style folding knife. Available for a mere $14.99 from Brigade Quartermasters this folding pocket knife sports a large blade, a can opener, a bottle cap / screwdriver and an awl/hole reamer. For $14.99? Why wouldn't I want one? THIS is something I might actually unwrap Christmas morning. I'll have to see if I can get one of my children to cough up the big bucks for this one...
Of course, a knife is just a knife while a multi-tool is MacGyver's bread-and-butter. Well, you know what I mean. The usual multi-tool has more tools than most of us really use. The one I carried on my gunbelt for years saw use most to take license plates off of cars I was impounding. Things have changed even since then and my choice of multi-tool now is the SOG PowerLock EOD. Listed at $120 on the SOG website I'm willing to bet that it'd pay itself off inside a year with all the different things it does. The tools it contains are:
- Needle nose plyers
- wire cutter
- awl / hole punch
- 3 different size standard screwdrivers
- philips head screwdriver
- kerf-cut saw
- scissors
- bottle opener
- can opener
- partially serrated knife
- crimper tool
- file
And SOG puts all that in a package that measures 4.6" closed weighing a little more than half a pound. Not bad...
Now that I have a primary weapon, secondary weapon, knife and multi-tool I need to consider other pieces of kit. One of the lessons I learned during my years in the Army and my time as a cop is that I need to take care of my feet. In my world that means having a good pair of boots. SO, I wish for a pair of BLACKHAWK! Warrior Wear Desert Ops boots. When I look at the spec info available online or I try to understand what makes these boots so much better than any other, I get lost. What matters to me is what I can, and have, experienced first hand. Warrior Wear boots rock! The Desert Ops boots has a few things I think matter:
- A steel shank: while BLACKHAWK! says this matters for support while carrying a pack I like what the shank keeps from coming through the footbed and into my foot
- large, open lugs on the sole - that helps it shred mud and such and stay cleaner and lighter
- The layered construction with linings that help keep my feet cool or warm (as necessary) and dry in all climates
- rubbereized toe and heel reinforcements - that means no one can demand I shine these boots (not reasonably). They don't shine and let's be real: they're tan. Does sand shine?
With an MSRP of $149.99 these boots can be found for much less and I'm (again) hoping that I can find a pair under my Christmas tree.
That leaves me a few more items to wish for. They are:
- The Gladius Maximus from Night-Ops. This programmable, LED-driven 6V light produces an amazing 120 lumens of light from the CREE-LED lamp. Available in a variety of colors, the light can even be used for scuba diving (I've had my Gladius to 75' so far).
- A basic Immediate Action Medical Kit. Commonly known as a "blow out kit" this should contain: one tourniquet, two pressure bandages, a QuikClot sponge and a pair of gloves.
- Eye protection. I've been wearing glasses most of my life and my prescription is pretty thick, so unless I wear contacts all the time I can't wear the cool looking sun-shades everyone else gets to. My Christmas wish is for a pair of Revision Eyewear Hellflys that will hold my prescription. I know I'm dreaming... but it would be SO cool.
- And finally... a General Dynamics Itronix VR-2 rugged laptop computer. I had one for T&E (that I had to send back) that took everything I threw at it and kept on working. It was built tough! And I enjoyed it. Still, priced over $3K - which is common for laptops of this type - I have a feeling I'm not going to see one under the Christmas tree - or anywhere else in my house for that matter!
So, that's my Christmas Wish List. I could probably add another hundred items but those are the ones at the top of my list. Now if my wife will just read the newsletter when she gets it...
Stay Safe!
