A CBS News Pentagon Correspondent is reporting that Bin Laden was killed with a Sniper shot to the head in Pakistan, where SOF Forces have recovered the body.
Stay tuned for updates to this story as we’re waiting for the President to make a statement shortly.
UPDATE: President Obama addressed the nation at 23:36 Eastern time, announcing that US Special Operations have conducted an operation tonight deep inside a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan that has left Osama Bin Laden dead after a firefight. The body of Bin Laden has been taken into custody by the US and moved to Afghanistan and there were no American or civilian casualties. Continue reading →
Today’s Knot of the Week is a bit of a departure from our usual knots and is more of a paracord wrapping. What we’ll be demonstrating is wrapping a small hand sanitizer bottle, often referred to as a Germ Grenade.
We’re demonstrating this not to simply have a bottle of hand sanitizer at the ready, but to show the overall wrapping with a Solomon Bar and get you to see that you can realistically wrap just about any bottle or container using this method. Continue reading →
Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that our sponsor Tactical Distributors is running a 20% off sale this weekend on ENO (Eagles Nest Outfitters) Products.
I just put in my order for an ENO Hammock I’ve been drooling over since Mike brought his with him to Texas at our 2nd Anniversary Party earlier this month. The ITS Crew went out hiking and we were all amazed at the versatility and how easy it was to put up and take down.
I’m planning on camping out in it a few times over the next few months and I’ll write up a review on it when I’m done, I have high expectations though having already seen one in action.
Depending on how long you’ve been shooting and what kind of instruction you’ve had, you may have heard of Col. Cooper before.
Cooper’s wisdom has been heavily integrated into modern shooting and today we’ll look at a few things you should commit to memory if you own or carry a gun. Continue reading →
If you haven’t heard the term “Tactical Pen” yet, you just have. While Tactical Pens have been hitting the mainstream tactical market for a few years now, today I’d like to address some of the myths behind them.
Not only why they can get you into trouble, but why an overpriced writing utensil simply isn’t necessary. Continue reading →
As the name implies, it’s quite similar to the standard Pocket Survival Pak. But this kit has some tricks up its sleeve.
What I like about these past two kits from Adventure Medical Kits & Doug Ritter is that the packaging includes a section on “Improving The Odds in Your Favor.”
It urges you to not only go over the survival instructions before stowing your Pak, but to also practice with it beforehand.
The advice makes sense no matter what Survival Kit you’re using, you can never practice too much before you’re in the situation where you “have” to use it.
Contents
RSK Mk5 Knife
Pico Lite LED Flashlight
Sterile Water Container
Katadyn Micropur MP I Water Purification Tablets
28″ Ball Chain
Fesnel Lens Magnifier (2″ x 3″)
Rescue Flash Signal Mirror
Spark-Lite Firestarter
Tinder-Quik (4)
Rescue Howler Fox 40 Whistle
Compass (20 mm)
Fishing Kit (4 fish hooks)
Duct Tape (2″ x 26″)
Aluminum Foil
Nylon Cord (10 ft., 150 lb. test)
Stainless Steel Utility Wire (6 ft. of 0.020″)
Safety Pins #3-2″ (4)
Sewing Needle & Nylon Thread (50 ft.)
Pencil & Waterproof Note Paper
Testing Notes
Weight 6.1 oz.
I was impressed with the construction of the kit itself but I would have liked to see it in a much brighter orange color, rather than the subdued red that it actually is. In a survival situation you are going to want as many signaling devices as possible.
The included flashlight worked as well as expected, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s extremely small, so you can’t get a very large beam from it, but the luxury of having some light to operate when the sun goes down is quite handy.
The RSK Mk5 knife is so light, it’s almost the same weight as the Magpul Executive Field Case for the iPhone 4. It’s easy to grip and use for most tasks. I can’t think of anyway for them to make this knife smaller and still have it be as comfortable as it is. The attached lanyard and sheath allow a few different carrying options.
The instructions on the water purification tablets were easy enough to follow but actually a little funny. “Wear protective eyewear, protective clothing and rubber gloves.” Don’t they know this is a survival situation? The tablet dissolved in only about a minute or two but the instructions say to leave it untouched for 4 hours and away from direct sunlight.
The one liter water bag was great. It held the exact amount of water that could be purified with one tablet so that you have the potential for six liters of purified water. It was constructed fairly well and survived some small drops from a height of around three feet before popping at the bottom. But you could possibly fix that with some duct tape.
3/5 – This section of the grading was a little tricky. While the quality of the contents merits the higher price, it’s still a little steep for some people. That said, you also need to take into account who this kit is geared towards. It’s geared towards individuals that don’t carry a knife or flashlight on a daily basis.
Waterproofness
5/5 – The waterproof pouch is made by Pacific Outdoor Equipment and is easily resealable with the ziplock-style enclosure. With sturdy plastic on one side and durable 40D ripstop on the other, I’m fully confident that this case will survive being dragged over the rocks down a river or creek. In my tests, this bag is IPX7 rated (submersible to 1 meter for 30 minutes) if not better.
Size/Weight Portability
4/5 – Fits best in a cargo pocket but still fits in most front pockets with no problem. If you wanted to shrink the kit down a little and make it more pocket friendly, move the knife, whistle and flashlight to the ball chain and wear them around your neck.
Shelter
4/5 – You have to be creative but you shouldn’t have any trouble making a shelter, especially with the included survival knife. I wanted to give this a perfect 5/5 but without any included type of shelter, I knocked it down to a 4/5.
Water Purification
5/5 – 6 water purification tablets and a one liter container make this kit stand head and shoulders above the others.
Food
4/5 – There’s nothing included in the kit food-wise, but all of the items you would need to catch and cook your own food are included. Go fishing and set some snares to increase your chances of a catch.
Fire Starting
5/5 – The fire starter flint works well even when soaked and when you couple it with the tinder-quiks, you should have no trouble getting a fire going. If you want to save the tinder-quiks for a wet situation and you have the sun available, you can use the included magnifying glass without much trouble.
Signaling
5/5 – A lot of these kits get in trouble because they don’t provide tools for signaling. That’s not the case with this kit. You can use the signal mirror, the extremely loud whistle or even the flashlight. I have no doubt that one of those could save your life. It’s good that these items didn’t get skimped on.
Overall Remarks
Simply put, if you aren’t going to carry a knife, flashlight, or liter of water on a daily basis then buy this kit. It has just about everything covered. Keep in mind it’s not ‘the’ ultimate survival kit but it’s pretty close to being the ultimate pocket-sized survival kit, thanks to high quality items included.
Just as I believe that the best camera in the world is the one that you always have on you, I feel the same about survival kits. Having an amazing survival kit in your truck or kayak that allows you to survive for a week can easily become unreachable in a true emergency or survival situation.
To celebrate Easter in our own way here on ITS Tactical and to thank YOU for your support, we’re heavily discounting every single in-stock item in our store!
Data Scientists Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden have just released new research detailing how Apple is keeping track of your every move in an unencrypted file that resides on the computer you use for backing up your iPhone and iPad 3G.
While there’s no evidence this data is being transmitted to Apple, we strongly feel this is a security risk, as this tracking information is located in a file called location.db in your backup files and records every cell tower you’ve accessed.
Allan and Warden notice that the first instance of location tracking started with the install of iOS4 in both the iPhone and iPad, which was released almost a year ago. This means there’s nearly a year’s worth of locations stored in this consolidated.db file. This is thousands of data points! Continue reading →
I’ve been planning to make a Morale Patch Display Frame for a long time now, as I’ve slowly been running out of room in my MSM MegaPatch Book. Finally having a HQ and an overall lack of things on the wall, prompted me to finally make one.
My requirements were simple, I wanted a place to not only display Velcro-backed Morale Patches, but also display the patches people send us that don’t have hook on the back. To do this I knew I needed some type of cork board backing behind the Velcro.
Today I’ll be taking you through the process I used to create a DIY Morale Patch Display Frame, I hope that you’ll be able to use these instructions to create your own too!
Process
Using a frame and backing board, I’ll be using spray adhesive to glue down cork board panels and then gluing VELTEX display loop on top of that. It’s a fairly simple process to undertake. It’s not too expensive to make one of these yourself and totally worth it in my opinion to be able to enjoy looking at your Morale Patch collection hanging up all at once. Let’s take a look at the materials you’ll need to get started.
Frame
To start with, let’s talk about the frame. I used an old 42″ x 32″ steel frame I had lying around collecting dust, but I’m more than positive that most frames would work for this project. What I like about my frame is that the steel hides the outer edge of the materials so things don’t have to look 100% perfect, I’d suggest you try to look for something similar in style.
VELTEX
I asked Joel at Zulu Nylon Gear for his advice on what to use for the “loop” to affix the patches and he suggested VELTEX Display Loop. I knew I’d found the perfect material when took a look at it.
VELTEX is designed for engagement with hook Fasteners, made of 100% nylon fabric with polyester foam core and nylon tricot backing. It’s also commonly used for trade show booths and display boards. You can get VELTEX in a wide range of colors and I opted for Beige.
VELTEX itself isn’t too expensive, I paid about $14 for a yard of it that measures 60″ in width. One yard was more than enough to cover the frame I had. You will pay for shipping though on VELTEX, I paid $18 to ship one yard of it.
Remaining Materials
Since I already had a full sized piece of cardboard as a backer in my frame, I didn’t need one. Some frames you’ll find will have a strong enough backer to use, but you’ll need something to mount the cork panels and VELTEX to. The 12″ x 12″ cork panels come in a pack of three and can be found in most office supply stores. I needed three packs which were about $5 each.
You’ll also need a can of 3M Hi-Tack 76 Spray Adhesive, Tape Measure, Screwdriver, Scissors, Box Cutter, Straight Pins and I’d suggest using Drywall Anchors to mount your frame to the wall. Here’s a video we made of the step-by-step process!
I hope you enjoyed the DIY Morale Patch Display Frame article and are already thinking of ways to create your own. Be sure to leave any questions you have in the comments or on the YouTube Video comments.
We’ve already almost filled this frame up and we’ll have to make a second one soon! If you’d like us to throw your unit’s patch up on our frame shoot us an email and we’ll give you a good address to send it to. We sincerely appreciate all the patches we’ve received in support thus far!
Instead of the blanket color warnings, we’ll now be presented with either an “Imminent Threat” or “Elevated Threat.” An “elevated” threat will include a credible threat of terrorism, while an “imminent” threat would warn of a credible, specific and impending threat.
It’s awesome to know that the Government has been keeping tabs on what we’re doing here and chosen to name their new system after us! I’m joking of course, but still humorous nonetheless. Continue reading →
