Photos By Wally F. | Words By Wally F.

The Complete Package… and then some. That would be my one sentence summation on Mantis Tech‘s Laser Academy training system.

Prior to getting my hands on the Laser Academy I had been using their X2 Shooting Performance System for a couple of years already. An ingenious dry fire shooting aid that gathers, evaluates, corrects, and scores your dry fire sessions. For a type AAA person like myself that thrives on stats and analytical performance evaluations the X2 has been a great companion especially in a time of ammunition shortages, pandemic shutdown of ranges, and general heightening of stress for people everywhere. I found the Mantis Tech X2 an excellent stress reliever and easy training aid to use in the comfort of my only home.

Naturally Mantis Tech has pushed their hardware and software to the next evolution of interactive dry fire training with the Laser Academy. It is exactly as it sounds. A systematic progress of dry fire training designed to keep the user engaged with variety and clear levels and categories of drills to practice and refine technique. But we’re talking more than just basic marksmanship here. Laser Academy also covers movement from holster on the draw, close contacts, compressed ready, and a whole slew of other alternate positions, situations, and scenarios. All tracked, measured, and recorded for AAR after each serial.

But lets rewind back to start. Laser Academy is presented in a rugged compacted and eye pleasing hard nylon case. Along with the hard case the system it comes with I deem a home and away set-up. A large tripod and smartphone mounting bracket along with five hearty steel ring base plate mounts for the full sized (8.5”x11”) targets which I call my home ice advantage or what Mantis calls their Standard training kit. This is a set up I have on one end of my office which never really moved after I had it all set up. Getting into a training session was as easy as loading the Pink Rhino Laser cartridge into my pistol and loading the App.

The target package comes with twelve different targets ranging from IPSC, IDPA, FBI standard targets to the very useful Dot Torture, traditional bulls-eye, dart board, hostage taker, and so on. Some of the targets come in pairs which is useful for some of the multiple target drills you can do in the App. The hard case is my Away or portable package. A flexible mini tripod and smartphone mount with a handy Mantis branded wooden dowel, and the Pink Rhino Laser Cartridge. Also in the case is a sleeve which holds 5”x7” versions of the same targets that the standard kit has. The portable kit also comes with a block or blue tack putty that you can use to stick your targets to surfaces. I actually took two of the five steel ring base mounts and put those in the portable kit as I found it faster to just throw to targets up on the base mounts than to fiddle around with the blue putty.

Down to the nitty gritty. The set up of the system was fairly easy. I found the best angle at least with my Samsung Galaxy phone to register the targets cleanly was no more than 120 degrees from the targets especially when running dual target drills. The App does allow for auto camera adjustment, changing your ISO, and indicating your shutter speed as well. Now depending on the type of pistol you have where the laser lands versus you’re iron sights and eyes line up maybe slightly different. The laser will land differently if you’re shooting from a CZ Shadow2 or Lago Alien compared to a Glock 17 or M&P 2.0 just due to the height over bore difference. That’s all easily remedied with the App’s offset adjustments. If you’re using an RMR, Venom, DPP, Holosun, or other mini red dot optic (RDS), lining up the red dot is as easy as adjusting your RDS to overlap the Pink Rhino laser at the desired distance you want and you’re good to go, just remind what your offsets are if you’re going to drastically change your shooting distances. This is the same if you are using a PCC and red dot sight as well. I also tested Laser Academy with a Ruger PC Carbine in 9mm and the system worked great on that as well, which is good news for those that own FX9’s, B&Ts, Chiappas, MP5s, MCXs and so on. Basically any 9mm firearm works with Laser Academy (or whatever caliber of Pink Rhino Laser you have).

Once you’re zeroed and ready to go just make sure the O-rings on the Pink Rhino Laser cartridge are lightly oiled and the 3x LR 626 batteries and seated properly. Running the tutorial serial is straight forward and a good warm up for some of the more complicated shooting drills that the Laser Academy offers.

From zeroing you can move into the basics like bulls-eye shooting and progress to shooting from guard or low ready or holster draws. If you have a a second Pink Rhino and a friend you can duel it out with each other for a friendly competition, but most important to all of these drills is the feedback you receive from the app. Not only do you get the rounds, scores, and par times broken down for you, you also get a visual representation of the hits on target that you can you can manually zoom in on to see exactly where your hits landed for a better assessment.

For the App to recognize what target is what is the four corner QR codes that the camera on your phone scans to determine the borders and type of target you have up on screen. To help with dialing in the accuracy of the laser hits on paper. One of the drills I spent a lot of time on was the Open Shooting Multi Target mode. I’d set up two targets side by side and conducted static box shooting drill moving either left to right up and over or down and over with two IPSC targets. I also ran a traditional Box drill with a single target and moving to corners of the Box I set up. In all of these drills you can set the distance in the App of where you are shooting so the system can measure and score accordingly.

If you get tired of the 14 plus drills and 3 tutorials, which I doubt you will. There is also two courses to run from within the App as well. The Pistol Marksmanship course and the corresponding Pistol Marksmanship test. There are near endless combinations of drills and targets you can setup depending on what your training plan is. Whether it be for casual plinking, getting your split times down for your next IPSC match, speed and accuracy for steel challenge, honing your marksmanship for military or law enforcement. You can match the best target of your choice up to the best drill you want to accomplish the training goal you want to achieve.

Out of the couple thousand rounds or so that I put down range with the Laser Academy, I did experience the odd shot not getting registered with the system. Whether it was my smart phones specific camera just being a little dirty or the laser not refracting the light in the right way for the system to register a hit; is what initially prompted me to figure out the best min-max angle to position the camera for the App. I did notice the indentation on the back of the Pink Rhino Laser Cartridge rubber cover on the activation button. The dent on the button appears to be just cosmetic at this point as the Pink Rhino still fires jut fine. But I also consider the Pink Rhino and the LR626 batteries that go with it as a consumable much like a recoil or trigger spring, those high use high wear parts will need to be replaced over time.

Calculating the rough math on actually rounds fired versus virtual for me is the true tale of this review. Even if I conservatively fired 2500-3000 rounds for this review in real life for me to throw that much ammo of typical 9mm 124 grain would have cost me roughly $675cdn or about $525usd. Not counting gas, range fees, travel time, incidentals. The Mantis Laser Academy packages start at $99usd at time of print. So while nothing totally replaces putting live rounds down range, the benefits of dry fire training is very well documented. With the cost and availability always fluctuating and the status of ranges being opened or closed due to whatever your local pandemic measures are being taken in your area, makes going to your local range a major hassle.

The Mantis Tech Laser Academy System much like the Mantis X2 which I’ve had for a fairly long time is a worthy addition to my dry fire training. There are other dry fire laser “training systems” on the market which really don’t amount to much more than a video game with not much thought put behind the concept. The ability to be able to dry fire train meaningfully is something you can’t really put a price on especially in this day and age.

Find out more at Mantis Tech (https://mantisx.com/collections/laser-academy)

For your regular cravings in the firearms world in Canada and beyond be sure to follow TV-PressPass on Facebook and myself Wally F. on Instagram.

Reporting for TV-PressPass

Wally F.

Words By: Wally F |Photos By: Wally F and Black Box Customs

It’s mid-evening and I’m driving west. Resisting the urge to scratch the mosquito bites and ignoring the smell of sweat and gun powder residue on my clothes, squinting through my bug covered windshield, chasing the sunset on a southern Alberta highway. This was the end of my weekend, but lets start at the beginning…

Q-Division the training arm of Black Box Customs in collaboration with ABD Concepts presented a pistol concepts course for Law Enforcement and Military only students. I say students in the sense that we are always learning. I was surrounded by a wide variety of LEOs from big cities, to smaller towns, and R.C.M.P., from patrol officers with a few years or in one case about 18 months on the job, to Tac Team/SWAT members, and agency trainers/instructors with double digit years in experience, to an Army Combat Engineer with 22 years in and my old-ass Infantry self.

I’ve been on a lot of training courses, both civilian and military, as a student and a teacher. So, what makes ABD Concepts and Q-Division different from the sea of training courses out there available? For me it’s quality of instructor and depth of instruction. In the sense of how well an instructor can convey information to their students so it can be absorbed and confirmed. The army is famous for churning out “trained” instructors and leaders with the standard checks in the box. Just because you have a qualification doesn’t mean you’re a good instructor or mentor. Time, practice, and for me personally making a lot of mistakes helps me to be a better leader and teacher.

Black Box Customs takes the time to test, assess, and methodically refine their products with hard data and analysis through repetition, until they get a better product through deliberate design improvements. The same can be said about Q-Division and ABD Concepts. They’ve taken their years of street and field experience, and learning from others in their trade to distill a fast and furious course curriculum packed with relevant information backed with real world and/or case study experience. I know because I asked the stupid and not so stupid questions.

SVT who is ABD Concepts lead instructor is a former Tac-Team Sharp Shooter and recently retired from a major metropolitan agency. Right off the jump the comfort level with him and his rapport with the other students in the room was very positive and inviting. More or less the opposite of the knife-hand pointing drill cadre teaching on an Army course. First impressions are everything in everything. Since SVT is now civilian and pretty much answers to just ABD and Q-Division it was reassuring to know that the information he was delivering was motivated to improving the students ability with their pistols and there was no favouritism one way or the other.

While myself and the combat engineer were the only military people on the course, the staff were able to relate the teach material for our uses as well. That being said, much was covered in the areas of accountability on the street, the criminal code, and courts surrounding officer involved shootings. One of the issues brought up quickly was the whole trend of “Defund the Police” which in all common sense, doesn’t make any. Why take away money, people, information, and tools that can make law enforcement officers on the street more able to address calls and situations through education and repetitive training, and when needed, technical proficiency with their firearms as a proper justified response? Take a moment and think about it.

SVT’s style of instruction is informal and there’s a lot of joking around with the type of dark humour only military and cops can appreciate. He’s genuine in his delivery and honest with where he’s getting his information from. If the staff picked up a useful piece of information, technique, or procedure, from the numerous dozens and dozens of specialty courses the staff have participated in they would give credit where credits due and follow up with us to check those source as well to confirm as opposed to taking just their word for it. In short, this is the type of instruction I’m paying for, other subject matter experts taking the best of their experiences and training and filtering that information to present to the course what is most relevant.

I always inform every instructor I meet on a course that if I can learn one useful piece of knowledge per day that I can take home and work on myself then I’ve got my money’s worth. I was fortunate enough to walk away with about two dozen excellent pieces of information from this course and not just from the instructors but from watching the other candidates, who again, are themselves instructors and trainers. Surround yourself with people of better calibre and you strive to elevate to their level. Call it value added.

Things I picked up just in the classroom portion even before we hit the range was very useful for me. While it was heavily weighed towards law enforcement, concepts are universal and grounded in common sense. Emphasis was put on tracking your performance and recording your data for comparison and analysis. Most people can tell you what their one rep max is on the bench press. How many of those people can tell you what their average trigger pull time is on a shot timer at the ready versus their draw from holster and first round fire time is on a shot timer? Tracking this information does matter, especially with the cost and availability of live ammo always an uncertainty you have to make every round count.

The staff were very good at breaking concepts down and then building them back up in context. I’ve been shown six ways to Sunday on how achieve a proper dominant and support hand grip on a pistol but the mechanical breakdown of the motion demonstrated helped me in repeating the movement, again something I can do at home for free.

The end of the first day felt like it ended too early even though we were probably over time by 90 minutes or so by my count. But that’s the kind of training day you want to have versus just watching the clock. The second day of training started in the classroom again, talking about nailing down the five W’s, the context needed to reacting to a situation and reacting accordingly. Emphasis was put on accountability and articulation on use of force and how to build a framework for court. Again the gathering of data and training numbers for review and analysis later was touched on once more.

On the firing line more wisdom was dropped on me in a couple of matter-of-factly moments on my part. It wasn’t until after that I realized how much the army to some extent has done me a disservice with the way I was trained. But as with large organizations it takes years or decades in some cases to change doctrine. With tactical and small specialty teams much like special operations forces; all of whom are small agile and easily able to absorb new TTPs and applying them, this pistol course helped me correct some basic bio-mechanical movements from the top down to my stance.

The psychology of shooting and training was touched on as well regarding performance and improvement. One that stood out for me was the negative space target drills. It helped me “devisualize” if that’s a word, I know it’s not, hits in the “A” zone and realize that hits are still going where they need to without having to get conflicted about a grouping that you may not have desired, even though you still achieved your hits. Essentially helping your Ego temper your Id while on the range. Another thing that was brought up was the importance of the pinky finger. In several instances the pinky came into excellent effect, whether it was through grip, weapons manipulations, or deployment and use of a hand held light. Who knew the pinky was more than just a Dr. Evil signature move or the other half of the Brain.

Speaking of brains, in an effort to help the students on and off the range, we were all testing out three targets that ABD developed with multiple uses for each and more importantly able to print off on common letter sized paper. Dubbed The Lantern, The Mandarin, and Rush Hour these three targets were briefly explained to us and then we used on the range. The best part being is that every one on the course got copies of these to use and practice on their own time.

When it comes down to the employment of a pistol for your job or otherwise, I know that effectively managing its use is a fast diminishing skill set if you don’t practice all the time. One of things that one of the other candidates said really stuck to me: “For every live round fired you’re dry firing nine.” That rings very true in my ears.

ABD Concepts and Q-Division put on an excellent inaugural pistol class to a group of highly motivated law enforcement officers and a couple of old army guys. We were given good instruction on the shooting line and very useful information behind the desk. But I think most importantly we were given some tools to take away and practice and employ well after the course concluded.

ABD Concepts and Q-Division are holding a pistol Red Dot Sight employment course in the very near future and if you’ve ever wondered if you should get an RDS mounted on a pistol, this is the course to be on. They will be supplying rentals on this course for candidates to trial if they don’t have a red dot on their pistol. Civilian and LEO/Mil courses are both available to sign up for now.

For your regular cravings in the firearms world in Canada and beyond be sure to follow TV-PressPass on Facebook and myself Wally F. on Instagram.

Reporting for TV-PressPass

Wally F.

A made in Canada solution to a Canadian quirk with the CAF TacVest. I thought this product is a good introduction to making your issued equipment from the CAF less sucky. If you’re new to the Canadian military, or your chain of command doesn’t allow you to use non-issued LBV when in the field then the Reflex Magazine Insert (RMI) is a strong step in the right direction to making your TacVest more useful.

A kydex insert that fits inside your magazine pouch on the CAF TacVest, it is a magazine retention system that does away with the flap buckle Velcro combo on the original TacVest. There is no modification needed on the TacVest so you’re not altering the “Queens Kit”.

Installation of the insert is so simple even a no-hook private can do it. You fold the buckle of your mag pouch up so it is behind the strap and then you push the buckle and the flap down inside the magazine pouch as flush as you can get it. Then you slide the Reflex Magazine Insert into the magazine pouch and push the integrated male swift clip on the RMI into the female swift clip on the TacVest’s magazine pouch. Repeat three more times and your installation is complete.

Insert magazines into the RMI and you’re good to go. The retention is very positive and draw and replacing the mags back into the mag pouches are lightning fast. The RMI holds the shape of the mag pouch and the kydex makes the draw smooth and fast. I tried STANG magazines in the RMI because that’s what the army issues and they work like a charm.

Additionally I tried Pmags, Troy, Beowolf, and MFT magazines and they all work the same as well. If you reference the VIDEO I took of me testing the retention the magazines stayed in place very well. Granted the magazines only had five rounds in them each, because Canada. Never-the-less I took the TacVest flipped it upside down and shook it pretty hard and fast and the magazines stayed in place. I imagine with full 30 round loads the results may change. That being said if you’re caught in a situation where you’re wearing your TacVest and are upside down being violently shook, I’m thinking magazine retention at that point is not at the top of your list of things to deal with.

Over all my first impressions of the RMI are very positive, just like it’s retention. Like I said at the beginning of the article if you’re a new troop or your unit/regiment doesn’t authorize non-issued kit, the Reflex Magazine Insert should definitely be on your Christmas list.

For your regular cravings in the firearms world in Canada and beyond be sure to follow TV-PressPass on Facebook and myself Wally F. on Instagram.

Reporting for TV-PressPass

Wally F.

Since then I’ve put my boot down in nine countries, lived on three continents, and traveled in excess of 84,000 kilometers.

Now I’m headed back to the firing line for a reacquaintance.

I stop the jeep a half-mile back from the range gate, and the warm chatter of the podcast drops away abruptly. Initially I’d queued up The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan as a thematic listen for this trip, but while packing out in the pre-dawn dark I received an alert that new episodes of I Only Listen to The Mountain Goats had been released.

It is early May, and while the city is almost snow free, here in the mountain pass the road is buried deeper than I’d expected: iced over and muddy with snowmobile track cutting a thick rut down the center. If I were still in the Wrangler I’d throw it into four-high and go skittering up and over the semi-frozen slush. But I’m seated in the more domestic model now: a new-ish Jeep Patriot with previously unknown comforts like AC and heated seats. Which suits me: I’ve become more domestic too. I’ll play it safe and walk the rest.

It’s cool and quiet outside the car, with a low grey sky that can’t decide whether it will be the last snow or the first rain, so in its indecision does neither. I’ve been out here lugging gear in worse weather, and the memory of a particular -27 day still makes my spine tingle. Colder, leaner times.

I shoulder the pack, and hoof it the last 800 meters to the range gate. The Sitka Bivy 30 is one of my longest suffering but most comfortable packs. Today it has everything I need for a day’s shooting tucked nicely inside.

Two years ago there were over a dozen backpacks and rucksacks hanging in the shed at home. Now I’ve pared down to three. Although I admit I still imagine buying the perfect 20L daypack to round out my options.

Not all the gear has been reclaimed. Plenty of parts, pieces, and guns are still in stored for safe keeping with friends or buried in boxes. But I wanted to make this first range trip about a single firearm with a simple, clean focus. Ease back into it.

I’ve learned how easy it is to pack more guns than I can shoot in a session, and that I don’t get the focus or results if I’m bouncing from gun to gun. It gets even worse if you start moving around optics and re-zeroing.

I settled on something small, light, and unique to me. I’ve never fired my Vz61 Skorpion, but that’s about to change…

Chambered in .32 ACP, the Vz61 was a victim of one of the more elaborate and lesser known bans in Canada. As part of the mid-90s crime wave in the US there was a media emphasis on “Saturday Night Specials.” These compact, cheaply produced handguns were considered disposable weapons for criminals, and here in Canada all handguns running .25 and .32 acp wound up prohibited.

But this Vz61 isn’t a handgun. The wire folding stock that would qualify it as an SBR in the USA makes it a restricted rifle in Canada saving it from the prohibited status of those special pistols.

Bans by caliber are always interesting to me. Especially when you consider that the Skorpion’s official caliber in the Czech republic is 7.65×17mmSR Browning. Effectively the same cartridge under a different title. And that there were a host of Olympic competition guns chambered in the banned calibers that were given an exemption due to their sporting status.

I like the Vz61. It’s an easily identifiable classic from movies and videogames, especially those formative pre-millenium depictions in The Matrix and 007 Goldeneye. But its Czechoslovkian origin gives it a uniquely communist vibe.

I pinch the charging handles on either side, and pull back hard to chamber the round. I can see why one of the few aftermarket modifications out there are sets of extended charging handle knobs. The factory units are thin and textured, but tough to grip.

As this is technically a rifle, the 10 and 20 round magazines are pinned to 5, but I appreciate the extended length of the 20 rounders, as they double as a grip for the support hand on a firearm with very little excess space.

But shooting the Skorpion can be awkward. The sights are pistol sights designed for use with the gun at arms length, rather than tucked in close with the stock shouldered. But they’re also zeroed at 75 and 150 meters.

Miroslav Rybář and the other engineers at Uherský Brod must have had great faith in that little cartridge. I’ve had a look around the web at ballistics charts and gel tests, and it seems to me that stats and history have both decided the 7.62×25 Browning isn’t well suited to gun-fights.

I knew I wouldn’t be shooting groups today. This isn’t the gun for it, and not the way I want to reintroduce myself to the sport. Reactive hanging targets make for a much more tactile solution. I’d actually considered picking up some fire-cracker targets, but I prefer to save those sorts of things for first time shooters.

Instead I focus on bouncing the flippers back and forth, trying different ways to squat with the stock and still have the out-of-focus sights be effective. It’s a wonder no one’s put together an aftermarket optic mount for this little unit. Based on the news and forum posts there’s clearly lots of them spread across the globe.

After an hour or so I unfold the camp chair, and sit with coffee and a cold sandwich to survey the day.

It’s early enough in the morning and the season that I have the range entirely to myself. The trees groan in the wind and the snow smells clean and crisp. I realize I’m terrible at differentiating between crows and ravens as I listen to one’s wingbeats pass close overhead. I can’t remember the last time I was this physically distant from other human beings. It’s a pleasant change. The mountain looms over everything.

After lunch I warm up by emptying a magazine up close. I’m not sure 5 rounds in fast succession really qualifies as a mag-dump, but it feels viscerally satisfying. The little gun barks, but doesn’t jump. 

Then I push it out to 50 yards and see what kind of hits I can manage on the 3” diameter targets. It’s about a 60 percent hit rate, but before I get too deep into the weeds on where I’m missing I realize I’m down to the last magazine.

“That’s your fight-your-way-home ammo!” An old friend who first showed me what a Vz58 was really capable of used to love that phrase, while I laughed and enjoyed it. But it’s become something of a superstition. I’m happy to burn up 95% of what I take with me on a range trip, but I’m reluctant to return home completely dry. Not that 5 rounds of .32 ACP would mean much in the larger scheme, but its the principle of the thing.

I’m not a religious person, but in its place I realize I am something of a superstitious one. I touch wood when my words tempt disaster. I tap my drink to the bar after a toast. I always leave the range with a full magazine.

Separated and locked from the firearm of course. Legislation holds no place for superstition, except for the notion that certain kinds of guns magically can cause crime that is. The last shot echoes in that wide Canadian landscape, and I make my way back.

Putting the jeep into gear: the lo-fi guitar chords of John Darnielle rise to greet me. I’m eager to get home, to help Susy make dinner and feed the cats. But a long drought is over.

Photos by: Wally F. / Black Leaf Industries / Black Box Customs

It was a cold and brisk April morning in Canada. While the inner city was starting to turn green and the winter melting run off was well on it way, snow still dusted the highway out towards the Buffalo Target Shooters Association (BTSA) range in the Rocky Mountains. This was the setting for Black Box Customs (BBC) first industry event, marking five years of business in the Canadian firearms industry.

Jay, Vince, Ringo, and the rest of the team at Black Box Customs brought together a diverse group of people from all sorts of back grounds to participate in a variety of sport shooting scenarios, share stories, shoot each others BBC gun builds, connect, and celebrate diversity in Canadian firearms culture.

Tradesmen, police officers, jewelers, lawyers, border agents, and sales professionals were some of the individuals that attended the event. Sponsored competitive shooters, casual plinkers, and everywhere in-between gathered at the BTSA range to try their hand at some Steel Challenge, USPSA, IPSC, IDPA, and 3-Gun style stages.

The founders at BBC have deep roots in competitive shooting, and up until recent years were practicing and competing with 20,000 rounds annually. Their passion for shooting sports drove them to start working on their own guns with stippling, slide work, and Cerakoting. Like Bill Gates and so many other business greats, Black Box Customs started their humble beginnings in a garage. Starting with a hobby milling machine and moving up from there; the philosophy founders and shared with the rest of the team is to let their finished products speak for themselves.

Judging from the phenomenal growth in their company their work has spoken volumes. Other than the spectacular photos on their website and social media, BBC virtually doesn’t pay for promotion of their company. Word of mouth has continually had their work seen in a growing collection of gun ranges and agencies across the country. The furthest out that I have personally seen Black Box Custom work is in Ottawa, and I’m sure their reach is much wider than that.

The first full day of shooting stages at BTSA was capped off with a dinner hosted by 911 Supply in Calgary in their newly renovated conference area. During the dinner there were three presentations by Alan R. a lawyer who specializes in help folks in the firearms community, whether it be setup your business in the industry and how to navigate the legal system. It was a very informative session that highlighted the steps you’d need to take to run a successful business in the Canadian firearms industry. Next up was SVT an active duty police officer who spoke about real life applications of firearms and micro red dot sights for agency use, of which Black Box Customs has provided work for agencies. Lastly, was another excellent presentation from Derik T. a staffer at 911 Supply and social media SME. He put on an excellent presentation on how to leverage social media to promote your business or self in the competitive shooting world. The end of day one of Black Box Customs event was a wrap.

Day two opened up on a sunny morning at the Calgary Shooting Centre, who was another great sponsor of the BBC event. Bringing the setting inside to their Cinema Range, more scenario shooting stages were set for the invited shooters to try out. While at the same time, TV-PressPass head Edward O. and I setup a studio interview session with the majority of the attendees. I was delighted to listen to the varied backgrounds of everyone in attendance and the very different lives they lead. The attendees were all brought together through their love of shooting sports and the outstanding work done by the team at Black Box Customs, this weekend event highlighted the diversity.

Black Box Customs is very low key in how they conduct business. They exercise precision in their work; from their philosophy of doing all stippling painstakingly by hand on polymer frames, to hand measuring dimensions for CAD modelling and virtual testing and evaluations, the team at Black Box Customs take their jobs very seriously. They have subject matter experts in their employ that handle type, style, process, cerakoting, CNC machining, stippling, and the aforementioned CAD modelling and design, which down the road will lead into product development.

Being competitive shooters first, the BBC team build their designs around making the competitors experience better with their firearms. So, while making a cool lightning cut and chevron styled serrations is something they can do, it’s done with a purpose. Do you want milligrams of weight shaved off the front or rear end of your pistol slide? Where and what type of MRDS do you want to mount to your race gun? Will it have a break? What’s the weight of it? Counter balance on recoil? What type of ammunition are you shooting? Springs? Type of magazine well, weighted magazine base plates for faster more positive reloads? The questions are many and varied and all considered and reconsidered by the BBC staff before starting on your project. That’s just talking pistols.

Black Box Customs also does work on precision rifles, shotguns, semi-automatic rifles, accessories, and non-firearms related projects as well. Their rapid expansion in the last 18-20 months has started to see the addition of more permanent staff and more equipment to better suit their customer’s needs. The one of the many reasons that BBC put on this industry event for their sponsored shooters, media, and select guests was to recognize the tremendous support the firearms community has given them and the industry weekend was one way of giving back.

Black Box Customs is a diamond in the rough, that after five years of hard work has proved that making an excellent product and letting the work speak for itself, coupled with excellent customer service and the insider know-how of firearms, the industry, and competition shooting is polishing themselves out to be a true gem. Visit Black Box Customs at their website http://www.BlackBoxCustoms.com if you want to start a project with them, you won’t be disappointed.

For your regular cravings in the firearms world in Canada and beyond be sure to follow TV-PressPass on Facebook and myself Wally F. on Instagram.

Reporting for TV-PressPass

Wally F.

Considering the number of IWI rifles I’ve owned and tinkered with, a new line is exciting stuff. In this post we’re going to go over what we know, and make some guesses based on the photographs released so far.

First, the obvious: this is a non-bullpup polymer-shell 5.56 gun running off a piston system with lots of ambidexterity and built in adjustment.

My first question is: why this and not the Galil Ace?

I’d suggest that while the Ace is a long-stroke piston, the Carmel will be a short stroke piston. That’s a marked departure from previous IWI guns (both the Tavor and X95 have their pistons attached to the bolt carrier) but matches expectations from other players in the “modern-carbine” game.

The Tavor and Ace families may not have a lot in the way of gas adjustments, but the Carmel sports a very prominent gas-block, apparently outfitted with easy settings for standard, fouled, and suppressed setups.

Looking at the fore-end, I think it’s fair to say we have an X95 style “hidden quad rail” underneath those grip panels. Take a look at the lift levers on each part of the handguard, and sure enough you can see the pic rails exposed on the promo photo outfitted with the 40mm under-barrel launcher. The magwell attachment on that launcher looks like quite a chunk of hard-ware.

The charging handle looks to be folding and reversible, and I would certainly hope non-reciprocating. Almost every single photo I’ve seen appears to have the dust cover closed, so its hard to get any idea of what the bolt might be like, although promo material suggests a 3-lug rotating bolt.

The barrel on these is being advertised as a quick-change system and free-floating. I’m not sold on the necessity of quick change barrels outside of an LMG, but if you can build it, why wouldn’t you? More importantly, the note on free floating suggests that IWI is putting accuracy at the forefront of this new rifle family.

Just look at the size of that bolt-release! We’ve come a long way from the ping-pong paddle, and it looks like the lever on the right side can be manipulated to lock the bolt to the rear. I like to imagine that it’s a right-side-release of its own too, the shape certainly suggests it, but it’s hard to say that with certainty.

The stock seems to be a lift-to-fold design, with adjustable length, and a built in adjustable cheek riser. Also interesting: take a look at the hinged butt-plate. I’d bet a stack of bullion that there’s some kind of storage system inside there.

The pistol grip itself is distinctly more vertical than many off-the-shelf rifles, bearing closer resemblance to the aftermarket K-grips. That grip doesn’t look modular to me, but its interesting that the entire lower receiver is so low on the gun and such a small part compared to your normal half-and-half split.

Look at where the bottom of the pistol grip is compared to the bottom of the stock, and then look at your closest AR-15. I bet this feels very different in the shoulder.

We can see several metal sling mounts built into the stock and fore-end, but there’s no sign of the QD slots that were a key part of adapting the X95 for consumer use. IWI has effectively said that this rifle is currently being firmly pitched to South American military and police contracts.

Will a semi-specific version someday make it’s way to the commercial market? That seems like a natural progression, but no timeline or plan on that yet. What do you think: Is this the kind of thing we’ll see submitted for classification and on the civilian ranges in Canada?

That past several months I have been traveling a lot by air and I wanted to have a compact little EDC tool that wouldn’t give me grief with CATSA in Canada the TSA in the United States. So enter in the picture the SOG MACV Tool.

Looking at the shape and design of the tool it is clearly modeled after the legendary logo of the Military Assistance Command – Vietnam, Studies and Observations Group. The SOG MACV resembles the skull with a beret on it, and it looks sharp. Not only that, this deceptively simple looking tool boasts 12 tools in one. Three wrenches, three screwdrivers, nail puller, pry bar, cord cutter, bottle opener, carbide sharpener, and hex bit driver.

Starting with the base of the beret on the tool is where the cord cutter is. I had zero problems zipping through seven strand para-cord and using it to open boxes sealed with packing tape, it does what it’s advertised to do. Now moving clockwise up the beret side is where the wrenches sit. 1/4”, 5/16”, and 3/8” wrenches. I found the cuts in the wrench weren’t straight enough to get a good positive and tight hold on tightening or loosening small bolts, but they can get the job done in a pinch. Moving over to the one o’clock position is the large Flathead screwdriver. This works really well on all midsize to small Flathead screws. Just below it is the carbide blade sharpener. I found this to be most useful when I needed to quickly work out burrs and nicks on my folding knives and smaller fixed blades. After using it on about 7-8 of my blades the two opposing square carbide blocks started to loosen ever so slightly, but they also stayed in place for the most part.

Moving down to the four o’clock position is the Philips head screwdriver. Much like on the Gerber Shard, this head is only good for anything slightly larger than what you’d need a precision screwdriver to do, again in a pinch it can be used, but it is is a little frustrating because the head is too small and shallow for it get a positive lock into a screw head. At the six o’clock is the nail puller/pry bar. It’s a bit of a cop out to call it two separate tools there. You really can’t pull a nail out without using the lip of the bottle opener as leverage to pry the nail out. Since the tool is so small prying effectively is limited but it can be used in a pinch again. The 1/4 inch hex driver is situated directly above the nail puller and it does a better job of turn bolts than the 1/4 inch wrench.

Right in the middle where the mouth of the skull is on the MACV tool is the bottle opener, of which I have used far more than anything else on the tool. It does an excellent job of popping tops, I’d prefer the prying lip of the bottle opener to be a little wider by maybe 50% which would help with reducing the wobbliness (yes it’s a word) when opening bottles, that more nit picking on something that hasn’t failed me yet on the tool. At the seven o’clock is the small Flathead screwdriver which I tend to use more often than the larger Flathead at the one o’clock because I found I could landmark the head a little better than the on the other side, which really shouldn’t make a difference, but that is just my preference.

In terms of ease of use and transport I find the SOG MACV tool to be in the perfect spot for me. TSA gave me grief about my Gerber Dime more than once to the point where I’ve just left it at home despite a more robust tool set. On the flip side the Gerber Shard which I had no issues get through airport security just didn’t have enough usable tools on it for it to of any use other than an “okay” bottle opener and cool looking key chain accessory. Now, if you want to talk about cool factor, the SOG MACV has it in spades with it design and homage to the Vietnam unit of legend and the tools on it are actually very well placed and thought out. I also had no getting the MACV through airport security on both sides of the border. I even got a few comments on the cool design. People dig skulls I guess. Overall SOG did a very good job of making a low profile yet useful EDC tool that you can take anywhere and use in a pinch. You can pick up the SOG MACV tool pretty much anywhere, throw it on your car keys and you’re good to go.

For your regular cravings in the firearms world in Canada and beyond be sure to follow TV-PressPass on Facebook and myself Wally F. on Instagram.

Reporting for TV-PressPass

Wally F.

It has been 531 days and about 84,000 km since I last discharged a firearm.

I have recovered many of my belongings, and with our icy hemisphere finally swinging back toward the sun, I’m excited to get out on the range again.

The time and space away has certainly affected my muscle memories, but created some new and wonderful memories too. I like to hope it’s offered a degree of perspective.

I’d say Wally’s been doing a bang-up job with the site, and am keen to see him continue producing content and offering his mindset on the shooting world.

My personal goal is to be less gear and news focused, and more reflective on specific concepts and experiences. But that doesn’t mean we’ll be trading reviews for navel-gazing

I’m excited to say that TV-PressPass has produced it’s first ever run of patches. They’re stitched by PatchPanel and we’ve given some out to a few special people already. We’re not likely to sell anything just yet, but there are a few ways he have of getting them into your hands. More on that soon.

As for this site: I still have lots of things to say about firearms and the outdoors. And I suspect you do too. This year we’re going to be opening the gates for more guest writers, because I think there’s still lots of voices looking for a place to be heard.

When I wrote for The Firearm Blog, I loved the motto “Firearms Not Politics.” But I’m not sure what being apolitical really means anymore. Even not-taking-a-stance is in itself a kind of stance. My goal is for our coverage to be politically aware, but not politically obsessed, particularly with it being an election year.

Above all, this site is a space for Canadian adventurers to talk about all the tools and practice of the outdoors. We live in a majestic place, and I want us as a nation to experience and protect it.

It’s good to be home, and I’m delighted to finally have Susy here with me.

-Edward

In a nondescript out of the way corner of SHOT Show this year surrounded by ugly casino patterned carpet away from the glammy and glittery main areas of show floor was where a place where you weren’t constantly being slammed in the shins by roller carts and under eminent threat of the SHOT plague; was where Coyote Tactical Solutions (CTS) resided, on the top floor of the show.

Based out of south Florida and dedicated to making all their products in the U.S. Of A. Specializing in medical carriage products among other things, they aren’t the first people to make a better IFAK but their designs are designed so elegantly simple and easy to use you can’t help but appreciate the thought put behind the products.

For most untrained people being put under even the most minimal amounts of stress can lock them into a frozen state from reacting. Doing simple things like dialing 911 on your smartphone gets hard. Now imagine an officer down, your battle buddy taking shrapnel from a mortar, or being in a car wreck. You have to dispense immediate aid and stabilize yourself or your patient for BLS even before transport somewhere with ALS. So why would you mess around with a generic zipper pouch with your medical supplies crammed into it? This is where CTS and their products come in.

After a long conversation with their team, I got a very good breakdown of their latest products on the market already: The Modular Abdominal Pouch (MAP), The BURRITO a mini medical kit that is fairly versatile, the Slim Tear Off Medical Pouch (STOMP), and a couple other gems.

The Modular Abdominal Pouch is the latest in a line of tactical fanny packs that seems to en vogue right now. The MAP though isn’t following a trend so much as innovating on an idea of good placement of medical supplies in a centralized area on the body and out in front where it’s accessible. The MAP has a compartment to slot in a ballistic hard plate giving you protection for your pelvic cradle. Designed to drop open at a full 180 degrees or tray style at 90 depending on need, you can dispense your medical supplies like a Vegas cigarette girl. On the inside of the pouch you can hot swap five different types of elastic inserts so you can tailor your load-out and placement within the MAP. At the bottom of the MAP are two external elastic loops to mount your choice of tourniquets to it can handle them all.

If you want something not quite as robust as the MAP and are more concerned about speed of deployment, just the right size, and ease of use the Slim Tear Off Medical Pouch or STOMP might be more your jam. A smaller flatter IFAK that is belt mountable but is secured via molle mounted Velcro and buckle system so you can pull the whole pouch off the mount and lay out your supplies. Like the MAP the STOMP also has an underbelly TQ holder on the outside.

The BURRITO, small form factor, very simple, and very secure. Nothing is held in by elastics. The fold over Velcro design of the BURITTO allows for a secure hold of you medical supplies inside it and quickly deploy it when you need to. At roughly the same as an AR magazine, can mount the BURITTO horizontally or vertically depending how packed your belt line or plate carrier space is like.

Another product that caught my eye was their Breach Pen carriers. In single and triple pen holders, you can access the carrier from either end of the carrier for ease of access. Simple and to the point. The carrier should be releasing soon. The rest of Coyote Tactical Solutions are available now and they ship to Canada. What more can you ask for?

For your regular cravings in the firearms world in Canada and beyond be sure to follow TV-PressPass on Facebook and myself Wally F. on Instagram.

Reporting for TV-PressPass

Wally F.

A few items of note that I got to demo today was Magpul’s line up of CZ Scorpion EVO parts such as their 35 round stick mags, ambidextrous magazine release and pistol grip. Built with the usually high detail that MagPul is know for the MSRPs for these parts will pretty much assure that ever EVO out there is going to have MagPul on it. Save the 35 round stick mags I think there is a market for those parts in Canada as well.

See the full range report here.

Edward’s Thoughts:

I’d suggest that Magpul’s introduction of a new line of accessories for the Scorpion is actually a bigger deal for Cz than it is for Magpul. The EVO3 has just been elevated to sit alongside names like the AR15, the AK, the Ruger 10/22 and the Remington 700.

Sure, Magpul is a lot more diverse in their firearm offerings now than they were even 5 years ago, but creating products for the Cz Scorpion speaks to the raw popularity of the little pistol carbine.

It also means that now Cz is on the hook. Don’t go changing the grip mount or magazine pattern next year. To use everyones favourite phrase: they’ve got a platform on their hands now, rather than a standalone firearm.

But Cz has a winner. The Scorpion 3 has hit the right budget and function point where their other lines (Bren) and other competitors (B&T) have struggled.

Magpul’s nod and new product line can only signal good things for it’s future. The opportunity is right for a 50 round drum mag, which Magpul seems to have shown an affinity for as of late. I would go so far as to guess the Evo 4 or whatever label Cz chooses for it’s next creation with be an alternate caliber version of the Evo 3. Rimfire? .380 Auto? The grand-daddy .45 ACP? Who can say for certain, but I certainly enjoy imagining.

Personally I think the market is ripe for a new Evo 3 pistol brace. Something compact and foldable in the spirit of current Sig Sauer offerings. But clever readers will notice that Magpul, a company who once set the standard for what a stock could be, has never deigned to sully themselves by playing the ATFs game of non-stocks. Looks like that particular title will remain with the Gearhead Works TailHook for the moment.