Tag: reviews

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

Give me Some Tactical Action!

My 24-7 Series Lightweight Tactical Pants should make ________ easy and comfortable.

(performance)

  • Concealed carry: Concealed carry is super-awesome in these pants!!! In

    24-7 Series Lightweight Tactical Pants in black. Photo credit: TacticalPants.com

    fact, that might not be enough exclammation points. Here’s some more: !!! The reasons why concealed carry works so well with these pants is that the 24-7 Series Lightweight Tactical Pants from TacticalPants.com are made to accomodate such a large and stiff belt as the belt I carry with and these pants fit well around the waist. Because these pants have an elastic waistband, the pants accomodate the gun without taking any space away from my belly as happens with other pants this stiff which don’t have the elastic panel. Concealed carry in these pants might not be 100% concealed however. No they don’t flash, print, or show off my gun in any way, but other people familiar with the look of tactical pants might presume I am carrying. For example, I saw a guy in similar pants at the Bank of America ATM near my work and I scoped him up and down looking for his gun. If I’m doing it, other people probably are too.

  • Open carry: Open carry is easy in these pants because of the large belt loops. The gun sits at a good place on my hip due to the great waistband and appropriate length of rise on these pants. The authoritative nature of these pants helps many people to feel more comfortable with me open carrying. They presume I work somewhere which requires a gun. Those of us know know that pants don’t automatically make someone a security guard, cop, military woman, etc. look at me cockeyed for open carrying in such an intense outfit.
  • Walking, jogging, running: Walking, jogging and running in these pants is doable as long as you keep in mind that they require a little bit more force to get them moving because they are so darn stiff. I expect some of the stiffness of this fabric to relax over time, but they are not stretchy in any way. They do not give like a good pair of jeans does. Additionally, when doing anything involving the movement of your legs, keep in mind, especially if your thighs fight for space like mine do, everyone will be able to hear you coming. These pants swoosh when you walk. I was able to get away with wearing these pants in a quiet office all day and no one said a word, but I felt self-conscious as my wooshing filled my ears. On trips out shopping, I found that the pants noise wasn’t audible over the noise of the other shoppers however.
  • Jumping, climbing: Jumping in these pants was easy, as was climbing. The stretch in the waist band came in handy while climbing over fences, etc. I was able to get my thigh above my hips easily. One tiny oops was that these pants gap a little bit in the waistband above my rear when I have one leg up high on a climbing wall. The harness I wear when I rock climb at the gym kept the gap from getting very large and replicating the movement at home in front of a mirror revelaed the gap isn’t severe enough to flash crack at anyone and wearing a belt solves the problem.
  • Crawling, squatting down, bending over: Crawling, squatting down and bending over all went very smoothly. Crawling was much like climbing, only horizontal instead of vertical so the same ease of movement was there as was that same gap in the back of the pants. The gap was also visible when bending at the knees, back straight as if I were going to lift something heavy off of the floor. Wearing a belt solves this problem. As I presume most of you will be carrying, the gap won’t bother you since you’ll have your belt on.
  • Sitting, standing: Standing still in these pants was comfortable to me, however sitting was not. The heavy-duty seams which I praised for their durability have a negative side-effect: when I sit down and my thighs spread horizontally as they tend to do, the seams dig into my legs. It wasn’t a painful feeling, but it did feel quite unpleasant. The feeling became less severe as the day of wearing them wore on; I don’t know if I became used to the sensation or if the pants loosened throughout the day. Fashion and function both on these pants are stellar and I’m not sure that a little bit of pain outweighs the gain, but I still felt uncomfortable enough while seated to be sure to include that bit of information here.

Summary: The pants are very well made. I couldn’t find an activity to do in them that wearing these pants instead of jeans or slacks made the activity harder to do or uncomfortable. They are made of a stiff fabric, but the elastic in the waistband helps to overcome that. These pants HELP me to not leave my gun at home rather than encourage me to leave it behind as some of the other pants in my wardrobe do.

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Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

The Tactical Look

After a long trial period, I am ready to release my review of the asthetics side of the tactical pants I received from Tactical Pants.com. I still have a couple of crazy things I want to try out in these pants to complete the performance side (like rock climbing), but I am nearly ready to release that portion of the review as well. Here goes the “looks”…

In tactical pants, I want to…

(aesthetics)

  • Look good: Overall, I think this pair of pants flattered me very well. The highlights of these pants include a low-rise waist that isn’t up under my armpits, but doesn’t flash my panties when I bend and move; thigh

    These pants provide a good fit all over. From a hemmed-for-me length to a stretchable, waistband with a good rise.

    pockets I can fill up without worrying about adding inches to my hips and thighs because the pockets are so deep, any pocket-junk created lumps are far away from this area on my body; and a cut through the rear that gives me a well-rounded and full caboose. The waistband on this pant included two small areas of elastic built into an overlapping waist band, this gave the pants an ease of movement in bending although the fabric of the pant is super-stiff. That ease of movement did not come as a killer of fashion because the elastic was concealed from view by design of the waistband. Reinforced seams did not show any signs of wear after extensive washing and wearing. This is important to me because my thighs rub together and thigh seams not well constructed will be frictioned right out of existense. I was glad to see these pants hold up to the family thunder thighs. Another reason I feel this pants look good is that they shipped unhemmed. As a short person, all pants are too long and most of the time I just make do with that by bunching them up around my shoes, walking the bottoms off, etc. And that just doesn’t look good. These hemmed pants, custom fit for my little legs, look good.

  • Feel good: I felt okay in these pants. Although they had a good rise to them, flattering pockets and a nice fit through the rear, one area of fit on these pants made me feel a bit self-conscious in these pants: the crotch area. If I pulled the waistband on the pants up as high as the rise allowed, I had a funny camel toe and my belly felt like my pants were sitting funny across it. However, if I put the waistband where it felt like it should sit on my belly, then the rise wasn’t fully stretched out, leaving a bunched up bit of fabric sitting in front of my nether-regions, pointing to the world like a tiny pecker. In these pants, I chose to leave the waistband sitting where it should be and dealt with the tiny pecker by hiding it from view with a longer top. Those purchasing these pants for workplace situations which may require tucked in tops might not be able to employ this solution if they find they’re bodies fit these pants like mine does.
  • Blend in anywhere: I wore these pants to tons of different places while on my Bridezilla rampage. I explored several thrift stores looking for gray-stripped Navy suit pants to match a suit top wearing these pants.

    Pair a feminine top with the tactical pants to soften their appearance. This look dissipates the scream of "shoot me first, I'm armed" that tactical pants make.

    I also went to Walmart, Costco and many other shops in them. Additionally, I wore them to work one day. No one mentioned or stared questionably at my pants. Even though in my quiet office environment, these pants swished, no one mentioned the swishing or the odd assortment of pockets I was sporting by wearing tactical pants to work instead of slacks. I found these pants blended in anywhere I wore them and I was super-surprised by this. To get away with wearing them to work like I did, the key is pairing them with the right top and shoes. Go with a form-flattering, feminine shirt. Pairing it with a looser top or a polo will give you a more adrogenous look than might complement your figure and face well. I chose to go with a purple lace top with a v-neckline and flutter sleeves. I paired the outfit with a pair of Danskos. These shoes could handle the tough lines of a tactical pant but they were dressy and feminine enough to soften the pant as well.

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Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Altering Tactical Pants

TacticalPants.com gave me a pair of tactical pants to try out and review. I have been washing, wearing and torturing the pair I currently have looking for any flaws or problems. So for, I’ve got nothing. But before I tell you all about my recent tactical escapades, and after I’ve told you about all of my ordering tactical pants experiences, I want to tell you about hemming tactical pants.

When you purchase tactical pants, many of the brands you can choose from offer their pants in one unfinished length only. There are advantages to this: tall people can finally buy pants that don’t look like high-waters and short people don’t have to worry about walking the ends of the pant legs off into a ragged mess because they’ll be forced to hem the pants. Disadvantages however are that when your pants arrive, they will not immediately be available to put into commission and there is an added cost to the purchase of the pants beyond the usual tax and shipping because you’ll probably have to hire a seamstress to alter the pants. Here in Reno, Nevada the going rate for hemming of tactical pants seems to be about $10 per pair.

Unhemmed Tactical Pants

I took my tactical pants to a shop called Fabric Care Specialists that was recommended to me by the local bridal shop Swoon when I asked them about where to take my wedding dress. I figure if it’s good enough of a shop to handle intricate bead work and layers of tulle, it can handle tactical black. And they did; everything worked out smoothly with them. I dropped the pants off on a Saturday and they were ready on the following Thursday for pickup. I didn’t have to make an appointment with a seamstress, nor did I have to be measured. I simply brought in with the tactical pants a pair of regular pants from my closet that fit me perfectly length-wise when wearing the shoes I planned to wear with thetactical pants.

If you go the tactical pants unhemmed route like I did, here are a few things to think about when hemming your pants:

  • Wash the pants first as you are going to wash them after you wear them. If you know you’re not the kind of person who usually reads the tags and follows special care instructions, now is the time to shrink the pants if they’re going to shrink at all. Any natural shrinking that happens when the pants are treated according to wear instructions also must be done now. Altering a brand new, unwashed pair of pants can end in disaster when shrinking fabric can turn a once perfect length pant into a pair of capris.
  • Decide which pair of shoes you are going to wear most frequently with the pants in question. Combat boots, sneakers, heels, clogs, whatever shoes you’re going to most wear with the pants is the shoes you need to be wearing when the seamstress measures you for alterations to give you a perfect fit.
  • If you’re unavailable during the times the seamstress is in the shop, ask if they’ll hem off of a sample pair of pants. My seamstress is available 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. I am not getting up that early because I work full time and go to school at night, getting home after 10 p.m. I need sleep! I’m still at my desk at 5 p.m. making an afternoon appointment as equally unworkable as a morning. Luckily, my seamstress was flexible and was able to make the alterations needed from a sample pair of pants that I made sure fit perfectly with the shoes I intended on wearing with my tactical pants.
  • Shop around for a good seamstress. Tactical pants don’t come cheap and they are a bit harder to hem than pants of other materials because they are made from stiff, unique durable fabric. Additionally, if you require the side seams brought in because you have slim thighs and calves, the job becomes even more of a challenge. Be sure you pick someone who can do it right. Ask friends and family members for recommendations and check sites like yelp.com for customer reviews.
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Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

Free Shipping at TacticalPants.com

I just noticed that TacticalPants.com is offering FREE SHIPPING to the Continental U.S. I love it when I get free shipping while shopping. :) Also, check out their shop by price feature, if you’re like me (aka broke), the under $30 filter is the way to go!

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Monday, November 29th, 2010

Tactical Pants for Women

Okay everyone… In celebration of the fact that I turned in my final paper last week and am as ready as I can be for my first final exam of the semester tomorrow, you all get to take a pop quiz! Put down those leftover turkey sandwiches and think back before the holiday craze…

Remember early October when Jeanette with TacticalPants.com emailed me to let me know that there was a site out there with an entire section dedicated to women’s tactical wear? And then, remember how after I put her email on my blog, she offered me a pair of tactical pants to review? I got to pick out any pair I wanted from the site; the shopping was exciting! Remember how quickly they shipped and that they didn’t fit when they arrived? And remember how Jeanette jumped right on that and fixed all of my fit problems?

Remember how my fit problems didn’t get fixed in time to wear them for the Halloween Appleseed (Saturday and Sunday) and the shooting booth at church? Right after that, I tabled at the Big Reno Gun Show (I still need to write about that, don’t I?) and then delved into writing papers and studying for finals and ignored you all! Is this sounding familiar?

You remembered all of that? Really?! Well, A+ for you! Now, I’m trying to get back on the blogging track, so let’s continue the tactical pants for women saga. I last blogged about how I found a cute pair of pants on their website,the 24-7 Series Lightweight pant. The specs on the pants (taken from TacticalPants.com) are:

24-7 Series Lightweight Tactical Pants in black. Photo credit: TacticalPants.com

  • 6.5 oz. Lightweight 65% Poly / 35% Cotton Ripstop
  • Unique Pocket Design and Configuration Allows For A Completely Casual Appearance While Providing Secure Storage For All Of Your Duty Requirements
  • Comfort Fit Slider Waistband Construction Which Eliminates The Need For Gathered Elastic Or Adjustable Side Tabs That Accommodates Either Paddle Style Or Inside-the-pants Holster
  • Extra Deep Front Pockets
  • Customized Tru-Spec Original Prym Snap
  • 2-Knife/Accessory Pockets
  • 2-Cargo Pockets With Hook & Loop Closure and Bellowed Side Gussets
  • 2-Internal Magazine Compartments In Both Cargo Pockets
  • Cell Phone/Magazine Pocket
  • All Women’s Tru-Spec 24-7 Pants are Unhemmed

The reasons why I picked these pants among all of the others available to choose from on their site, and they have quite a selection compared to other shops I’ve patronized, was that these pants had a more modern fit to them because of how they sat across the waist and the specs mentioned holsters and magazines, which as a Gun Girl, that was a big selling point. Another reason why I picked these pants to review is that the staff over at TacticalPants.com had reviewed every woman’s pant they have for sale on the site and they scored this brand very highly. I want a pant that fits me and I thought that since their reviewers had a positive experience with this one and since it had the modern waist fit that tends to look better on me than other fits, I should order this pant.

But it turns out that this pant wasn’t the pant for me at first. I ordered a size 16 on Jeanette’s customer service representative’s advice. And the size 16 didn’t fit! Jeanette went above and beyond to help me with that problem. Many other companies would have offered an exchange for another size. But I don’t know how many companies would have mailed me two additional pairs of pants in two other sizes to try on and decide which I liked best. Additionally, the shipping of the pairs to try on and the pairs to return was covered for me.

Here’s how the trying on various sizes went (I’m a 16/18 in Lane Bryant. My waist measurement is 36″ and my hip measurement is 44″):

Size 16: Fit around the hips. Tight around the thighs and the waist. The waistband in these pants has a stretchy part, which stretched, but it still wasn’t an attractive fit.

Size 18: Fit around the hips and thighs. Tight around the stomach like the 16 was, not any difference there at all actually, but had the butt/small of back giant gap thing going in the back. These pants have a stretchy waist, but it didn’t make the front fit looser or the back fit more snugly.

Size 20: Fit! It still looks tight like the 16s did, but it doesn’t feel tight. That stretch is finally working for me!

(TacticalPants.com took my advice and added sizing information to their pants (yay!), but when I checked out their recommendations for my measurements, their size chart, like the size chart I found at the manufacturer’s website, says I’ll fit into a size 14. Not! Plus size chicks: be careful when ordering.)

Now that I had a pair of tactical pants that fit me horizontally, I had to go get them hemmed so they’d fit me vertically. These pants were a foot too long for me! As are all 24-7 series and a couple of other brand tactical pants available at TacticalPants.com, because they are shipped unhemmed. This allows a variety of sized and shaped women to find a customized fit with the help of their seamstress, but it adds to the expense of the pant and the timeline of the pant. Researching, ordering, shipping, exchanging, shipping and now altering! Oy.

Here are some pictures of what the pants looked like straight out of the box and unhemmed. Next time, I’ll write about how they’re performing as a final product: washed and hemmed.

Create your own labloop foto slideshow for MySpace, Facebook or your website! view all fotos of this slideshow

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Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

GunUp Debut!

Over the weekend, I got an email announcing the long-awaited launch of GunUp:

“Thank you for signing up as a pre-launch fan for GunUp.com – the Future of Guns Online.

We are excited to announce, that after a lot of hard work from the team, GunUp.com is now live. GunUp is launching with the best data for guns in current production anywhere on the web with some awesome research tools (GunUp’s GunFinder) as well as a real-time pricing tool (GUestimate) so enthusiasts can get an idea of what a firearm is worth. Check it out and let us know what you think. Your comments, suggestions, and constructive criticisms are welcome, please help us make GunUp the authoritative community of choice for gun enthusiasts. We are receiving great feedback so far, thank you for the support and interest.

We are constantly building out features to make GunUp a more useful website for you, our users. We will be adding Sig Sauers next week (sorry to our Sig Fans!) and as well as more photos. We will also be adding more articles from our users, blog network, and industry writers but best of all, stay tuned for our “Win Free Ammo for a Year” Sweepstakes in November. GunUp!

Dan Hall
CEO, GunUp.com
Follow GunUp on Twitter (@gunup) and FaceBook (/gogunup)”


I knew a bit of what to expect since I helped with the beta testing of the site, but I was still anticipating the launch. I was happy when the notification hit my inbox and headed to the site right away. Imagine my surprise when the site didn’t work although social media postings and an email announced that it would! GunUp fixed the small glitch left over from beta testing which made the site ask for a username and password in a popup box when one tried to access it. Finally… I’m in!

I registered and created my profile and began surfing around. Creating my profile was easy, but I was disappointed to find out that if you don’t have a custom URL for your Facebook fan page and you want to enter your fan page on your profile, the link won’t work. I discovered and submitted this bug when the site was in beta testing, but I guess they haven’t gotten around to fixing it yet. Luckily for me, over the weekend the Girls Love Guns Facebook fan page achieved the minimum fan number to receive a custom URL. I was able to go onto GunUp and enter in my custom URL into my profile. Now the link works, but I feel bad for those with smaller fan populations as their links will not work. Hopefully GunUp is working on this issue.

My profile looks cool! I need to get working on a blurb for my bio. I have two badges already. Dan awarded me one badge for participating in the beta testing of the site, but I have no clue what the other one is for. It’s too bad the badge icons aren’t linked to a page describing what the badges are for.

I was a bit disappointed that discussion posts can only be created around specific firearms. What if I have a holster question? Or a carry belt question? Or a concealed carry question? An ammo question? Dan’s goal to make GunUp the go-to place for all things guns is falling short if it restricts discussion surrounding all things gun to things directly related to an exact offering by a gun manufacturer.Hmm.

My final complaint (so far! haha. I’m picky, I know) is that my eMac G4 cannot display the must lusted after GunUp feature GunFinder because my computer cannot handle Microsoft Silverlight. Sigh. I’m going to have to get a new computer soon.

Despite my complaints, GunUp is growing into a great online presence for the gun world and hopefully I can be apart of that growth. You can too! Go check it out at www.gunup.com!

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Monday, October 18th, 2010

Holster Heaven

Pepper over at Discreet Carry has been reading my blog entries about their holsters. When she saw that I was using a makeshift support strap with the LadyBUG holster to carry a larger than the traditional Back Up Gun gun, she offered to send me another holster. It feels like Christmas. The holster she sent me is a holster that was originally made for men to carry with, but if it works for me, then why not? It’s called a Discreet Carry Model DCH-1 holster. This holster wraps around the carrier’s body just under his nipples or her breasts. It secures to the body with two Velcro straps. The holsters can be designed either right or left handed. Included with the holster is an optional support strap for heavier guns. I am excited Discreet Carry is so generous and customer service oriented that Pepper has taken the initiative to send me another holster that may work even better for me. As a newbie to the concealed carry world, I need all of the help I can get choosing good holsters and belts.

So far, I’ve tried and reviewed an Uncle Mike’s holster (very primitive review, I was new at blogging when this was written), a Discreet Carry Cleavage Holster and a Discreet Carry LadyBUG holster. I can’t wait to get started with the DCH-1 Holster!

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