Clay Martin

This week we got our hands on one of the simplest and most elegant pieces of gear I have ever seen. So simple, in fact, that this review will probably be short on words. This week we got our hands on one of the simplest and most elegant pieces of gear I have ever seen. So simple, in fact, that this review will probably be short on words. Which in this case is a feature, not a bug. It’s right there in the name, the Minimalist.

This week you get to see me eat a little bit of crow as I finally come around from being a dinosaur to embracing the new hotness. Well, maybe not the newest hotness. But I am finally going to admit that something we started to see about 10 years ago is an improvement over the default AR-15 design.

When it comes to guns and knives, I am generally the practical guy. I write about P320’s and FNH 509s and concealable blades that punch above their weight. We have other people that write about antique machine guns and gadgets, and rarely shall they cross. But I do sometimes get taken in by the cool, even if it is far from the best design.

The rifle optics game has been changing a lot as of late, one might even say turning on its head.

Everything the American market demands, with the legendary reliability of H&K? Yes please, I’ll take it for a spin. And I’m very glad I did.

This “steampunk cowboy bolt action” chassis doesn’t look how I expected it, but the moment I put my hands on it, I absolutely knew I had to have one.

I was first introduced to Blue Force Gear’s Helium Whisper technology earlier this year, and came away very impressed. Helium Whisper is a new laser cut space ninja type fabric that weighs, as the name implies, nothing. Picking it up, you would think it might be fragile. On that count, you would be wrong. Despite feeling like nothing, as well as being very thin, you can’t tear it.

I have tried many blades over the years, with a perennial favorite being the Spartan Blades CQB tool. Well finally, after a very long run at the top, we have now a contender to the throne. The Halfbreed Blades CCK-01, which stands for Compact Clearance Knife version 1.

One of the few complaints a man can make about a 1911 is capacity, and the 2011 has fixed that.