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T.Rex Arms Sling Review

    Today, there are so many sling options on the market that it can be overwhelming to narrow it down and choose something that will suit you. There are alot of proven slings that have been in production for quite some time, and generally when someone finds one they prefer, they stick with that sling. It can be hard for a company to introduce a new product in a market like this. When I got the email that T.Rex Arms had released their offering, I immediately scooped one up. I have generally been pleased with the quality of their gear, well, except for their pistol mag carriers, but that’s a different article altogether. Here, I will get into some of the features and characteristics of what has proven (!spoiler alert!) to be my absolute favorite sling. I will also discuss what I don’t like as much about it, and how I would suggest improvements.    

Right out of the package, we have the sling itself, rolled up nice and compact. Also, we get two elastic shock cord straps intended to go around your gun for stowing the sling when not in use. These straps are actually good quality, which is nice for an add-on free part. I use these on the pistol I am running this sling on, and they work great. Much better than the Forward Controls Sling Keep “A”, which kept coming apart on me. Setting these aside and unraveling the sling, I see that this thing is long! That’s nice for larger folks. Both ends of the sling are outfitted with a single tri-glide for hard adjustments, the center of the sling is slightly wider and nicely padded with a breathable mesh material. The front portion of the, where the quick adjust section is, has a fabric pull loop and a plastic buckle for the adjusted sling material to ride through. Using the quick adjust slide, I’m pleasantly surprised at how smooth it is. It operates much more easily than, say, the notoriously sticky Magpul slings. Quick and simple is the name of the game here.    

I put a QD swivel on each end of the sling and attached it to my 11.5" SOLGW pistol. Tried it on, adjusted it, tried it on again. I got it just right, then cut and burned the ends of the nylon sling. I don’t like a bunch of loose material hanging off my gear. This thing is comfortable. The padded mesh center portion does rub my neck some, but not as bad as many other options. The padding itself is just right for me, and I notice no significant weight gain. *WEIGH SLING* This thing is light. The quick adjust is super easy to access and manipulate. I can go from having my gun tight to my body, to deploying it into a full, 360 range of motion firing position in a flash. So far, I’m absolutely satisfied with it.    

The fit and finish of the sling is pretty good too. There are no loose threads or anything in mine. There is a small T.Rex Arms tag on the padded portion, which I appreciate, because I don’t do big logos or branding on my stuff. The buckles and clasps seem to be well-made and durable. Overall, this is just a quality piece of gear.    

I haven’t put this sling through any hard use yet because frankly, I just don’t have the ammo right now for alot of training. When the ammo scare lifts up some, I hope to really get out there and start getting into some of my gear. However, I don’t have any doubts about the sling. I’m sure it will hold up fine. In my opinion, this is one of the best slings on the market. It’s available in many different colors and camos. I got the multicam black variant. I would love to see desert night camo, though! The only real complaint I have about it is the mesh material rubbing on my neck. Although nearly every sling does this, I would like to see someone take steps to mitigate it with their product. It’s not bad with T.Rex’s offering, but it does happen. Anyway, I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you liked it. Thanks!

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T.Rex Arms Multicam Black Sling

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Some photos pertaining to the comms article I posted

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Getting Started with Radios in Your Kit

At some point in our unending quest for new, useful gear, most of us have probably at least toyed with the idea of getting some radios and using them for communication. Many people go out and buy a radio, they get discouraged because of the vast amount of complex information a person has to process in order to set up their comms, or any other number of questions this topic conjures up in the heads of people just getting into the use of radio. We hope to go over some of this here, as a primer to get anyone started. For the record, we aren’t ham radio specialists, we have no licensing and we don't hold a desire to radio people on the far side of the globe, communicating in code and call signs. If thats you, great. That skill would certainly be an asset in an emergency situation where cell towers, or the grid in general, was down. For us, we got into radio out of the desire to have effective, cellular-free communication around our compound and in a squad-level mission scenario. Radio also provides access to weather conditions and emergency management channels. You can call for help with a radio. The reasons for having radio capability are numerous, we won't try to sell you on it here. Whichever reason it is that compels you, you must know how to operate your gear and demonstrate a level of proficiency with it. Again, we’re not advocating for everyone to go out and get ham tech certified unless you want to. For our purposes we will discuss here, it isn't necessary. There is a whole world of ham radio enthusiasts out there that involves fairly complex and costly gear and an intimate knowledge of radio that goes beyond our specific needs. We have no need to get a federal callsign and listen to repeaters all night. That being said, we do need to be able to operate handheld radios, tune in to emergency frequencies and know which frequencies we can legally broadcast on without a license. It is also beneficial to know how to program your radio via computer. This allows for fast channel standardization across all of your equipment, which is almost a necessity if you have multiple people in your network running handhelds. It can be logistically frustrating trying to tell someone which frequency to tune their radio to. If all radios are programmed to the same frequencies and channels, this is no longer a problem. On the recommended Baofeng radios, you can also key in channel names via computer for each saved frequency. You can also enter frequencies from the radio's keypad and save them as a channel on the fly, but this is more for saving some new frequency you discover in the field. Doing this for a large number of channels quickly becomes a PITA. There is a multitude of websites with tutorials on programming the Baofeng radio with a computer. I will include some straightforward links at the bottom of this article.

Here at GGL, we absolutely recommend the Baofeng UV5R handheld radios because of a few reasons. They can monitor and transmit on a larger array of bands than most commercially available handhelds, they almost certainly have more power and they're built fairly tough. These things can do alot and they give you access to more frequencies than many other handhelds. They're essentially portable ham radios. We recommend these over the FRS walkie-talkies, MURS, or whatever other 'survival' oriented radios you can find at your local REI. Once you get your radio, you will realize that the antennas can be changed on these Baofengs. We also recommend the Nagoya NA-771. We have a few of these and they increase range by a large margin. They’re about 2-3 times longer than the stock antenna, so be prepared. However, the trade-off you get in range makes it worth it. We also bought a few of the extended batteries for these and a couple MOLLE cases. You dont have to have these strapped to MOLLE for them to be effective cases, it's always good to keep your gear secured and protected. We like the Rothco equipment bags to store all of our handheld gear, and have a composition book inside where we have recorded all local frequencies we know of, FRS frequencies, MURS, and any other frequency that may be useful should our data networks go down. We wont be able to look these up on the internet like we can now, so having them written down prior to a grid failure would be critical. Don't forget to include a few writing quality writing utensils in your bag also. We use Le Pens because they're bold, easy to write with, and easy to read. Remember, all of this gear should be taken care of just like any of your other stuff. Keep it clean, organized, and looked after, and it will last you a long time. All of these items will get you started, but you can spend as much money as you want on this stuff. You could install an antenna at your home, a repeater, and buy large, powerful transceivers if you want. This will extend your range greatly and serve as a base of operations for your comms station. It's all up to you.

Next thing to look into would be the frequencies you can use with these things. We would first recommend tuning all of your local first responder channels/frequencies in (think police scanner). It is very important that you DO NOT broadcast on any of these frequencies. Aside from being a federal offense, your interference could prevent someone from sending or receiving vital information, and possibly cost someone their life. So just dont do it. Listen ONLY. This is useful for knowing whats going on around your town and being ready for anything crazy that might be going on. Say, for instance, the cops have located an escaped and dangerous inmate down to a certain neighborhood, or they've set up road blocks. You will hear all of this on radio first. How do you find these frequencies, you ask? There are a few good online databases. I recommend Radio Reference. I will include some links. GGL is not affiliated with these sites whatsoever, they just have good, accurate information. Check them out. Also, save your local NOAA weather stations(s). These are helpful for quick and easy weather condition and forecast information. You have heard it before, the automated voice that reads off all weather conditions around you. Actually very helpful. Would these stations remain active during a catastrophic social event? We dont think so (further research pending), but it is still a very helpful source of information. Plus, not every major event is going to be world-ending. There are also a few national distress frequencies that you should have saved in your radio. We dont have to talk about their usefulness here, they're self-explanatory. You can find these with a quick search. Next, you will want to program the frequencies you can legally talk to other radios on. We use FRS (Family Radio Service) and MURS (Multiple Use Radio Service). These are also national frequencies, and they're on the UHF and VHF bands, respectively. We do believe these are the only frequencies we can broadcast on without licensing, but may be wrong. If there are other frequencies we can legally use, let us know! Regardless, they will serve you well for most of your comms needs. There are something like 21 FRS frequencies that the FCC has authorized, and 5 MURS frequencies. We don't have all the FRS frequencies saved, only 5. We saved channels 1, 6, 11, 16, and 21 of FRS. We did this so they would be evenly spaced out on the spectrum, in case of interference. If one frequency has alot of traffic or interference, we can switch to the next without as much "bleed-over". We dont know if this is the correct term or not, but it is something we have experienced. Whenever we are on a channel, and there is interference, the next closest frequency on the spectrum may have some of that same interference. Alot like when you hear 2 radio stations on the same FM frequency in your car. So, that is the reason we chose to separate out my saved FRS frequencies. And there are only 5 MURS frequencies, so we saved all of those. In all of our radios, these frequencies are saved on channels 30-39. We did this so we can easily swap between channels, and easily find each other. Someone will say "Go to channel 34." for instance, and communications are established. It is a simple setup that we have found works well. Anyway, these are the frequencies we use. If you know about anything else, or find any cool frequencies we haven't mentioned here, let us know!

Hopefully this information will get you started in using radios effectively. We are not experts by any means, we’re just talking about what has worked for us. There is alot of information out there about radio, and it is helpful to go into it knowing what you want to accomplish with yours. It can be easy to get lost in all of the stuff online and get confused. We have tried to narrow alot of this down and give you a primer on radio use and how to get going. If any of this information was helpful to you, please let us know. We look forward to hearing from you!

https://www.radioreference.com/

https://www.weather.gov/nwr/station_listing

https://www.amazon.com/BaoFeng-UV-5R-65-108-Dual-Band-Radio/dp/B008IYCQSO/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=uv5r&qid=1602356839&sr=8-3

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?aid=7732

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-Use_Radio_Service

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Henlō everybōrdy!

Welcome to Guerilla Gear Lodge. We are a complete resource for reviews, opinions, articles, stories and all around information concerning the outdoors and tactical lifestyles.

Here at GGG, we appreciate the experiences of those rugged, legendary warriors, explorers, adventurers, and outdoorsmen/women that came before us. From areas such as the Hudson Bay in the colonial era, to folks like Chesty Puller, we believe that it is important to study and remember the rough edges that our country is founded on, and to glean any knowledge we can from these larger-than-life, often mysterious people and places.

We also will be doing reviews on as much gear and guns as we can. Coming up soon, within the week, will be a review on the brand new T-Rex Arms rifle sling. We are also working on an article concerning the mounting of knives to chest rigs and plate carriers. We are going to look into the history of carrying gear on our chests and bodies, and do an in-depth survey of Mongolian war tactics and how this highly efficient conquest empire became so dominating. We also have some hikes and adventures planned, and we will be posting photos and experience reports of these in hopes of increasing interest of modern tactical shooters and gear enthusiasts in the benefits of getting outdoors in the traditional sense. We will be doing some bush crafting and camping, fishing, camp cooking, and general cool stuff like that.

Other interesting upcoming events will be documented as well, such as tactical classes we attend, and our start into the endeavor of rock climbing. One interesting topic we will discuss, is our personal skill level when it comes to firearms training, mountaineering, survival, etc. These skills will be discussed, and each time we attend a class, we will document what areas we feel we have improved in after the training and experience we receive. You will be able to grow with us, and we hope to document a realistic timeline you can expect to “git gud” at something based on our experiences.

Another topic we will delve into will be home defense. There are many facets to a well protected abode, and we hope to look into some of this and go over some stuff that you may not have thought of yet. Preparedness is key when it comes to protecting your castle and your family.

We look forward to all of this and we are very excited for what lies in the future! Join us here at Guerilla Gear Lodge, grow with us, offer your input (we would love to hear it!), and remember, keep it crispy!

~benjamin