Get Real Self Defense Podcast
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Get Real Self Defense Podcast
Ep #29: Exploring Alien Gear Holster's "TAC-STRAP" Tourniquet
Are you prepared to handle emergencies? What if possessing a certain piece of gear could mean the difference between life and death? Packing a punch in our latest episode, we unravel Alien Gear Holster's new tourniquet holster hybrid - a must-have for first responders and self-defense enthusiasts alike. This isn't just about owning the gear; it's about being ready, being prepared, and being able to act swiftly when emergencies arise.
Buckle up, and stay tuned!
Check out the TAC STRAP HERE
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Welcome to the Get Real Self Defense podcast. Here you get your daily dose of personal protection discussion to help you be more confident and prepared to protect yourself and your loved ones. And now let's get real with self defense.
Speaker 2:Hi guys, adam here, welcome back to another episode of the Get Real Self Defense podcast. I hope you guys had an excellent Thanksgiving weekend and for those of you that had to work, all my first responders as well. I hope you guys were all safe out there, that everything went well, and for the rest of you that had to work on Thanksgiving weekend, I hope it went well and that you had time to be with friends and family. And from there, guys, what I wanted to share real quick is you probably noticed at the beginning, before clicking on this episode, that this is actually a shorter episode. Before I talked about doing a shorter and then a longer episode and alternating this one. I'm actually reversing the order, and there's a main reason for that, and that is because I came across a piece of gear that came out recently that I was super excited about in concept. I have not been able to try out this piece of gear directly myself, so I want to make that disclaimer, but it was in such a way that I thought that it was super cool and I wanted to make sure that I got it out there so that for those of you that were interested and are interested in gear as a whole, you'd be able to also be able to partake of what I found as well. And for those of you that have used this piece of gear, be sure to leave that in a comment or a response via email, however you'd like to do it with me. I would love to hear your thoughts on this piece of gear and, without further ado, let's get into the gear. So, bottom line, this piece of gear is super cool in concept.
Speaker 2:Like I said, I love it. It comes from a company called Alien Gear Holsters. Some of you might know this company. They do holsters and they're called Alien Gear. It was actually the first holster that I ever purchased for myself as far as a holster for my gun, and I had this package that basically gave me an inside the waistband and outside the waistband holster and it was modular. You could kind of customize it. It was pretty cool, but I didn't get super far into it. I haven't used a ton of Alien Gear. Some people love it, some people hate it. It's the same thing with other brands like Safari Land, black Hawk you'd go down the line Condor, it doesn't matter. There's a lot of people that have varying opinion on whether or not they like something. I know there are plenty of my law enforcement brothers and sisters out there that use Alien Gear holsters and love them, and then there's several that hate them, so you'll have to figure it out for yourself whether you're not you like this brand. However, I love the concept of a product that they came out with. So, to preface it, it has to do with tourniquets and for those of you that don't really know, I mean tourniquets, your best friend.
Speaker 2:I've talked about it before in the podcast, how I think that everyone should be carrying a tourniquet. I know that I've used it on my EDC, my everyday carry, and if you missed that episode, a couple episodes back, I talk about EDC as a whole, kind of just in concept, and how tourniquets are super important to have on your person because they stop bleeding. The top injury prevention or I should say death prevention really that is preventable on the battlefield is massive hemorrhaging. Okay, that is the number one, so it were, for soldiers and for first responders or just people driving when a car accident happens. A lot of times, when those cars get crushed in, it can actually mess up appendages such as your legs and your arms and that's where a lot of bleeding can happen because those are appendages that extend from your body, and so a tourniquet is an excellent way to cut off the blood flow from that breach so that you maintain blood in your body and you don't pass out and die.
Speaker 2:And for a lot of you guys, you already know this stuff. However, one of the things that is hard is that you have to train, obviously, train with it. And just so you know you're gonna have to train, you're gonna have to train with this piece of gear as well. But when you train with the tourniquet, you have to, like, make sure you can put it on, you have to make sure you can ratchet it down well, that you, you know you twist the windlass to a proper amount of pressure, that you actually cut off the pulse in your leg or your arm to show that the blood flow is cut off. There's things that you have to do, and this can take a considerable amount of time. You know sometimes you have to do it. Under 30 seconds is the quote-unquote goal. Really, you should be able to do it in, you know, 12 to 15. I think, if not faster.
Speaker 2:But and again, when you're doing a gunfight as a first responder especially, you know you're in the middle of a gunfight where a guy shoots you and nips you in the leg or nips you in the arm and you are bleeding profusely and it might have nicked an artery. You're gonna have to, you know, stop the bleeding and render first aid in what's called TCCCC, okay, tactical Combat Casualty Care. That is what everyone in the in the Army for sure, if not the entire US military uses or has trained on to some degree. One of the number one rules is that you lay down suppressive fire against the person who is shooting at you, especially when you've been hit, and then you need to get to cover so that you are safe, quote-unquote in that moment, and then you need to render self-aid if possible. If we have a battle buddy or a person who's been hit, another fellow soldier that has been hit, we need to be able to call it to him hey, you good, are you able to fight? Can you get to cover and make you know and then tell him to render self-aid. And one of the things you're gonna do to render self-aid is obviously a tourniquet. So I've gone through this long-winded thing. To kind of get to the point.
Speaker 2:Alien Gear came out with a product called the tack strap. Now, why does this matter? Well, the tack strap is a tourniquet that you have preset on your leg or legs that comes off of your holster. So, for first responders, when you have an external and then, mind you, this is an outside the waistband holster that it has a leg strap. Now you might have seen these, you know, guys that are out in the range, especially tactical guys that are out in the range, will have a drop-down holster, as it's called, but it's a little bit lower on your thigh and it will. You know, obviously the upper attachment of the holster is attached to your belt or battle belt, and then from there at the bottom, there will be a strap to secure it so it doesn't flop around and go crazy. That leg strap. For Alien Gear, they modified that strap to actually sit on your thigh as a tourniquet.
Speaker 2:Now what's interesting is that, instead of using a windlass method and this is why I don't know, I have to test it but instead of using a windlass method for those that don't know what a windlass is, it's basically a little stick, a plastic stick typically that you twist and you twist it and as you twist it it actually cinches down the tourniquet around your leg tighter and tighter until it cuts off blood flow, and then you take that windlass and you basically hook it onto this plastic claw set that keeps it from moving so that it won't untwist that. Therefore, you keep pressure, and the drop-down leg, where they position this particular holster, is already there for where you would want to place a tourniquet. Again, for those that don't know where you want to place a tourniquet, when you are hastily in the moment where you're just trying to put it on, especially when there's clothes over top and you don't know what happened and you just see blood everywhere, you want to go where it's called high and tight. Basically, the closer to the body, the main body, you can get the better. So in this case, if I have a bleed on my leg and I just know I got shot or, for a better example, someone else gets shot and I have to apply a tourniquet on them, I and I just see blood everywhere on their leg. I don't know where it is and maybe I don't have a lot of time to just open up the pant leg, try to see where the breech is and then try to turn a kid from there. Instead, I just go all the way up the leg as high as I can, as close to their groin, if you will, in their pelvis, as I can, and then I cinch it off from there. That's what's called high and tight.
Speaker 2:If it was on a breach on the arm, you would want the tourniquet to go basically as high as you can towards the shoulder, and then that would be considered high and high. You're trying to get as close to the armpit in the shoulders you can without going on the shoulder, because if you did or if you went on the hips, then it'd be too high, because now bone is getting the way, you're not actually cutting off blood flow. This holster, the way it's set up, actually has it high and tight, and so that's just for the holster. But what about the other leg? Well, they have a module that basically straps over the battle belt that you can attach on the other side. So basically, if you can imagine and I'll have links for this down in the description of this episode, but if you can imagine you're taking the drop down holster on one side for me I'm left-handed, I'm a left-handed shooter dominantly, so on my left side I have it as the drop-down portion of my holster, and then on the right hand side I can actually have a separate, just regular, almost like a garter that goes around my thigh on the other side and this can go behind, let's say, my flashlight, my cuffs, whatever else I want to do as far as my job in law enforcement is concerned. But you can obviously have it for personal use. So instead of a win list they use a strap like a ratchet strap type method and basically you just lift the handle and you close it, and it's not very big. You lift it, you close it, you lift it, you close it and it ratchets itself down on your leg.
Speaker 2:And when you watch the comparison videos from Alien Gear, it shows one guy applying a tourniquet. He's dropping down, having to slip it on his leg, win-listed up, and the other guy is able to stay up, hold his gun one-handed right. Typically with a strong hand is what people like to default to. If their hand's not injured, whatever their main trigger finger is, he's holding it, still staring towards the person that they're shooting at or they're being shot at from, and with the other hand they're just lifting up the strap and closing it really fast, rapid, and just cinches it down in less than 10 seconds it was like eight seconds and then goes right back to firing and then, on another example, shows that they can still move while ratcheting it down and firing at the same time. Now that's like walking and chewing bubble gum.
Speaker 2:It can for some people, especially when you're not used to it, be hard. I know that it would be difficult for me and many other people to do it naturally and do it well and still hit targets well. But the point is that now you don't have to step out of the fight and put on this tourniquet separately while your buddy is trying to lay down and suppress a fire. You're able to actually apply it on yourself. So why does this matter?
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, let's talk about the obvious one that I mentioned earlier, which is first responders. First responders, this is huge. I mean, if you are a cop, if you are a military guy or gal, shoot, you're running security. You're doing a security gig where it's private it's not quote unquote first responder, but you're still doing a dangerous job where you're armed, security and you have that tax trap ready to go and you get shot or stabbed by something from someone that, from a transient that you're trying to help move along like whatever it is that can happen, and the fact that you have that ready to go, you can actually sense that down and stop the blood flow faster. Stopping blood flow is huge because the sooner you can stop the blood flow, the more blood is in your body and therefore you're able to not have the issues of less blood. When we lose blood in our body we're obviously going to have certain problems, like our heart's going to have to work harder, not have as much blood in order. I'll do that right here. Excuse me to flow, or you know there's faint mechanisms involved. There's gonna be fatigue, there's gonna be dizziness, blurriness of vision. So the sooner you can get that kind of stuff happening, where you can sense that off, the better. That's the main thing. So for first responders, I think this is huge and if it actually goes up to snuff, their claim is that they can go into salt water, it can go into fresh water, it can be in dirt, it can do all sorts of things. If it's actually up to snuff, I think I Honestly I haven't been more excited by a piece a year in a long time.
Speaker 2:I've seen some really cool, you know, like holsters, and I've seen some really cool guns and I've seen some really cool Like the folding barrel. There's a, there's a gun where you can fold the gun at the barrel so you can take a 16 inch you know gun, a 16 inch barrel, I should say for your full-sized gun, and fold that sucker in half and fit it into a backpack. I mean cool stuff. But this I think is super innovative and, coincidentally, I think is Potentially, if it's successful, the future for first responder type gear now.
Speaker 2:What about if you're not a first responder or in that kind of field, the security role, the whatnot? Well, realistically, if you are an external carry kind of guy or gal where you believe that you know it's, it's okay to walk around where your your Firearm is external, which in a lot of states, if it's concealed, you need a concealed carry permit. Cough cough, in my opinion this is my opinions are my own, not that of my employer. I think that you know that kind of stuff is all violations of the Constitution. I firmly believe that all that stuff should be by the wayside. But that's just my personal opinion. In the end. You know. External, internal, to me it doesn't really matter. I think personally that if you are concealing your firearm that's better. I know people who feel like external carry is good because it dissuades bad guys. I think it paints a target on my back of my external carry. But there I see merit to both sides, that I'm not poo pooing each one either one. But the point is, if you're gonna wear your gun externally, then having that tax drop is kind of nice. Will it seem goofy to some? Sure, but they're not gonna know what it looks like, they're not gonna know what it's for, and it's a tool for you that's already ready to go. Now again, this is I'm just spitballing here some of the possibilities. Imagine, like, doing this kind of concept inside jumpsuits or inside your gear I mean, naturally, without even being a holster like having it on the arms and legs of a jumpsuit for you know, a copper, for Lawn, for er, for a military, and and all that kind of stuff. I think that's super cool, civilian wise. Is this really gonna apply to you? Are you gonna have the ability to wear it On your person all the time? Is it even that practical? Natural, no, it's not. But as far as gear goes, if you're gonna go to the range and you're gonna wear an external holster which most of us do when we go to the range, then what you know, is it possible, when guns are going, you know downrange, that a bullet ricochets or something happens and you might get shot in the leg? Yeah, it's possible. Is it very likely? No, but it just so happens that maybe that one spot, you know, you get shot in the leg and you just so happen to be wearing a tax trap. It just makes things a little more convenient. I hope, though, you bring medical gear every time you go to the range. I think that's huge. Again, I'm spit balling here. A lot of it's situational, but the point is, especially if you're in a first responder type role or you know someone who's in a first responder type role, I think that the tax trap is huge and you can still have on the tax trap a tourniquet. So that's one of the things they mention is that they still want you to apply regular tourniquets whenever possible. But it's just a quick, easy way to stay in the fight, keep fighting, downrange and and cinch off that breach where you are bleeding very quickly. Again, I think it's super cool.
Speaker 2:I am not an affiliate. I wish I was, because I think this is a cool concept. I'm actually fully intending. I'm already in the process of ordering a set myself. They're $85 a piece according to this time stamp At the time of this recording with Alien Gear holsters. I'm going to be ordering one for either side. So I'm going to have one for each leg and I'm going to test it out. I'm going to be ratcheting that sucker down. I'm going to see how fast it goes. You know, does it cut off my pulse? They claim that all this stuff works and I have yet to test it out, but as a concept I think it's super cool. So, again, that stuff will be down in the description. You'll be able to check out those links. At the time of this recording $85 per strap, and obviously it's going to be more when you add in a holster, among other things. Don't use their holsters too much. But as a concept, tax trap is super cool. So, guys, that is it for that.
Speaker 2:The next week we will be going into a full blown interview. I have actually a few options and so, realistically, being episode number 30, I think it's only appropriate that I actually talk a little bit to some people, whether that be my father or myself. As far as, like explaining some things, background goals, intentions I'd like to do it in an interview format. I keep trying to get my pops to get on to do a podcast and maybe I can snag them and have them sit down for episode 30, where we can go over that kind of stuff in detail, and I think that'd be super cool for you guys to actually listen, because that man is the one who pretty much taught me, as he says taught me everything that I know and not everything that he knows, as he likes to joke. So I'd love to actually have him go into a full blown interview and talk with you guys about a secret service journey, his Mars Large journey, where he is at as a father. He kept all 11 of us kids safe. I'm the oldest of 11 kids and he kept all of us safe, and he continues to keep my siblings, who are still under his roof safe to this day, and so super cool. How does he do it? I don't know, because I only have a couple kids. I have three now and I still have yet to continually pick his brain and figure it out. So maybe we'll figure that out together, hopefully next week. All right, guys.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Get Real Self-Defense podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to give this a five star review. Wherever you listen to this podcast, share this with your friends. Right now, this is 100% organic. I am not advertising. I will be advertising soon. My goal is to start advertising once this podcast hits the year mark and to get this to more eyes and more people. I do this because it's a passion project, mine. I love this stuff. I love doing this with you guys and answering your questions on the side. If you enjoyed this, share it with your friends and family. That means so much to me. All right, guys, have a good rest of your week and I will catch you guys in the next episode. Take care.
