A quality flashlight is an essential item in everyday carry (EDC) gear. Cloud Defensive handheld lights are the best option due to their durability, brightness, and user-friendliness. They're waterproof, shockproof, and drop-proof, making them ideal for outdoor activities and everyday use. Cloud Defensive handheld lights have the latest LED technology to produce a bright beam that can illuminate the darkest environments. They're easy to operate even for those not familiar with flashlights. They also come in single-output and multi-output variants.
So, what is the best option for Cloud Defensive handhelds for most people? We generally recommend (and, in full disclosure, sell) the Chicro! It is designed to be an admin/inspection light, with a form factor that is easy to pocket and handle, and simple and efficient usability all around. You get two modes—350 and 35 lumens—activated via a rear tail clicky with momentary and constant on, and powered by a 10440 rechargeable li-ion battery, which is rare in itself for EDC lights. Even better, Cloud Defensive has included a built-in USB-C port for onboard charging, for the ultimate convenience.
Chicro charging instructions:
The Chicro is a practical and useful tool to have, especially when you need a reliable light source. With its reversible pocket clip, it is easy to carry around and access whenever necessary. Additionally, its simplicity is one of its greatest strengths, allowing for a no-fuss experience when using it. One can appreciate the lack of unnecessary features that may complicate its use, as this makes it more efficient and straightforward to operate. Furthermore, the Chicro's design is sleek and modern, making it fit well in your EDC. Overall, the Chicro is a must-have for anyone who values practicality, simplicity, and functionality in their everyday tools.
]]>June 24-27th I had the honor of taking the Tactical Urban Sustainment Course (TUSC) at Direct Action Resource Center (DARC) in Little Rock, Arkansas.
I’m not quite sure anyone “woke up”; more of a fade from mostly unconscious to mostly conscious. I do remember beginning begin classroom work, and we reevaluated the equipment that we brought. It’s taken me a couple months now to implement the changes that I notated needed to happen, and I’m still not done. Responsible finances being the main hurdle, the fact that planning and preparing for these types of situations months (or ideally years) in advance is the ticket. After taking some time to reflect and discussing with others from my class It’s become clear to me that there already exists in the modern world a group of people who (probably unknowingly) are significantly more equipped and trained for a TUSC scenario more than the shooting community, the backpacking community!
As funny at it may sound that a community often characterized for being hammock-dwelling peaceful hippies with acoustic guitars and frisbees, the resources that I’ve come to find available online that I would have benefited from the most is content on how to be a successful backpacker. Information on pack sizing/selection, weight distribution, sustainment equipment, and hygiene and nutrition considerations all will benefit those concerned with “grid down” survival just as much as information and training on tactical gear and firearms fundamentals. I would highly encourage you to look into this info yourself.
This definitive “half-way” point cemented in my mind that I was going to complete the DARC course. After this point, I stopped even remotely considering quitting or giving up. Let this be an encouragement to you: there will always be points in your life that you feel like giving up or that you are not up to a task. The key if to remind yourself that your mindset comes before anything else.
As the day turned into evening and we successfully rebuffed more engagements. A new scenario was planned for the night that would force the entire class of multiple teams to function together at a higher level. As this exercise progressed, it was clear that what had changed in all of us is a shift towards a team mentality. One of the final discussion points we had was on our own support team we have at home and how we can work to develop it further. You see, with any given amount of time and maintaining a stable job, I can reasonably afford all the equipment I would need as an individual to at least not die in a temporary TUSC environment. However, I cannot buy friends; at least not the kind that I would be able to trust my life to. One of the statements I made in that discussion as I looked around a room of students was to look how many people was required for our team to at minimum, not be miserable. Pulling security, managing resource consumption/replenishment, probing and observing OPFOR, and resting are just a few tasks that all require undivided attention, and to attempt to do it all on our own is a plan for failure. So, I have continued to work to develop my own support network at home of people I could work with and rely on for our survival in a disaster scenario.
Questions for yourself:
The content covered on the fourth and final day is what most people probably think about when they think of DARC and the “Tactical and Urban” aspect of the Tactical Urban Sustainment Course. This is the day that some basics of structures are covered; tailored for the scenario and skill level for this class. By now I’m sure you’ve considered that if the “grid goes down”, you’re not going to be building a shelter in the middle of the forest. At some point, you may have to transit or even make base in a urban structure that you are unsure of the safety or status of occupancy. Ideally, you have the skills and competency to minimize the risk to yourself and even the potential risk of others trying to survive, no different than you. You may also need to use a vehicle in your self-sustainment and being able to minimize the impact of attacks while in a vehicle will benefit you greatly.
This brings up a very important subject to touch on, which is your own morality in situations when the Rule of Law is not there to make the moral decision significantly easier for you to make. Consider this basic scenario: You’re pulling security outside your house late at night and you spot a man sneaking around an abandoned house with a rifle. Is he a bad guy? Your knee-jerk reaction may be to say yes, but keep in mind that in the absence of rule of law, there are going to be plenty of armed citizens who (like you) are just simply trying to stay alive. You likely wouldn’t want him to see you and immediately assume you’re a bad guy when you’re just trying to stay alive yourself.
The concept of morality is always going to be difficult in the discussion of situations like this for a few reasons. First of all, if you are preparing in any way for an emergency that others are not, you may be put in a number of difficult situations. If you’re lucky, you will have to decide if you are going to use your own resources to help others that didn’t prepare. If you’re unlucky, you’ll encounter those that are either unprepared, desperate, or even immoral enough to be willing to try to take your resources by force for themselves. These will be people that, before whatever disaster compelled you two to meet, are likely living a normal life. There are infinite scenarios and philosophical answers to consider, but I did want to at least make mention of these concepts, as they will likely come up to some degree or another in our own life.
If you are reading this article, hosted on a website for a company that sells handgun holsters, you likely already at least carry a firearm. You’ve probably already encountered those who have chastised or even mocked you for doing so. To others, the idea of preparing for an unforeseen emergency isn’t a necessity in their life. They likely have been taught that entertainment is more important than self-protection and that emergencies happen to everyone else but themselves. The cops and firemen are only a phone call away. The grocery store always has food. These fallacies have diminished in the past couple years due to some of the impacts of the 2020 pandemic, but I already see people forgetting these lessons and returned to “the way things were”. Also, as much as they don’t want to admit it, many people become insecure at the sight of others being more prepared for an emergency than them. So that insecurity masks itself outwardly as dismission and mockery. I wish I had a perfect answer to these people, as I’m still searching for the right words to say every time myself. I know it’s wrong to waste the opportunity to educate and encourage others, but I also know that most of my efforts will fall on deaf ears. This all circles back to working on building a network of others who can be of aid to you and you to them in any type of emergency. You want to interlink with those that have shown an interest. In fact, I would even say you have a moral obligation to invest in those people, as doing so will make them more likely to survive and even increase the likelihood of you having a trustworthy team of people to rely on.
The best encouragement I can give you is that if you are interested in what I’ve discussed in this article, look into taking TUSC at DARC. Also, if others show an interest in emergency preparedness, no matter how small, water that seed. Be patient and share with them the information that you wish you had when you started your journey.
]]>“Direct Action Resource Center, founded in 1996 by former Green Beret, R. Mason, is one of the leading training resource centers in the industry. DARC specializes in a myriad of tactical, technical, and strategic planning, developmental training, testing, evaluation and implementation for the military, law enforcement, public agencies, US government agencies and private enterprises.”
– The DARC website
TUSC is unlike other DARC courses in that it is designed for any responsible member of the general public, not just those in a military or law enforcement role. You stay on-site and must pack your own meals for the duration of the course. TUSC is designed to simulate and prepare students for scenarios in which both modern infrastructure and rule of law is diminished. It’s easy to hear this summary and dismiss it as “unrealistic”. On the surface, it may sound like something straight out of Mad Max or The Walking Dead. However, someone could easily experience AT LEAST one event that the TUSC course could prepare them to handle. The best examples would be the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (2005), the Minneapolis Riots (2020), the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle (2020), and the Valentine’s week winter storm in Texas (2021). Extrapolated further, one must simply look to Ukraine to see situations where average citizens are thrusted into a new reality of having to self-sustain and master their own environment without the assistance or the amenities of modern society.
This write-up won’t cover the specifics of what I learned, but rather will highlight some of the principal takeaways and some questions to ask in preparing your plans and mindset for a potential TUSC scenario.
As stated on the DARC website regarding this course “TUSC addresses some of the tactics and techniques that could be utilized by a small cohesive group to secure their assets and survive during a period of political, social and economic instability with localized recurrent levels of violence where the rule of law is absent or virtually nonexistent.”
TUSC is not a wilderness survival course. TUSC isn’t a summer camp that trains you to live off the land after you disappear from the city into the wilderness. Most people live in an urban/suburban area and bugging out to the wilderness is logistical impossibility if someone wants to plan for success.
TUSC is also not an assaulter’s course. Outside of some basic CQB and small unit tactics, this class isn’t going to turn you into a high-speed operator. The tactics that were covered are simply designed to keep you alive in contested areas and give you the tools you need to rebuff attacks from other parties.
Day One started out with the basics. We were assigned to small teams with a team leader, and we broke off to first do a shake-down of everything we packed. If you attend TUSC, you receive a packing list that may have been updated since this AAR, so we will not be covering equipment.
All that said, I am a chronic over-packer. And I managed to (barely) fit everything that I would ideally be able to keep on me into my pack. After some discussion, we partitioned off items we felt we could live without. I cringed a little at the thought of having to give up some redundancies and extra supplies but realized by the evening that I had done myself a favor by ditching the extra weight. After our first day of classroom lessons and physical exertion, all I wanted to do was rest.
We were told that a simulated opposing force (OPFOR) of TUSC graduates was out actively looking for us all night and that we had to maintain complete light, info, odor, and noise discipline throughout the entire evening, and that a security and radio check-ins with the other teams that were scattered around the campus had to be maintained. Sleeping outside is hard enough, but in extreme heat and in disjointed shifts, it becomes even more difficult. Also, because of the light discipline requirement, everyone had to ruck through the wilderness with the assistance of our Night Observation Devices (NODs). Having owned and trained with my NODs, I didn’t fair too bad. However, this was still the longest amount of time a had worn a night-vision goggle (NVG) system and increasing the weight of your head by 10-15 percent doesn’t go unnoticed by your body when it’s done for that long. My pack was heavy, I could barely carry it. As a result of my lack of upper body strength and my overpacking, I was clunky and goofy anytime we had to move. Once we settled in, I threw a bug net over my whole body. This worked well keeping them off my face as I attempted sleep, but I had long sweated off all the bug repellant I had sprayed on, and anywhere the net lay flat enough for a bug to get a bite, they had a full buffet.
I debated on confessing this, but I wanted to quit. I had begun thinking of how I would do it. Make up some lie. Pretend to be sick. Say I had a family emergency. Somehow, I talked myself out of it every time, but not by much. I kept repeating back to myself a phrase we learned the first day in the classroom, “mindset, skillset, toolset.” If I couldn’t keep my mindset positive, I wasn’t going to learn anything. Despite my misery, I knew that whatever I experienced this weekend would be a walk in the park compared to what a “real life” scenario would be like. If I can’t survive this weekend, I might as well not even bother trying to prepare for a true emergency. It was by every definition “uncomfortable” and by pure exhaustion I got some sleep after making camp and then again after completing my guard shift. I share this in all honesty so that it will be an encouragement if you decide to take the TUSC course or anything similar where you find your own will being challenged, “get comfortable being uncomfortable.”
Questions for Yourself:
Day Two, I woke up not completely soaked, but the thick fog from the night before had left me damp from head to toe. Little did I know, this was an omen for what was to come. Water would be the focus of the day. Once we settled into the classroom, we were presented with a flood of water wisdom. You see, when we live in modern America, we don’t even have to think about water. We turn on the faucet and it just appears. The result of the convenience of water, is that we are wasteful with it, without a second thought. At TUSC, we had to procure our own water, and then filter and treat it for consumption and cooking.
This was easily the hottest day, and some of us (myself included) were sweating out water as fast as we could consume it. To add insult to injury, we quickly realized that all the items currently available on the market for water filtration and treatment are nowhere near sufficient to sustain an individual for any realistic amount of time; much less a family. Most of what currently exists as a “plug and play” water treatment system is for short-term individual use on camping/backpacking trips. We were introduced to some do-it-yourself options that could scale up for family use, but months of planning are required to get the systems in place. Keep in mind, those months of setup are only possible when done in a time where access to modern infrastructure is still existent. That became a consistent theme throughout all TUSC; the notion that planning before an emergency was the only way to guarantee success. Much like the rest of life, truly successful people are able to delay gratification for the bigger value at a later time.
As the day progressed into night, the heat didn’t let up. We made basecamp and established a sleep/guard rotation so that most people would be able to rest or do administration tasks like food and water. Due to the scorching weather, even trying to sleep was a chore. I specifically remember laying on my sleeping mat with my bug net draped over me and just pouring sweat right off my body. It was so bad that when we were engaged by OPFOR, I was happy, as it was a chance to leave and have something to do in the outside breeze.
What also became apparent in this exercise, is how disjointed sleeping becomes in a survival environment. Tasks can come up ad hoc, security has to always be maintained, and engagements with opposing forces are not planned. Thus having an ability to sleep whenever possible becomes paramount. There is a haze that your mind gets pushed into and recollection of events can be disjointed. As I reflect on my experience, I really can’t remember exactly when I did fall asleep that night and how many security shifts I was woken up for.
Questions for Yourself:
// Keep a watch out for PART II of my experience at TUSC.
]]>Here at TXC Holsters, we are strong believers in the use of pistol-mounted lights on defensive handguns, and fortunately we live in a technological time that provides options for pistol-mounted lights that generations before could not conceive of.
So, some of you are probably still asking “why would a light on a handgun be of any real use to me?” Simply, you can only shoot, what you can see. Products like night sights and red dots only allow you to aim in darkness, but they don’t give you any type of information about the target you are attempting to identify–no visual, no target.
We believe so much in the importance of a light on a handgun for everyday carry, that we developed our X1: Beacon – the light-bearing offering of our minimalist holster lineup. The X1: Beacon comes with a standard plastic clip by default but can be upgraded to tuckable soft loops or Discreet Carry Concepts Mod 4 clips. It comes standard with an attached Modwing on the front, and built-in concealment wedge on the back to maximize comfort and reduce printing, even with a full-sized “duty” light.
The X1: Beacon supports several lights, and each light offers its own pros and cons. We thought this would be helpful to highlight as you shop for your own light setup. Below is a list of lights we think would be worthwhile considering. The X1:Beacon supports these options and others, but for simplicity sake, if you are purchasing a new light in 2022 we would recommend you to consider one of these five main lights (below). Soak up our pro/con lists on each light below, as we compare their stats and our overall impressions.
View in Marketplace > The long-time reigning champion of the full-sized “duty grade” lights, the powerful Surefire X300 Ultra is virtually indestructible. Featuring a high-performance LED that generates 1,000 lumens of stunning white light focused by a Total Internal Reflection (TIR) lens. The emitter generates a “middle of the road” color temperature with a blend of throw and spill that is ideal for close to mid-range target identification. Activation of the X300 is done by the ambidextrous switches at the rear of the light. Simply push in the switch on either side for momentary or flip up or down for constant-on activation.
Pro:
Cons:
View in Marketplace > This light a great budget alternative to the X300U if you are wanting a full-sized “duty” light. Its performance on paper is almost identical to the current version of the X300U, at half the price. Overall, it is slightly shorter than the X300U, but runs on the same 2xcr123 fuel source. It uses similar rocker-style switch to the X300U and the PL350, but varies in functionality. Example, if you press down on the left side, the spring-loaded switch will return to “off” once you release it. Constant on is achieved by rocking up on the left side, where it will detent into place. It is ambidextrous, but functionality is reversed if you’re a left-handed shooter.
Pro:
Cons:
View in Marketplace > Once updated from the original TLR7, the “A” revision brought all the features needed to make this the perfect compact-sized weapon light. Don’t let its lumen and candela figure fool you. With a good reflector and a slightly warmer-than-average color temperature that’s optimized for mix lighting environments, this little light definitely swings above its weight class. With its updated switch design, activation is fully ambidextrous with a single tap for constant on or a hold for momentary. If you need a light for comfort and concealability without sacrificing performance, this is the light.
Pro:
Cons:
View in Marketplace > If the TLR-7A swings above its weight class, the TLR-7 Sub is just cheating. There isn’t much to say about the 7sub, besides the fact that is identical to the TLR-7A in every way besides its rail compatibility. While the A is meant for picatinny rails, the Sub works on micro rails like the P365 and the 43X/48 MOS. This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the best open for lighting to ever come to the world of subcompact pistols.
Pro:
Cons:
View in Marketplace > The PL350 is the beast of these lights. If you are someone who wants performance over every other factor. At barely more cost than an X300U, you get a light that is the same size with absolutely insane performance. The lumen and candela rating make this light blinding up close, and fully capable of positive identification well out to 100 yards. If that sounds more like a rifle engagement distance, you’re not wrong… the PL350 uses the same light heads as the Modlite rifle lights. The biggest flaw of the PL350 (to some people) is the lack of a momentary function. Many defensive handgun instructors lament the use of momentary on a pistol light, but that didn’t influence the reception of this feature omission by the public. It’s up to you whether that is a feature you need or not.
Pro:
Cons:
There are an incredible number of options, but the best option is incredibly dependent on what handgun you own (or plan to own). Gear selection should always be dictated by context; ask the questions below when considering a new piece of gear:
GEAR IS FUN, but we do encourage you to be deliberate in your purchases? We hope that this information helps you in your decision-making process when considering a pistol mounted light.
Stay mission-ready. Stay confident.
– TXC
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