Mary Poppins Gets Real!

Okay, the Mary Poppins Sniper Team is a fantasy from Blade-Tech holsters founder Tim Wegner. It has to do with his fetish for umbrellas, or something like that. I'm sure he'll be fine once he gets some rest!

Anyhow, there's a bunch of new Blade-Tech stuff I wanted to give you a heads-up on. Second picture down is the new Training Barrel. Slip your real barrel out of your piece and pop in a brightly colored Training Barrel...suddenly, no live ammunition can sneakily crawl into your gun! This is a really big deal when demo'ing guns (like we do every week on SHOOTING GALLERY) or in high-speed training scenarios. Nothing feels as much like a "real" gun as a real gun. You get to dry-fire the gun to your heart's content and your television set gets to remain in one piece. I am 100% on this product, which is presently available for Glocks (19/23 family), with 1911s, SIG-229s and the S&W M&P on the way. It's cheaper than a blue/red plastic training gun — and believe me, I've bought a bunch of them! — and I suspedct you can carry it onto a plane with setting off alarm bells thoughout the western world. If your gun has lasers or trick sites or is bondo-formed to your big fat paw, so much the better. Seriously, I hope Tim ends up making these for all of the most common duty/carry guns, because I think EVERYONE should have one! Go to the Blade-Tech site and check 'em out. If you've got the right Glock, buy one immediately! Your television will profoundly thank you...

Next up is Blade-tech's foray into Molle gear connectors. Molle gear is great for hanging things off of, but sometimes the hangers leave a lot to be desired. The new B-T system offers precise on and off, a la a Molle-ized version of their famous Tek-Lok. Clips on; clips off. Simple, ingenious and what you'd expect from a company that also makes pink sniper sweatshirts.

Finally, watch for a simple, elegant retention holster (4th pix down, on left) — guaranteed to be popular with police and military — and...big drum roll here...a new series of reasonably priced holsters that should do with molded holsters what Kydex did for carry holsters in the first place. The only real drawback to Blade-Tech holsters has been price...they're great, but they will cost you a couple of bucks more than their competitors. Basically, the company has scored a breakthrough on molding technology, and the resulting holsters are really nice...and slick. That is, a higher lubricity factor, terminology usually applied to K-Y Jelly for sure, but it works just as well with holsters — makes for a quick holster that doesn't eat your gun's finish up quite as fast. Watch for them...they're on the way.