Tourniquet Myths

Screenshots live forever!

The comment above was posted on social media a few months ago. It is a perfect example of some of the mythology around tourniquet application. I planned to address this sooner but I have been deployed with little to no interweb access.

Pelican 7600 Tactical Flashlight

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A post shared by Whiskey Delta Gulf (@whiskeydeltagulf) on Apr 22, 2017 at 4:41am PDT

Sixteen months ago, I was fortunate enough to win an Instagram contest conducted by Pelican Professional Products. The prize was a Pelican7600 Tactical Flashlight. I was very thrilled to have won and even more enthusiastic to do a flashlight review after a reasonable period of use. As regular followers of the blog know, a free product does not mean a free ride. I carried and used this flashlight as part of my everyday carry (EDC) and for operational use (military) for well over a year. It has racked up some miles as well and has travelled across Canada, USA and Caribbean. It has been a dependable and rugged illumination tool throughout this period of evaluation.

Big Words aren't Scary

A post shared by Whiskey Delta Gulf (@whiskeydeltagulf) on May 27, 2018 at 3:55am PDT

Vocabulary: noun, plural vo·cab·u·lar·ies. A list or collection of the words or phrases of a language or technical field. See also lexicon, jargon, argot, parlance or lingo.

SJ Hardware Glock 1oz. Metal Base Plates

SJ Hardware, a Canadian manufacturer and distributor of firearms, firearms accessories and most things tactical, have developed an aftermarket base plate for GLOCK magazines. For the sake of clarity, I am friends with owner and received a significant discount for purchasing this product with the understanding of an honest blog would be written. This product was shipped to me through their local distributor, Freedom Skwad.

A post shared by Whiskey Delta Gulf (@whiskeydeltagulf) on Jan 11, 2018 at 3:11am PST

Some Thoughts on Dynamic Tactics from Bill Blowers

Hostage Rescue Thoughts from Bill Blowers

Selecting Tactical Medicine Course

I have read many articles about how to select a firearms academy or tactical instructor. But, I have yet to see one on the selection of a tactical medicine program or course. There are similarities in the selection process but there are a few distinct differences that are very important. How do I know this is a successful recipe for this type of training? I was part of the CAF TCCC program that taught thousands of soldiers Combat First Aid and TCCC for their deployments to Afghanistan. The Canadian Armed Forces had an unheard of 100% preventable death save rate during that conflict.

SJ Hardware M&P 9mm Mag Base - 10rd Mags

A post shared by freedomskwad (@freedomskwad) on Nov 12, 2017 at 4:27am PST

Ten round magazines suck. The Firearms Act in Canada requires all pistol magazines to be limited to ten rounds. This is a federal law with only law enforcement, military and licensed exemptions. This post is not about the validity of this law as that is beyond the preview of this blog. Suffice to say ten round magazines suck.

Improvised Wound Simulators

Yoga Blocks

One of the most important hemorrhage control interventions taught on the CTOMS POD Survival Course, or any proper tactical medicine course, is wound packing. 

This is why we can't have nice things...

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Whiskey Delta Gulf is an ‘all the lumens’ sort of place. We like as much light as we can carry in our pockets, on our rigs and, most certainly, on our weapons. The innovation, from old D cell MagLights taped to MP5s a la Pogoda Troop era to the modern eye searing models we use today, has been amazing. This year, especially, is proving to be a pinnacle year for those in the light fight as tactical light companies are all releasing more formidable and ground-breaking product.

PODS™ Practical - 24 Feb 2018

Myths in Tactical Medicine

Identification has been redacted
to protect the guilty

There are a few common myths within First Aid and Tactical Trauma Care that will not go away. Worse yet, they are dogmatically propagated Ad Populum with significant evidence to the contrary. Ad Populum is Latin for "argument to the people". It is the erroneous reasoning that presumes that a proposition is true because of its popularity: "If many believe so, it is so." This is epidemic in the Internet Age especially in the tactical community.

Fightin’ Lights with Bill Blowers

Bill Blowers of Tap-Rack-Tactical published this article on weapon lights on social media. With his permission, I am reposting it here. I highly recommend bookmarking their page and following there social media. Bill is dropping knowledge bombs almost daily. 

Actual video of a Knowledge Bomb dropping

Over the years I have been fortunate to be in a position where I had a decent equipment budget with which to try new products. The above picture shows some of the recent lights I am happy with, albeit for different reasons. There is no perfect light, and suffice to say that over time there have really been just two work horse manufacturers that have been dropped, thrown, used as impact weapons, and stopped forward momentum by getting slammed into door frames that I was trying to gracefully go through.