With my apologies to Papa for the thread hi-jack, I'd like to expand a little bit on my experience with this new store I found where I bought this knife.
I know my profile says St. Louis, and I do work in STL proper, but I actually live outside of the suburbs at the bottom of the next county to the south, about 40-45 miles away. I mention this because the closest town to me ( which also happens to be the county seat ) is a small town in a very rural area. This place discourages most businesses from setting up shop because they want it to remain a small, rural town. And while it's not strange that the town has a gun store, it's quite extraordinary that it now has a store like this.
They actually began as a training outfit and security operators. The two owners are combat vets and ex swat guys and they have actually contracted for some "security" details for the county sheriff's office. I rarely actually go up into town as it's really not on my way to anywhere I go. I skirt the edges, but rarely get into the stretch of the highway that constitutes the "Business district". So even though this place has been there for 10 months now, I just learned of it yesterday. I spent an hour or so last night up there talking to the kid working and checked the place out. They recently got their FFL ( including class III) and until then they were primarily selling accessories and such on-line. It's a small place ( they are getting ready to expand though) but they have a pretty good inventory. Way more "Tactical" for lack of a better term, than most gun stores in podunk. Mostly quality stuff too and the gun selection is good. This is my new favorite store.
So I go there today to pick up this knife and a belt and one of the owners is the guy working today. I spent about 2 1/2 hours in there talking to the guy. We talked about their courses, which sound pretty intense and their clients are usually cops and other already highly trained individuals. The guy seemed to like me and like the kid working last night, he ended up going out to his truck and bringing in his bag and letting me handle his PDWs and handguns. By the way the kid working last night is a big Springfield fan and has a couple Saints, some handguns and even a Prodigy. The guy today had a heavily modified, older version CZ Scorpion as well as a heavily modded 7.62 AK variant pistol. Both of these had the Holosun equivalent of the Romeo 5s on them. I asked him about that, him being an actual operator and all ( this guy's resume is extensive. Army Ranger. Many hours of actual combat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Eastern Europe, etc.. He's a door kicker for sure, I saw his bullet holes
) He said the Holosuns just work. He's also a Vortex guy. We talked about thermal and like 10mm and KF and the other hog killing Texans on this board, he does NOT recommend any " Budget" friendly options. I asked about some of the thermal monoculars on their website that are in the $1000 range and his response was " It depends on what you're doing with it". I told him I clearly wasn't an operator or intending to use them in any real defensive role, more for just seeing what's roaming around after dark. Nevertheless he immediately starts talking about $5000 stuff that they don't even carry. I told him I thought it was odd that a guy who owned a store like this would talk me out of a possible sale of a low end thermal device and would also have a $150 Holosun dot on his CZ Scorpion. He isn't a dude repeating things he heard on the internet. He said he uses the Holosuns because they work and he knows they work. He also let me fondle his sidearm, which was a Shadow Systems 9mm with a WML under it and a 507 on top with lower 1/3 co-witness. Apparently if you get your gun taken as evidence in a SD shooting, Shadow Systems will give you a replacement gun. Did anyone know this? He had the 1911 grip panels on it and I finally had a Glock ( basically) in my hand that I loved the feel of. He's also a big fan of the new Sig 365 Macro and even has a video which is on Sig's website. He is a red dot on handguns and nothing but striker fired Glocks and Sigs kinda guy.
Well, sorry for the long winded diatribe, but I assure you I am leaving stuff out. I thought it was a nice bit of info to know that an actual operator would favor Holosun dots and not be a fan of 1911s. Or 45s for carry for that matter. ( he did say he might consider a 2011). We talked about that too and he gave the same answer you have heard
@HansGruber give except that Herr Gruber puts less importance on capacity, but you gotta figure Hans is speaking from a POV similar to ours and not the POV of a guy who has clearly been shot and shot many people in combat.
