Test or Trust for Your Self Defense Gun and Gear

When it comes to your self-defense guns and gear which do you want to do, test or trust?

When you buy stuff that will be used to save your life, do you just buy brands that you trust, or do you buy anything and test it?

I say why not both.  When I buy self-defense gear and guns, I buy from brands I trust and then test things.  I will read reviews and except advice from people I trust on what to get, but I still want to test everything.

This seems obvious, but there are a lot of people in the self-defense community that just buy things because their favorite YouTuber, celebrity gun person, or gun shop worker recommended it.  Those are fine people and places to start but then you should do more research and make sure that piece of gear works for you.

The Marine Corps was the worst at this.  It was all about uniformity not and usability of gear, even in the infantry.  One of my best Marines we called T-Bone.  He was 5’2” about 110 pounds.  Great man and great Marine.  I went to combat with him, and he performed courageously.  At the time I was about 6’2” 250 pounds and a gym rat with gorilla length arms.

A lot of gear that worked great for me didn’t work so well for T-Bone.  And some of the gear and placement that worked awesome for him didn’t work worth a dammed for me.

When you take suggestions from people, take into account their size, skills, and needs compared to yours.  A Navy SEAL might have some really great suggestions on gear and weapons, but he has a lot more time to train than you do, will outrun and outwork you physically, and has a different mission than you do.

Start with the suggestions from trusted sources and modify it to fit you.

Once you have a good suggestion, get the gear and go test.

None of us have the time, money, or access to testing equipment any manufacture has right now.  The bigger the manufacturer the more resources they have to do testing.

You don’t have the time to do torture tests on three different guns from three different manufactures to see which one will last the longest before breaking or between stoppages.  Once you determine which one is best, you should do it again to make sure the results are consistent.  That is just too much work for any of us.

I can give you great comparisons between a Glock and a Smith & Wesson only because I carried both those weapons for over 5 years and have shot tens of thousands of rounds through each platform.  But that testing and comparison took me a decade to get done (right now I carry a Smith).

So, you want to use both trust and test… or trust but verify. 

Once you get a piece of gear that you trust, go test, and work with it.   You will see after one session if it is a good fit for you.  After that, you are making sure you know it works, how you are supposed to use it, and what you can do with it.

Torture testing you carry gear is not a good idea.  You want that stuff to work.  You know it should work because you bought a tested product.  You are testing to make sure your sample actually functions as it should.  Sometimes the factory has a bad day or just a bad run of bad metals or tools.  You don’t want to be the one that finds the defect during a self-defense situation.  Test everything.

I test everything before I use it… except for grenades.  Never liked those because they are a onetime use and they either work or they don’t. 

Go test everything and make sure it works for you.

Stay Safe,

Ben