Tag Archives: Weapon

an item you use to injure someone else or hunt animals

Brass Knuckles

Posted by on December 23, 2011 Comments Off

Brass knuckles are a weapon used in hand-to-hand combat. Despite their name, they’re usually made of steel.  Other examples have been made from wood, plastic, aluminum or iron.  They’re worn on the knuckles, with your fingers placed through the finger holes to secure the weapon on your hand.  Brass knuckles are designed to concentrate the force of your punch through the harder and smaller contact area of the brass knuckles, causing a more damaging blow.

Probably due to how easy it is to conceal bras knuckles and how much damage can be done with just one blow, brass knuckles are illegal to own and/or carry in many countries, such as in Russia, Canada, France, United Kingdom, Sweden, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands.  In the USA, it is not federally illegal to own brass knuckles, but most states do not allow them to be carried on someones person.  City and county laws also need to be taken into consideration.

It’s possible to misuse brass knuckles when defending yourself and injure your fist in the process of delivering a strike.  In order to avoid this injury, you should strike with a hammer fist.

Now some people say they will hurt your hand more than the person you are hitting – that is sort of true, it all has to do with properly using them. If you punch someone the normal way (hitting with the knuckle) wile wearing a pair it will be painful for the palm of your hand.

Featured Photo by DeeganMarie

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Knife Fighting: Hand Grip Techniques

Posted by on December 10, 2011 Comments Off

Knife fights aren’t quite as common as they used to be, though it is useful to know how to use a knife as an offensive and defensive weapon.  To do this, you employ a variety of knife grips.  These various grips each have advantages and disadvantages.  Here are the two main types of grips:

  • Holding the knife in a forward grip (with the blade facing up out of your hand, as if holding a hammer) allows for more precision, skill, and a longer reach.
  • Holding the knife in a reverse grip (with the blade facing down out of your hand, as if holding an icepick) gives you for more power. The reverse grip is considered as much more challenging to effectively employ in knife-on-knife combat by everyone but the very practiced, in part because  reverse grips can require skills in footwork and quick defensive body movements to compensate for the increased danger of getting closer to your opponent.

Or, you could take a different route and bring a gun to a knife fight.  That seems to work for a lot of people.

Featured Photo by hondasniperlife

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The KA-BAR Combat Knife

Posted by on December 8, 2011 Comments Off
KA-BAR Knife

The KA-BAR (trademarked as KA-BAR in all caps) is a popular combat knife used by the US Marine Corps and the US Navy.  They are manufactured by KA-BAR Cutlery, Inc.  The KA-BAR is perhaps their most well known product (among many).  One handy trick employed by marines is to spray-paint the knife and its accessories with matte black spray paint in order to reduce light reflected from the blade and to provide a limited degree of protection from saltwater corrosion.

There have been several variations of the KA-BAR knives available through the years, such as both single or double-edged versions and newer models made from state of the art synthetic materials (such as handles crafted from non-slip Kraton).

Check out www.kabar.com to check out their quality products. Read more »

Hunting and Self Defense Gear: The Crossbow

Posted by on December 6, 2011 Comments Off

The crossbow offers up it’s own set of advantages and disadvantages as a tool for self defense.

Advantages:

  • A crossbow has the advantage of being a ranged weapon, allowing you to take out prey and foes at a comfortable distance.
  • The ammo is reusable, though be careful to sterilize the ammo thoroughly lest you accidentally infect yourself from some blood-born pathogen.
  • The crossbow is a much more quiet weapon than a firearm, allowing you to hunt without drawing attention to yourself.
  • The crossbow can also be used with rope to establish a zip-line.

Disadvantages:

  • Most crossbows don’t have an automated function (unlike certain firearms), making them less useful against large groups of opponents or in close combat.
  • You will need plenty of practice with a crossbow before you have decent accuracy with your shots and to have a good understanding of how to properly use and maintain your weapon.

Featured Photo by Nick Perla
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Non-Lethal Ammunition

Posted by on December 4, 2011 Comments Off
paint balls ammo

Non-lethal rounds of ammunition are intended for use in firearms to incapacitate (rather than kill)  targets. Examples include bullets made from rubber, wax or plastic, beanbag rounds, or rubber bullets with an added electroshock effect.

Also, high-speed paintball guns can be used to launch rounds not intended to kill.  These can mark the target, making it easier to track the target.  There is even paintball ammo with a pepper-spray additive, further incapacitating the target.

For the most part, non-lethal ammo works through the same basic mechanism – launching a chunk of something at a target to injure/incapacitate the target.  Newer technology, such as rubber bullets with electroshock or paint-balls with pepper spray, are innovative ways of making non-lethal ammo more effective.

Featured Photo by Maria Fernanda Aristizabal M.

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Incendiary Devices: The Flamethrower

Posted by on November 27, 2011 Comments Off

For those of you unfamiliar with the basics of a flamethrower, it’s a mechanical device capable of projecting a long, controlled stream of fire. The range of a flamethrower can vary greatly, but military-grade models are capable of shooting a stream of flaming liquid 150 to 200 feet or possibly even longer distances. The flammable liquids used with flamethrowers vary, including petroleum-based (gasoline, kerosine, or diesel) or alcohol-based (methanol, ethanol, or butinol) fuels.  As a result, some types flamethrowers project a stream of burning flammable liquid while others project a gas-powered flame.  Flamethrowers employed by the military mostly use liquids, though commercial flamethrowers (where legal) more frequently employ high-pressure propane and natural gas.

Note:  In the United States, private ownership of a flamethrower is not restricted by federal law, but is restricted in some states, such as California, by state laws (cf. California Health and Welfare Codes 12750–12761, Flame-throwing Devices).

Featured photo by hunterseakerhk

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Equipment: Stun Grenade

Posted by on November 26, 2011 Comments Off

A stun grenade (also called a flash grenade) is designed to be a non-lethal weapon.

They’re primarily used to temporally disorient the senses of the intended target:

  • Each produced a bright flash of light, triggering all light-sensitive cells in the eyes and essentially blinding the target for about five seconds.  The eyes will quickly restore themselves to its normal, unstimulated state.
  • The loud blast created by the stun grenade further incapacitates the target, disturbing fluid in the ears.
  • The concussive blast from the detonated stun grenade can cause injury.
  • The heat created by the blast can ignite flammable materials.

Note that while the stun grenade is considered a non-lethal weapon, there have been a very small number of fatalities associated with their use. Read more »

Equipment: Net Gun

Posted by on November 24, 2011 Comments Off

The net gun is a popular tool for the nonlethal subduing animals, riot control situations, catching shoplifters, and other law enforcement purposes.  As the name suggests, a net gun fires a net to entangle the target.  Unlike some nonlethal weapons, such as tasers or pepper spray, a net gun simply entangles the target in a net, making it a great method for capture with no real risk of serious injury to the target.

Equipment: Tranquilizer Gun

Posted by on November 23, 2011 Comments Off

Tranquilizer guns use a projectile capable of administering an  incapacitating agent into a persons body.  The two most common agents used to incapacitate humans are Kolokol-1 and Agent 15, as most agents used to tranquilize animals are fatal to humans or can produce long term damage to the victim’s body.  There are tranquilizer guns you can buy, or you could take the cross-bow or blow-gun route as your delivery method. Read more »

Electroshock Weapons

Posted by on November 23, 2011 Comments Off

A stun gun

There are non-projectile forms of Electroshock weapons, such as a stun gun (a and-held, non-projectile version of the taser, which requires you to get much closer to your assailant), or my personal favorite, the electric shock prod, which is essentially a cattle prod adapted for use on people (or just about anything attacking you). They are more difficult to keep discreet than a stun gun or taser, but they have an added bonus as a potential bludgeon weapon.

Featured Photo by Matt Scott

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