Wet gear performance test

[car541]

Last week, I was assigned to do hurricane Harvey flood rescues. as a result of this, I spend almost 36 hours wearing a duty belt that was submerged in flood water over and over again. During this period, I was carrying a gun I keep around entirely for these sorts of operations, namely and early Gen 3 Glock 19. The weapon and spare magazines were loaded with 124 +P 9mm Federal HST's. The water I was in was not salty, but was contaminated with a variety of substances I prefer not to spend too much time thinking about (think required tetanus shot and prophylactic antibiotics this week). Here is a summary of my observations from this:

1 The ammo held up well. After this, I assumed at lease some of it was compromised, so I stopped by the range and shot all of it out of a Beretta 92F this week. Every single one of the 46 rounds I was carrying fired exactly as designed, with no apparent loss of accuracy of velocity.

2. My TLR-1 still worked and was dry inside when I changed the batteries

3. The Glock had some very light surface rust on the slide, inside and out, the barrel looked like it sustained no damage, There was some brown stuff in the striker channel (I assume rust from the striker spring) and the sights had some light surface corrosion (Ameriglo Spartan operator sights). Other than that, it was in pretty good shape.

3. My Safariland 6280 (STX size 832) shows no effects. dried out overnight after I was finally able to get home, the hood functions fine, the suede didn't de-laminate and it doesn't even stink.

All of my clothes received a Viking funeral. My Waders were abandoned early on as they kept filling up due to excessive water depth

[60167]

1. Thanks for what you do.

2. I'm glad to hear that your ammo fired reliably after being submerged. I would think that's a legitimate concern.

3. I've seen Glock maritime spring cups and I always assumed (don't know) they are designed to shed water to not impede striker travel. I'm curious how reliably the Glock would fire after being submerged and having the striker channel completely fill.

[john c]

Thank you for your service.

How did you de-contaminate your duty gear? What magazine carriers were you using? Did these drain at all?

Now that you've had this experience, would you make any changes or modifications to you gear setup? Would you wear/carry more or different gear?

Were you wearing a ballistic vest? How did that work out?

What sort of clothes/uniform were you wearing? Any changes you would make? I'm sure that viking funeral was satisfying.

[That Guy]

How come you didn't fire the ammo through the Glock you were carrying? Wouldn't that have been a better function test of both the ammo and the gun?

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[SD]

excellent info. thanks, could you inspect & update in a month?

[Lester Polfus]

Hey man, good work getting it done out there. I hope you're well.

I've taken some swims, both anticipated and unanticipated with Glocks. You may have already thought of this, but in case you haven't, I very much recommend disassembling and inspecting your magazines. I've found the springs were prone to rust.

[JonInWA]

Hey man, good work getting it done out there. I hope you're well.

I've taken some swims, both anticipated and unanticipated with Glocks. You may have already thought of this, but in case you haven't, I very much recommend disassembling and inspecting your magazines. I've found the springs were prone to rust.

I've found a good protective treatment is wiping the springs down with Dri-Slide, a molybdenum disulfide dry-film lubricant/anti-corrosive. It doesn't attract GSR, etc. Another alternative, probably equally good, would be to use Sentry Solutions' Tuff-Cloth.

Best, Jon

[car541]

Thank you for your service.

How did you de-contaminate your duty gear? What magazine carriers were you using? Did these drain at all?

Now that you've had this experience, would you make any changes or modifications to you gear setup? Would you wear/carry more or different gear?

Were you wearing a ballistic vest? How did that work out?

What sort of clothes/uniform were you wearing? Any changes you would make? I'm sure that viking funeral was satisfying.

I cleaned the carriers, etc in hot water and dawn, the were all stx safariland stuff and 2 hsgi Tacos (1 for the baton, 1 for my Strion) the strion did well, the baton, taser, and second pair of cuffs were left in the car. My radio was in a heavy duty ziplock bag when not in use (either on the high water truck or boat, whichever we were using so it wasnt submerged). My I phone was in a waterproof case and except for a little condensation seems ok and worked well throughout.

Mag carrier was a Safariland 777 open top. they have a drain hole at the bottom and drain well and the magazines were retained even climbing in and out of a boat a bunch of times

I threw out the duty belt and put my stuff on a new one

The amount of gear was sufficient, if I did this again I might dispense with the spare magazines. and just bring a gun, a pair of cuffs and a radio. I didnt wear my vest, i put a type III PFD on under my raincoat instead, drowning seemed like a more immediate threat to manage. Everyone who didn't take their vest off will be discarding it as soon as they get a new one.

[car541]

How come you didn't fire the ammo through the Glock you were carrying? Wouldn't that have been a better function test of both the ammo and the gun?



Yes, the glock would have been a better test, but I had a required qualification session, and the Beretta was due, so it got the call. :)

[MD7305]

I've never, thankfully, had to work in a flooded environment but I'm curious what kinda precautions you take with portable radios and all the water?

Be safe out there!

[Lester Polfus]

I've found a good protective treatment is wiping the springs down with Dri-Slide, a molybdenum disulfide dry-film lubricant/anti-corrosive. It doesn't attract GSR, etc. Another alternative, probably equally good, would be to use Sentry Solutions' Tuff-Cloth.

Best, Jon

I appreciate that Jon. Hopefully the "swimming with guns" phase of my life is over, but it might be worth doing with my woods gun, as I often get pretty wet out there.

[car541]

I've never, thankfully, had to work in a flooded environment but I'm curious what kinda precautions you take with portable radios and all the water?

Be safe out there!

I put it in one of these (didn't get mine on amazon, but it is similar). I was lucky to have it, I did some patrol on a waverunner a few years ago and bought the bag for that

https://www.amazon.com/KENMAX-Universal-Transparent-Waterproof-Motorola/dp/B01GLAMP3C/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1505094144&sr=8-10&keywords=radio+waterproof+bag

tThen tie it to the boat or truck and take it out when i need to transmit. You can actually hear incoming transmissions through the bag.

When going into houses to make sure they are clear, the boat operator has comms and you kinda tell him "if I'm not back in a few minutes, come find me" and leave the radio on the boat

[Jaywalker]

Thanks for the service and the comments. It's interesting to see that your clothing and duty gear was totally expended - I hadn't expected that.

[Jason M]

I've found a good protective treatment is wiping the springs down with Dri-Slide, a molybdenum disulfide dry-film lubricant/anti-corrosive. It doesn't attract GSR, etc. Another alternative, probably equally good, would be to use Sentry Solutions' Tuff-Cloth.

Best, Jon

I have had great results with both the regular Tuff-cloth and the Marine Tuff-cloth. I submerged a marine Tuff-cloth treated G26 in salt water while on vacation. There was no rust anywhere even on the springs and the older version Heinie sights.

It seems that when dealing with flood waters, hazmat, bio hazards, and just the day to day grunge, having easily decontaminated duty gear would be a plus. Made of a material that was non porous and could withstand exposure to cidex or some of the other hospital grade disinfectants. EMS has rubberized bags, straps etc.

Just thinking out loud here so to speak but the suede on the interior of the Safariland duty holsters always impressed me as a collector of contaminants. I think the new 7TS holsters are suede free and would be easier to decontaminate. Ditching the duty belt sounds like the right move as it would collect as much mung as the suede holster lining. There are plenty of easily washed kydet/boltaron pouches and such. Nobody that I can think of makes an decon worthy duty belt. Something in biothane perhaps? It would be cool if First Spear could make a line one style 2.25 inch duty belt...

[Sero Sed Serio]

Last week, I was assigned to do hurricane Harvey flood rescues. as a result of this, I spend almost 36 hours wearing a duty belt that was submerged in flood water over and over again. During this period, I was carrying a gun I keep around entirely for these sorts of operations, namely and early Gen 3 Glock 19. The weapon and spare magazines were loaded with 124 +P 9mm Federal HST's. The water I was in was not salty, but was contaminated with a variety of substances I prefer not to spend too much time thinking about (think required tetanus shot and prophylactic antibiotics this week). Here is a summary of my observations from this:

1 The ammo held up well. After this, I assumed at lease some of it was compromised, so I stopped by the range and shot all of it out of a Beretta 92F this week. Every single one of the 46 rounds I was carrying fired exactly as designed, with no apparent loss of accuracy of velocity.

2. My TLR-1 still worked and was dry inside when I changed the batteries

3. The Glock had some very light surface rust on the slide, inside and out, the barrel looked like it sustained no damage, There was some brown stuff in the striker channel (I assume rust from the striker spring) and the sights had some light surface corrosion (Ameriglo Spartan operator sights). Other than that, it was in pretty good shape.

3. My Safariland 6280 (STX size 832) shows no effects. dried out overnight after I was finally able to get home, the hood functions fine, the suede didn't de-laminate and it doesn't even stink.

All of my clothes received a Viking funeral. My Waders were abandoned early on as they kept filling up due to excessive water depth

1) Thank you for your service, both day-to-day and during this trying time.

2) It sounds like you have a lot of latitude in your duty weapons and are authorized to carry multiple weapons...correct? What do you typically carry on duty (gun and ammo)?

3) How big of a role does the single-spring guide rod assembly play into your decision for this role? Would you feel comfortable carrying a Gen. 4 or Gen. 5 over the Gen. 3? Likewise, is the 124 gr. +P load your standard carry round, or something you only use in situations like this?

4) Do you take any particular steps to protect the weapon before you go out? And do you have any special cleaning procedures once you get back?

5) Can/would you use a weapon with a specialized finish such as NP3 for this role?