Distinguished Ruffian

Infinity Ammunition

img_9520Just imagine, you’ve just finished building your first two AR-15’s. You set up a day to finally throw a little lead down range at one of the nicest shooting ranges in the area, pay your fee, get your targets and ppe (personal protective equipment) and head to your lanes. All the months of acquiring gun parts, finding deals, and putting it all together comes down to this moment…lock and load, the range line is hot! BANG! That first round goes off flawlessly and just feels sexy, BANG! The second round gives ya a warm and fuzzy in the trousers. Everything is going great and then CLICK… fear comes over you, you got a squib load.

Let’s rewind a month or so prior to that day, to when I got myself 500 rounds of 55 grain .223 ammo from a little company out of Melbourne, FL called Infinity Ammunition. I had found them thru the explore page on Instagram (aint technology great?) and decided to give them a whirl, cause they have some awesome prices. After thoroughly going over my rifles to ensure that it wasn’t a problem with them, the range officer, my highly knowledgeable gun sensei buddy, and myself determined that it was the ammo that was the problem. Needless to say, after spending close to 200 bucks on ammo, I was a little… let down let’s say. The next day I shot them an email about what happened and explained that although it was inconvenient, I understood manufacturing processes and that when you’re pumping out thousands of rounds of ammo per day, there’s a chance you could run across a bad batch due to a multitude of things. Here’s where the impressive part happens, THE NEXT DAY I received a phone call from the CEO of the company apologizing for the mishap and assuring me that it would definitely be made right one way or the other. I decided to send them back the ammo (along with the bad loads I had identified), and like the stand-up company they are, they paid for return shipping. Id estimate a week went by, when the ups man came knocking at my door, it was my new batch of ammo! Infinity’s CEO contacted me again to let me know that it in fact was a batch issue that they had contained, and that they threw in a little extra for the inconvenience. I don’t know about y’all, but that’s top-notch service to me, In a time where most customer service is nonexistent in most companies, they stood out, admitted the fault, and moved forward amicably.

I went to my local indoor range just to put a couple mags worth to the test, ZERO problems. I got to say, I was thoroughly impressed with Infinity Ammunition, and it feels good to support a smaller, in state and fairly local business. They offer round counts of anywhere from 50 up to 10000 ( subject to availability ) and calibers of 9mm, .40, and .45 in pistol and .223 & .300 blackout in rifle, along with reloading supplies and brass, and remanufactured ammunition. They ship thru UPS as well. So if you just so happen to be looking for quality ammo at a very reasonable price, head over to Infinityammo.com and do some looking around, guaranteed you’ll like what you see.

Quality: 4 pints out of 5

Price: Varies

Website:  www.Infinityammo.com

 

Thorogood boots

img_9521“There are two standing orders in this platoon, 1. Take care of your feet and 2. Try not to do anything stupid, like get yourself killed” Lieutenant Dan Taylor- Forrest Gump. I suppose that statement didn’t make a whole hell of a lot of sense back in 1994 when I was 8 years old, but it damn sure does now. Working in any industry, and especially the power industry I’ve learned that paying the extra coin for a good quality pair of boots is well worth it. The fact that I’ve found a HIGH QUALITY and AMERICAN UNION MADE boot, well that’s just the icing on the cake. So light up some tobacco and grab your favorite beverage while I give you the rundown on Thorogood boots.

I’ll start out by saying this; I’ve had many pairs of boots in my day. Timberland pro, wolverine, Carolina, Georgia boot, hell I even had what I thought to be the holy grail of steel toes in the Redwing Irish setter (see previous article), they all pale in comparison to my Thorogood 10″ Wellington pull-ons
. Generally, I don’t purchase pull on boots because previous pairs have provided little to no ankle support and have always flopped off my foot when I walked making it miserable. The Thorogoods fit like I had them handmade just for me, just snug enough around the foot so that my foot doesn’t slide around and blister, while giving me support around the ankle to help with when I walk on the ever changing surfaces of a power plant i.e. gravel, grating, diamond plate, concrete, and grass. The inside of the boot, to me, is just the right amount of cushion and breathability, which definitely helps on those long 12 hour shifts when it seems like everything is going wrong and you barely get a chance to sit down.

Another great advantage to these boots is that they are pretty damn waterproof. When I first got them, I put mink oil on them to help the leather break in well and last a good while, and help with keeping my feet dry when it decides to downpour here in the sunshine state. Two nights ago, I put them to the test. It just so happened that a rainwater sump pump quit working and I was tasked with hooking up a portable submersible pump to evacuate the area of standing water ( lucky friggin me, right?! ). Oh did I mention the water was anywhere from 4-8 inches deep in some spots? My boots came through like a champ, my feet would have been completely dry if it weren’t for splashing water actually going down into my boot from the top.

Now for what you all really wanna know, PRICE! In general, Thorogood boots run anywhere from 155-225 dollars, depending on what style you’d like. Mine were 184.95 plus tax and shipping, which for the performance of the boot, is an excellent price to me. There is a large variety of boots to choose from so you can be stylish AND work your ass off. Oh and the cherry on top? They give a discount to members of other unions as well.

 

Rating: 5 pints

Pricing: Around $155.00 – $225.00

Website: Thorogoodworkboots.com

HERRERA ESTELI TORO ESPECIAL

IMG_7955Knowing that Willy Herrera was making this cigar and it was being made in a more traditional Cuban style I was excited to try it. I did a little bit of investigating before the package arrived to know what I would be getting into. All of the Herrera Estelis are rolled in the entubado style with a triple cap. This is the bunching technique, which rolls each filler leaf into itself, almost like a small scroll. Each individually “scrolled” leaf is then placed together to form the bunch. This skillful rolling technique creates a more firmly packed cigar, which allows air to travel between all of the leaves, carrying more aromatics/flavors to the palate. Entubado rolling is the most difficult and complex bunching method and is therefore rarely employed in large-scale manufacturing. (Thank you T.U. for providing a well-explained definition). After having several of these this is what I found.

The cigar is covered in an Ecuadorian wrapper that is light milk chocolate in color. The veining is minimal and the seams are tight and is toped off with a classic Cuban style simple band. The over all feel of the body is giving to the touch but obviously well constructed with no noticeable dead spots. The smell from the body is mild and is bread like with notes of coffee. From the foot it is a bit stringer and has the smells of licorice, aged leather and sugared ginger.

The cap cut easily and with no distress to the construction. Lighting was easily done with two matches and the initial draws provided good amounts of medium weighted smoke. The first third of the cigar burned evenly with the ash holding tight for up to almost an inch before asking to be knocked off. The flavor is a little sweet with a bit of pepper as well as the ginger on the back end.

The second third becomes a bit heavier with the flavor getting stronger. The sweetness begins to dissipate while the pepper and spice remains. The burn continues to be even and construction appears flawless at this point.

The last third stays close to the second third in flavor with just a bit more of the spice notes. The sweetness makes a small reappearance but is quickly gone again and covered by the spice along with a small amount of coffee flavor. The burn stayed consistent throughout the whole smoke as well as no faults in construction could be found.

Along with most items from Drew Estate I would recommend this cigar to anyone looking for a fuller bodied smoke. The build of this cigar is solid and hard to find in any other cigar available to the American market right now and the effort is clearly recognizable when smoking. Go grab a couple a let me know what you think.

On a side note Famous Smoke Shop has started a new cigar and spirits online pairing guide. Go check it out at https://www.famous-smoke.com/cigar-pairing/

 

Strength: Full

Shape: Toro

Size: 6 x 52

Country: Nicaragua

Wrapper Color: Natural

Wrapper Origin: Ecuadorian

Wrapper Leaf: Habano

Website: Famous-smoke.com

Price: $37.99 for a 5 pack or $185.99 for a box of 25

Rating: 4.8 out of 5 pints