Distinguished Ruffians

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

Alec Bradley Prensado

thumbnail_IMG_7177The Alec Bradley Prensado, Robusto cigar is coming in at a 5x 50 ring. The Prensado is made in the Raices Cubanas factory in Honduras and utilizes a good amount of Honduran tobacco from Trojes. The Trojes region is located in the Southern part of Honduras.

Visually the Alec Bradley Prensado is like a piece of cigar art. The wrapper has a dark chocolate look to it. The wrapper is somewhat oily and smooth with virtually no veins in sight. It is well packed with no soft spots as well as being box pressed. The aroma on the foot is a combination of cedar and coffee. The wrapper gives off a strong barnyard aroma.

For my Alec Bradley Prensado Robusto, I used my a Colibri V-cut to open up the cap. With the pre-light draw the dry draw notes provided me with flavors of leather, coffee, and chocolate. Overall I considered the pre-light flavors to be enjoyable. The first draw after lighting provided me with a quick shot of pepper.  The pepper would settle quickly though and join with the notes of leather and coffee. The leather and coffee have quickly surfaced as the primary flavors of this cigar. By the end of the first third of the smoking experience, I detected some hints of nut in the finish.

During the second third of the Prensado, I detected a sour citrus in the background for a little bit. Eventually these citrus notes were replaced by some cedar spices. The cedar spices fused with the pepper note.  For the remainder of the cigar experience, the Prensado was highlighted by notes of leather, coffee, nut and spice. At no point while smoking the last half of the cigar none of the notes would overshadow the others. The finish was smooth and there were no harsh notes. The resulting nub was cool and soft.

In the end, not the most complex flavor profile, but some good flavor and definitely a dessert cigar that would go really well with a nice cup of coffee and chocolate cake. The cigar was a solid medium body cigar and the burn was close to perfect and razor sharp. My overall opinion on this cigar is that it gets a 4 star out of 5 Construction is impeccable. The flavors were very enjoyable with a solid Medium on the body. Not too much strength at least for me. I would buy another given the chance.

Review by Distinguished Ruffian member @mouthwash_cologne

Wrapper: Trojes, Honduras

Binder: Nicaragua

Filler: Trojes, Honduras, Nicaragua

Size for Review: Robusto 5×50

Taste: Full body.

Website: www.alecbradley.com

Price: Around $10.00 depending on location.

Rating: 4 out of 5 pints.