Tonight, I am in Norfolk, Virginia after a fun filled weekend…Friday night after work, I fished the Rapphanannock River for the Annual Shad Run…We got home about 9pm and I caught between 40 and 50 American and/or Hickory Shad. Saturday morning, I got up early, Scouted for Turkey’s and headed North to Burke, Virginia for the annual Bull Run Chapter Banquet for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The event was great, we raised a ton of money for the RMEF and elk habitat and the committee is one of my favorites. This is the 19th annual Bull Run Banquet and the chapter is exceptional as are all of the wonderful attendees that come out to support this event each and every year. This chapter was the one I first started my volunteering with and this is the 6th or 7th year, I have worked with the commiteee(I have kind of lost count).
Sunday morning, I got up, packed up the car, took care of a few small pressing issues and got on the road for a lovely drive through the hot countryside down through Richmond, Williamsburg and into Norfolk. I am here in Norfolk, attending what many in the industry would consider to be a press junket for the Outdoor Bloggers. We have a wonderful group of bloggers and writers and I am really excited to be able to catch up with each of them and learn about a great American company BLACKHAWK! Thier motto is Honor. As a Way of Life. I can assure you that even though, I was brought down to this great event, we will be 100% honorable in how we cover this company and what we bring you from them in product reviews and interviews. A good majority of our blogging group comes from the world of guns and ammo blogging and only a select few of us are outdoor writers. BLACKHAWK! focuses on Military, Law Enforcement, Outdoor and Corporate Security as well as Fire, Rescue and EMS equipment and gear. We will be focused on a majority of the outdoor gear from BLACKHAWK!.
Tonight, we got the complete tour and a fantastic dinner from the crew, we got to sit down and learn a little bit about our hosts. BLACKHAWK! was started in 1993 by former Navy SEAL Mike Noell. Mike’s experience in the US Navy provided him the inspiration to build quality gear. While humping “a ton” of gear by foot in an enemy Minefield, his pack failed, dumping gear thoughout the field. He remarked then, “If I get out of this alive, I will make this stuff the way it needs to be built so none of my buddies have to go through this.” Since 1993, where he started in a garage to today, Mike Noell and BLACKHAWK! have come a long, long way!
The last several years, BLACKHAWK! has been introducing products into the Outdoor arenal with tremendous success and boast the outdoor market is one of thier fastest growing divisions. We look forward to seeing many of the great products created for the outdoor market.
We got the chance to play with the Be Warned Knife tonight, and while this is not necessarily a hunting knife of the traditional sense, I can assure you all, I am going to be more then happy to carry it on my belt on a day to day basis. The knife is sharp, has amazing lines and is built tough. This is a fine peice to add to your belt clip, whether you are hiking and camping on a back country hunt or your in the urban jungle and for day to day use… This knife really has me impressed. The blade swings free easily, the belt clip is a major plus and I really like the lines to get in tight spots quickly with a small cutting edge and it really looks like it could take quite a beating. Exactly what I am looking for in a knife…I want something, I can beat the heck out of.
Here are some pictures so you can see what I mean:
