Adam Savage Explores a Military Surplus Store

22 thoughts on “Adam Savage Explores a Military Surplus Store”

1. to answer your q’s: yes, we got inside the tank–adam wrote about it here: http://mdvip-tested.md-staging.com/art/makers/459218-tour-bus-diaries-im-tank/

   i don’t get to talk because our camera only could support two wireless mic packs. so what you see in my pockets are actually both the receiver and transceiver!

   thanks to ben grayson from our main office for editing this video, and grant babbit also from our LA office for shooting the video. joey was unable to make it down to bakersfield with us this time.

   Reply

2. That’s awesome, surplus stores here in Australia don’t stock so much stuff let alone tanks lol.

   Reply

3. This video should have been 10 times longer 🙂

   Reply

4. I miss REAL military surplus stores! Ever since the days of the $600 hammer, I’m guessing there has been less surplus in military acquisition, so here in New England so many of the Army Navy stores tend to carry old Cold War cast-offs at best and knockoffs at worst. growing up in the very Navy-entric Tidewater Virginia area I had the benefit of being near a very cool one, M & G Navy in Norfolk. I just checked and they’re still going strong, so if you find yourself near there, Adam, check them out! I’ll be envious!

   Reply

5. No where near the scale of Bakersfield’s though!

   Reply

6. Those are great stores to go into!

   I am sure Adam felt like a kid in a candy store going in.

   Reply

7. Magazines, not clips.

   Reply

8. Gotta keep an eye out for genuine ALICE pack frames that are not horribly overpriced. The Ghostbuster community is always in need of those.

   Reply

9. Will theyre called magazines. Just a rule of thumb, they’re always magazines, never clips.

   Reply

10. thanks, video games.

    Reply

11. This video should have been 10 times longer 🙂

    I think everyone wishes that it ran longer…

    Reply

12. thanks, video games.

    Many older rifle designs actually do use ‘clips’ to feed ammunition into them. Guns like the American M1 Garand/1903 Springfield/Johnson Model 1941, German Mausers, British Lee Enfields, Swiss K11/K31, French MAS-36, Russian Mosin Nagant and SKS, etc.

    The ‘magazine’ on these guns are usually fixed onto the rifle, and are not removable..

    So, yeah. He could put ‘clips’ into the pouches on that tac-vest…… if he wanted too. 😉

    Reply

13. Aw, man… Only 3 minutes? I thought it was going to be at least 5 times as that. 🙁

    The ending was pretty funny, though. 😀

    Reply

14. Some more on the clips vs magazines comments. One way to think of it is that clips are used to fill magazines and magazines are used to feed the weapon. Some older weapons like what pointed out use fixed magazines, so they were filled directly from the ammunition clips.

    When I was in the Marines, we would get our ammunition issued to us in bandoleers that had 6 (or so) boxes (don’t remember the exact number anymore) and each box had 30 rounds of 5.56 ammo. In each of those boxes, there were 3, 10-round clips of ammunition that you then loaded into your magazines.

    However, you generally didn’t want to put more than 27 rounds into the standard government issue 30-round M-16 magazines, as they tended to jam more frequently if you did, especially if it was an old & worn magazine.

    Anyway, where’s the video of you guys in the tanks? 😉

    Reply

15. This is where you could put the entire unedited video up on the premium page. 🙂

    Reply

16. I looked at their website. Most of the bags hanging on that wall were Rothco, Condor, Bugout Gear, 5.11 Tactical, and/or Propper. The whole lot of it is meh. Most of it is made in China. 5.11 stuff is the best of the lot, but that isn’t saying much.

    Would it kill them to carry some US-made bags/packs? Spec-Ops Brand? Tactical Tailor? US Palm Gear? ATS Tactical and the like? There is a ton of quality gear made in this country. And, it isn’t going to cost you much more than what outfits like these charge you for the Chinese stuff.. smh

    PS – Just looked it up. Adam’s Tac-Vest was made by Condor (in China). Just sayin’..

    Reply

17. I’d love to know what stuff the military guys actually use, is there any good reference for a loadout for an army ranger, navy seal etc?

    Reply

18. I’d love to know what stuff the military guys actually use, is there any good reference for a loadout for an army ranger, navy seal etc?

    I couldn’t tell you off-hand about specific loadouts. I’m sure it depends on the unit/branch of service/individual. There are forums where this stuff like is talked about, though. Lightfighter.net being one such place.

    I can tell you this, they are not buying 1st/2nd/3rd Line Gear from random surplus stores.. lol

    The people that know what to look for, are running quality gear from US companies such as: Original SOE, Kifaru, Mystery Ranch, ATS Tactical, HSGI, Eagle Industries (their St. Louis, Missouri sewn gear), First Spear LLC, Tactical Assault Gear, London Bridge Trading, Tyr Tactical, etc., etc..

    Reply

19. Indeed, en bloc clips are a valid use of the term in that context. In the context of a magazine pouch on a utility vest, not so much.

    Splitting hairs, perhaps, but it’s a common misuse that irks.

    Reply

20. Indeed, en bloc clips are a valid use of the term in that context. In the context of a magazine pouch on a utility vest, not so much.

    Splitting hairs, perhaps, but it’s a common misuse that irks.

    While the pouches on those vests are made for magazines for modern firearms, that doesn’t mean that one couldn’t put other things in them. Such as the case with Adam and his use of this vest on his little tv show.. 😉

    Reply

21. I was at the Bakersfield show. Really enjoyed seeing you guys live! Glad you liked the surplus store…there is much much more to Bakersfield. For those who thing the video is not long enough…it is not the size of the video…but the quality in which it is delivered. Cool to see you in my stomping ground!

    Reply

22. Nice plug for 99 Percent Invisible – great show, very interesting and diverse. Tested fan would love it – but I don’t like how Roman Mars seems to be mumbling all the time.

    Reply