{"id":24201,"date":"2015-12-29T02:31:18","date_gmt":"2015-12-29T10:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=24201"},"modified":"2015-12-29T02:31:18","modified_gmt":"2015-12-29T10:31:18","slug":"kimber-pepper-blaster-ii-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/kimber-pepper-blaster-ii-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Kimber Pepper Blaster II unintentional test and review"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years back, a reader and friend gave me a Kimber Pepper Blaster II<\/a>. I’d seen them favorably reviewed in S.W.A.T.<\/i><\/a>, and knowing that S.W.A.T. has a no-BS review policy, I was sold.<\/p>\n

I’m a believer in “two is one and one is none,” but I can’t afford a second carry gun, so this seemed a good backup choice. Besides, I wanted something non-lethal against aggressive stray dogs.<\/p>\n

\"KimberPepperBlasterII\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, you don’t go out and just use<\/i> pepper sprays. You carry them around until you need them — or until they go bad and you try<\/i> to use them and they don’t work. Or you use them on a windy day and they blow into your face, not the bad guy’s. So it’s hard to be quite sure of them.<\/p>\n

The gifter also gave me this carry pouch<\/a>, which was great for keeping the blaster handy, but not for quick access. So eventually I ditched the pouch and started sticking the Pepper Blaster in my pocket.<\/p>\n

Yesterday afternoon, out in the woods, I spontaneously decided to give it a test. You know, what if it was all filled with pocket lint or something and wouldn’t work? So I aimed down the road (and down at the road), nudged the guard aside, and pulled the trigger.<\/p>\n

Shazam. I had forgotten the Kimber Pepper Blaster is not<\/i> a pepper spray device. It’s a whole different animal. <\/p>\n

I pulled the trigger and heard a spronnnng<\/i> and a snap, a lot like an old BB gun (as one Amazon reviewer described it). Instead of the steady spray I was anticipating, the blaster … well, blasted<\/i> is the only word for it … a shot-like mass of red glop. One discrete blast, one discrete mass. Definitely not a spray. But damn, it was powerful! It hit the road with approximately the spread I’d expect from a shotgun at that range. And I certainly wouldn’t want to be the bad guy who got that stuff blasted even onto my clothes or my hair. A direct hit to the face would be crippling. I had to use Mace on a dog once many years ago, and this stuff was nuclear compared with that.<\/p>\n

On the Pepper Blaster website<\/a> Kimber says it shoots 13 feet and has little danger of blowing back on the shooter. This I believe.<\/p>\n

The site also reminded me that the Blaster gives you exactly two shots, another fact I’d forgotten. My shot emptied the lower of the two cartridges you see in the photo. So my test used up half the capacity of my backup weapon. But it impressed me enough that I’ll eventually order a replacement blaster. This is serious pepper weaponry.<\/p>\n

At first I was disconcerted with myself for having forgotten that this was a two-shot-and-done weapon. I expected to test via a quick squirt of spray that would barely affect the weapon’s capacity. I felt dumb. But quickly I got to feeling good for carrying something so superior to standard $10 hardware-store pepper spray.<\/p>\n

Sprays do have one advantage, in that you can sweep them past an attacker’s eyes and spray will keep coming out until the canister is empty (or something fails). As you’ll see in the video below, with the blaster, at a distance you can miss. But the spread I observed was pretty decent and up close, a miss seems unlikely.<\/p>\n

For quick access, I believe I’d go for this concealed carry belt holster<\/a> or a belt clip<\/a> or an inside pants\/IWB holster<\/a>, all made specially for the Pepper Blaster II (and none of which were probably available when I got the original gift).<\/p>\n

However, it’s quite well-sealed against invasions of pocket lint and now that I know what it can do, I won’t worry about its effectiveness should I ever need it, even if it travels several years inside a pocket.<\/p>\n

Here<\/a>, BTW, is the kind of test I hope never to give it.<\/p>\n