Brought to you in part by 88 Tactical Group (@88Tactical), a member of JTF Awsome.
Report: the “Rambo” Hunting Machete
Apocalypse Josh
One of the post-stroke rehab tasks I assigned myself was to clear some backyard jungle and make way for a badly-needed cleanup. Normally for brush clearing, I would turn to my Ontario Blackwind, or perhaps another of my mid-sized blades, even turning to my petrol powered brush-clearer. But I wanted to get some physical exercise, and didn’t want to swing long blades where there were metal posts and the like.
As it happened, I had a RAMBO TACTICAL Combat Survival 14″ Fixed Blade Bowie Hunting Machete sitting on a shelf, unused. The backyard jungle is clogged with morning glory vine, a fast-growing and tenacious vine, that needs a fair amount of chopping to get through and I thought the Ontario Blackwind would really do the trick. It weighs in at 1.25kg (2.75 lbs) with an overall length of 37 cm (14.5″), with the blade making up a hefty 20cm (8″) of that.
Some of the things I liked about the Rambo’s big-ass blade are the wide broad blade with its keen edge and the steel bar handguard which runs from the base of the edge all the way to the pommel. A full tang gives it both sturdiness and rigidity. I am never too keen on cutaway holes, or the exaggerated sawback, but the simple short serrations on the front of the blade are a nice touch.
I don’t usually care about extra features like glass breakers and saw blades on my knives, but both felt useful and well thought out. The painted wooden handle, though lurid zombie-toxic-green, was well finished and it felt good in my hand, even though I wore heavy gloves to protect from the sap of the vines.
As a heavy-use tool, the Rambo Hunting Machete did its job admirably, allowing me to tame the jungle back into a Tactical Baby and Triceratops-girl stompable level in about half an hour. The trampoline was again visible and I didn’t damage anything, including myself, in the process. It handled nicely for a blade of its bulk. Not as nice as my kukris mind you, but well enough, and didn’t strain my arm or wrist.
The Rambo Tactical Hunting Machete comes with a decent nylon sheath with a wide, broad belt loop, and several press-stud closures to keep it secure. It seats nicely on the hip and was unobtrusive as I got on with the rest of my chores.
The black-powder-coated finish held up well, and even though it’s made from the fairly pedestrian 440 steel, it kept its edge nicely even though I DID find a couple of star-pickets in the jungle with it. It was certainly cutting as well at the end of the task as at the beginning, though I was tired. A quick lick of a sharpening stone and a wipe of oil and it was ready to go back on the wall, not nearly as ornamental as I first suspected it to be.
5.11 Tactical (@511tactical) is a member of JTF Awesome.
If you wish to share or repost, please so kind as to follow our terms and conditions.
Comms: Our PACE Plan
Primary: You should immediately subscribe to the Breach-Bang-Clear newsletter here; you should also be reading all our pontifications and every single Op-ED we publish.
Alternate: We present superb gun pr0n, knife pr0n, and tactical industry news on on the Breach-Bang-Clear Facebook page; there will be more of that, and some military humor as well, on our Instagram account (@breachbangclear), so be sure to check in there frequently.
Contingency: There will be an additional chance to read tactical news, gun reviews, outdoor gear reviews, adventure equipment reviews, and blade pr0n on our Google + account;
Emergency: Activate firefly, deploy green (or brown) star cluster, get your wank sock out of your ruck and stand by ’til we come get you.
T&C: All original material published by Breach-Bang-Clear is the copywritten property of Breach-Bang-Clear, Inc. If you wish to repost, republish, or otherwise share our content, feel free to reproduce an extract of up to 225 words and one complete, unaltered image, preceded by attribution crediting the source and author’s name, to include a link to the Breach-Bang-Clear home page, with a link back to the full article on our website, BreachBangClear.com. You do not require our permission to do this. Please do not reproduce our content in its entirety without contacting us first. We do allow full syndication on a case by case basis (credited, and posted with a canonical link, as is common practice and in good form) but only when mutually agreed upon beforehand. If you wish to reproduce a complete article, please contact us for permission to publish first.
About the Author: Josh Orth (“Apocalypse Equipped”) is a second generation expat currently dwelling in the arguably civilized outskirts of Melbourne, Australia. He’s lived in deserts, jungles and urban sprawls around the world and traveled/adventured into assorted inhospitable places all over the globe, from near-dystopian parts to cities to Gabon, West Africa. Thus he has a keen sense of the speed with which the trappings of ‘civilized Western life’ can disappear. This has led him to begin writing about his interests and observations when it comes to the gear, skills and other necessities of self-reliance of being equipped for whatever a capricious, occasionally indurate life might throw at him. This isn’t by any means to say our eccentric friend truly experiences genuine vorfreude about dystopian life, but if he had to he might not complain. Read more by Josh at Apocalypse Equipped.
Grunts: vorfreude.
We’re not saying Josh flies a PL-12 Airtruk. We’re just saying this guy and Josh have never been seen in the same room together at the same time.
0 Comments