This time the lot consisted of 3 triwalls, a triwall is a large box about 40" x 48" x 24", so we also had to  rent a trailer to get everything back to the warehouse. We get everything in the truck and trailer and get it back to Lacombe and then we have to find space for everything in the warehouse. Just getting the triwalls off the truck and trailer on to the floor is tricky in itself.  Dad attached a ratchet strap and just pulled them down to the floor and we pushed them into position. Three massive triwalls now in the warehouse full of who knows what. 

The next thing to do is sort through it all.  Now that is a daunting task if there ever was.  This was my first time tackling this sort of job so I started by emptying one triwall into the other two.  I could tell right off the bat that there was a lot of unsalvageable gear in there.  One of the worst things about surplus is that there is a lot of gear damaged beyond repair.  We are currently looking into textile recycling so that we aren't just throwing away all of this stuff.  There has to be something that can be done with all of these textiles besides tossing it all into a landfill.  So the empty triwall is for throwing all the unusable gear into.  It is filling up fast.

Now that I have the one triwall empty my next step is to try to sort though everything. This lot has a bunch of firefighting gear, bright yellow, very easy to distinguish so I started with pulling all of that out that I could. There are also a lot of whites in this lot. Sheets, aprons, chef's whites - shirts and pants, so I put all of that in the same general area. Finally I start getting down to smaller items.  I take the smaller items and fill a tote, once I have a full tote I sit down at the computer and start entering it all into the system so that it is available for you to buy.

I started sorting on Tuesday morning, so far I have almost a full triwall of waste textiles, the second triwall is mostly empty and the third is still overflowing.  Not to mention the firefighting gear that I haven't touched yet and the whites that are just sitting in piles waiting for the next phase of their sorting. I am guessing that I have another 8-10 hours left of sorting and putting things onto the site. Not too bad considering how much there was to begin with!

For the first time in seven months it finally feels like a summer day.  The sun is high, people are wearing shorts and going for bike rides and walks.  The grass is turning green and I have seen the leaves starting to bud on the neighbours trees.  It's glorious, it's rejuvenating and for Canadians, especially Albertans, it is what we live for, it's how we make it through winter every year.  We all do appreciate the beauty and wonder of winter, don't get me wrong.  If you have never experienced hoar frost first hand it is stunning in its beauty.  Winter, however, overstays its welcome every.  Single. Year.

For many of us spring summer and fall are the best times of the year, we can finally be outside without our teeth chattering and our blood freezing, at least that's how it is in Canada. If you're Canadian you also know that those three seasons combined are shorter than our winters so we have to get out there and maximize our time! No joke, here in Alberta we had 7 months with snow, it started early October, many farmers were unable to harvest their crops this year, and we were still getting snow in late April! If we're lucky this year the snow will hold off until November and we'll get six months of decent weather, if we're lucky. This means that we shove three seasons into six months and the other season get six luxurious months all to itself to wear us down and get us chilled to the bone.

Now though, now is the time to be outside. Now is the time to let your feet finally be warm, work up a sweat in the garden, pour that cold one and just let the sun work its magic.  I don't want to hear anybody tell me it's too hot.  It might be, but I don't want to hear about it. I have waited seven months for this. In Alberta it's only really hot for 6 weeks and then it's back to exactly perfect, so enjoy the hot! Go the the beach, the outdoor pools, the splash parks, buy a wading pool and soak your feet, set up an umbrella for shade, wear that ridiculous floppy hat that you secretly love. Eat supper at the beach, order pizza, make margarita's. Stop making hay while the sun shines, we made hay all winter because it was too cold to do anything else. Relax. Sit. Breathe. Let your shoulders down.  The sun is here. We live again.  So stop reading this and get outside.  Next week I will come at you with some of our great gear designed to help you get the most out of your summer.

We are expanding and we want to expand our reach at the same time. In view of this we have decided to do our first giveaway. This giveaway is no small matter! We look forward to parting with one of our top sellers, the DD Frontline Hammock! Some of you may already be fans of the DD line of products, some may have never really looked into DD and some of you may be more than happy to add another hammock to your collection. We are happy to have any and all of you enter. The contest will open on Facebook tomorrow (Friday, April 7, 2017), at noon. To enter you will have to like our page, Central Alberta Military Outlet, share the contest post and tag the last person you went camping with. Pretty easy for a really great prize.



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Hello Everyone!

First of all my thanks to you all, our fantastic customers, with your help we've been able to grow awesomely over the last two years of operations.

​From a business that started in my own basement (and annoyed my wife no end) and sold products from a table at farmers markets we have now grown to where we have a great warehouse, website and now a new operations director! 

Id like to introduce you to Janine Bakker our new Operations Director, she'll be the one packaging your items, putting some great new items on the website and making sure the day to day running of the site goes smoothly. You can contact Janine at Janine@camougroup.ca

Don't worry though both myself and Chris are still around! With Janine running the day to day business this free's us up to look for great new products at great new prices! 

You may have noticed big changes in the website, we now have a new section for Canadian Forces Surplus gear and lots of new items are going on there daily! Were finally sorting though a lot of things we  been putting off for a while! 

Once again id like to thank you, our great customers for your continued loyalty and patronage to our website, with your help we can keep on growing, offering you the highest quality military surplus, camping and outdoor gear at the best prices around!

Owner
Central Alberta Military Outlet
​robert@camogroup.ca

Great news for our US customers, our shipping rate system has now been updated to give a more accurate price for your state! 

Using the Canada post expedited delivery option you should receive your package within 6 to 7 business days! 

Stay tuned for more exciting camogroup.ca news!

Rob

We've gone and stocked more items from Best glide ASE.
This small family owned Texas based company, specializes in survival kits for the aviation industry and the US air force. 

They make high quality survival gear that you can stake your life on! 

Lots of great new survival kit from Best Glide ASE! Including;

• Mini Med Pack
• Mini Wound Pack
• Outdoor Mosquito Patch
• First Aid Toolkit
• Survival Tips And Info Stickers
• Small Survival Tin
• Night Button Compass
• Survival Rescue bag
• Sewing and repair kit
• Repair tape
• Suture Kit
• Wilderness trekker survival kit

Click on the links above to learn more about these fantastic high quality survival products. If your going to rely on survival equipment make sure its from Best Glide ASE

You'll always find what you need here at the Central Alberta Military Outlet! This week we have lots of great new products from military surplus to camping and survival we have it all.

 Based in Alberta Canada with super fast shipping and great prices the Central Alberta Military Outlet is the place to shop!

And remember we have more great gear arriving in daily from great quality suppliers around the world. Visit our new items section to see the latest kit!

Now back in stock due to popular demand, the British army's woodland pattern soldier 95 trousers are great camouflage and hard wearing. We have just had 50 sets in excellent grade 1 condition delivered to us, get yours now before they run out again!

Essential items, a candle can save your life in a survival situation. Having trouble lighting wet tinder with a match? It will be easier with the continuous burning flame of a candle. Also great for getting a romantic mood in your snow hole!

This credit card sized tool can be stored in your wallet and is a real game changer during surprise survival scenarios. Made of high quality stainless steel it has 12 functions that can save your life or just save five minutes by not looking for a screwdriver!

Need a basic hammock for your kids this summer? Look no further, DD hammocks have a great basic hammock for scouts and children. The DD scout hammock even has two layers so you can cocoon yourself inside! 

That's all for this blog post but remember there are lots more items listed in our new items section.

It's going to be a great year for camping!

Rob

For this weeks Modern Equipment of the British army blog we will be looking at the Panther Command and Liaison Vehicle (CLV)

The Panther CLV was required to take over the command vehicle role in British Regiments. This job was previously done by the command versions of the Landrover, Saxon, and CVRT. These vehicles were heavily modified to fit the new Bowman communication gear and were found to be less than satisfactory. 

The command Landrover FFR especially was massively overweight with the new Bowman gear in the back, severely hampering its cross country performance.

The Panther CLV is specifically designed to house the command version of the British forces Bowman communication system. Whilst on operations the Panther is designated to the commander of a unit allowing him to have full visibly of all his assets on a battlefield.

Pictures of the vehicle interior are pretty hard to come by so here is a picture of the author in one in the Falkland islands in 2011! The screen in front of me is for the remote weapons mount that has Thermal imaging and even a windscreen wiper for the camera!

Based on the Italian Iveco Light Multirole Vehicle, more than 400 have been made in a 160 million pound contract between 2006-2008.

In British service it has its seats reduced from 5 to 4 to accommodate the masses of radio gear. It has also been heavily up armored and armed for British use.

The vehicle has been tested in Afghanistan (OP Herrick) as shown in this video.

Its excellent mine protection characteristics and remote weapons mount means it has also found a role as a force protection vehicle in Afghanistan, escorting convoys and assets around the country.

As mentioned above the panthers remote weapons mount can be fitted with a 7.62 General Purpose machine gun or a Minimi 5.56mm Light machine gun.

It is targeted by the co-driver using a joystick and the video screen, the optics on the BAE Enforcer remote weapons mount are excellent and the un-cooled thermal sight especially is a great piece of kit, here is a picture and a video of the screen showing it in action.

The panther CLV is a great command vehicle and weapons platform, however it has found to be time consuming to maintain. Changing a simple fan belt involves removing the belly armor! (a pretty horrible job)

The maximum speed of the Iveco LMV is 81mph on paper but with the extra weight of the Panthers modification it is reduced to around 60mph in British service. Its extra weight means its off road capability is also hampered significantly and is best suited to road use.

In conclusion the Panther CLV brings the British forces command system into the 21st century by using a specifically designed vehicle for the Command role instead of 'bolting on' components to existing vehicles. 

However its excessive weight and lack of cross country mobility limits it somewhat in full scale battle group operations, its surprising niche as a force protection vehicle a means its will be around for a while however.

That wraps it up for this weeks edition of Modern Equipment of the British Armed Forces. Stay tuned next week where we will be talking a look at the Jackal MWMIK or as its know to it's operators 'the mobile coffin'.

Rob

More great camping equipment in stock this week at the Central Alberta Miltary Outlet - Get great military surplus, camping and airsoft gear direct from Lacombe and Red Deer, Canada!

Stuck in the middle of nowhere and want clean water? Use the NDuR flip top water bottle to filler 99.999% of all know bacteria and heavy metals, to give you up to 100 gallons of clean & safe drinking water! 

A solid map reading compass at a great price, the NDuR large map compass comes with a great guide for performing resections and other such map related tomfoolery.

Whatever the weather get you message across with the Snugpak all weather note book. This rugged notebook is great for keeping notes no matter what the climatic conditions! It also includes handy conversion charts and ruler on the back page.

This lightweight yet absorbent towel is great for reducing weight in your pack. Treated with the Dr Bacty™ antibacterial formula it cuts down on bacteria and stops the towel from going 'funky' in the field. This essential camping item also comes with a dual pouch stuff sack for drying and wet storage! 

Stuck in the open with no trees to attach your tarp to? No problem! use this lightweight extending bivvi pole to turn your tarp intro a tent. Highly recommended for camping on the prairie! 

This survival tin is based off the British SAS model. It has everything you need to assist you when you become disorientated and isolated (Lost) in the middle of nowhere. Great for sticking in your car in case the unthinkable happens! 

This lightweight kitchen in a box from Sweden's Wildo has everything you need to eat in the field. The set  even comes with a spice shaker to liven up those bland tasting MRE's!

These funky & vibrant colored yet practical water bottles are great for hikers. The come with a carabiner for quick attachment to most items, they are BPA free and hold up to 700ml. A great piece of kit!

The Husky Tactical Support Vehicle (TSV) is one of the newest additions to the British Armed Forces fleet of high mobility vehicles developed for the campaign in Afghanistan. 

Based on the American International MXT line of large pickup trucks the Husky is a heavily modified military version of this beast;

The British army has ordered a fleet of 325 vehicles which came into service in 2006.

The Husky features a very high degree of protection against IED's and is used in Afghanistan to supply food, water and other supplies to forward operating bases (FOB's) and other forward units.

The husky is also used for patrols and convoy escort duties. Most are equipped with a gunner positions with an L7A1 general purpose machine gun mounted on the roof.

The Husky has excellent off road maneuverability with a Navistar VT engine. This superb 325 horsepower, 6 Liter Diesel, V8 engine is also used in the Ford F series of super duty trucks. This allows the husky to reach up to 70 Mph given that it weighs 8.5 tons this is pretty impressive! 

With a length of 6.4 meters, height of 2.5 meters and a width of 2.4 meters. It may be more at home on the huge roads of North America than the small country roads of England! 

Given its excellent cross country mobility however its size it a great asset in operations like Afghanistan, the large cargo area at the rear allows for transporting up to 3,700lbs of gear and supplies.

At a price tag of 600,000 British pounds (~C$1,150,000) per vehicle and a lack of v-shaped hull for protection it is a controversial project for the British Armed Forces. It is however loved by its crews and its armor has saved many lives on operations.

There is even a recovery version of the Husky now in service, see the above BFBS video for more info on its features and role.