Pepper Gel Kit with Blue Water Practice Spray, 25 Bursts, Maximum Strength, Gel Is Safer, Ergonomic Finger Grip, Fast Flip Top Safety, Comes With A Blue Water Practice Spray Canister

Here are my suggestions and observations pertaining to this item (with deference to the official Sabre training, which I have not taken, and any Sabre instructions): A little bit of practice can pay off in a big way! • You need to practice finding and gripping the unit in the correct orientation. • The unit has an odd 3-finger grip, with only 2½ finger grooves, leaving no room for the little finger at the bottom (unless you squeeze your fingers together so that they no longer match the grooves). - @sabre: Consider using 3½ more tightly spaced finger grooves to accommodate the little finger, which I believe might work better (even with my larger hands & fingers). • It can be difficult to avoid covering the spray nozzle with your topmost (index) finder, despite the presence of the plastic ridge underneath the slightly protruding spray head. Proper thumb positioning helps with this (see below). • These limitations are clearly trade-offs for the item's compact size, which is a key feature. Nevertheless, it is not an immediately intuitive grip (particularly if you have fairly large hands/fingers like me), and it must be practiced. • Your thumbnail needs to be flat with respect to the top of the cylinder, and under the cap. (Your thumb should not be touching the side of the cylinder.) This also ensures that you're gripping the item right-side-up and ready to fire in the spray-forward position, ideally before removing it from a pocket or purse. This thumb position also helps to position the fingers lower and out of the way of the nozzle in front. • The finger grooves also help with orienting the item correctly, but are not sufficient in my opinion. • I applied a strip of masking tape on the finger groove side to increase the textural difference, and it seems to help somewhat. - @sabre: Consider supplementing the finger grooves with a bumpy or otherwise textured surface(s) to facilitate correctly positioning the unit in the hand, by feel, in a pocket or purse, before drawing it. • The blue practice unit has a small white dot on the edge of the cap, which really helps with positioning it in the hand and aiming (once you notice it!). I marked my real black unit with a similar white dot (on the edge, facing me), and also a corresponding white line on top of the cap (from the dot to the nozzle, in the direction of fire). • @sabre: Consider adding similar markings to the real black unit to help with orientation and aiming. Once you can consistently retrieve the unit in the correct, ready-to-fire position in the hand (not a trivial exercise for me), you should then practice wielding it without firing, ideally in the mirror, and ask yourself: • How high should you raise your arm and hand before spraying? • What vertical angle does your wrist need to be at to hold the unit vertically in front of you? • How are your feet positioned? What is your stance? • Where is your other hand? What is it doing? • The instructions say to spray across the eyes, then at the nose & mouth. How do your arm and hand (and body) need to move to accomplish that? • Overall, what series of motions do you need to make in order to wield this item effectively? Practice these motions from start to finish, ideally with a mirror, until you can do it smoothly and consistently without thinking about it too much. Once you figure out all of the above, it's time to hang the target (I used masking tape in my bathroom/shower) and fire the practice unit from a realistic distance (I'd say ~6-12 ft). • How do you need to position your arm, wrist, and hand to ensure that you're hitting the target? • Note: using fairly short bursts will preserve the practice liquid for longer. I'm rounding up from 4.5 stars in light of the limitations described above. Note: I have not yet had the opportunity to compare the ergonomics of this flip-top version against the similarly-sized twist-lock unit.

Excellent safety tool and great idea for trial with it . I have it attached to my purse . Everyone should have one .

the push to spray is easy to use, the grip handle feels awesome, you know the direction your shooting the practice bottle is nice, i'm not sure if i can refill it with more water or not. i hope that i can. i think this is a good product will protect you from a dangerous wild dog, or even a human attacker potentially . maybe a human attacker is wearing glasses and its not so easy, so you might want to have more than pepper spray, but this definitely works against dog, which can be very menacing to a pedestrian.

This is my fault that I did not read the description more thoroughly but I thought the test sprayer / the blue one would be refillable or at least be able to reused somehow but it is not. It's a one-time use item and I just want to point that out to anyone else who's assuming that. The only reason I'm deducting one star is so that people looking for issues or problems don't assume the same wrong thing that I did. Everything the maker and seller supply is good quality and I recommend them.

Got this for my college daughter who needs to walk around the large city. I love that it comes with a practice trainer that only contains water! Gives her some practice.

The first pepper spray I owned was given to me by an employer after a couple of muggings occurred in a nearby parking lot after dark. Although we were located in what appeared to be a reasonably safe and busy downtown location, bad things can happen anywhere. So, the decision was made to provide all of us with pepper spray and training on how to use it. Becoming familiar with the workings of the unit is essential for quick reaction time so it is a smart idea to include a test sprayer. Using the included target facilitated a crucial hands-on experience regarding how the unit shoots and the velocity and behavior of the gel before presented with an actual emergency situation. There may not be time to reach into a purse or pocket so keeping it in hand when walking is best. The grip design has indentations for finger placement which makes it comfortable to hold and also provides the ability to maintain a secure grasp even in rain and snow. Hold the canister with the index finger in the first indentation on the grip and the thumb free to flip open the top and press down on the release button. No significant hand-strength is required to use the product, something important for anyone with physical limitations. According to the information on the package, each unit provides up to 25 blasts. There is a website noted on the back of the package which offers safety tip videos. After providing a name and email address I had access to four different videos and although quality varied, all provided solid and genuinely helpful information. Since a threat may occur indoors or out, the gel is a vital component because it permits this unit to be safely used almost anywhere. The gel consistency helps keep the spray directed to only the intended recipient so a breeze does not cause blow- back into the face of the person doing the spraying or, if indoors, does not create droplets in the air that may be breathed in by unintended parties. This is a product that provides a level of confidence for people from college students to the elderly. It is easy to conceal in the hand when outdoors or if indoors, keep near a front door or in a bedroom. Hopefully, it will never be needed but there is no harm in being prepared. The expiration date noted on the canister I received is four years in the future.

Love these for college students and especially the test canisters. I had my kids practice with it so they would be familiar with their use. Studies have shown that criminals have mentioned pepper spray as one of the things they fear and for good reason. These will incapacitate even the craziest of predators. It might be your only chance of getting away. I keep them in my car for use. Fortunately I have never had to use them yet.