Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

I just heard a term "tacticool" used online about flashlights and I have never heard of it here on CPF.

If anyone here can tell me they have heard it and tell me what it means to them please.

It is strange that I have never heard it before nor do I know where it started. :shrug:





Cheers

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

Heard it for years now.
It's THE gear that the mall ninja's all swear by.

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

When looking for a "Tacticool" light, you want it to look like what you imagine SWAT teams using. So imagine the Eagletac T20C2, it has a crenelated bezel, cigar grip, tactical grip all over it, anti roll bezel, big chunky tactical style button on the back, and a holster that looks the part. The Tacticool club usually has multiple battery setup, stupid brightnesses and a bajillion modes with flashing, blinking modes built in. Standard buttons would be momentary and push on, tough to use with gloves on. I imagine these lights to be Tacticool... as in, look the part in a B grade military movie, but would never be used by an LEO in a tactical situation.

A real tactical light would be something like the Surefire 6P. Single brightness, standardised batteries, momentary push with twist on, no extra bling, and can be operated with gloves. nothing to break, no modes to confuse, if you need light, push the button and boom... reliable light.

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

Never heard it used to describe a flashlight... unless said flashlight was attached to an AR-15 to make it look cooler. Keeping in mind that if adding a flashlight makes it look cool, adding two would be twice as awesome and make you kill twice as fast.:rock:

" Tacticool " seems to be used as a degrading term to describe Chinese knock off tactical flashlights.

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

Vesper said:

Never heard it used to describe a flashlight... unless said flashlight was attached to an AR-15 to make it look cooler. Keeping in mind that if adding a flashlight makes it look cool, adding two would be twice as awesome and make you kill twice as fast.:rock:

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Posted many times in the past, by your definition then how tacticool is this.

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

I had thought "tacticool" was used since so many items were coming out advertised as having "tactical" features. New "tactical" flashlight, knife, pistol, toothpick, toilet paper etc...

Having the "tactical" wording on the box probably added $20 to the price.

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

Add a couple laser sights and a grenade launcher and that would be tacticoolest.

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

Tacticool would be a $5 chinese light that has a Klingon crenelated bezel, is only 3" long, and puts out 1000 lumens for 5 seconds, or however long it takes to destroy itself. But it's tacticool, so nothing else really matters.


It's like taking a perfectly good AR15 as a home defense gun, and hanging so much crap off of it that it becomes useless. But, tacticool.

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

This is dumb.

I've never seen a definition of "tactical" that referred to a physical object.

Choosing the right light for the right job is tactical.

Taking a 1000 lumen thrower to clear a small house is tacti-dumb.

Choosing a 120 lumen mid thrower with good spill to clear a small house is tactical.

If you can make any object help you perform whatever you are trying to do better, you have a tactical advantage. Whether you are arresting a bad guy or fixing a bagel without waking up your friends.

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

Oztorchfreak said:

I just heard a term "tacticool" used online about flashlights and I have never heard of it here on CPF.

If anyone here can tell me they have heard it and tell me what it means to them please.

It is strange that I have never heard it before nor do I know where it started. :shrug:





Cheers

Click to expand...

Sometimes Tacticool is applied to weapons, and in particular, its about how much tactical looking stuff you can hang onto, under or over your rifle or pistol. Some consider a rifle "tacticool" when it has lots of mostly redundant or unnecessary accessories attached all over it at the same time.

Think of a pickup truck with every bolt-on accessory from a JC Whitney catalog that you can possibly imagine, and then apply that analogy to a military style rifle or pistol(usually rifles).

You'll see guys with rifles with Picatinny style accessory rails on top of the receiver, on top of the barrel, under and on both sides of the barrel, and sometimes even additional rails attached to the top or sides of an accessory thats already attached to another rail. Like a red dot sight, with a separate magnification lens attached behind the sight, plus a night sight attcahed in front of the sight. Then a flashlight on one side of the barrel, and a laser on the other side. Then a collapsible bi-pod under the barrel. Then some aftermarket flash hider at the end of the barrel.

This is all stuff that is some times used by the military, but even they dont use it all at once! The average citizen will not need this stuff, and they certainly wont need it all attached at the same time. Plus, it weighs your rifle down and makes it harder to hold steady and shoot accurately. Much of this stuff can cost as much as the rifle itself, and when its all combined, it can cost significantly more than the rifle, and most of it will probably not be used.

Its called "Tacticool" because its done for superficial aesthetic reasons, and not practical or useful reasons.


Other terms for "Tacticool" when describing a decked out weapon are: Unnecessary, impractical, laughable, and dumb....

Try shooting a rifle with all that stuff mounted on it. Modern military style rifles are designed to be light, and adding all this 'stuff' to the rifle negates that advantage, and makes them even heavier than older, larger battle rifles.

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

Norm said:

Posted many times in the past, by your definition then how tacticool is this.

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Yes, the enemy would flat-out give up at the sight of this awesomeness.

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

Okay, that's it. Ima put a hood ornament on my EDC light.


If you look closely, you'll notice that's actually his keychain.

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

In my understanding, Tacticool (which I use more in a tough in cheek way, sometimes even on things I use and carry) can be applied to anything one uses or owns that comes from companies that supply the LEO/military/PMC market or things/modes of operation. You can buy a man purse from Jack Wolfskin or go the tacticool way and get one from Hazard4, 5.11, Maxpedition. Even adding something like a spring hook to your man purse could be considered "tacticool" if someone of the aforemention groups does this. Droping black cordura for tan or coyote colored items can be considered "tacticool".

tolkaze said:

A real tactical light would be something like the Surefire 6P. Single brightness, standardised batteries, momentary push with twist on, no extra bling, and can be operated with gloves. nothing to break, no modes to confuse, if you need light, push the button and boom... reliable light.

Click to expand...

Seems like I am really "tacticool" since most of my EDC lights fit in that category. :-D

Actually I do not think that either the term "tacticool" nor incorporating some things from the LEO/military/PMC community in your everyday lifestyle is really bad or stupid or presumptuous. It more or less depends on the way it is done, the way you handle it and if it fits your lifestyle. E.g. I do carry a E2DL on a belt holster in the office, a SF 6PDL in the jeans back pocket and a SAK in a pouch on the belt.
But
a) my co-workers know that I am sometimes off in my own little world.
b) if I would need to explain certain things, I would try to take them not too serious, paint it in a more funny, slightly nuts way. Like "hey, females do switch rings, necklaces and handbags because they like to do so - I switch messenger bags and flashlights because I like to do so"

Another way to explain things:
Others wear the jersey of their favorite sports team, so why shouldn't others copy the PMC/LEO style in some ways out of admiration and to show their sympathy with those folks. It is one thing copying the looks and saying "Yes, I like the look" and a totally other thing to incorrectly paint oneself as being just as tactically adept as those on the front lines.

Just my 0,02 cent.
;-)
Cheers
Thorsten

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

might as well tentacool it.

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

Xacto said:

In my understanding, Tacticool (which I use more in a tough in cheek way, sometimes even on things I use and carry) can be applied to anything one uses or owns that comes from companies that supply the LEO/military/PMC market or things/modes of operation. You can buy a man purse from Jack Wolfskin or go the tacticool way and get one from Hazard4, 5.11, Maxpedition. Even adding something like a spring hook to your man purse could be considered "tacticool" if someone of the aforemention groups does this. Droping black cordura for tan or coyote colored items can be considered "tacticool".


Seems like I am really "tacticool" since most of my EDC lights fit in that category. :-D

Actually I do not think that either the term "tacticool" nor incorporating some things from the LEO/military/PMC community in your everyday lifestyle is really bad or stupid or presumptuous. It more or less depends on the way it is done, the way you handle it and if it fits your lifestyle. E.g. I do carry a E2DL on a belt holster in the office, a SF 6PDL in the jeans back pocket and a SAK in a pouch on the belt.
But
a) my co-workers know that I am sometimes off in my own little world.
b) if I would need to explain certain things, I would try to take them not too serious, paint it in a more funny, slightly nuts way. Like "hey, females do switch rings, necklaces and handbags because they like to do so - I switch messenger bags and flashlights because I like to do so"

Another way to explain things:
Others wear the jersey of their favorite sports team, so why shouldn't others copy the PMC/LEO style in some ways out of admiration and to show their sympathy with those folks. It is one thing copying the looks and saying "Yes, I like the look" and a totally other thing to incorrectly paint oneself as being just as tactically adept as those on the front lines.

Just my 0,02 cent.
;-)
Cheers
Thorsten

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^^That post does a good job of describing "tacticool" in broader terms. It isnt necessarily a bad, dumb or useless thing. My post above covers the excessive addition of accessories to a weapon in the name of making the weapon look "Tacticool." Another member uploaded a picture in a post before mine that illustrates this point when taken to a radical extreme.

But just using a product that has a certain tactical appearance to it can qualify as tacticool too. Its just like most subjects in life....A little of something can be a good thing, but too much of that same something can turn into a bad thing**(Flashlights are the one item that DOES NOT APPLY in the last sentence, as you cannot have too many flashlights!)(Although some people close to me would beg to differ)

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

I've heard it here for years. I may even have used it once or twice myself in a review, although I typically try to avoid using loaded terms that are generally meant in a perjorative sense. But it can also be used in a playful/ironic/tongue-in-cheek sense (which is how I would have meant it)

The most common use I've noticed is for refering to the addition of "tactical" features or styling to lights clearly not intended for tactical purposes (e.g. strike bezels or high frequency strobes on keychain lights, etc), in an attempt to curry favour in certain market segments. Secondary use would be to describe the individuals who gravitate to tactical features, despite not needing or using them in real life (e.g., in combination the much-derided term here of "mall ninja").

By the way, a quick search of "tacticool" in the google CPF search box at the top of the page yielded 400 page hits, dating back to at least 2003. But it seems like the term didn't really take off until 2006/2007, with most of the hits being in the last 3 years.

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

Well, put it like this, if someone described, say, a Sipik SK68, as perhaps "too tacticool" for you or your friends, I wouldn't throw my toys out of the pram and accuse them of being a turkey.

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

Dubois said:

Well, put it like this, if someone described, say, a Sipik SK68, as perhaps "too tacticool" for you or your friends, I wouldn't throw my toys out of the pram and accuse them of being a turkey.

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ouch. diss.
(where is ChiX when you need him?)

Re: Has anyone here on CPF heard the term ""tacticool" and what it means to you.

tacticool means something supposed to be tactical but isn't which ends up being just cool but usually is not