Due to my ammunition and firearm reviews that I do for GunsForSale.com, I get approached quite a bit to review other products. So when I received an offer from 1791 Apparel to review some of their shirts, I was more than happy to oblige.
There were several models to choose from and I went with the ones for my Glock and my AR-15. Today I received two very heavy duty t-shirts printed on Hanes Beefy-T tees. No mall ninja materials here, this was ring-spun, preshrunk cotton like you find worn by real operators. The printing was high quality too, none of this “Hey, I have an ink jet printer and an iron” crap you get from fly-by-night t-shirt shops.
To test these shirts, I used my CED M2 chronograph, a Glock 20, and my AR-15 6.8 SPC from Bison Armory. Measurements were taken at a distance of 7 feet.
For the first test, I loaded up this heavy shirt into my Glock 20. The garment weighed in at 3,434.375 grains which is one of the heaviest shirts I’ve ever attempted to fire from the Glock. Unfortunately, I believe this shirt’s size was really designed for the 33 Round magazine and as such, I had a difficult time loading it into my pistol. However, being a Glock there were no problems firing this shirt and I didn’t have any failures to feed nor extraction issues.
It was difficult getting a good reading from my chronograph on this shirt due to its size. I wasn’t able to get a good string of 20 to be very comfortable with the results, but the shirt did average about 12.83 feet per second with a standard deviation of only 3.2 feet per second. This equates to approximately 1 joule of energy delivered to target, well below industry standards for self defense. This shirt was highly accurate though, hitting dead center of the hamper each and every time.
Moving to the AR rifle platform I have the Gadsden shirt. This shirt also was 3.434.375 grains, fully exposed (no jacket). I didn’t specify 6.8 SPC, however the shirt loaded fine into the magazine. Loading wasn’t the issue, it was the firing. Now I know many people will say that direct impingement system of the AR is not well suited to firing torso coverings and that the resulting gas blowback can foul the double stitched cotton, but I’ve fired other shirts through this rifle without issues. Chronographing this shirt was easier when I could actually get it downrange, and I was disappointed in the performance which I would have considered to be much higher through an 18” barrel. As it was, I was only able to achieve an average of 16 feet per second with a yield of only 2 foot pounds / 3 joules of energy. Recoil from this shirt was a little unpleasant and accuracy suffered as I ended up completely missing the hamper twice.
While these were quality made, well printed shirts, I simply cannot recommend them for self defense. With the feeding and jamming issues on both the Glock and the AR, I wouldn’t be comfortable suggesting anyone carry these in their duty pistol or their home defense rifle. Accuracy and energy delivered to the target simply aren’t there for protecting the lives of you and your family.
Interestingly though, while you won’t win an IDPA or a 3-Gun match with these shirts, you’ll sure as hell look good wearing them while you try. So if you’re looking for a quality shirt with a great design at a good price, give 1791 Apparel a shot.
If you’re looking for high performance ammunition however, I’d recommend something else.
FTC Disclaimer – These shirts were provided to me by 1791 Apparel and, due to their size and length, may make kissing my rear a bit difficult. However, please don’t let that stop you from trying.