New Gear – Chamber Flags

TAC Chamber Flags

​These days we seem to be doing more activities with a wider variety of shooters at the range – and that means more varied experience - from novice to expert. That, coupled with the increased focus on firearms safety by many ranges, led us to reexamine our “Safety Items” gear; which was why our last blog was about dummy rounds. During our relook we also decided to add a few more, and better quality, chamber flags to our gear. We’ve always had a few flags sitting around, and used them when appropriate – but they were always a hodge-podge since we acquired them when we purchased a firearm or had a gunsmith work on our rifles/carbines. Some were good and some were not great. 

So, first of all, why do you even need chamber flags and when should you use them? Chamber flags are small, inexpensive items (normally made of plastic so that they are strong but won’t damage your firearm) used as an additional safety measure while storing and/or transporting firearms. All that you have to do is place a flag in the firearm’s empty chamber to provide a visual confirmation that the chamber is clear. Normally this is done after the magazine has been removed so that the firearm is totally safe – meaning there is no live ammo in the chamber and no magazine inserted into the mag well – so there is no live ammo anywhere close to the firearm that could be accidently fired.
 
In certain cases chamber flags can even be used when storing a loaded firearm. The procedure to safely do this is as follows:

• Remove the magazine from the firearm.
• Completely clear the firearm and lock the slide/bolt to the rear.
• Examine the magazine and chamber to ensure that no live ammunition is present.
• Place the chamber flag into the empty chamber and gently release the slide/bolt.
• Insert a loaded magazine in the firearm.
• Then, if the firearm is needed in an emergency, it merely requires charging the weapon by pulling the slide/bolt charging handle back, removing the chamber flag and releasing the slide/bolt to rack a round from the magazine into the chamber.

So, since they’re inexpensive, and are becoming more prevalent on ranges, we searched the internet to find some chamber flags that met our standards. They had to: 1) fit into a variety of firearms from handguns to rifles, 2) be strong enough that they didn’t easily break, 3) visibly protrude from the chamber and 4) be a color that was highly visible. Our internet search confirmed what we suspected from what we’ve seen people bring to the range – there are lots of chamber flags out there – and many of them are crap. Eventually our search led us to Team Accessories Corporation (TAC); a group of seasoned veterans, highly skilled machinists, and manufacturing personnel with the mission of providing exceptional American-made gear – so we purchased orange chamber flags from them.
 
The TAC chamber flag is constructed out of an injection-molded semi-rigid polymer to ensure durability and light weight. It’s designed to provide immediate visual recognition of an “empty” chamber on most firearms - including semi-auto handguns. With the high visibility colors of orange or yellow (we prefer orange because we find it to be the most visible), you should be confident in knowing your firearm is safe to handle.

​Note: To get the TAC chamber flags to fit into our handguns (S&W Shield 1.0 and 2.0 - and Beretta 92FS) we had to trim 1 3/16” off of the front of the flag due to the smaller size of the chamber/ejection port opening; which was trivially easy to do.

If you want more details about the TAC chamber flags you can find it here: 

https://www.teamaccessoriescorp.com/shop/chamber-flag