Staples TRU RED Retractable Quick Dry Gel Pens Fine Point 0.5mm Blue DZ TR54490

I do a lot of writing by hand both as a biologist taking field notes in rough and remote terrain and as an author penning and editing manuscripts. I have basically given up on ball-point pens. They just aren't made the way they used to be. For decades I got along just fine with good old Paper Mate medium point black stick pens. They seemed to give me a darker less tentative line than Bic sticks. Then PM just stopped making them and every basic working class pen they've come up with since seems to glob ink. I tried everybody's ball point I could think of and they all seemed to either glob ink or to struggle to leave a dark enough trail. I don't know if it's the design or the manufacturing process for modern ball points but they all seem to lack the basic consistent flow that ballpoints of the past had. I tried a few other gel pens but may of these are slow-drying. So far Tru Red 0.5 mm seems to give me a fast-drying non-smearing non-globbing line.

Originally I had the tru red gel pen with removable cover but the cover was a bit of a hassle to tale off and put on everytime i needed to write something down. When i heard there was a retractable version I was anxious to get my hands on one or a few because they don't smudge when i write with them which I know is a big issue for us left-handed individuals.