Premium Synthetic Material, Law Enforcement Quality Velcro, Snap-on and Buckle Systems, Reinforced Sniper Shoulder, Four Generous Rifle Mag Pouches for All Size Magazines, Three Pistol/Flashlight Pouches, Utility and Grenade Pouches, Survival Radio Pouch, Elastic Cartridge Holders for Close Quarter Battle Operations, Premium Quick Draw Holster with Spare Pouch, Velcro and Strap Attachable Double Mag Pouches, Law Enforcement Belt System Complete with Two Mag Pouches, Three Large Mesh Pockets for
$ 65.00
Tactic-cool,
This vest is well made and a great value for the money. It’s not quite as slick as some of the professional vests, but of course they cost 4 times as much and then you have to buy all the accessories separately. This one comes with a good compromise of accessories.
It’s a real tactical vest. I have to admit that I am not into paintball or airsoft games, so I don’t know anything about it’s suitability for those applications. This vest is designed for carrying real weapons with live ammunition.
It’s made of very sturdy nylon webbing with heavy plastic zipper. The belt is a substantial nylon cloth with heavy plastic closure, comparable to similar military equipment. It has a lot of features that are hard to see in the photo.
From the top to the bottom:
1. It has a rescue handle behind the neck so you can extract a wounded team member. This handle is fairly sturdy, but could be a little stronger. The shoulders both have steel d-rings attached for hanging the vest when it’s not being worn. (A loaded vest may weigh well over 30 pounds, so this is a good feature you expect from professional equipment.)
2. The back is nylon webbing with a large nylon webbing pocket for a hydration bag. The webbing is very tough and nothing like a lot of flimsy vests I have seen. I was pleasantly surprised by how sturdy it is. It also has a Velcro closure to secure the water bag and two Velcro retainer flaps on the shoulders to hold the drinking tube. This is a very nice feature if you like hydration systems. I assume you can drop your assault pack and retain your entire water supply. (I use Alice type Canteens, so I wouldn’t know).
3. The back is reinforced with 3 wide strips of heavy nylon with sewed-in loops to mount equipment. There is a strip of Velcro between these nylon pieces (inside the loops.) I am not really sure what these loops are for, but the reinforcement is very useful and links up with the side adjustment straps to provide a lot of extra strength and durability where it’s needed. The back cover can breath without being failure prone. Nice job.
4. The sides have 3 straps with nylon slide clasps to adjust the fit of the vest. Kind of nice.
5. The right shoulder has a rifle pad with an internal roll to form a pocket for the butt stock. It’s a clever design, but I am not sure if I like this feature yet. Time will tell.
6. The upper right breast has a pocket which is 4 x 6 x 1 inches (roughly), with a flap held closed by Velcro. There is also a Velcro panel on the front of the flap. It comes with a 5 shot 12 gauge shell holder attached. This shell holder is baffling to me. All the other magazines are for assault rifles and pistols. Are we supposed to also carry a shotgun…with only 5 shells? I suspect this feature is mostly for looks. I admit it looks kind of cool. Fortunately this shell holder can be removed and replaced with a patch or logo for your unit or organization. It doesn’t hurt anything.
7. The left shoulder has a small pouch, big enough to carry a bandage or your cigarettes. It may be a radio pouch, but I don’t think so. (It’s really handy for carrying smokes and a flashlight, but I think it’s for a pressure bandage).
8. The upper left breast has 3 pistol magazine pouches permanently sewn on. This is kind of annoying to me, but could be handy for some people. The pouches are well made and fit a .45 ACP (single stack) magazine and look like they would fit a 9mm double stack with room to spare.
9. The left side has a removable pistol holster for a medium frame automatic. (It fits a Ruger P90 fairly well.) The holster has a magazine pouch on the receiver side…just like the other three. The holster is held on the vest by Velcro and two buckles….this didn’t seem very secure to me, especially with a heavy auto and 2 full magazines. I promptly took it off to add the 2 spare rifle magazine pouches (see below), so I don’t really know how well it would hold up.
10. There are three large ammunition pouches on the right side and one sewn to the far left behind and under the pistol holster. (That’s a total of 4 permanently sewn to the vest). These pouches are heavy nylon material and have generous Velcro flaps that allow different sizes of magazines to be used. Each will hold 2 x M-16 magazines or one AKM or M-14 magazine. The vest comes with two extra ammunition pouches that can be attached to the front left to replace the pistol holster. (for a total of SIX rifle magazine pouches). These two spare magazine pouches are held on by Velcro and buckles, just like the pistol holster, and replace it, but they seem to stay on pretty well loaded with 60 rounds of 7.62 x 39. But I have not done any real crawling with it yet. I may have to come up with a stronger way to attach them.
11. Inside the front of the vest on…
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|Cant beat it for the money,
This vest is honestly a lot better than I thought it was going to be. The material was fairly heavy duty, put it through some torture testing and havent had any problems yet. The mag pouches fit either 2 AR-15 magazines(GI style metal mags only holds one plastic, or one ak-47 magazine. The pistol mag pouches hold 2 7-8 round single stack 1911 magazines or 1 M&P or Glock style double stack magazine quite well. the crossdraw holster can be transfered to the duty belt and easily holds a 1911 a1 government model and although when in the crossdraw configuration it hangs just a little bit, but when I tested it and did everything I could think of to tear the thing off, running, PT type excersizes, even shooting and crawling in the prone position and it has yet to come loose. The elastic 6 shell shotgun holder is mostly there to make it look cool unless you plan on using a serbu super shorty as a sidearm, but fortunately it is removable and the velcro is the perfect size for a patch or two. Aside from being not quite as slick as some of the more pricey vests It is a perfectly functional starter vest. The only reasons I didnt give it 5 stars is that, 1. It doesnt breathe very well and can get hot if you’re wearing it in hot weather, 2. the elastic straps on the back of the vest arent wide enough to put anything of consequence back there, and 3 no way to easily paracord a sizable knife to the vest other than strapping it to the duty belt.
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|It is a great item,
I liked the item very much, but its design was different than I expected. I first thought that the holster would be adjustable- meaning that you can change its’ position and angle on the left hand side. And with it being a tactical vest I thought the holster would hold a firearm that has tactical features on it -like a take down surefire x400 light/laser combo- but it would not fit. I also ordered a right leg holster, luckily it was designed for tactical additions to the firearm so it worked well.
A suggestion for the holster on the vest would be make it an adjustable holster to fit multiple types of weapons and their accessories. But in all it is a great product.
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