Archive | Tactical Gear

Shooters have been using electrical tape for years to silence noisy things, darken shiny things, and tighten loose things. There is no shortage of uses for electrical tape but it doesn’t do everything well. It is black which is not really the best color for blending in and it tends to leave a ton of residue behind after it removed. Now, Battle Systems, is offering shooters an alternative to electrical tape.

Vinyl Tape, Coyote Brown from Battle Systems performs all the same “tactical” tasks as electrical tape but it does them better. It stays flexible even in cold temperatures and resists turning to a sticky mess in the heat. It is coyote brown in color so it blends into your surroundings and your MARPAT, Multicam, and Tan/Brown gear. You can use it to route wires or hydration tubes on your gear, secure excess straps, or anything else that you can think of.

You may think this is just tape, but this actually offers a much better alternative to something that is used extensively by many shooters. I think it is a great idea.

Check out Vinyl Tape, Coyote Brown on the Battle Systems website.

The recent post about a high value body armor set up was a huge hit. In that post, I mentioned the Shellback Tactical Banshee as an excellent, high value option for those who need a plate carrier (PC). Shellback Tactical has recently introduced several new products and 2 of them may be especially interesting to those who have a Banshee PC.

The first product is designed to make the Banshee’s kangaroo pouch more useful. It is a zippered pouch that uses hook and loop to lock in place. You could use the kangaroo pouch as is, but it has so much hook and loop surface area that it can be difficult to access. It isn’t really designed to be used as a simple storage pouch. However, with the addition of the Kangaroo Zipper Pouch, the pouch becomes a useful storage option.

The second product is a set of shoulder pads. These shoulder pads act as additional padding for when your PC is really loaded with weight. They can also be used for those who may have to adjust the Banshee’s shoulder straps out far enough that they have unpadded areas on the shoulder. They have non-slip material to keep them in place and elastic webbing that can be used to route comm wires or a hydration tube. These shoulder pads will fit several other TAG/Shellback Tactical plate carriers in addition to the Banshee.

It is nice to see an already full featured PC like the Banshee, getting even more functionality. I hope that Shellback Tactical has a kangaroo pouch magazine storage solution for the Banshee soon.

Beez Combat Systems (BCS) is introducing two new plate carriers. These carriers offer a lot of bang for your buck and are designed to be very low profile which, as a civilian shooter, I like very much.

The first carrier is what BCS is calling the BCS Plate Carrier MOLLE. It is a simple low profile carrier with MOLLE covering the plate panels. The shoulder and waist straps are made from 2″ webbing. Users can choose to add modular shoulder and waist pads for an additional cost. The waist pads have MOLLE on the exterior which is a very nice addition.

The second carrier is called the Plate Carrier Low-Profile. I actually had a very small amount of influence in this design. It has no MOLLE webbing on the panels since it is meant to be worn as a slick concealable carrier or under a chest rig. However, for maximum versatility, it features a large area of hook and loop material on the front to allow the mounting of hook and loop backed pouches. This allows you to quickly add or remove a magazine pouch or two based on the specific situation that you are facing. This hook and loop panel also allows you to sew on a small section of hook material onto the back of a chest rig to prevent the typical slipping problems that can occur when you wear a chest rig over a plate carrier.

Both carriers are available in every color of the tactical rainbow including A-TACS and Multicam. They are also available in your choice of 500D or 1000D nylon. The choice of 500D or 1000D nylon is one of the perks of buying gear from a custom maker. The bigger manufacturers just can’t offer options like this.

You can check out the new carriers on the BCS website.