gun belt

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First Impressions Review: Talon Tactical Ring Buckle Gun Belt

Posted by thriftstoretactical on May 13, 2013
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As promised in my long-term follow up on my SOE Cobra belt, I’ve given the Talon Tactical Ring Buckle Gun Belt in brown several days of EDC and have some first impressions for you.  Honestly, today is the first day since I got it last week that I haven’t worn it.  I’m impressed.

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The weight of the belt, or lack thereof, was the first thing I noticed after receiving it.  It’s a featherweight compared to other riggers or Cobra-buckle belts.  Constructed of a double-layer of proprietary 1.5″ webbing, the belt uses custom glass-filled nylon rings as the buckle system.  Most riggers belts use a heavy buckle and/or v-ring, but the nylon rings on the Talon belt make traditional buckles feel like bricks.  The two layers of webbing are held together with six rows of stitching:  two near each edge and one in the center.  The edges are nicely finished, with heat applied to the ends to prevent fraying.  The construction of the belt shows serious stitching skills.  Talon knows their nylon.  Mike at Talon Tactical informed me that their belts are designed to adjust up 2 inches and down 2 inches from the listed size, so I ordered a 34, since I’m a 32 without gear but up to a 36 depending on what I’ve crammed inside my waistband.

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Being so light–and relatively thin–the belt did not immediately win me over as a heavy-use gun belt.  I have labored under the assumption that to support all my EDC gear, the belt has to be stiff and substantial.  I carry a G17 with light, a spare mag, a Surefire 6P, my badge, and a BUG with reloads in my pants pocket.  That’s a lot of weight.  The Talon Tactical belt, though, proved me wrong.

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I immediately put the belt to use as soon as I ripped it from its package.  The belt is rigid, but flexible.  Imagine one-and-a-half layers of SCUBA webbing (if that were possible), and you get the idea.  It was easy to thread through my pants and holster/mag pouch, and it was a breeze to thread through the nylon rings and cinch tight.  And once cinched to a comfortable tightness, my gear stayed put.  There has been no sagging, no flopping, and no rolling over of the belt since then.  The belt formed to my gear and waist, and I could go about my day without even thinking about the belt.

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While I have yet to put the belt to any hard use, it has proven itself a very capable concealed-carry belt.  Most importantly, it’s thrifty–at only $40.50 shipped, it beats most gun belts by $20 at least.  I’ll have a long-term follow up after more time with the ring belt, but I’m impressed so far.

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SOE 1.5-inch Rigid Cobra Duty Belt: Long-term Review

Posted by thriftstoretactical on May 9, 2013
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About eight months ago, I got a 1.5″ Rigid Cobra Duty Belt from Original SOE Gear, and I posted a first-impressions review of the belt.  Everything I said in that review still holds true, so I won’t repeat what I wrote in that post.  Instead, I’ll focus on two aspects of the belt that have become apparent in the eight months of use.

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I’ve worn the belt almost every day, and it’s been threaded through belt loops and holster loops and mag pouch loops hundreds of times.  This use illustrated the stiffness of the belt and what hard kydex belt loops will do to the inner loop velcro.   First, the stiffness of the belt is what I love most about the belt and what I hate most about the belt.  Once the belt is on, it’s stiff enough to comfortably support any EDC load.  Seriously–if you could find someone to make custom kydex for a M1 Garand, you could wear it on your hip and not care.  It conforms to my waist very well, and it has never created pressure points or pinch spots.  However, it is sometimes too stiff.  (That’s what she said.)  It can be a little bit of a chore weaving the belt through pants loops and holster loops, especially if the holster loops are tight and rigid.  While I wasn’t sweating and cursing after putting the belt on, it wasn’t the easiest thing to do.  I’m the kinda guy that wears my jeans for a few days in a row, though, so it wasn’t a daily feat of nylon, denim, and kydex origami.

All of this threading through belt loops also took its toll on the inner loop-velcro lining of the belt.  The velcro was stitched to the belt just a bit in from its edge, leaving it open to polymer pillaging.  It started to unravel worse than a sweater in a Weezer song.  Every few weeks, I have to cut loose threads from the belt.  The loop is still securely stitched to the belt, so it really seems to be more of a cosmetic issue.  Eventually, there won’t be any loose end left, so the problem will solve itself.

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I’ve also started to wear the belt as an outer low-profile duty belt and competition belt.  You can see pics of the belt in action from the photos of my first shooting match.  I bought a cheap Bianchi inner belt covered in hook velcro off eBay, which I mate with the SOE belt.   While the Bianchi belt is pretty flimsy, it creates a very solid system once the SOE belt is in place.  I can leave items mounted to the SOE belt and easily don or doff my gear.  Plus, I can wear the belt with my suit, since the Bianchi belt will fit my dress pants’ belt loops.  Under a suit jacket, the SOE belt looks pretty classy, I think.  And not many will suspect that I’ve got a full load-out of gear under my jacket.

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For a belt that was about $70 after shipping and got to me in less than 3 weeks, the SOE belt is an excellent choice for a Cobra belt.  It’s comfortable and more than capable of carrying the heaviest EDC load without flopping or sagging.  And aside from fraying velcro, the belt has held up well to daily wear.

Stay tuned for a first-impressions review of the ring-buckle Gun Belt by Talon Tactical–at only $40.50 shipped, it might be the thrifty alternative for those wanting a gun belt, minus the Cobra buckle.