SERIOUS TALK TIME

Folks this is a big issue and I need your input. This is real sh*t right now.

As it stands, the organisation of the Full 9 camo museum reference collection is very much all over the place. It’s grouped in to jackets, UBACS and shirts, then within those groups it’s grouped by families of patterns. Then there’s even more pointless rules I made up about what order to put everything in and right now I think it just looks a mess even though inside my own mental head there is a system.

I received an e-mail this afternoon to say the KickStarter for the Raine Inc.Bridger cover that I mentioned the other week has now finished, so fingers crossed those will be in production very soon if not already. Between the shipping process I use and a work trip I’ll probably be going on I expect it’s going to be a couple of months before I can post my own review, but I’m excited to get my hands on this piece of kit regardless.

Since I originally posted my SHOT coverage from the Raine booth I’ve been very fortunate to talk a little bit with Mr Alex Gallo, the designer for the Bridger. He’s filled me in with a few queries and uncertainties on details I had post-SHOT (and you end up with a lot of those because it’s an incredibly busy week of looking at new stuff all the time).

First thing to mention is that Raine have variants of the cover in development to work best with a LOT of other buckles that attempt to provide similar end results to the Tubes. In the past 2 years a lot of companies have come in to the sphere with new shapes of Cobras, plastic side-release buckles, straight Tubes rip-offs and all sorts of other options. Down the line Raine is looking to cater to all of those, which I like because some are pretty good; the ones that don’t blatantly steal FirstSpear’s design anyway. The news I was most glad of however is that there will also be complete cummerbunds, as shown below, along with a variety of other gear along the same lines. Much like the FS Retro-fit cummerbund I reviewed a couple of years ago (and still believe to be one of the very best items of kit anybody wearing a PC might invest in), the Raine cummerbund will come with genuine FS Tubes, the Bridgers already attached and make for an absolutely perfect upgrade to any carrier that’s still using a big velcro flap. As somebody who personally loves split-front chest rigs and laser cut PALS, the new chest rig design also looks great to my eyes.

The slight increase in force needed to open the Tube with the Bridger cover mounted that I mentioned during my time in Vegas is of course a natural result of the sheer physics involved in the design. The pull cord is longer with the pivot point being further from the release tab in the female Tube. Raine say that they’ve had field users come to them with reports of some rare, occasional accidental releases of Tubes when moving quickly inside buildings and the tiny probability actually occurring of the release tab being caught on a hard edge. Of course we all have also seen somebody with some kind of quick-release in their armour being messed with by their buddies. It ‘never’ gets old.

Apparently durability is also a concern many customers have come to Raine with. It would seem some Tubes have very rarely been broken after repeated impacts against vehicle frames when jumping in and out frequently. Since it completely covers the Tube, the Bridger cover will of course bear the brunt of any everyday-type impact, rather than the plastic of the Tube itself.

Overall I think their gear line-up is shaping up extremely nicely. Any split built in to gear in the past that facilitated quick donning had necessitated zips or buckles of some kind and those push the actual equipment in your pouches further around to your sides and back. As such the equipment may be harder to reach, awkward inside vehicles and aircraft when you’re sat close to people or it might snag you up going through narrow doors and passageways. Alleviating those issues through the combination of the Bridger designs and technology like Tubes is a positive step in the absolute right direction.

So I alluded to this article a little while back and I’m now happy to say the light of day hath been shone upon it (part 1 anyway). This is the first time I’ve had anything I’ve composed published elsewhere but my own media channels and given my love for all things gear related I would struggle to think of a better place than ITS Tactical.

I originally bumped in to Bryan and Kelly from ITS at SHOT 2017 by the LBT booth, which in itself was a huge stroke of luck. Bryan mentioned they were always looking for guest writers and I knew that was the right move for me. Since then I’ve been liaising with Rob Henderson who’s one of the main men over there and Bryan’s counterpart for the Gear Tasting Radio podcast.

Last but by no means least, let’s talk some FirstSpear booth action at SHOT.

They’ve never been a company to save many things specifically for the show. They just release new product as and when it’s ready to be released basically, which is generally what I’d expect from a company neck-deep in manufacturing the best equipment for the people who need it the most. However there were a couple of items on display I’d not seen previously and of course it’s always a brilliant opportunity to actually get hands on with kit.

First up there’s new fast roping gloves and mitts. Personally I’ve only ever flown in helicopters and stepped out on to the ground, but whether it’s a flight in a Blackhawk, Chinook, Puma or anything else, the journey to where you’re going is absolutely a crucial phase of any operation. So first off the gloves themselves (standard version and long gauntlets), which I tried on and are certainly thin enough, with good structuring and fit in order to allow a sound shooting grip; while of course still being sturdy enough for fast roping.

The mittens are probably the even better option since one can wear their preferred shooting glove underneath. Simply attach the mit at the wrist, very quickly don it for roping but then instantly remove with a flick of the hand to go right back to the base glove. Even then, the trigger finger can come through the 2-part finger section of the mit for emergency trigger usage, should the necessity arise. Alternatively the person can again just flick the hand to remove the mit and switch from rope to rifle in no time at all. There’s a vulnerable time or window with a rotary aircraft that’s low and hovering still – the crewman’s MG mounts can never have a totally unrestricted arc of movement nor can the crew see everything going on, so the more eyes up and the more guns available at that crucial point, the better.

The patterned pads on the palms of both gloves and mits are a goat leather, which is already an excellent option for abrasion resistance, but the fibre bundles of the leather are then coated in microscopic plates of ceramic. Don’t ask me how, but sufficed to say it is what’s needed for the extreme friction of fast rope descent. To keep these pads thin and increase dexterity there is a layer of a material referred to as Carbon X between the ceramic coated leather pads and the goat skin used through the entire construction of the rest of the gloves. Carbon is of course an incredibly efficient heat insulator, which is exactly what’s called for in this specific area.

Next up for new gear is the Centurion pant, a first from FS. To be clear, this is not a combat cut trouser for maximum effectiveness in a fight with tons of pockets and stretch panels. It’s a much simpler offering for outdoor usage, range practice, shooting courses and perhaps applicable to police usage.

I didn’t get the full details on my visit to the booth since these are a brand new product, literally just sewn together to come to the show for the FirstSpear staff and the mannequins. Soldier Systems Daily of course does have quite a few details which are worth checking out:

http://soldiersystems.net/…/…/26/firstspear-friday-focus-10/

The headline features for me are the integrated belt, with the same biothane materials as the FS Line 1 I reviewed a while back, also the internal padding across the hip bones to buffer against holsters and spare mags on the sides of a belt. I’m also a big fan of the stretch pockets that bridge the standard front and rear ‘standard’ pockets, they’re ideally placed for quick access to items like pistol mags and lights.

There’s a few other shots thrown in just for the sake of taking a look at some top end kit, especially in the AOR2. There’s a close up on the pull tabs since I’ve got a couple here now that I’ll be trying out at some point. They’re not unique on the market necessarily in terms of general shape, but compared to the bad old days of fabric tabs on shingle pouches that would always end up laid flat on your mag bases, pull tabs like these made of modern materials are certainly the way to go.

Having talked about integral knee pad options a bit recently, I happened to spot this by pure chance when watching some video over at Funker530 – Combat Footage​. The issue with Crye Precision​ combat pants is that the pads, when fitted in the regular fashion, can come out when moving through thick foliage and/or when crawling. I’ve had it happen to me and here’s a perfect example of it happening down range while doing the real thing (tap this link not the thumbnail):

This is why some service personnel either fully tuck in the plastic knee cap on Gen 2s, or will use the combat knee pad but cover it with the NYCO flap on the Gen 3s. Gen 4 is meant to address this and I look forward to trying it out and seeing what happens.