I ordered my Odin Mk3 around the middle of 2019 having previously picked up the Tyr Gunfighter-E. Tyr really kicked off the whole micro-PALS/2 part belt market and personally I stuck with my chunky old 3-row padded warbelts for a good while, but when I eventually changed I didn’t want to associate with the Ronin cringe fest.
Since the Tyr was the originator however, it did lack the refinements of newer products (come 2019) that were able to build upon the basic idea. It wasn’t too long before I jumped on the Tegris wagon, but the best option in the intermediary period was the type of belt using laser cut laminate for PALS in place of folded webbing and of the available options the Raptor Odin Mk3 was the one I went for, for reasons I have outlined below.
These belts are semi-custom and are available with many different options for primary front closure buckles. They can also be purchased in various different colours/camos and in 2 different thicknesses; plus of course there are 4 sizing options as you would expect (that adds up to a lot of SKUs).
The foundation of my belt is a single layer of 1.75″ webbing, most people call it scuba but I’ve seen it mostly on parachute shoulder straps myself so that’s how I think of it. The extra stiff version of the Mk3 uses 2 layers of this webbing. Sewn on to the webbing foundation is a single piece of laser cut cordura laminate which makes up the entire PALS compatible grid. Above, you can see the inner cordura layer that’s not normally visible is Coyote Brown, with my particular belt here being Ranger Green. The edges of the laminate piece are folded over, essentially meaning your pouches are hanging from 4 layers of cordura, so I have no concerns over the strength of the attachment setup for PALS pouches.
A stand out part of this belt set for me is actually the inner belt, which is why I’m interjecting it here. Because it overlaps in order to close it is a little bulky at the front and it might even be a good idea to close it at the 10 o’clock on your waist so as to stagger where you’re stacking your fabric layers. That said however, being made almost entirely of spacer mesh (probably with some foam internally) this inner is very simple, extremely comfortable indeed and offers good airflow.
Probably my favourite feature of the Mk3 is that the tail for the adjustment gets routed internally, unlike the vast majority of other belts out there on the tac gear market. This means that the number of PALS columns is always the number of columns. There’s no empty space and you never have to roll up the free end of the adjustment and cover up any PALS with it. While generally this isn’t a big problem if you’re right handed and have a holster on your right hip (most do), I still like this design quite a bit.
I particularly recommend the 1″ Cobra buckle option on this belt as the tail is nice and thin and hence can be tucked away neatly internally, whereas the 2″ buckle variants naturally have to have a much wider adjustment tail that necessitates adding extra bulk to the belt in order for said tail to be hidden. You still don’t lose any PALS (through some pretty good design work), but the bulk will be there.
Why this loop field is included on the 6 o’clock portion of the belt I have absolutely no idea, I even watched a Raptor Tac product video on another of their belts recently which has the same feature and the gentleman presenting said video could not prescribe any application for the loop field. I’m quite open to the idea that there is some use out there for it, but generally I think it would’ve been better to lower the cost, bulk and weight of the belt just the tiniest bit and omit this velcro. I certainly have no use for it personally.
The label on this belt is better quality than a lot of $12 dedicated PVC patches out there. It’s also fairly thick and chunky. While it is at least mounted internally so that the bright red and blue aren’t visible when worn, it also adds some entirely unnecessary bulk to an already layer-heavy system.
Raptor Tac have obviously taken issue with something I have said at some point and have blocked me on social media, I’ve never had any communication with them and they certainly have no idea who I am, but overall I’ve liked the Odin Mk3; that’s just the objective truth. If you don’t want to go to a thermoplastic belt then this is probably one of the best options from what I’ve seen out there.
I want to try the Plate Horse Concepts belt myself as I am a big fan of tegric/curv for belts, so I’ll probably be sell this belt and pick up the PHC offering again in RG and simply transfer the pouches. As I say though, if you prefer the comparatively more traditional heavier duty nylon construction of gear then perhaps look at the offerings from Raptor Tactical.
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