What is this site all about? It’s about me wanting to share my knowledge gained from trying out lots of different gear for police work. I’m not trying out this stuff to become some kind of tacticool god, I just want to find the gear that can help me perform my job as efficiently as possible, while possibly reducing weight, noise and the risk of injuries. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
Gear Review: HSGI Sure Grip Padded Belt (Slotted) Laser Cut
It’s the king of comfort. Like wearing a rubber friend that hugs you and never lets go. I’m not kidding, this is the single most comfortable piece of gear I have ever tried. Have you been suffering from back pain from your 2 inch leather belt with way too many accessories? Tired of belts shifting around whenever you move your body? Then this is the belt for you. If you are like me and you’re researching the latest gear constantly, you might have noticed that the trends have shifter away from these kinds of belts, over to slimmer belts like the Ronin Tactical belts which are 1.75″ with a velcro inner belt. People seem to be moving away from this belt because it’s limiting mobility too much and it’s just way too big. Is this belt outdated? In my opinion no.
I was initially skeptical when ordering this because it seemed so massive. Why was it so tall in the back? Why do we need that many rows of molle back there? Well I don’t know, but I don’t really fit many things in the small of my back anyways, as I spend most of my days in the patrol car and I like to keep it comfy. When I first tried the belt, I was blown away but how it hugged itself to my body. I can even unbuckle the front while standing up, and the belt still hangs on to my flat ass booty. That is just how grippy the inner rubber-like material is. The belt being so wide, it lets you loosen it a bit as well, so you don’t have to wear it tight in order to make it fit snug to your body.
The inner material will never replace a velcro inner/outer belt system, but it’s quite damn close and does not degrade as fast. It also works a lot better than velcro belts when wearing it over jackets. The wide belts gives you lots of support and it just sits there. Even with many heavy accessories on it, this belt doesn’t feel that heavy when you are actually wearing it. The belt pad itself is also very light, but not as light as the First Spear AGB Sleeve. The pad is stiff but not too stiff.
Are there any downsides to it being so wide? There most definitely are some. When going to a kneeling shooting position, climbing hills or walking in stairs, you can feel the belt digging a bit into the upper thighs. It is not very annoying, but it will lead to less energy efficient running and climbing hills, which might be important in a critical situation. It’s a trade off between mobility and support. This belt gives you loads of support at the cost of some weight and mobility. The biggest problem I have with this belt pad is sizing. It was hard to find my correct size, as I’m in between a small and a medium, which requires me to shift the belt slightly, which is annoying as crap. More size choices would be nice.
CONCLUSION
I give this belt 4.5 out of 5 stars. It’s just so good at what it’s supposed to do. There is not really that much more to say about it.
Pros: Relatively light weight, extremely grippy, very durable laser cut MOLLE, lots of lower back support, great if you struggle with back pain, does not shift around or ride up when properly tightened (which is not very tight!)
Cons: High cost at $119, few sizing options, slightly hindering mobility.
Gear Review: First Spear AGB Sleeve 6/12™ Low Profile
Some people will call this a “Battle belt” or a “War belt”. I personally hate those terms and think it sounds like a cheesy doomsday prepper preparing to go to war because of high gas prices. I will simply refer to this as a MOLLE belt or just a belt pad. And oh boy is this padded. I am not currently using this belt, hence the only “equipped” photo being rather low quality. Might just go back to using it though, after testing some other stuff.
The First Spear AGB Sleeve 6/12™ Low Profile belt pad features a full 3 rows of MOLLE with Frist Spear’s patented 6/12™ system. In my eyes it’s just a laser cut MOLLE, fits just fine. The belt pad is rather low profile compared to wider belts such as the Brokos belts which are extremely high profile. It is impressive that First Spear has squeezed in a full 3 rows of MOLLE on such a low profile belt – good job on that. It is also extremely light weight, weighs just about nothing. And did I mention it is padded? The padding itself is in this fancy breathable mesh thing, which probably helps a lot in the heat, I haven’t tried it the heat so far (doesn’t really get hot here anyways). The padding is so thick that you notice it sticking out from the back when sitting in the patrol car. This is not a problem unless you want to mount something on the back, which would make it more uncomfortable than if using a less padded belt pad.
The belt pad is very rugged and would handle anything. I can not foresee this breaking or tearing under any form of normal use, even though the MOLLE looks like crap after struggling to mount stuff on it. You probably already know it, but you can thread the inner belt over and under the MOLLE sections, so you can mount both MOLLE and belt-mounted gear.
The belt pad is best suited to be used along with a soft velcro inner belt. When doing so it sits very nicely and does not shift no matter what you do. If you are looking for a belt to wear over clothing, this is not the belt pad for you. In that case the grippy rubber-like material on HSGI belt pads is far superior. The velcro covers on the AGB Sleeve are kind of grippy, but the belt pad will shift on you during movement. Still, it is a nice feature to be able to cover up the rough velcro. If you never plan on covering it up, I would suggest cutting off the covers, as they are attached to the belt pad permanently.
CONCLUSION
This is a belt pad that does not hinder your work in any way. As long as you put the right gear on it, it will be a good addition to your (if you are reading this) way too big collection of gear. I give this belt 5 out of 5 stars. This belt pad is the silent performer that just works without screaming tacticool.
Pros: Feather weight, attaches to velcro and goes over your clothes, low profile but still having full MOLLE support, does what it is supposed to do.
Cons: Not well suited for wearing over jackets or non-velcro belts. Rather pricey at $106, but totally worth it though.
Gear Review: HSGI Pistol Taco
I first heard about the HSGI Tacos years ago, looking at Youtube videos on how people were using them for gun range belt, “war belts” etc. They looked fancy, but I always tought that these were in no way suitable for law enforcement use due to their open top design and “tacticool” look. Fast forwards a few years and I decided to give these a try. Over the course of about a year I have tried both the double pistol taco, the belt mounted taco, MOLLE mounted taco and extended taco. I have tried pretty much everything besides the covered tacos, but the locking clip on those looks to finicky to use in a high adrenaline situation anyways.
So how to these actually work in the field? Keep in mind that this review is from a law enforcement perspective, not from that of a competition shooter or military perspective. In the beginning I thought this was pretty great. I used the double tacos for pistol magazines and a single taco for flashlight and OC spray, and even a Leatherman. You can stuff pretty much anything down there, but that being said, it’s far from useable for everything.
When using these for pistol magazines I tightened the tension quite a bit. It being adjustable is a good thing. The retention was good, re-indexing magazines and drawing them was easy, and they were absolutely not falling out even when held upside down. As time went by, the elastic shock cords kind of stretched and I had to tighten them further, pretty much all the way in. The retention progressively got worse and after a few months of use the magazines were pretty loose in there even though it was tightened all the way. Kind of disappointing for such and expensive pouch. I ultimately deemed the risk of loosing magazines on the job too big and went back to a Safariland leather, closed top, double magazine holder. It’s not better but at least it holds my magazines secure.
But what about flashlights, multi tools and OC sprays etc.? This is where the open pistol taco really shines, except for holding a pepper spray canister. During an exercise my pepper spray suddenly catapulted itself out of the single pistol taco and launched itself across the room. Turns out that it is just a bit too wide and tall for the pouch, which ends up in it working itself slowly out of there when you move around. Other than that it was a breeze drawing and putting it back in there. A covered taco would be nice for OC spray.
I currently use HSGI Tacos for my baton (extended taco) and my flashlight. For this stuff it works extremely well. The expandable baton is extremely secure in there, same goes for the flashlight. They also hold a Leatherman Wave very nicely, and you can stuff a CAT tourniquet in there as well. The sky is the limit, just make sure that stuff doesn’t slide out of there without you noticing it.
CONCLUSION
I give the HSGI Tacos 3 out of 5 stars. I highly recommend it for holding batons, flashlights and multi tools.
Pros: Durable, adjustable, fits (almost) anything, easy draw and re-indexing, very light weight.
Cons: Will not provide good magazine retention over time, fails to hold smooth items such as OC spray, elastic cord stiffens when tightened over time, very expensive with single Tacos starting at $28.
Police Gear Reviews 