Down Range Gear

It’s been a really busy week. Scratch that, it’s been a really busy month. I’ve had to shuffle projects on my priority list delaying the Rogue Plate Carrier, postponing (again) the redesign and rerelease of the Notebook/Netbook Pack Inserts and Sleeves. There are a ton of projects on the drawing board and not nearly enough time.

I received an email request from Bryan of ITS Tactical for a sample Belt Stabilizer for review. They put out a gear review blog that supplements the likes of Soldier Systems and others very nicely. I’m pleased that they’ve shown an interest in some of the smaller gear makers (like me) and enjoy reading the blog daily. I’ll be very interested in what they have to say about the gear I sent in, as it’s still in prototype form, making it an opportune time for design input.

Belt Stabilizer w/ Fitted Magazine Pouches

Readers should also take note that Mike from DIYTactical has resuscitated the Custom Gear Report! That’s really good news. CGR is written in an informal and candid style and has an exclusive focus on small, custom gear designers.

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve had the good fortune to have been kept busy over the last week, particularly with several repeat customers, who’s continued patronage is much appreciated. I sent some of the newly improved Pistol Magazine Inserts out. The more I work with mine, the more I like ‘em.  And I got to do a set of Fitted Pistol Magazine Pouches in coyote brown for 9mm Glock mags. These are built by request, entirely to customer specifications. I’ll do just about any pistol make and caliber as long as I can get my hands on a magazine to template and fit.

Pistol Magazine Insert

Fitted Pistol Magazine Pouch in Coyote Brown for Glock Magazines

And recently completed, the ever popular PALS Insert Panel. This one was made to order to fit the customer’s ATS Cobra pack.

PALS Insert Panel sized to fit the ATS Cobra pack

I’ve had to utilize MOLLE system or PALS equipped gear mounted to my belt from time to time. Not ideal, but you do what you have to. There are companies out there that make PALS sleeves that fit over belt systems that allow for the mounting of PALS compatible accessories. Good for combat gear but I was looking for something lower profile to work with my Fitted Pistol Magazine Pouches. That mag pouch was designed to work on a PALS backing, but it’s low profile and small enough to work on a belt.

One of the reasons I strongly prefer building gear compatible with Tactical Tailor MALICE Clips is that they make sturdy, natural belt loops. They support equipment better because they do not flex and employ a locking system that cannot be stressed to failure the way some systems can be if they are not properly woven into a PALS surface. The downside is that they’re not particularly stable with narrower belts where you have to exert upward pressure (as in drawing a magazine) and they shift around if you’re moving to any great degree. They work better with wider belts that completely fill the belt loop, and less well with narrower belts which allow for more play.

So the goal was to come up with a way to stabilize a couple of Fitted Pistol Magazine Pouches for belt carry. The criteria was to reduce excessive play and lateral movement. The solution looks like this:

What you’re looking at is essentially two HDPE squares sewn together with two long slots sewn to accept MALICE Clip ends. Both sides are surfaced with non-slip material to prevent lateral movement while worn on your belt. It’s that simple. You slide the MALICE Clips in, lock them down, slide your belt through the loop. Friction holds it in place. In this way if a piece of gear is built well enough to serve both roles, you can use the same kind of pouch on your vest as on your belt, or transplant the same pouches back and forth between the two platforms.

I’m making a small but significant design change to the Pistol Magazine Insert. It’s a piece of gear that I use on a regular basis, as described in my EDC post on this blog, and while working on a batch for a couple of customers, I noticed a chance to make a small change that would lead to big improvements in retention.

The current version of the Magazine Insert already has very good retention characteristics which I would put against any similar item in it’s class. It works with the use of resilient, 3″ wide webbing sewn to pull tightly against a magazine which rests on a non-slip surface backed by an HDPE support. To this, I’ve added a thin layer of closed cell foam padding, sewn between the non-slip and the HDPE backer. The foam gives slightly but it also pushes back against the surface of the magazine for much better contact and increased friction between the surfaces. The combination of inward pressure from the woven elastic webbing and the slight outward pressure of the foam, both acting on the magazine in opposition to each other creates compression that leads to better retention.

I’m constantly tweaking and changing the design and customer feedback also drives a lot of improvement. It’s just another example of how actually using the gear on a daily basis, and building it from the perspective of an end user leads to innovation.

Foam padding sewn between non-slip surface and HDPE backing.

Improved Pistol Magazine Insert has superior retention characteristics.

…is almost ready to show. This is another well outside the box plate carrier design. Not enough to get your attention? How about this: you know those rain jackets or light windbreakers you can scrunch up and fit into your pocket and then whip out in a hurry? You can do that with this plate carrier (I don’t know why you’d want to, but you could.) It will conform to any size or shape ballistic plate, making it a true universal fit. And, just like all the others Down Range Gear puts out, it will have a full top to bottom, side to side PALS face so mounting space will be limited by the size of the plate, not the design of the carrier.

Down Range Gear "Rogue" Rapid Response Plate Carrier under construction

I carry a backpack everywhere I go. At one point I had what was turning into a collection before I realized how ridiculous it is to have that many packs… and went back to basics. When all was said and done, all that was left was my old 10 year old, black Eagle AIII pack. The size and shape of the pack make it ideally suited for every day carry. It’s a classic, the list of gear I’ve kept around this long, let alone in service, is extremely short. It’s held up incredibly well because when Eagle built these things, they did it right. The exterior of the pack is slick: there is no velcro, no PALS webbing, no straps, buckles or hardware that make it stand out in a crowd. The subdued appearance and build quality make it particularly well suited for the every day carry application. I plan on keeping it around forever.

I also carry a 1911. I don’t like to go anywhere without it. I feed it with seven rounders because that’s what the gun was designed to work with. Being restricted to only 7(+1) rounds at a time means I like to have an extra set of mags or two (or three) on hand. I also haul around a Buck/ Strider folder. And a Gerber tool. My cellphone. Couple of extra batteries for the Surefire X200 that’s mounted on the gun. Sometimes a GPS. Depending on where I go and what I’m doing, I can carry more, a lot more. Get the picture?

The problem is that back in the day, Eagle AIII packs didn’t come with much in the way of internal organization. I don’t know if that’s still the case or not, but the Kifaru Marauder I sold off had a PALS lined interior and the RAID pack that is now gone had mesh pouches sewn in.

That’s where the PALS Insert Panel comes in.

I like veclro-in holsters and mag pouches, but I also wanted PALS compatibility. Why not design a panel to run both? So here are the specs: It’s a long, flat, rectangular pocket designed to fit the pack. It’s supported internally by a removable, plastic (HDPE) frame sheet. The exterior on both sides is lined with 1” strips of velcro (loop) tape to form a continuous mounting surface sewn in standard 1.5” PALS columns. Velcro face with a PALS capability, all in one.

After I built my own, it occurred to me that there might be people out there who had the same need. I’ve built a lot of them since then. Since every pack and every pocket is different, I build them to order. You provide height, width and color and I do the rest. Along the way I added a feature to reinforce the velcro strips with binding tape as an option which is really useful if you’re going to be stressing those PALS loops. And one of my customers pointed out that with the addition of a simple harness, these things would make halfway decent tactical seat back organizer in a car. You can do a lot with these things, they’re pretty slick. I’ve been running mine for going on a year now and can’t imagine what it would be like to haul gear in a pack without this capability.

So back to the guns and stuff. Now that I’ve built this great, modular organizer, how do I get my gear on it? First order of business was the gun. I own a Raven Concealment Systems Phantom holster. I love it, but a lot of times it’s just not practical or comfortable to carry, so before anybody tells me that a gun in a backpack is a bad idea, if it comes down to a choice between keeping it in a backpack or not bringing it along at all, I’ll go with the pack option.

Just because it’s carried in a backpack doesn’t mean you have to settle on digging around to get to your piece. Before deciding to build my own, I actually looked around to see what else was out there as far as velcro-in holster solutions. Keep in mind I run a full sized 1911 with an X200 on the dust cover. The elastic webbing loop type holsters were easy to rule out. They’re obviously cheap and easy to build, which is why manufacturers keep churning them out, but they’re crap to draw, even if one could be found to fit my weapon profile. Same story with the velcro fold over holsters. Most of them are 2” wide at best which means your front sight will catch every time. And the velcro backing on both is not exactly substantial enough to hold a gun this heavy. So I had plenty of material, a sewing machine and a list of things I didn’t want in a velcro holster.

The Modular Insert Holster is a velcro backed, universal fit holster. It has a few features that distinguish it from the crowd, but the first thing you need to know is that it was deliberately built from the ground up to be a complete, full featured holster system. It’s not a gimmick and it wasn’t thrown together to complement some other piece of gear. First thing that stands out is it’s size. Although they can be made to order, the standard is a full 6” tall, which greatly improves it’s draw characteristics. The front sight won’t catch, and the pistol travels smoothly out of the holster on the draw and goes back in just as easily (although re-holstering is, admittedly, an administrative consideration.) Sewn into the broad, 4” wide back of the holster is a thick HDPE (plastic) backer which prevents the velcro base of the from rolling or peeling away from the surface it’s mounted on. Full contact is maintained and the holster sticks. I also added a full featured and fully adjustable thumb break for retention.

So how does it work for every day carry?

I like to carry mine in a pocket all by itself. The Eagle AIII has a smaller, secondary zippered pocket forward of the main compartment. I put it there so that access is segregated and distinct from the rest of the pack. The secondary pocket remains zippered shut at all times. Nothing else goes in there, so there is no reason to access it when I’m out… unless I want to draw the gun. I slide the PALS Insert Panel into the pocket it was specifically designed for. It’s a perfect fit. I put a lot of thought into exactly where I would position the holster on the panel. I’ve made a deliberate choice to mount the holster on the inboard side of the pack so that the pistol will not print against the exterior. The extra magazines are positioned next to the pistol and low on the panel. Ideally they’d be higher up for easier access, but in the off chance I need to get into that pocket in public, I want both the pistol and the magazines out of sight. All the same, the pistol rides high enough so that it’s relatively easy (once you’ve accessed the compartment) to index and draw. As it stands there are no physical or visual indicators when I configure and carry this way.

I see I forgot to mention that somewhere along the line I got around to building magazine loops as well. Here’s another area where a lot of what’s out there basically sucks. Elastic magazine loops are common enough, but often pretty flimsy. So lesson learned from my holster building experience: start with a solid backer to maintain full contact between the pouch and the base, surface material. HDPE solved that problem again. My biggest pet peeve with most elastic magazine loops is that they are not very substantial and your magazines shift (sink) in the loops… or worse. Part of the answer was to use really wide elastic webbing. I’m running 3” wide, heavy duty woven elastic. It holds. But I took it a step further and backed the loop with high friction, non-slip grip backing material. The heavy duty elastic is essentially holding your magazine against a non slip rubberized base sewn onto a hard plastic backer that won’t flex. The whole thing was carefully designed to leave a small footprint and not add significantly to the width of the magazine. These things weren’t just built off the cuff, I use them every day, so the design matters to me.

That’s how I EDC. The gear has a lot of other applications, but it has greatly enhanced the use of and extended the useful service life of my old AIII pack.

Down Range Gear PALS Insert Panel

Down Range Gear Fitted Pistol Magazine Pouch

Focus of effort today was filling an order for another PALS Inset Panel. This one comes in close to 11″ x 10″ and was requested in coyote brown. It was a real pleasure to put together; everything came together very nicely for this piece and it’s well finished, if I do say so myself. One departure from the standard design was to substitute the kydex sheet for HDPE as the internal support. This worked wonders for the assembly process and will be the default for all future builds.

I was able to squeeze in a side project towards the end of the day: assembly of eight of the new Fitted Pistol Magazine Pouches for my 1911 mags. The more I play with these new mag pouches, the more I like them. These things are models of simplicity; no straps, flaps, buckles, velcro or shock cord, just a very cleanly built pouch form-fitted to the magazine. You can’t tell from the pictures but the 1000D cordura nylon is doubled and laminated, meaning it’s rigid and holds it’s shape, which gives it a whole different feel from regular nylon pouches.  I built these for myself and the fabric is charcoal grey, which is my default when I want something subdued and neutral rather than a military color or pattern.

This is the new, “Evader” Low Profile Plate Sleeve. The distinctive, stripped down design retains the functionality of conventional plate carriers but with a lower profile and reduced weight penalty. The Evader came from a concept aimed at reducing the size and weight of a plate carrier by restricting the design to follow the exact profile and contour of the supported ballistic plate. Basically, I built a standard plate carrier and started removing everything that wasn’t needed to directly support the plates.

I didn’t skimp on PALS real estate; every corner of the outer face of the plate is covered. Top to bottom, side to side, all the way to the ends,maximum use is made of available space to support PALS compatible accessories.

Straps are kept to a minimum to promote mobility and efficient movement. Care was taken to make sure they are functional and  comfortable.

The Evader was not designed to be a combat plate carrier. The market is full of really good plate carriers that have military, field applications, this isn’t one of them. The Evader is built to fill a very specific, highly specialized role and may be of particular interest to LEOs, contractors and certain, select civilian applications.

The Evader is not a one size fits all plate carrier. It is tailored around your specific plate profile. As such, I’ll needeither some sort of likeness of the plate (written descriptions and pictures are not enough) or the plate itself (ideally) to properly fit the plate. Unusual or unconventional plate designs are not an obstacle.

The PALS pattern displayed on this version of the Evader is one of several unique options offered by Down Range Gear. Selected for it’s light weight and thin cross section , 5038 binding tape was used on this particular PALS grid. Although not specifically designed for this application, the binding tape capably substitutes for heavier 17337 or 43668 webbing and gives the plate a smooth, flat, finished appearance. The “Solid Block” PALS configuration allows for vertical accessory pouch adjustment in 1″ increments for more precise placement. As an added benefit, the solid layer of webbing forms an effective second layer over the cordura base material giving it an extra layer of protection from wear and abrasion.

Down Range Gear PALS Integrated Pelican Micro Case

Cellular phones, iPods, digital cameras, handheld GPS systems and other gear sometimes take a beating as we carry them through our everyday lives. More so for the occasional severe treatment we subject them to, particularly when off the beaten path… or the occasional combat tour for that matter… Pelican Micro series plastic hard cases provide piece of mind like nothing else on the market. Padded nylon pouches provide some impact protection and shock proofing but will not hold up under sustained, crushing pressure and can’t help you from getting your gear soaked. Pelican’s small Micro cases are handy, easily portable and give you unparalleled levels of protection against shock, pressure and submersion.

With the Down Range Gear PALS integration feature, there are more ways than ever to carry your gear safely and conveniently. As a case study of the versatility of this system, I’d like to showcase the very first prototype, built in 2006, carried to Iraq and back again. But first…

What exactly is a PALS Integrated Pelican Case?

It’s starts with a brand new, Pelican Micro series plastic hard case. The case is carefully drilled to accept four heavy duty Chicago screws. A close fit is important, so the work is methodical. Before being fitted into the holes the anchor portion of the screws are treated with McNett adhesive seam sealer, filling in any physical gaps in order to retain water resistance. Where the anchor screws protrude on the back of the case, four elastic washers are fitted to provide further assurance against permeation by liquids. Lastly, two Tactical Tailor MALICE clips are secured to the case with Loctite Red (thread locker) treated screws. The MALICE clips are oriented so that the lid of the case hinges downward to prevent the contents from spilling out (ask me how I knew to do it this way!) To provide for an extra layer of security and piece of mind, a removable strap system is velcroed to the back of the case and securely fastens the lid closed with a durable side release (ITW Nexus Ghillie Tex) buckle. The Micro cases come either in black or clear plastic, but are easily color matched with spray paint (Krylon brand has been particularly durable and effective on the plastic) to match your environment or kit.

Ok, so the first one was built back in 2006, went to Iraq and back with me, continues to be carried and get banged up daily and is still going strong. These days it doesn’t get shot at but it still protects the small items that matter to me. These things are built to last.

Down Range Gear PALS Integrated Pelican Micro Case (original 2006 prototype still in use)

The  integration of the Tactical Tailor MALICE clips to the back of the case means it is fully compatible with any military PALS (MOLLE) system in use. The Micro Cases are small enough to be unobtrusive on a vest or can be attached to the outside of the pack for easy access without worry that the contents will get banged up.

The MALICE clips also make natural belt loops and the Micro Case can easily be attached to and worn on a belt. While this worked well, I took it a step further and added a set of belt loops with side release buckles so that the case could be dropped a little lower than the belt line and be removable for more convenient access.

Down Range Gear PALS Integrated Pelican Micro Case belt carried

Down Range Gear PALS Integrated Pelican Micro Case with quick detach belt drop kit

Down Range Gear HSLD Watch Band

Couple of weeks ago a customer asked if I could build a HSLD Watch Band in Crye Multicam. He was about to head overseas and put a tight deadline on the project. I told him I’d have no problem doing the work but there would be a surcharge to get the Multicam material in from DIYTactical.com, I don’t stock it and it’s damned expensive.

I had him send the watch in. I need the watch in order to properly fit the band. The HSLD Watch Band is a direct replacement for the factory watch band and is designed to be sewn into the watch body. Each one is custom built and fitted. I can either use my existing design or build one to the customer’s specifications.

So the watch face came in but without a critical part that I needed to secure the band! Not good. As the customer was deploying in the very near future, we agreed that the best course of action was to send the watch back with a refund, less shipping and the cost of special materials.

After that I stewed over the project for a couple of days, unfinished projects bug me. FInally, I had an idea for a design that I could build that could maybe be user installed. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it earlier, but I put it together today. I’m taking a chance here because I’m not sure if he’ll be able to fit the band to his watch, which is why I require the watch be sent in for proper fitting and band installation, but just doing the project made me look at the problem and approach the solution from a different perspective. I hope the customer I had to turn away gets something out of it as well.

Down Range Gear links to other small gear builders (see column right, this page.)

The state of tactical gear is that there has never been the kind of quality, quantity and diversity as there is on the market today. The large manufacturers have never been better at what they do or offered better designed and constructed gear. That said, they can’t offer the level of customization or turn a concept into a finished product as fast as the small, independent builders can.

All of the small gear makers linked are active participants of the DiyTactical.com forum, a clearinghouse for small independent designers and producers and a tremendous source of information on the multiple aspects of designing and building your own gear. The DIY Tactical Store is quite possibly the best one stop shop for high quality parts and materials used in the fabrication of military webbing and equipment. Between the information and the materials, a DIYer should have everything he/she needs to get started at DIYTactical.com.

So why do I link to what essentially are my competitors? Several reasons. First and foremost, we all have our market niches and specialties. Much as I’d like the business, I don’t see much point in duplicating a product or service that someone else has vastly more experience in and can do better than I can. Offering alternatives adds value to my customers. And I feel that ethical, fair and friendly competition is a good thing for all concerned. Finally, these links are not an endorsement by any account, but by all means, before you spend your money on my gear, check to see what the others are offering, they’re all worth a look.

DownRangeGear.com is the commercial website for Down Range Gear, a small, custom builder of tactical gear and military webbing.

The purpose of this blog is to support Down Range Gear with supplemental material that does not belong on the primary site. The main Down Range Gear site has been deliberately designed with a spare and efficient layout, the goal being to showcase the gear in a lean, clutter free package. The pictures and words either speak for themselves or don’t.

This blog will attempt to span topics that include:

-Recommendations for use.

-The reason and justification behind the design.

-How the gear was built.

-Updates on new and upcoming projects.