If you’re old enough, you remember black leather gun belts with brass buckles that you had to polish. You wore those gun belts attached to your regular pants belt (usually a heavy black leather belt with another buckle you had to polish – at least in the academy) and held securely by any number of snapped-on keepers. Somewhere in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s, along about the time utility blue uniforms became more standard for evening and midnight shifts, nylon duty gear also came into vogue. As a guy who hated to polish anything that I could count on getting scuffed up during a shift, I was an “early adopter” of nylon duty gear. My Chief at the time wasn’t a fan, but he acknowledged the sensible outlook and utilitarian nature for the busier, less pretty looking shifts. There wasn’t much of an industry dedicated to high quality nylon gear back then, but in today’s world there are plenty of options. TacShield is one of those options and I recently had opportunity to field test a belt set they make.
As mentioned, “back in the day,” you wore your gun belt attached to your pants belt using keepers. How many keepers you used depended on several things: how big your waist was, how much gear you had on your belt, and just how comfortable you were with anything moving around… at all. I was a “don’t want anything to move… ever” kind of guy so I had at least six keepers on my belt. When the first hook-n-loop lined belt sets came out I was in awe. Still, a few keepers were needed. At a very minimum, one in front of and one behind my holster to insure my weapon was always where it was supposed to be on my body.
The gun belt set that I received from TacShield to test included a hook-n-loop inner belt with a lined outer gun belt. My waist (currently) runs between 34”-36” depending on the manufacturer of the pants (and my eating/exercise habits) and the belt set was sized accordingly. That said, it is VERY adjustable so gaining a few pounds or losing a few pounds doesn’t mean having to buy a whole new set. Before I tested the belts together as a set, I tested them individually.
“Testing,” where belts are concerned, simply means wearing them – every day, day in and day out, for at least a month and sometimes more. I received my test belt set a couple months back and they are the only belts I’ve worn since receiving them. Let’s talk about the inner belt first.
The challenge with most hook-n-loop fastened/lined belts is that they wear out pretty quickly. The constant put-on / tear-off daily necessity can ruin the material pretty quick unless it is of high enough quality. That put-on / tear-off happens at least once each day but can include several more iterations depending on bathroom necessities, changing clothes, etc. After a month of daily wear the hook-n-loop material showed no appreciable wear. The belt itself was broken in by the end of the first week and conforming to my waist/hip curves. The ability to easily adjust it depending on how I was carrying my handgun was a bonus. Sometimes I carry “four o’clock” behind my right hip; other times I carry IWB appendix (depends on which gun I’m carrying). If I HAD to switch for whatever reason in a given day, it was quick and easy to adjust and resecure the belt.
I also wore the outer belt as my primary belt for about a month. Doing so means removing the right side buckle half to put it on, looping the belt through your pants belt loops, putting the buckle back on, clicking the buckle securely closed and then adjusting the length by folding down the tongue of the belt. This belt, due to its thickness and stiff design – which is intentional so as to support holsters, handcuff pouches, etc. – took a little longer to conform to the shape of my waist but it wasn’t uncomfortable in the process and has conformed nicely in the long run. While this outer belt wasn’t designed to be worn as a pants belt, it was actually quite nice to have such rigidity available for whatever needs presented themselves: holster mount, IWB, knife pouch, spare mag pouch, multi-tool, flashlight… having such a thick and stiff belt on added a higher level of confidence to the security of the gear mounted.
Now, as to the two belts when worn together as a system: The outer belt I received is lined with the hook-part of hook-n-loop. The inner belt was covered with the loop-part. Once the inner belt was properly fitted, the outer belt was wrapped and secured. Because I’m a bit paranoid about my weapon, I STILL put two keepers on the belt – one in front of and one behind my holster. Beyond that, I didn’t see the need to put any other keepers on. I try to avoid having TOO much stuff on my gun belt but that avoidance is a matter of convenience for me since I don’t regularly wear a uniform and go on patrol anymore. If I was on patrol, I’d like have to use keepers still because the system depends on hook-to-loop match up and the less of that there is, the more movement of gear and belt you can get. In today’s world, where so much gear is carried, unless you move some of it to a vest mount (preferred), you have to make sure the belt(s) are secure.
For my use, the usual outer belt “load out” included a double magazine pouch, flashlight pouch, knife pouch and holster. Everything else was either in a pocket, on a vest or on a thigh mounted platform. My thigh platforms (“tactical” platforms) are on Y-straps so it’s not a single strap going up to the gunbelt but two straps that can hook into, or easily be removed from, their mount straps on the belt. Using this method, I can either attach the thigh platforms to the inner belt OR I can put them on the outer belt.
The system has proven dependable, sturdy and well-constructed. As an old-school guy, I still like my pants belts to have a buckle, but those are not as easily adjustable for comfortable fit as this TacShield inner belt is. I have embraced the outer belt as my gun belt and am thankful that I don’t have to cover it with all the gear the average patrol officer has to carry today. If you’re in the market for a gun belt set, or even just a new outer belt, check out TacShield’s line. You won’t be disappointed.
