Review: Condor - Gen1 Battle Belt

This is my third Condor review.  I covered their Modular Plate Carrier recently, and had some good things to say about it, with a couple of caveats. My Condor Nomex gloves are still serving me well. Condor apparently gets a lot of stick in the high-speed gear community, but as a quite removed observer (damn you, Pacific Ocean), it's been hard to get a good picture as to why. I'm going to focus on what I see and feel myself. Both my Condor pieces are second hand, from a fellow who was getting rid of his excess collection.


This is the now superseded Gen1 Condor battle belt, which is still available out in the world, but Condor are promoting their newer Gen2 belt directly.

Adding to my growing collection of MultiCam, this 1000d Cordura belt functions in the way that must battle belts do, it is a sleeve type affair, and requires an actual belt to be fed through it in order to attach and wear it. I have fed my Propper 720 Riggers Belt through it. Internally, the battle belt has a series of webbing loops to snag and hold a belt in place, and fits up to a 2" belt easily. These loops keep a belt in place both in the donning and doffing process, but also when wearing it, to keep it riding right. The two front panels have openings in the bottom side to run a drop-leg rig off the internally threaded belt.

Four D-rings are set into the top of the beltfor attaching a harness or braces to.

The inside of the belt was lined with a breathability improving mesh padding, with two bands of non-slip backing. It was very comfortable to wear when empty, sitting on top of the hips and conforming to the curves of the body nicely.

Front View

The belt is surrounded by two rows of heavy webbing, 6 channels on the two side panels and 8 channels on the back. When you load the belt up, some things happen. Even with a fairly light load of a Platatac Half-Med pack and a WUP container, the belt sags noticeably.

Side view

Back View

This sagging didn't really affect the comfort, or the fit of the belt, but does raise some questions about its stability under higher loads, when you don't want that extra weight flopping about when you are being physical.

I suspect this sag is due to the Rigger belt being suspended through the middle of the Battle Belt, rather than riding up at the top seam, but it seemed like a design flaw to me.

I wore the belt all through last Easter's Confest (2015) with the loadout as shown here, with a Nalgene bottle in the WUP, with my RhinoRopework Hornet and American Kami Super Colubris combo fed into the left-hand side belt opening. It was super effective, and I chopped wood, carrier Tactical Baby and ran around like a mad thing with no trouble keeping my wearables in place. I'd like to see how it compares to the Gen2 Battle Belt, but it stands up nicely against the Platatac Young Guns and Bongo Battle Belts.

Events: SSAA SHOT show 2015

I attended the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA) Shooting Hunting Outdoor Trade (SHOT) show in Melbourne over the weekend of the 23-24th of May.

It's a big trade show that cycles around Australia, and is in Melbourne every two years. I went two years ago, and reported on it here.  It seems to be only a small shade on the big Las Vegas events put on in the US especially when you consider the BreachBangClear coverage.

That said, I had a good time, and got to see a lot of cool stuff.

I will just give you a few lines here and there to go with the pictures, and the like, as there was a lot to see at the hundred or so stalls, with everything from taxidermy to targets, bow-hunting to rifles and scopes.

The focus was almost entirely sporting shooting and hunting, as there isn't a big tactical and personal defense market in Australia.

 The Beretta stall had this display of pistols, with a variety of their pistols from the M92 range, as well as some old cap-and-ball style too. It was really nice to see the old along side the new.

This big bad rifle from SAKO (in 308WIN or 338LM) caught my eye. I've always been one to lean towards "bigger is better" when it comes to my arm-chair firearms assessment.

Weighing in at over 6kg, (13.2lbs) this was a big piece.









There were a variety of different gun-dealers, (go figure) and Gun Emporium was one of the big ones. All manner of hunting and target rifles, and kit. 

Here's a very cool little gun that I saw, a folding skeletonised folding Rimfire rifle, in 22LR or 22WMR, the Little Badger. 

This folds up into  a small package and comes with its own nylon carry-bag. Perfect for a pack in the wilds, or if you're gong to be salvaging in a wasteland.







Blaser had a impressive lineup too, some very well made pieces on display.

LEGear had a stall again, filled out with all the 5.11 GEar I've come to expect. No new gear that I noticed, but their heavy winter coats look good.

I met up with some of my mates from Q-Squadron ZERT .

I hadn't ever met these guys in person before, but it was a great chance to shake hands and out faces to names. ZERT on!

 I had a good drool over the Accuracy International rack. Some very fine looking pieces of nail drivers there.

I especially admired the thumbhole grips, which were a modular design accessory for these pieces. Again, offered in the big bore 308WIN or 338LM.

As well as all the rifle sellers, there were numerous hunting and trecking suppliers, as well as archery and bowhunting suppliers to browse.

There was no shortage of things for sporting shooters and hunters to peruse, but it was all very light on tactical or survival gear.

I did get to play around on the ATV's on display, thanks to Polaris, and if I had significant disposable income (or some actual practical need) I'd be well tempted. They offered singles, doubles and even quad-capacity vehicles, for all your dune-jumping and mud-bashing needs ...

One of the most tempting items I saw for sale were the new boots in the MUCK boot company range.


Waterproof, ruggedised and comfortable, they have three new boots, and well worth looking at if you find yourself often in wet, cold or sloppy conditions.















I was delighted to see Platatac having a stall, and got to catch up wit hthe guys, who showed off the HHA ASOT-01 again, but also had on display their just-about-to-be-released stretcher pack.










This innocuous sustainment and medic's pack comes fitted with a variety of external and internal loop-field and PALS/MOLLE attachment options.

The magic is in the pull-away top and bottom panels which deploy a last-ditch stretcher for rapid CASEVAC. I saw these in the factory months aga, and they're getting ready for retail sale. Stay tuned!

I also really liked the looks of the Warwick Firearms AR-looking straight-pull bolt actions, an Australian company.
 
These are offered in .223 and .300 BLK chambers, with three barrel lengths and two different upper lengths. They build these to spec, so if you're in the market for a very professional looking piece capable of being fitted out with all the bells and whistles, you might want to give them a look.











Always a sucker for big-bore, I spotted a Barrett M98b in .338 Lapua in the Clatton Firearms display.

Such a size-queen ...

having not brought myself to capture any of the Barbi-Pink camouflage on display "for the ladies" and enplaned to the horrified, practical and ever fashion conscious Omega why Blaze Orange can be a legitimate stalking colour-scheme, we agreed that we'd both prefer Real-Tree or one of the more widely accepted military patterns, she was delighted to come across this dapper sporting shooters outfit at the Beretta stall.

Not quite my thing, but, she's someone I'm willing to make concessions for, there weren't many other partners in attendance at the SHOT show, and perhaps sporting shooting and hunting is mostly a boys-own club, but I'll take capable and engaged family in a survival situation any day!

I enjoyed the SSAA SHOT expo this year, and made some good contacts, which will hopefully be fruitful and informative in the weeks to come. Stay tuned!

Wish Lust: Rhino Ropework - MAD Stick pouches

My mate Shane from Rhino Ropework (note: they're going to be going through a branding change soon, stay tuned) have teamed up with my friend over at SORD Australia to put together a line of pouches for the most excellent and useful MADSticks by Rhino Ropeworks. You'll recall the MAD Sticks are a compact solid breaching and pry bar, and be pleased to note that they've gone through some more design iterations and are even madder! Here are some pictures of the prototype SORD made up for him.

One aspect that Shane wanted to address, is their very pointyness, which even when looped through PALS/MOLLE, can jab and scrape, and the pen-clip type retaining clip sometimes just weren't up to the rugged outdoor needs of some folks, so he and SORD Australia have come up with this 1000d Cordura pouch. You'll remember the SORD 870 back scabbard I have reviewed in past, well, this is it's littler, sleeker cousin.

Able to be looped though PALS/MOLLE on packs, or plate carriers, or worn on the hip and thigh, the MAD Stick pouch will be fastened with a Fastex style buckle, with a wide flap to allow ease of access, and secure carriage. A steel drainage grommet at the bottom seats the glass-breaker tip, so you don't get undue poke-age, and they are snug enough to not require the pen-clip, but can accommodate them if your MAD Stick has one.

SORD used scrap MultiCam to make the prototype, but RhinoRopeworks is likely to stock Sniper Grey tools with black sheaths for urban usage and  Olive Drab tools and Khaki sheaths for field use.

There is even some talk about Kryptek if there is enough interest (minimum 20 per pattern, I'm told).

Review: Condor - MPC Modular Plate Carrier

I added a new plate carrier to my collection earlier is year. I've loved my Platatac MAC for years, but it is getting dated. It's not like I even really NEED a plate carrier, personal ballistic body armour is a restricted item in Australia, requiring all kinds of licencing and legal requirements to own, (for civilians, at least) so it is a pretty specialty item.

That said, I fill my plate carrier's pouches with polyethylene plastic cutting boards.  This fills it put and gives it body and structure, (for costuming purposes), but also serves as blunt-trauma and edged weapon armour. Ballistic armour is restricted in Australia, so even if I wanted to fill it with proper plates or soft-armour inserts, I couldn't. I still like to put plates in however, any armour is better than no armour. I should do a test-video some time I guess.


The Condor Modular Plate Carrier is designed with heavy webbing on all sides for any PALS/MOLLE compatible gear and accessories.

The MPC also features an integral cummerbund and padded shoulders support and comfort. If you are in a country that allows it, or just want to know the vitals,  the accepts up to 25x33cm (10" x 13") plate and "Large" SPEAR/BALC cut soft armour front and back. It comes with padded foam liners taking the place of the soft armour.

One of the first things I liked about this carrier, was that once I fitted it with my mock-plates, I found it stood up all on its own, brilliant for storage and airing after a sweaty day out adventuring. A couple of bands of loop-field on the back give you attachment options, and also tie down what appear to be drag-strap retainers. These seemed superfluous, but I guess some folks want to be as snag-free as possible. Twin metal D-rings on the shoulders give hydration and cabling tie-down options. 7 channel x 8 row PALS/MOLLE on the black offer plenty of pouch, pack or accessory options.

The built in cummerbund system wraps from back to front, and I found that that really added to the overall comfort and stability of the rig. You can see from this shot that the back-piece also maintains the shoulder-straps, with feed over and across the body, to affix via hook-and-loop to the front piece, before being held secure by Fastex style buckles and sewn-in webbing.

You can also see the but in mesh inner-liner on the back panel, this helps add a little bit of a breathing gap, but in all honesty, I can't say that I noticed much difference from front to back.

You can also see the two M4 magazine pouches built into to the cummerbund  here, with the webbing looped shock-cord retention cords that are on both sides. I was a bit disappointed with these, as only the front set appeared to be big enough to actually fit a magazine. I didn't find much else I could store in these, except perhaps some emergency SERE gear like a spare compass or fire-starters.The 6x4 PALS/MOLLE loops give ample attachment for external pouches.

 You can see from this internal view, the cummerbund is actually two parts, an elasticized belt with hook-and-loop inside and out, that holds the back piece snugly in place. This waist band in turn helps hold the front piece in place, via hook-and-loop, to let you fir the side panels firmly.

 A nice extra feature of the elastic waistband component is that there is a zippered pocket fitted inside it. Good for personal keep-sakes, or small sensitive items, this is the kind of thing I'd normally see on a travelers belt, rather than inside a military style plate carrier, but hey, just because your loaded out for battle doesn't mean you aren't immune to pickpockets, does it?

The ealastic waistband helped keep the weight of the whole rig off my shoulders a little bit, and was a very nice addition to the setup, without compromising the fit of the side panels.

The side panels attached via broad hook-and-loop patches, before being held in place securely, as with the shoulder straps, by Fastex style buckles.

The front panel itself features a mighty  8 row, seven channel spread of PALS/MOLLE, to allow all manner of pouch and accessories to be fitted. It also has a very high on the throat, and low to the belly coverage, something that I like very much, being quite a long bodied creature myself.  This combination oflong construction, and broad carriage options makes this a really appealing carrier for me, and one of the reasons it has overtaken my Platatac MAC as my chest-rig of preference.

The front panel has two bands of loop-field along the top, straddling the top PALS/MOLLE row. Along with the the shoulder strapping webbing, and the cummerbund webbing there are a couple of extra things about the front panel.

It features two broad hook-field patches, for the cummerbund to lock onto,  these suffer the difficulty all big patches of hook-field do, they are crud-magnets. I found that the wrap-forwards and buckle tight option was pretty good, and gave good coverage as well as leaving me room to breathe (never good to be in too-tight armour, especially, when you have to shoulder a pack, climb up somewhere, or run).

One thing I found that it took a little bit of doing to get the side flaps to sit right, and flush. Each side has a grab-loop, to assist in bringing it into place, but some incremental adjustment may be required to get it sitting right.

Donning and doffing the MPC was pretty easy. It was simply a matter of undoing the side panels both in buckle and hook-and-loop, and throwing the whole lot over my head, and doing up the elastic belt component.

Then it is just a matter of fixing the front piece to the belt gently, and strapping down the side panels.

The plate pockets are secured by internal hook-and-loop closing flaps at the bottom of the front and back panels, and the side plates are fitted through the back plate slots. This took a little fiddling to get the side plates into place but they seemed to stay once fitted. It would be interesting to see if they sat as well with steel plates.

Again, the hook-and-loop attachment of the side plates, even with the Fastex-buckles were probably my least favorite part of this carrier, as they took some fiddling to get to sit right, and to fully lay flat. I can see them coming open at inopportune times when you're trying to be quiet with that "sckreeeet" sound if they got hung up on something. That said, I spent some good time running about in it, weaving through the bush, and in some urbanised areas, whilst at the After The Fall: New Hill City event.

I got this second hand, and it was in good shape when I got it, and has held up to the pretty mild punishment I have given it, (including two weeks spread out in the cooken-yard, as torture testing) so I'm pretty happy with how its turned out.

I'm slowly getting with the times as far as camo-patterns go, and am slowly building to my MultiCam collection, this was a great piece to do so. The webbing is still khaki, so it's still a blend, but I'm getting here. 

Movie Review: Mad Max: Fury Road

On our way in the BattleWagon to see Fury Road at the Drive-In

 As first seen on BreachBangClear (they've gotten a lot of content from me recently, yay)

I've been pondering what, if anything to write about this movie. I grew up mostly overseas, away from my native Australia. When Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome came out in 1985, I was 9 and living in the UK, about to move back to Australia for the second time. Being a 8-9 yo Australian ex-pat in the UK at the time I had this, the 1981 Galipoli movie, and pre-Crocodile Dundee Paul Hogan as my cultural identifiers. The Mad Max movies were rather seminal in my appreciation of what it meant to be Australian (read into that what you will), my views on prepping, survival and self-reliance. So, as you might imagine, I had high hopes, and expectations for the new movie.

I'm not so much going to critique its story or plotlines (which I enjoyed), its cinematography (amazing) or even the sets, props and setting (tremendous) although I will touch on them all. Instead, I'm going to write about the -cultures- portrayed. Hopefully, that will pretty much leave you with a spoiler-free review, rich with material to consider.

It's good to be part of the Gang

The World: The opening introduction sets the scene for the movie, and the setting. Oil Wars, then Water Wars as resources literally dried up, and were lost, first by the wars themselves, which escalated to nuclear exchanges, then the environmental disasters that followed. Fallout is not explicitly mentioned, but I'll get to that when it comes to the people.
Civilization - All regulated civilization, recognizable national governments and services are long gone by the time the movie begins. Cities are emptied and abandoned, roads and infrastructure are gone. Manufacturing is all but gone, salvage and recycling are the golden rules for materiel.
Weather - With the loss of potable and agricultural water, which appears to be a widespread and catastrophic, we see vast deserts and dust-bowl type conditions. Vast storm fronts roll over the land, with sufficient force to destroy medium sized vehicles outright, and with enough frequency that travelers have masks and goggles handy and use them with casual efficiency that tells of lots of practice.
Water - Water is almost, if not more a valuable resource in this world as fuel, much in the way that it is represented in Thunderdome, (and Tank Girl). It is the basis of the major antagonist's (Immortan Joe) power, and is used to great effect by the gratuitous display of turning it on and off for his followers.
Food - As I often say, where there is water, there is life. Where there is no water, there is no life. With no arable land and no water, where does the food come from? They grow it, very, very carefully and securely. This brings us to the Factions.


The Factions:

Swiped from Village Roadshow

The Citadel - Immortan Joe's Citadel is based around what appears to be the remnants of a aquifer pumping station. They have vast reserves of water, literally to tap, and we get a good look at the layout of their stronghold. High, virtually unassailable mesa honey-combed with tunnels and caverns, including hydroponic farms, controlled environment vaults and enough space to house an army. They have water, food and manpower. Throngs of peasants live outside the Citadel, dependent on the water and food provided, and also opportunities to improve their station in life. Soldiers, workers, breeders and "milkers". (yep, be on the look out for the hu-cows), and "Mothers-Milk" references. Without water and food, there are no people.
Guzzoline Town - Source of fuel for triumvirate of power, they produce the guzzoline (read petrol/gasoline) guzzled by all the various bikes, cars, trucks and rigs in the movie. They do trade with the other two major Factions with their valuable commodity, and presumably, have to import everything else. Without fuel, you can't move anything across this wasteland. You can't mobilize your armies, warbands or scouts.

Swiped from Village Roadshow

Producing fuel takes skill, and resources to produce, so their power base is secure and essential for all three Factions.
Bullet Farm- We don't see much about Bullet Farm, but from what we do see, and the name, we can assume that they are a weapons and munitions manufacturing facility. In the wasteland, we see that ammunition is precious, and not always reliable. Having a manufacturing base lets you arm your army, so the have a solid power-base as well, but are ultimately dependent on both the Citadel for food and water, and Guzzoline Town for fuel and transport. They can certainly arm and front a mighty force, but without fuel of food, they wouldn't be able to function. Nor could The Citadel or Guzzoline Town protect their interests without Bullet Town's bullets.
Raiders - Bands of scavengers, unaffiliated with any of the three Factions still roam the wasteland, preying on the convoys, picking off stragglers and no doubt raiding the three Factions from time to time. Highly mobile, poorly equipped and desperate They probably represent the most regular threats to the Factions or others in the Wilderness.
Loners - This is where Max falls. He's on his own, doing his own thing, surviving just for himself, and by himself. He is outside of civilisation, such as it is, and wants nothing more than to be alone. Who knows how many loners still exist out in the world, but odds are, they're few in number, given the hardship they face.

Swiped from Village Roadshow

Classes:

Swiped from Village Roadshow

Faction Head - The Triumvirate are lead in turn by Immortan Joe, The People Eater and The Bullet Farmer. They rule their own domains, and only by their truce, and personal history is their world held together. Immortan Joe has founded his own Valhalla cult to perpetuate his power, as well as Joe's own personal drive to keep a pure and un-fallout contaminated bloodline going, with his Wives.
Imperator - These are the commanders of the Factions, who are charged with overseeing operations and trusted with both secrets and access. They get the best equipment, vehicles and even cybernetic / prosthetic repairs.
Wives - Joe's prized breeding stock, and presumably parents (in some iteration) to some of the other members of Joe's Faction, (at least Rictus Erectus), they may also represent a breeding program to repopulate the world, or at least Immortan Joe's little part of it with mutation free offspring.

Swiped from Village Roadshow

WarBoyz / WarDogs - Joe has filled his Citadel with his followers the WarBoys who follow the Cult of the V8 (look for the clasped hands in prayer with eight fingers up) with their sacred wheel icons and brands), They also get called the Half-Life boys (probably due to radiations sickness) who are motivated by wanting to gain access to Valhalla by performing well, and dying in glory for Joe. They are all shaved-headed (or bald) and white-washed. Strange cultish behavior (like spraying their mouths with chrome paint to be "Shiny and Chrome" and calling for witnesses when they enact their final brave acts will the catch call of "Witness Me!" to ensure they get clear entry into Valhalla. Not bad for a loyal army of disposable soldiers.
WarPups - The Citadel is filled with too-young-to-fight kids done up like the WarBoys, doing tasks around the Citadel. They serve, earn their places and hope to eventually be promoted to WarBoy status.
Mechanics - The makers, repairers and resurrection artists of old and broken technology. Called "black-thumbs" they are a valuable and needed part of the community, and even other
The great unwashed - The peasants that live around the Citadel (and other Faction Towns) who try to gain entry, curry favour, beg for food and generally be pathetic hangers-on and potential workforce for the Factions. They also represent a breeding pool, and source of more specific resources (Mothers Milk, for one)

Swiped from Village Roadshow

BloodBags - This is one of the interesting aspects in Fury Road. Because the WarBoys/ HalfLife Boys are apparently chronically radiation poisoned, and suffer from what appears to be leukemia, they capture and harvest donors, to rejuvenate and refresh the ailing HalfLife boys. Early on, Max is found to be a universal donor marking him as a very valuable commodity, even given his savage reactions.

Gear:
The kit - Salvaged and many-times repaired is the order of the day. Nothing new, fresh or in fact "Shiny and Chrome" except for a very few precious items. Given the desire to reach Valhalla, the WarBoys forsake almost any kind of protective gear, other than masks and goggles, to ensure they are effective, capable and impressive to gain entry, and Joe's approval. Imperator Furiosa sports a prosthetic arm, and both Immortan Joe and his son, Rictus, sport lavish air-filtration systems, to keep them contaminant free.
The vehicles - Almost characters in their own right, the vehicles of Fury Road hold true to the legacy of the first thee movies. Heavily modified, performance and off-road capable, with arms and armour that you'd expect, as well as nitrous-enhanced and lots of turbo charging to boot.
The weapons - Guns are few and far between, with only bosses and hero's wielding them, with the majority of the fighters having the wrist-crossbows, spears and hand-weapons we've come to expect from the Mad Max movies. Ammunition is a critical resource, and you feel every bullet the main characters have (with the exception of the Bullet Town bosses party, but hey, they MAKE the bullets, why not go a bit overboard). Explosive tipped lances were a nice touch though, and the brutality of the world is really indicated by the way people fight.

The effect Mad Max Fury Road had on us when we went to see it; two parent types who grew up with the end of the Cold War and all the Apocalyptic cinema that came with it, two young adults who were fresh to the genre , and Tactical Baby who didn't think it was funny when I laughed at the car-crashes, all at the drive-in, all in costume, was evident, we loved it, and were captivated by the cinematography, the action, and the impact of it all. We were left with just one question... "Who killed the world?"

We did.

WITNESS!