Today I’ll be taking a look at the Jones Tactical 2″ FatZombie Duty Belt. The FatZombie is unique and is by far the best duty belt I’ve ever worn. My hope is that this article will help you make an informed decision if you decide to pull the trigger on a FatZombie.

I’ll be the first to admit that until recently, I just dealt with the duty belt I was issued and didn’t give it much thought. But like other equipment, there comes a time where it makes sense to switch to new material technology and design. If your agency is like mine, they go with the lowest bidder, which in our case is Uncle Mike’s. Not to knock Uncle Mike’s (they are made in the USA), but the belt I was issued 9 years ago was no different in material and technology than the Uncle Mike’s belt I was issued as an MP in the Army 17 years ago.

I guess you could argue, “why change something that works?” For some people this is perfectly fine, but for those that are reading this, evolving with equipment and training is a way of life.

A Brief History

I was fortunate to correspond with Richard (owner of Jones Tactical) during the writing of this article and ask a few questions about the belt. Richard keeps pretty busy between sewing and training and this shows his commitment to putting out the best products possible and staying current in the industry.

According to Richard, the belt was first prototyped around 2007 and was developed due to the weakness of the standard plastic buckle. The Cobra buckle was a no-brainer as a replacement to the common plastic buckles used at the time (and even currently). Using a Cobra buckle posed some design challenges, as the standard belt placement couldn’t be used due to the width of the belt and the smaller inner width of the Cobra buckle. Thus, a new overlapping design was used. Richard also saw that most belts were not stiff enough so he used scuba webbing to stiffen the belt.

I asked Richard about the name FatZombie, as this belt was developed before the recent fad of everything “Zombie.” Richard said the name came from a friend who helped him R&D the original belt. That friend’s paintball tournament nickname was “FatZombie” and it ended up sticking.

Hardware

The FatZombie uses the AustriAlpin Cobra Buckle and heavy-duty hook and loop. Bryan has covered the specs of the Cobra Buckle in other articles but here’s a recap:

1. They’re made of Aluminum so they don’t rust. Anyone that’s worked around the ocean can attest to how rusty metal buckles and v-rings can get.
2. They’re strong! a 2000 lb. load capacity is what paragear.com quotes.
3. They can’t be opened under tension. One side will disengage if under tension, but will not release. When the tension is released the side will then re-lock.
4. From #3, if one side of the two clasp system is disengaged the buckle will not open, both clasps have to be depressed to release.

The Cobra Buckle is leaps and bounds better than any plastic duty belt buckle on the market. The specs speak for themself and you’d be hard pressed to come close to exceeding the capabilities of the buckle on a non life/load bearing LEO duty belt. Overkill? Perhaps, but you’ll know your buckle won’t break or come undone.

Not without possible flaws, one of the first things I thought might pose an issue with the use of a Cobra buckle on a duty belt, was racking my pistol’s slide on it when doing malfunction drills. In my case, I find the belt buckle area to be more consistent than the lip of my holster or other area. On my old belt, I would use the webbing next to the buckle, as the plastic buckle itself wouldn’t consistently rack the slide.

With the Cobra Buckle, the top of the buckle is almost perfect for catching the rear sight of my pistol and racking the slide. The top of the release mechanism did come undone a few times, but the design of the entire system kept the buckle from coming unlatched. This is the beauty of the Cobra, you have to release both sides at the same time and when not under load. While nothing is impossible, it is HIGHLY unlikely you will undo your buckle while performing malfunction drills.

The uniqueness of the Cobra buckle may bring up some other issues when being used around people who don’t know how to operate the buckle system. If your partner, zone partners, or backup are not familiar with the buckle they may have issues removing your belt in an emergency situation (without cutting it). This is something to consider, as I’ve had other colleagues look at my belt and not know what a Cobra buckle is.

That being said, a buckle resembling the Cobra is used here in Tampa at Busch Gardens on the newest Cheetah Hunt roller coaster and no one seemed to have trouble getting out of the seats the last time I was there. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out.

Looking at the overlapping design of the FatZombie, you’ll see that the heavy duty hook and loop really takes the load and tension of the belt. The Cobra Buckle in most cases is not “loaded” so taking the belt on and off isn’t a hassel. If you’ve ever tried to release a Cobra under a slight load you know what I’m talking about. This will depend on how you have your belt set up however.

Materials and Sewing

The FatZombie is built like a tank and has several “layers” of webbing sewn together to form the belt. We’ll talk about the materials in a second, but I want to touch on something important first.

Since each belt is made to the user’s specifications, the overall thickness of the belt will depend on how you order it. In my case I ordered the belt with no internal hook and loop. This is important to understand for LEOs’ who have different types of accessories mounted to a belt. Your OC, COBAN, or flashlight pouch may have a small mounting tolerance compared to your pistol holster. My rotating ASP holder has only 8mm (0.315 in.) of mounting space and is a pain in the butt to get on the FatZombie. Compare that to my Safariland Glock magazine pouch (which is now used and stretched out) that has a whopping 18mm (0.708 in.).

Most manufacturers design their accessories around a nylon or leather duty belt, which by most standards is thin and flimsy. This is even if the nylon belt has two layers of webbing sewn together. The Uncle Mike’s belt I’m issued is two layers of webbing, but it twists with ease and isn’t very rigid. The main part of the belt is only about 5mm (0.196 in.) thick, however it’s 10mm (0.393 in.) thick near the buckles as the belt is folded over with hook and loop.

Getting back to the FatZombie: The main body of the belt is sewn with two layers of sandwiched 2″ scuba webbing and one layer of 1.75″ type 13 4088 webbing is sewn to the outside. This outside layer is what the COBRA buckles are attached to. Scuba webbing is designed to be very ridged and usually (depending on manufacturer) rated at about 7,000 pounds breaking strength. The type 13 webbing is typically rated at 5,500 pounds breaking strength. No need to do the math, the FatZombie blows the doors off your typical nylon duty belt.

The stitching of the belt is top notch and you can tell Richard puts a lot of time and effort into making these. Even knowing what little I do when it comes to sewing, I would imagine there’s a lot of sweat built into each of these belts and the sewing machine probably hates when one of these is on deck.

My belt has no internal hook and loop, as I didn’t order the inner pants belt. This is just my preference as I like to use keepers instead of hook and loop. My offhand shooting training has always been to pull the holster with my left hand to access my pistol, which requires the belt to slide and give a bit. This is just personal preference and I’m sure the hook and loop version is rock solid.

Since I dont have the inner hook and loop, the overall thickness of my belt is 6mm (0.236 in.) in the sides and back. In the front where the 1.75″ webbing is doubled over and where hook and loop is used to secure the tails, the belt is 10 to 11mm (0.433 in.).

So what does all this mean? As I mentioned my ASP holder is only 8mm and of course with my luck it has to go up front where the belt is at 11mm. I had to push, pull and swear my way to get it to fit. As you see in the pictures, I didn’t put it back on after stripping the belt for the photos. Make sure your accessories have the tolerance to fit on the FatZombie before you buy it.

Sizing

This is where things can get a bit interesting and you have to realize that the FatZombie is specifically designed to be used over your pants belt. Also consider that your pants belt size is most likely different than plain clothes as (depending on your uniform) you have to tuck in your undershirt, concealed ballistic panel tails and uniform shirt into your pants. My duty pants size is one size larger than my normal pants size (well I do wear one size larger anyway since I carry IWB off duty, but you get my drift). This isn’t a retrofit “riggers belt” that you throw your gun holster on. In my case, where I didn’t order the inner hook and loop belt, I ran into a issue on my end choosing a pants belt.

With my old duty belt I wore either a VTAC or 215 Gear Cobra belt as my pants belt. This worked fine as the Cobra Buckle didn’t really create any bulk up front. The problem I had with the FatZombie was the way it has an overlapping front closure system. If I wore either of the Cobra pants belts there was way too much bulk up front. I was able to slide the pants belt Cobra Buckle to the side to help prevent this but it was still too bulky. Even a standard old school Blackhawk Rigger’s Belt didn’t work well.

If you end up without the hook and loop inner belt you’ll have to either compromise with some bulk up front or find a low-profile pants belt. I did find the perfect solution (in my opinion) with the Volund Gearworks ATLAS Belt. The ATLAS belt is super low-profile as it uses a ITW G-Hook up front and a unique webbing system for it to hook onto. The ATLAS is also bombproof and really deserves an article of its own. I couldnt be happier as both of these belts work so well together.

You may also have to switch your keeps (if you are using them) to a longer/larger size up front. I had to switch three of my keeps up front to a longer size, but I was able to use two standard sizes in back. This will depend on how you have your belt setup. This is just food for thought though, as you may have to swtich them out and having this in mind before the belt arrives will save you some grief up front.

Final Thought

While there are other belts on the market that use plastic stiffeners or other materials, you’ll be hard pressed to find one that is as stiff as the FatZombie. Most of those belts are designed to go in a war belt or are not specific to LEO type setups. While they may work, the FatZombie was built from the ground up to be a “duty” belt.

I had several questions about the size and options when ordering my belt. Like buying boots online and without having something “in hand” to look at, buying a belt online can be a daunting experience. Richard was able to walk me through the process and make me feel comfortable about the choices I made. If in doubt give him a call or email and he can square you away.

Law Enforcement equipment is slowly catching up to the lessons learned in the military and I feel uniforms and duty equipment will be changing over the next few years. I just had a conversation with a major armor representative and this is certainly true on the armor and load carrier industry. American small business owners like Richard are ahead of the curve and providing some of those materials and hardware right now. Don’t wait for your agency to issue you better gear, you are just settling for the lowest bidder! It’s out there, you may have to just go get it on your own.

If you have any questions or comments please leave them below and thanks for checking out the Jones Tactical FatZombie Duty Belt review. You can order yours direct from Jones Tactical here.

Making your toothpaste lighter? Yep, today I’ll be showing you how you can even trim weight on your toothpaste. I’ll admit this technique sounded silly to me when I first heard about it, but if you’re serious about trimming ounces for lightweight backpacking,  then toothpaste dots might be for you.

In my ongoing quest to make my backpacking dopp kit even lighter, I decided to test out a technique that Mike used on the GORUCK Ascent we both attended. Between Mike’s experience and reading about toothpaste dots in Ultralight Backpackin’ Tips by Mike Clelland, I set out to make my own.

Toothpaste Dots

The gist of creating toothpaste dots is to first select a toothpaste that isn’t a gel. As you can see from the photo below, if you try to use a gel, you’ll get globs not dots. Plus, gel toothpaste never fully cures like the paste will.

For my experiments, I used Sensodyne Pronamel (Paste) and Crest 3D White (Gel). I wanted to demonstrate what a paste vs. gel looked like on a paper plate. Rather than just say “don’t use paper products to dry out your dots,” I thought I’d show you why.

To create toothpaste dots, you want to squeeze out a tiny dot the size of a chocolate chip. Next, use tin foil to squeeze your toothpaste on to while it’s drying out. The dots will be very easy to remove from the tin foil and I let mine sit for about a week before removing them. A hint is to write the date you started with a sharpie, just in case the days blend together for you, like they do for me.

The last step is to remove the dots from the tin foil and drop them into a small ziploc, or my preference, ez-dose pill pouches. The ez-dose pill pouches are great to have around for a variety of reasons. I also use them to store Asprin and Advil within my backpacking dopp kit.

Before closing up the bag with your new toothpaste dots, sprinkle a little baking soda in so they don’t stick together. That’s all there is to it! You can now simply take out a toothpaste dot, toss it in your mouth, chew it a little bit and start brushing. You have already cut down your toothbrush to save weight, right?

Just so you have a general idea, the ez-dose pill pouch shown here with 10 toothpaste dots, weighs just .2 ounces. Much lighter than the 1/2 ounce plus weight of a well used tube of travel toothpaste. Another benefit with toothpaste dots is that you know exactly how much toothpaste you have.

What do you think of toothpaste dots? Overkill or something you’ll be trying out?

This is the fourth post in my series on lightweight backpacking aimed at helping you reduce your overall pack weight without sacrificing any of the comfort or necessities. In my first post I introduced you to the concept of lightweight backpacking, the benefits, how to get started, and taking less stuff. The second post focused on weighing your gear, using gear lists, and knowing how much weight you are carrying. The third post focused on reducing the weight of your “Big Three” – your tent, backpack, and sleeping bag.

For this fourth installment I wanted to share another ample method for further reducing your pack weight by selecting pieces of gear that can be used for multiple purposes. The concept is easy, if you can carry less “stuff”, your overall pack weight will be reduced and you might even reach a point at which you will be able to switch to a smaller volume backpack.

Here are some examples that I’ve personally used or that I’ve picked up from others over the years.

1. I carry a lightweight, frameless backpack made by Gossamer Gear. I use my foam sleeping pad as a back support to provide some much needed cushioning and to add rigidity to an otherwise flimsy backpack. I’m carrying my sleeping pad anyway, so why not use it for more than one purpose and dump the frame. The sleeping pad also make a great sitting pad and pillow for catching a few minutes of shut eye
2. If you have decided to go with a tarp as your shelter you can easily your trekking poles as the upright supports at either end. In some cases you can even replace the tent poles supplied my some manufacturers with more traditional tents and shave almost a pound of your pack weight right there
3. The classic bandana. A true multitasking piece of gear. Let’s see: Scarf, hat, face mask, headband, handkerchief, sun block for neck, tourniquet, sling, pre-water filter, coffee filter, napkin, dish rag, pot holder, towel, signaling – the list goes on
4. You can use your cooking pot as your plate, bowl and mug. There’s really no need to bring a whole set of cook wear for eating and drinking when a simple pot or titanium mug will do the work of all three
5. You can use some ponchos as tarp shelters. GoLite makes a very affordable and durable Poncho Tarp that provides full body rain coverage with a single person tarp that weighs a mere 7 oz! You can combine this with #2 and use your trekking poles to hold up your tarp
6. The Spork! Need I say more? Maybe invest in a titanium one or the slightly cheaper Light My Fire (LMF) BPA free plastic ones
7. If you like to carry one of those mylar emergency blankets why not use it as your tent footprint or even as a signaling device in an emergency
8. Duct tape is another amazing multi-tasker. Use it for all types of ad-hoc gear repairs, bandage wrap, or moleskin substitute for blisters (works great BTW)
9. Use one of your gear stuff sacks as a make-shift pillow by filling it with your clothes at night and tucking it inside your sleeping bag. An empty hydration bladder can be used for a pillow too
10. Sleeping with a down jacket or vest on during milder weather may let you reduce the weight of your sleeping bag. You’ll have to experiment with this of course, but if you can stay warm and learn to properly regulate your body heat this can save a few more ounces

Many of these will sound a lot like simple common sense and they are, but learning to make do with less gear and finding creative ways to make the gear that you are carrying do more for you is a skill. Remember, it’s not about sacrificing weight for the sake of it or reducing the effectiveness of your gear – it’s about making smart gear choices that allow you to pack light and go further.

What are some of your best multi-tasking pieces of gear and how do you make them serve double-duty? Share your own tips via the comments below.

Editor-in-Chief’s Note: Brian is an avid lightweight backpacker and author of the popular Brian’s Backpacking Blog. Originally from Southampton, England, Brian has lived in the US for over 15 years, finally settling in North Carolina. His love of the outdoors started at a very early age, almost as far back as he can remember. Now he spends as much time backpacking as his work schedule and family life will allow. Be sure to check out his blog for other great backpacking tips & tricks and gear reviews.

I’ve been personally using the Cocoon Grid-It for a few months now and I’ve really grown into its versatility as a solution for storing cables and the various odds and ends that wind up in the pockets of my ITS Discreet Messenger Bag.

Despite the plethora of pockets and organization we’ve built into the bag, I still wind up with a hand full of cables when I reach into to find that specific one I’m looking for. When I first spied the Grid-It, I was intrigued, but not fully confident that it would work as I needed it to. Nevertheless, I purchased one and will share my thoughts on them here today.

GRID-IT!

As mentioned above, I’ve been using the Grid-It panels for around six months now and actually found myself upgrading to the larger size as the months went on. What started as a test to see how it functioned, became a challenge to see if it could accommodate all the cords and cables I carried. I primarily use the ITS Discreet Messenger Bag as a laptop bag, off-body concealed carry bag and trauma kit pouch all in one. The only thing missing from the versatility of the bag, was to manage all the cables that come along with always needing to stay charged and connected.

Enter the Grid-It. The smaller sized panel you’ll see in the photos is what I started with. I actually had everything shown on the larger panel on that smaller one at some point too. What happened though is that by moving to the larger panel, it actually decreased the bulk that the smaller panel took up. By spreading things out to the larger panel, it actually made more space inside my bag. This may seem obvious on first thought, but it took me a bit to get to this realization.

I like the way the elastic straps feature impregnated lines of rubber running through them to aid in gripping your items. I’ve always been apprehensive of elastic stretching out after repeated use, but this has been holding up fairly well so far. I try not to pull the strips too much to avoid stretching them out.

There’s no particular pattern that repeats with the inner-weaved strips, which can be a hinderance when laying out the items you’re looking to store. You may be left with a smaller item but only have a larger channel left to store it in and need to go back and reconfigure other items to make room.

Each panel has a stiffener sewn in to it to add rigidity and the larger panel features a full-width zipper running through the back to create a pocket for extra storage. The Grid-It could also double as a mouse pad in a pinch. The smaller GPG7 panel I reference here measures 7.25″ x 9.25″ and the larger GPG10 measures 12″ x 8″.

Available in black, grey, blue and red, each panel is bordered with binding tape, which I think is a nice touch. The only thing this larger size panel I’m running can’t accommodate is my MacBook Pro charger, but I’ve been eying the 15″ x 9.5″ GPG20 that will still fit the width of my bag, but give me some extra width and height to “Grid-It!”

Just like most Apple products, the Grid-It is designed in the US, but manufactured in China. They’re available directly from Cocoon or here from our friends at Tactical Distributors.

This is the third post in my series on lightweight backpacking aimed at helping you reduce your overall pack weight without sacrificing any of the comfort or the necessities. In my first post I introduced you to the concept of lightweight backpacking, the benefits, how to get started, taking less stuff, and smaller amounts of things. In my second post I focused on weighing your gear, using a detailed gear tracking list, weight summaries, and the importance of keeping it up to date. How else can you know how much you are carrying if you don’t weigh your gear?

For this third installment I wanted to focus on the three pieces of gear that every backpacker must have and which collectively account for the majority of the weight you will be carrying – we call them “The Big Three” – your tent, backpack, and sleeping bag.

The Big Three

If you’ve been following this series and have completed step 1, you should have a detailed list of all of your gear with accurate weights. If you take a careful look you’ll notice that your three heaviest items are your tent, your backpack, and your sleeping bag. If you want to get serious about reducing your overall pack weight and going lighter, you’ll need to tackle the big three to achieve that. The goal is to try and get each of these items under 3 lbs each (9 lbs in total). That might sound drastic or impossible to some of you, but it’s easily achievable with todays lightweight gear – and affordable.

Unfortunately the only real way to achieve this is by purchasing alternative version of these items if yours weight too much. I wish there were some clever hack or modifications that I could share with you to let you reduce the weight of these items and save money, but that’s not gonna happen. If any one of your big three is over three pounds, it’s probably a good time to buy a new version anyway and take advantage of the improvements in build and technical materials being used today. If you time your purchases right (think end of year sales) you can pick up some great deals and save a lot of money.

Tent

Let’s start with your shelter or tent. Chances are that if you don’t own a relatively new tent it’s probably going to weigh more than our goal of 3 lbs (48 oz). If that’s the case, then it’s time you replace it with a newer version or alternative shelter. The lightest tents on the market today tend to all be either single-walled tents or tents with intreated rain flys. The fabrics used by tent manufacturers have improved so significantly in recent years that single-walled tent are just as waterproof as double-walled tents and are no longer the condensation traps they used to be.

Combined with advancements in the technical design of tents and you now have some extremely compact and lightweight options available in most of the common outdoor stores. REI, Big Agnes, Sierra Designs, and EMS are among some of the better known brands that offer one and two person options. And while we’re on the subject of tent size, unless you regularly backpack or hike with a significant other, go with a one person tent and save as much unnecessary weight as possible. Many one person tents now come with vestibules for storing your gear under cover outside of your tent.

I’m personally a big fan of using a tarp as my primary shelter. A tarp can be an extremely lightweight option (my Gossamer Gear SpinnTwinn weighs just 12 oz) but requires a little more experience to pitch properly and may not be as easy to use in as many environments or situations as a tent. Last year I really struggled with my tarp on Mt. Whitney with the high winds and rocky surface. I couldn’t drive a stake in to the ground and couldn’t get a tight pitch. As a result I had two very miserable nights of fitful sleep above 12,000 ft. Hammocks are another lightweight alternative to a tent. However, like a tarp, these require certain characteristics of your campsite (can you say trees?) in order to be used. I’d personally recommend that you invest in a quality, lightweight one-person tent and then consider going to a tarp or hammock as the next phase of going lighter if thats what you want to do.

Sleeping Bag

Next let’s talk about your sleeping bag. Again, if it weighs over 3 lbs or is so old that you can’t remember the year that you bought it, it’s probably time to replace it. There is a lot of debate among backpackers and outdoors people over what the ideal rating is for a 3 season sleeping bag. I can only tell you that based on my own personal experience of having tried many different rated bags over the years, I finally settled on a 20 degree F bag as my “go to” option for 3 season camping. A 20 degree bag is easily regulated using the zipper and your clothing choices if you want to use it in warmer temperatures.

I’d highly recommend buying a down filled bag versus a synthetic one. Down bags tend to be much lighter in weight and far more compressible than synthetic ones. Having a sleeping bag that is more compressible is important when it comes to choosing a backpack. The smaller the bag can pack down to means you can choose a pack with a smaller volume, which in turn will save you some weight.

I carry a Western Mountaineering Ultralite down bag with me that weighs 1 lb 13 oz and is rated for 20 degrees. I highly recommend WM as a quality sleeping bag manufacturer, but a bag such as this is a big investment and doesn’t come cheap ($300 -$400). A quality down sleeping bag can last you over 10 years and easily pay for itself if you take care of it, clean it properly and store it uncompressed so that you don’t ruin the loft of the down fill. Also look at some popular brands like Marmot, REI, Big Agnes, and Montbell that all have a good selection of quality affordable down bags in the $100 – $200 price range.

Backpack

Finally, we get to the last of your big three items – your backpack. I’ve deliberately left the backpack to last because you really don’t want to choose a smaller backpack until you know how much volume you’ll need for your tent and sleeping bag! Chances are that a 40L backpack will be sufficient for just about any type of trip you are planning from an overnight hike to a 6-moth thru hike of the AT. Just about every mainstream backpack manufacturer has come out with a “lightweight” (2 – 3 lbs) version of their packs to try and capitalize on the growing trend in lightweight and ultralight backpacking – which is good news for you. Some of the better known brands include GoLite, Osprey, REI, and Granite Gear.

The lightest weight backpacks are going to be the ones with a minimal internal frame or stay, or completely frameless. No more external frame backpacks please! Advancements in backpack design have resulted in innovative ways to combat the lack of internal frames such as using your ground sheet as a folded pad in the back of you pack to provide comfort, support, and rigidity. It also lets you use your ground sheet as a multi-purpose piece of gear, something we’ll look at in more detail in a future blog post as a way of further reducing your base pack weight.

Conclusion

Your tent, sleeping bag, and backpack are the three heaviest pieces of gear that you carry – don’t take my word for it, check your gear list (step 1). Reducing these three items (the big three) will have the largest impact on reducing your overall base weight. As a rule of thumb aim for getting each piece under 3 lbs. Look for off season deals on sleeping bags and tents, and consider some of the online gear swapping forums that sell lightly used gear for reasonable prices.

In my next post I’ll take a closer look at multifunction gear and reducing your base weight further by using pieces of gear for more than one purpose – double-duty.

Editor-in-Chief’s Note: Brian is an avid lightweight backpacker and author of the popular Brian’s Backpacking Blog. Originally from Southampton, England, Brian has lived in the US for over 15 years, finally settling in North Carolina. His love of the outdoors started at a very early age, almost as far back as he can remember. Now he spends as much time backpacking as his work schedule and family life will allow. Be sure to check out his blog for other great backpacking tips & tricks and gear reviews.

The Liger Gun Belt has been a part of my EDC for the past few months and today I’d like to share my thoughts on it thus far. Manufactured by Edgy Gear and sold by Maxpedition, it’s one of the few products available there that’s 100% made in the USA and that was a big selling point for me.

I purchased the Liger Gun Belt to evaluate as an option for wear with every day clothing, more formal attire and especially for use in conjunction with concealed carry.

Liger Gun Belt

For starters, the Liger Gun Belt is available in 1.25″ tall and 1.5″ tall configurations. You can also order it in an OD/grey configuration as seen in this review or brown/grey, black/grey and even a blackout version that features a black belt with a black buckle.

When I initially purchased the Liger Gun Belt, I ordered a 1.25″ tall version and quickly found I didn’t care for the shorter version and wanted to try the 1.5″ out. Maxpedition was very helpful in allowing me to exchange the original belt for a taller variation, which I greatly appreciated.

I feel that the 1.5″ is more accommodating to the various holsters I run, as I feel like I’m always trying out new offerings from companies. A few holsters that I’m currently evaluating and want to mention here are the Orion Concepts MOD-1 (OTW) and the Off The Grid Concepts Sidewinder (IWB.) The Liger Gun Belt is accommodating both of these very well right now.

Something that most reading this may be familiar with, is the sag that can develop in leather and even some nylon belts. While this isn’t an issue, per se, it is worth noting that in nearly four months of wearing the Liger Gun Belt, there haven’t been any issues of sagging or deformation. This is largely in part to the “Ligerthane” material that each belt is made of.

Construction

Ligerthane is a proprietary material developed by Edgy Gear, which utilizes a high-strength resin-embedded polyester fabric core and boasts a 2,000+ lb. tensile strength. It’s also rated to over 300 lbs. of pull strength at the belt holes. Coated with a highly abrasion-resistant polyurethane coating, the Liger Gun Belt nearly looks brand new after the months of wear I’ve put it through.

The Ligerthane material is also noted as being impervious to salt water, blood, mildew, bacteria, mold, rot and resistant to common solvents. I haven’t tested this out yet beyond sweating profusely while wearing it and not yet cleaning it. With the salt that’s deposited on it thus far, I haven’t noticed any rusting, rotting or mildew. Ligerthane is marketed as being soft and flexible down do -20˚F, but being in Texas, haven’t tested that one out either.

When it comes to the buckle and further construction on the Liger Gun Belt, I really love the solid billet of T6-6061 aluminum used in the buckle. The fact that stainless steel rivets were also used is a big plus. The “LigerTooth” hook design on the buckle is also formed from the single billet of aluminum and seems as equally strong as the overall buckle. The buckle is type-III hard-anodized (MILSPEC-A-8625) in either Grey or Black for increased wear resistance. I’ll also note here that the belt is incredibly light, with the 1.5″ x 36″ long version shown in this review weighing in at just 7.2 ounces.

Sizing

This brings us to sizing. Maxpedition states that sizing is based on actual waist circumference and recommends using a tailor’s tape measure (the flexible kind) to thread through the belt loops of your favorite pair of pants (as you’d normally wear them.) I’ll also note that I didn’t take into account any type of concealed carry when I made my measurement during my purchase. As Maxpedition states that based on the measurement, they provide two holes smaller and three holes larger in 1″ increments, I felt like this would accommodate the range I’d need. It turned out that it certainly did.

Notes

So in all, the Liger is pretty much my favorite animal and the Liger Gun Belt ranks right up there with the best belts I’ve ever owned. I’m anxious to even pick up another in brown or black for more formal occasions, as wearing a traditional leather dress belt now just seems wrong.

It took me awhile to get mine, so be patient if the size you want is out of stock. I’d recommend signing up for their notification list so you’ll know when they get their next batch in. You could also give them a call to inquire about when more will be in stock. They list their number in the item description as a resource for sizing questions or to place an order.

As tempted as I am to use the Liger Gun Belt as an emergency zip line like Indiana Jones, I still can’t bring myself to try it out. Maybe one day…