KIT & GEAR VIPER BUCKLE UP
BUCKLE UP... ...WE’RE IN FOR ONE HELL OF A RIDE!
LAST MONTH BILL TOOK A LOOK AT PLATE CARRIERS, SO WE’RE GOING TO FOLLOW UP WITH A COUPLE OF ARTICLES FEATURING DIFFERENT MODELS AND SYSTEMS! JON MILLS KICKS THIS OFF WITH A CLOSE LOOK AT THE VX BUCKLE UP CARRIER GEN2 AND THE ACCOMPANYING SYSTEM AND FINDS OUT THAT VIPER HAVE REALLY MOVED THINGS ON SINCE HE LAST LOOKED AT THEIR GEAR!
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arrior Assault Systems… Crye Precision… Condor… Virtus… 5.11… the list is endless for body armour and carrier systems. The issue with these are, oftentimes, they’re expensive. My Warrior setups often exceeded £500 by the time I’d added pouches, backpacks, soft and hard armour. That’s without the belt and its accessories! Not exactly enticing prices for those who are new to the sport or those looking to upgrade. With that, a slew of cheap copycat products flooded the market a few years back. I picked up a fully loaded JPC with foam inserts, 3 x Double Stack 5.56 pouches, 2 x pistol pouches, an integrated backpack and hydration bladder for £40. The problem was it was rubbish, poorly constructed, subpar materials with poor stitching and poor fitting! That was the case with the vast majority of these “knockoffs” or “copycats” and it was a downer. It felt like there weren’t many options for a while and you were stuck between a rock and an expensive place. Now, to be clear, there is a very good reason for the price differences and the build quality. One group is designed for those who operate in real world harsh environments, facing life threatening situations where durability, reliability and efficiency are paramount. The other group is designed for a bunch of folks running around woodlands (yes there are other terrain types!) shooting 6mm BBs at one another on a Sunday afternoon and having fun with their friends. These 34
JULY 2021
people do not NEED the most advanced materials weaved together …but it is nice to have them! Time passed and manufacturers started to listen to what the community was asking for. Materials got better. The first thing I noticed was the improvements in the threads used to actually hold the pieces together. It got stronger, it got thicker and rarely unpicked itself. Then came the materials that make up the carriers; they went from being cheap pvc-based items to more complex blends that were less likely to snag and tear. They became more durable. These steps forward obviously came with additional costs but they still weren’t “deal breakers”. Brands like Viper were already known within the marketplace as “entry level” suppliers, (for a time you couldn’t turn up to a site without seeing at least ten Viper DPM Vests!) but they invested time and resources into their product development and started to release better and better quality products. Full disclosure here, I am THE gear whore of Red Cell. I love “Gucci Gear”. I’ve been a huge fan of higherend gear since I first slipped on a tatty old DCS that I was loaned years ago and as such, I’ve been super sceptical of what I perceived to be budget stuff. Right now though, sitting in front of me, I have the Viper Tactical - VX Buckle Up Carrier in Titanium. I’m impressed. They’ve come a long way. I mean, A LONG WAY!!!!
