KIT & GEAR: VX BUCKLE UP

BUCKLE UP... ...WE’RE IN FOR ONE HELL OF A 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 RIDE!

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!

Warrior 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 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!!!!

NOT BUCKLING UNDER PRESSURE!

The Viper Tactical VX Buckle Up Carrier reminds me of the CP JPC, so that’s a great start. It has a low profile (at approximately 13” x 10”), meaning that it’s a heart and lung style protection carrier. It sits somewhere between swimmers and shooters cut, as wide as shooters but as short as swimmers. It’s kinda cool!

The upper front has a 6” zipped admin pocket that my Huawei P30 Pro Mobile fits in nicely. Below that is a hook and loop ID panel at 6” x 3” for your favourite morale patches. Below that is the “Buckle Up” laser cut MOLLE panel. It’s a six-row, standard MOLLE fitment size which is nice, as I’ve noticed that some other brands vary the width and that pouches don’t fit correctly - but this is bang on.

For those not familiar, the “Buckle Up” system is an interchangeable, modular design that consists of a hook-backed panel, that attaches to the carrier’s loop panel and then clips to the carrier with a buckle at either side of the top of the add-on panel. The clips are covered with slipon colour coded, elasticated loops to reduce noise.

It’s a great idea as it offers fast interchangeability and no more “MOLLE Fingers” if you swap platforms halfway through a day. I like this as I often jump between AR and AK platforms.

Simply “unclip and rip”!

The underside has a velcro flap, allowing for the addition of soft or hard plates to be inserted. (The carrier comes with EVA Foam inserts). The back piece is again laser cut MOLLE 5 x 11 configuration (with an additional three at the top centre). Halfway down is a hook and loop flap that the side panels secure under. Inside the front and rear is a heavy duty padded mesh material that allows air to circulate and keep the torso cool.

The front and rear are secured by two Hypalon hook and loop straps that are easy to adjust and are wrapped with padded (we’ll come back to that) covers. Both covers are fitted with hook and loop, loops to run hydration and comms systems through and they work nicely with ample room. “Padding” is a loose term and compared to my W.A.S rig, the VX Buckle Up padding is minimal. After a couple of hours, a heavy carrier really does rub the shoulders and padding is a must. The padding here is a few mm thick and it’s simply just not enough for a long exercise or full-on scenario day. Two mesh side panels are provided to link the system together. Three bands are stitched to mesh which allows for cooling and weight reduction. At one end two clip buckles secure the sides to the front (again with colour coded elasticated sleeves). These clips also allow for quick and easy removal of the carrier. The other end has 4 ½” x 4” velcro panels that attach the sides to the rear piece under the flap that I mentioned earlier. The carrier is made up of 700D Polytech, which essentially means it’ll hold up well against water, dirt ingress and rip damage. The stitching on the rig, both internally and externally, is tidy and feels solid. I’ve pushed, pulled, prodded, poked and even had a “tug of war” with a friend with it. It’s holding up just fine with no tears at the seams, no lifting or fraying. It’s all good. There are a couple of places where the stitching could be straighter and tied off better but at this price point it’s completely over-lookable. VIPER has come a long way and I will say I’m impressed by this carrier.

MAKING IT MINE, ALL MINE!

The more astute of you may have noticed that this isn’t just a bare VX Buckle Up Carrier. Oh no, this is JON’S VX Buckle Up Carrier! In addition to the basic carrier, VIPER offers a plethora of buckle up, hook and loop and MOLLE fittings. So, with that in mind let’s look at what we’ve got.

That buckle up panel has the VIPER TACTICAL - MOLLE Mag Rig (a Buckle Up version is available). The eagle-eyed among you will notice that there is a slight difference in colour between the Titaniums. That I believe is due to the materials and how the colour

STRETCH PANTS

BLACK / DARK COYOTE / GREEN / SRP: £69.95

is blended into them and the fact that some items pre-date “Buckle Up”. That aside, the Mag Rig comes with three (STANAG 5.56) rifle mag pouches and four 9mm/Pistol/Multitool pouches. Two of which are “Taco Style” with 2 x 9mm pouches integrated on the front. Being “Taco Style” they can be adjusted by the user with the toggles supplied.

The middle offers two open top Multitool/Pistol Mag pouches and one rifle mag pouch. These are PVC lined and have a water drainage hole at the bottom. The construction is good here, better than all of the competition at the same price point. The stitching is REALLY tidy and it looks as though they’ve opted for slightly thicker thread than previously used. It’s made up of 600D Cordura so it’ll take anything an airsofter will throw at it.

At the bottom I have opted to fit the Tactical Scrote, for no other reason than it made me laugh and it looks cool. To fit, simply rip off the Buckle Up panel, affix using the hook and loop flap, refit the panel and hey presto, a dangly Scrote!

The Viper Tactical Scrote is 10” x 6” which makes it the same width as the carrier, which is nice as often the competitors are smaller. This, however, isn’t and keeps the look and flow on point. It has a reasonable storage capacity which is accessed by a zip along the front. It has three large elasticated loops and a large hook and loop panel internally. The outer front has a 4” hook and loop panel for more patches and is made from the same 700D Polytech material as the carrier.

On the rear I opted for the VX Buckle Up Charger Pack. This is a sustainment pack/backpack that has detachable shoulder straps and can be attached to the rear panel of the Carrier GEN2 using the fitted MOLLE straps. My personal opinion is that shoulder straps are a waste of time, as they are too thin and there is no padding on them. As such, you’d not want to use it as a backpack, I’ll be sticking to my 5.11 Rush 12 for that. There is a use for the D-Rings and straps though. These can be used to integrate the pack onto the Viper VX Buckle Up Utility Rig, which is a really smart option. One pack can work with two loadouts… clever stuff!

As stated, the MOLLE straps weave through the carrier, giving you a secure, mounted storage system. It’s a little narrower and shorter than the carrier back plate (at 9 ½” x 10”) but the pack has enough room for a 2-litre water bladder, has an elasticated exit hole for the tubing to pass through at the top, middle of the pack and there’s also a hole at the bottom for water to drain should you spring a leak. As with all packs, there is a good-sized, zipper-secured pocket that is almost as wide and deep as the pack itself.

The real clever trick though that this pack pulls off, is its ability to alter the carry volume. Around the circumference of the pack and front pocket you’ll notice a zipper. Opening them takes the pack from a poultry 4 litre capacity to a more useful 14 litre capacity. I really like this idea and it’s executed really well. It’s built using the same 700D Polytech material and has exceptionally well finished stitching. I’m really impressed by it.

In truth, VIPER have a whole host of add-ons for the GEN2 carrier, so you REALLY can set up your rig exactly the way you want it! For instance, Bill prefers a really lo-profile setup and whilst messing around with the box of pouches that VIPER kindly supplied us to look at, he ended up using three of their VIPER VX SMART PHONE POUCHES to hold AR/AK mags, which actually works very well! Think outside the box and sometimes you prevail!

I started this article talking about costs and made reference to my Warrior Assault Systems rig sitting around the £500 mark. So, where does this sit?

Prices are taken from various VIPER stockists and are correct at time of writing in May 2021: • VX Buckle Up Carrier Gen2 - £79.95 • VX Buckle Up Mag Rig - £29.95 • VX Buckle Up Charger Pack - £42.95 • VP Scrote - £10.95

Total cost - £163.80!

That, in my opinion, is a great price for a whole lot of kit - and quality kit at that! Will you be deploying to downtown Basra with it? No, of course you won’t. Will it be any good on the airsoft field? HELL YES … and you’ll look good in it too! AA