going "cheap" on gear?

Tactical Gear Tactical Gear
1

im am looking at getting a plate carrier/chest rig mag pouches and all the usual stuff to load out my mags and other gear. this stuff will only really serve on a civilian level. meaning; range, carbine classes; hunting, playing in the woods, go to SHTF rig. so it does not need to survive the mountains of Afghanistan. my question is…is okay to go to lower tier gear manufacturers? im talking things like TAG, condor, blackhawk. i see they are much more affordable than pig,tactical tayler, hsgi, ext…
things that are important to me are

-general quality
-general durability
-options of set up
-comfort
-ease of use
-mobility
-ext,ext

pretty much the same things that are important to you. so for my needs/desires, is there any thing wrong with less expensive manufactures like the ones i mentioned? what are you paying for when you spend 300 extra dollars on a top tier plate carrier/chest rig? does the difference in price accurately reflect the difference in quality ?(this is the real question here)

what experience have you have with this situation/decision?

thanks guys.

2

All of the “lower tier” gear I have purchased in the past with the very very few exceptions of a pouch that didn’t see much wear and tear wore out within the first year or so of purchase. Cops are cheap and we hate spending money on anything so I tried everything from Condor to Blackhawk and almost everything in between. This was all at the beginning of my career where big glossy two page ads in SWAT magazine influenced my decisions.

Now that I’ve had hands on with a lot of the more well known gear out there you can sure as shit tell a difference. From stiching to material to craftsmanship, esc. You can and will tell a difference.

If I had the money back from all of the cheap ass gear I picked up over those first few years I’d be able to purchase whatever gear, kit, weapons, women, drinks I wanted and not touch a credit card.

Don’t waste your money and just get good shit that lasts vs buying the same shit several times over. The total will equal out. Trust me.

3

can you recommend a manufacture that wont break the bank but at the same time will offer me more for my money over all the voodoo tactical, tag, blackhawk,condor stuff?

4

tactical tailor has very affordably priced, good quality gear.

5

i liked tactical tailor. can you possibly recommend any more mid-tier manufactures that are gtg yet affordable so i can look around? i am pretty lost when it comes to this. btw thank you for the advice so far!

also, what should i absolutely stay away from?

6

I have a TAG Intrepid chest rig, molle drop leg and dump pouch. They came recommended to me by a friend who is in the military and does civilian training classes. I consider the quality to be very good…I didn’t consider them to be low tier.

7

Good angel on shoulder - If you’re hardly ever going to use this piece of gear, and it’s probably going to be in a recreational sense, then do you really want to spend the money on it?

Little devil on shoulder - Fuck it, buy it.

8

OP, how often will you be at the range or in classes?

Of you’re going to be at the range a few hours a month and in a two day class per year, lower priced stuff can last a long time.

Most people use their stuff less than they realize or want to.

9

It’s that whole “buy once, cry once” mentality. A suggestion I can throw out there is to buy stuff on sale. SKDtac runs promos every now and then. Coupon codes are your friends. Some manufacturers run sales during holidays…keep your eyes peeled.

10

i have looked at TAG. i liked them alot but, their prices scared me into thinking the general quality just wasn’t up there. thank you, i will give them another look. where does Eagle fall on the spectrum of quality?

11

I usually try to stay in my lane, read more, post less, etc, but I’m going to risk a response here since I’m civilian only. The first question I’d ask is what AR and pistol are you running, what magazines do you buy? Did you sacrifice to some degree on those things since you’re not running around Afghanistan?

If not, then why sacrifice on the other stuff? It’s very much a “buy once, cry once” scenario, and you’ll never regret getting the good stuff and not simply settling for what will get you by in classes, on the range, and in other scenarios less intense than combat when your ass really is on the line.

I don’t have much in the way of discretionary income, so I try to make every dollar spent count. The best way that I’ve found to do that is to buy the best that I can possibly afford. The difference between the amount required for a lower tier item and a top tier one is often nothing more than a few lunches during the week, saving for an extra paycheck or two, etc.

I’ve picked up most of my pouches here on the Equipment Exchange for prices that I’d be willing to bet beat new prices of the lower tier manufacturers. Of course, my stuff is a mixture of colors that may cause me some grief in a course or on the range, but it’s all from Tier 1 manufacturers and expected to outlive me. I’ve bought a couple of things that I ended up not really needing, too, but those are lessons learned.

Sorry to be so long winded here, but I went through the same kind of thought process. Had I not stumbled upon this site, I would have ended up with some POS AR, shitty mags, and a Hi-Power with support gear manufactured in East BFE. Yep, I spent a little more on the BCM, Glock, Raven, Magpul, HSGI, TT, and similar items (maybe) but I don’t regret any of it.

12

This is a really good question and I wanted to give one perspective on this. In some areas, IMO, you just cannot compromise, at all, if you want reliable gear. For instance, in long guns such as the M4/AR FOW, the consensus on this site is that you prob need to get your gun from a reputable maker (such as DD, BCM, LMT, for example), and you probably will have to spend in a certain price range to enhance your odds of getting a reliable, pro-quality fighting rifle. You just cannot cut corners and get a reliable long gun in this area.

But you’re asking about other kinds of gear not firearms, and this is harder to tell. There aren’t easily quantifiable tests (like accuracy tests, or torture tests for number of rounds between failures) for this type of gear. So it’s much more subjective.

My non-professional opinion is, in these non-firearm categories of gear, it often seems like there’s 3 levels (I’m generalizing, of course) of price, quality, performance: low-end, mid-range, and high-end. Usually the low is 100% overseas stuff and is visibly poorer quality; the mid-range will be mixed U.S. vs overseas make, but some of it is quality and reliable gear; and virtually all the high-end tactical gear is made here.

Unless I have a compelling reason to get something high-end (I’m a civilian, so don’t always feel that I need the “best” and most heavy duty in every piece of equipment I get), I usually try to shoot for something in the mid-range area that has a good reputation with guys who have used the stuff and have compared some of the items I’m considering to other items. If I can get something made in the U.S., so much the better but not strictly necessary. You can still find some mid-range/mid-priced gear made in the U.S.

Personally, I’d avoid stuff by Condor, and any other company that appears (by price, quality, or both) to be in the low category above. I’ve inspected their packs/gear bags in local stores, and yes they cost less but most of what I’ve seen is not good quality, even compared to a mid-range product like Maxpedition. I can’t speak to their chest rigs, have never seen or tried them though. Personally, I’d take it as a yellow flag that their stuff is SO much less expensive than even mid-range carriers like the examples linked below. IMO, it’s likely they are cutting corners on quality to get such a low cost.

One mid-range category company that makes chest rigs and that you might want to check out is BCM: they’re both affordable, AND good quality and made in the U.S. as well.

13

thank you all for the fantastic responses. they are very helpful. to answer a few questions: yes, i am the guy who only uses his weapons once a week @ the range, woods, or hunting. No, i did not cheap out on weapons and gear in the past. i own bcm rifles and noveske rifles, i like glock, sig, and hk pistols. why i wanted to try to lowball gear, im not sure. i guess it all looked relatively similar to me with the only real difference apparent to me being the price. so i wasn’t sure what direction to go in. still not, but thank you all for your help.

14

If you need it, it’s worth spending on, if you don’t, it’s probably not worth buying at all.

why not buy quality gear of a sort that you might actually use rather than spread yourself thin across a whole range of half-assed gear that won’t get used and is likely to fail when (if) it is?

almost nobody you see with massive amounts of nylon gear went out and bought it all at once, they pieced it together over time as funds became available and they identified a need for it.

15

How does eagle industries stack up? They are looking very attractive in both options and price.

16

The old Eagle Ind. was GTG as was Diamondback Tactical but I’ve heard of issues as of late. Nothing that I’ve seen first hand but stuff that reliable sources I trust have seen (I know that’s vauge as hell but it’s the best I can give).

Just remember the EE is your friend as well. Great gear for decent prices.

Go with anything US Grunt Gear, HSGI, BFG, First Spear, RCS, Tyr, etc. A good rule of thumb is that if you can buy it from SKD then its GTG.

17

Eagle Industries products are usually well thought-of, and if you use the Search function on this site, you’ll find many positive mentions and/or reviews of Eagle products. One solid Eagle product is their A3 molle backpacks. I am looking seriously at their pack as a 3-day pack.

Lately, there’s been some concern that Eagle started having some of their product lines made offshore, and cheaper quality. Here’s a thread about it.

https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=96170

However, I think most of their stuff is g2g. I haven’t tried their chest rigs, but they carry them at Triad Tactical, and AFAIK, Triad mostly carries the better quality stuff. If you want to check on where a given item was made before you buy, contact them. If it came from the Dominican Republic, it’s part of the “offshore” line of products.

http://www.triadtactical.com/Chest-Rigs/

Supposedly FirstSpear is making good products, and U.S.-made to boot. I looked at their packs recently, and the above thread recommends them. I’ve never used them but they are getting a growing reputation. You might investigate their products as another example of mid-range products.

http://www.first-spear.com/

18

There are places like GreyGhost tactical, or when DBT was closing out gear before the FirstChoiceArmor merge/nylonpocalypse, or the closeout following Michaels of Oregon parting ways with Blackwater, so amazing gear can be had at good prices.

More importantly, the best way to be frugal is to only buy equipment that makes sense - the fancy whizbang stuff is not only expensive, but rotating through it is costly. Figure out the correct thing, even if it’s an older, less sexy item, and work with that.

19

Have you considered milsurp?

20

In the past I have had the chance to use a wide variety of types of gear from the gamet of companies. What I can say is that a lot depends on your purpose of use. If you just intend on using it for classes and range work, etc. Blackhawk and all the other companies that you listed should give you what you want and more in quality and performance.

What generally elevates the price of gear, just like weapons, is all the whizz bang stuff guys want on it. I have a set up from Blackhawk that I have run for a while that cost around $250. It holds 8 mags single stack has lots of molle, and wears pretty lo-pro should i need it for that. I love it for range work, classes etc.

Its like most of the guys have said. Experience with the gear and finding what works for you and makes you comfortable is whats going to work best for you.

If you have any questions for me just ask. I hope I helped a bit.