AR Mag Pouch FaceOff: No One Size Fits All.

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Considering the vast number of Veterans in the United States, and the manifold uses of America’s Rifle, the evolution of AR-15 style mag pouches has followed both a linear and circular path. Linnear, in the effort to become lighter, with better retention, and bearing a lower profile, while Circular, in that we’ve seen the reintroduction of common elements rise, fall, and return to vogue multiple times. Take a look at Vietnam-era double mag pouches, and you’ll see a distant relative of the gear many who volunteered for the GWOT saw issued in both Basic Training, and later in their units. Now, long gone are the days where, when looking for an AR mag pouch, the list of options were restricted to a few brands.

Instead, we now benefit from such a variety of options that there is no one perfect AR magazine pouch to fit all applications. Observing the wisdom of those who came before us, and applying a healthy serving of modern materials and manufacturing, choosing the ideal AR mag pouch begins and ends with the end-user in mind. As individuals, we are freed from the constraints of a behemoth organization like a country’s military, and so get to work back and forth between what we see, use, and know.

AR Mag Pouch Styles

We must start by asking the question: where will the magazine pouch be mounted? In the last 20 years, we have seen the military trends move M4 mags from the belt to overstuffed plate carriers. Eventually, in the attitude of exploring the forbidden territory, mags belt-mounted mag pouches have trickled back through the ranks.

ar mag pouches layout

Above: Years of trial and error have narrowed down the options, but not produced an ultimate winner. 

Outside of the military, the belt is still the most common place to carry AR mags, whether from 3-gun competitors, to law enforcement, and the range-goers in between. Some mags are limited to one style of mounting, such as the Safariland Mag caddies so commonly seen at competitions, while others are blessed and cursed by the proliferation of Molle gear, with options for both plate carrier or belt mounting.

HSGI Tacos

Colors: Black, Coyote Brown, LE Blue, Multicam, Multicam Black, OD Green, Wolf Gray, Woodland Camo
Mounting Options: Molle, Belt Loops
MSRP: $36
URL: www.highspeedgear.com

ar mag pouch HSGI taco

Where were these when I was in the military? Those dabbling in open-top AR mag pouch concepts cannot go far without finding an HSGI in the wild. In stark contrast to the de rigueur of the 2010’s when most issued gear had flap tops typically secured with velcro, it felt cutting edge to sport a 3-by shingle with the bungied tabs holding your mags in. But High Speed Gear pushed the envelope even further and infused their mag pouches with shock cord to give them the retention needed to keep it together in a sticky situation, while adding rigidity through plastics.

Having mounted them to a plate carrier in 2015, they have never left it, as the go-to for non-airborne operations. HSGI Taco’s come with adjustable retention, and can accommodate multiple types of magazines. Although generally styled as an AR mag pouch, they can also securely carry AK-style mags. They’re notoriously difficult to mount on molle, but that translates into a firm connection between pouch and carrier, as they don’t wobble once secured.

ar mag pouch HSGI taco

Those familiar with bounding know that the constant application of “I’m up, he see’s me, I’m down” takes a toll on the edges of AR mag pouches, all the more so in gritty environments. Mountainous environments can chew through the fabric of an AR mag pouch in months. HSGI Tacos, however, are made to last, and have held up surprisingly well over the years. This is in part due to how they are constructed. There’s no question that they are worth the price they demand, and thankfully it isn’t all that high.

Drawing from an HSGI taco on a belt feels adds to the already natural feel of drawing from open-top style AR mag pouches, but has the added advantage of how the shock cord and side walls flex. On a plate carrier, it’s easy to slide one’s fingers behind the mag and both pull upwards and push forward while drawing. This allows for whatever admin gear stowed on a plate carrier in the space above the mags can sit closer than other magpouch types.

ar mag pouch HSGI taco

Above: Utilizing a mash-up of parts from First-Spear, Crye Precision, and some DIY cutting and pasting has resulted in a one-of-a-kind plate carrier. Everything else is used as designed. 

The disadvantages of HSGI Tacos is the same as any other open-top style AR mag pouch: retention. It isn’t that they don’t have adequate retention for the aggression of a gunfight in the mountains, rather, in very specific situations, like jumping out of planes, they might not be the best simply because the only thing keeping the mags stowed is pressure. A shock cord tab can be added, but is cumbersome on any but the taller HSGI tacos.

 

Esstac Kywi

Colors: Multicam Original, Black, Arid, and Tropic, Coyote, OD Green, Ranger Green, Woodland Marshall, Desert Marshall, Wolf Gray, Woodland (M81) Camo, Kryptec Highlander. Kryptec Typhoon, Tan 449, Black.
Mounting Options: Molle, Belt Loops
MSRP: $23
URL: www.esstac.com

esstac kywi ar mag pouch

It’s tough to say whether Esstac Kywi’s are a newcomer on the field, or a long-standing key player in the array of AR mag pouches. Their design is freakishly simple, and just as uncomfortably efficient. Coming in different heights, sizes if you must, there’s at least some room for the user to select between the speed of a short pouch and the security of a taller one.

At its heart, the Esstac Kywi looks like a cordura sleeve stuffed with a kydex shell that velcros in place. When empty, the kydex holds the mouth open making them easy to re-stow a half-expended magazine. When carrying an AR mag, the kydex mainains a securing pressure, while the body holds tightly to either a belt or plate carrier.

esstac kywi ar mag pouch

A serious contender for those who consider carrying 40 round P-Mags on their belt for that little added ammunition capacity. Esstac Kywi’s hold the magazine tight and close to the body, avoiding the cluttering feeling of wider belts. as an AR Mag Pouch, their virtues extend beyond what they do in the field, as Esstac Kywi’s are surprisingly affordable, with options for additional molle to be stitched on outward facing side.

Like the HSGI Tacos, they suffer from the same setbacks as other open-top AR mag pouches. While Esstac has plate carrier options, Kywi’s feel more at home on a belt line. The option to have two pistol pouches strung together with an AR pouch shows that Esstac is attuned to the common placement of their pouches. The ability to mix and match the various Esstac Kywis give it a somewhat customized feel, and aside from the tactical fashion of the day, means the person seriously considering carrying Esstac gear into a dangerous situation can make choices for their specific application.

esstac kywi ar mag pouch

When inserting an AR mag into a Kywi, there’s almost a sense of it clicking-in as the kydex retention does its job. At the same time, the flare of the kydex also feels like it pushes the magazine out once it has come out so far. We’re interested in seeing what they look like after years of use, but with how little they cost, and how easy it is to replace the sleeve or shell, we cannot imagine it being a problem. It’s okay if gear wears out, but we don’t like to see it break.

BLADE-TECH Signature AR Mag Pouch

Colors: Black, although there have been other colors in the past.
Mounting Options: Molle, and Tek Lok
MSRP: $35
URL: www.blade-tech.com

ar mag pouch HSGI taco

Above Left: G-Code Softshell Scorpion, Right: Blade-Tech AR Mag Pouch

The Blade-Tech Signature AR Mag Pouch has survived for decades, both as a staple option, and as individual units continue to see use deployment after deployment, for years. One of the few AR mag pouches that has seen its fair share of use in both the competition world and the tactical side of firearms, the BladeTech Signature has an adjustable retention system. Part of the ruggedness of the pouch comes from its construction of injection-molded plastic, and part by the hardware style of mounting it uses.

Those choosing to depend on Blade-Tech AR mag pouches pay attention: make sure you have threadlocker available. Part of the versatility of Blade-Techs comes from their attachment method. While some belts do allow for direct attachment, this is rare. Instead, whether using Blade-Tech-specific Molle attachments, or Tek Loks, the AR Mag Caddie bolts to either with Chicago screws. This way, the AR mag pouch can be attached for a vertical, horizontal, or angled carry.

Two pressure-based retention screws can be adjusted without taking the pouch off, but in order to get at the inside, and re-tighten the mounting hardware, the whole assembly needs to be either taken apart or removed form the belt or plate carrier. So, those should receive a threadlocker treatment, as they can and have worked themselves loose for many an embarrassing if not dangerous situation.

Ideal as a belt AR Mag Pouch, the width of the hard plastic takes up too much real estate on the front of a plate carrier. but in contrast with cloth-based mag pouches, these are certainly buy-once-cry-once options, lasting for decades with minimal maintenance. On top of that, their price is comparable to other AR mag pouches, and so the thing that sets them apart is the philosophy of use. Having the option to adjust retention is perhaps more valuable to competition shooters, but within the tactical sphere, the virtue has its place.

Outside of orthodox carry methods, the hard shell of the Blade-Tech signature AR mag pouch also makes it easier to attach to things like car doors, or other experimental locations. While you never know when you might need that refrigerator mag, they particularly have value in vehicle-mounted situations, be it land, sea, or air.

G-Code Softshell Scorpions

Colors: Black/Black, Green/Black, Green/Green, Green/Tan, Tan/Tan, Grey/Grey
Mounting Options: Molle, Belt Loops RTI Hanger, G-Code proprietary systems.
MSRP: $22.50
URL: tacticalholsters.com

g-code softshell scorpion ar mag pouch

Similar in concept to HSGI Tacos, the G-Code Softshell Scorpions differentiate themselves in material and mounting features. the simplicity of Tacos works to their favor when dealing with traditional mounting methods, but G-Code Softshell Scorpions reflect a more adaptable take on securing the AR mag pouch to a belt or plate carrier. Similar to the Blade-Tech Signature AR Mag Pouch, Scorpions attach via screws, but with the female threading embedded in the carrier itself. With less hardware to lose, they attach firmly to either belts or plate carriers, and tease at other options.

The rubbery substance of the main body of the pouch adds to what retention is provided by the shock cord pressure. Partly adjustable, Scorpions hold tightly to their contents, but struggle a little with longer, taller mags. The weight of a fully-loaded 40-round P-Mag can, if given the right momentum, unseat itself. This is due to the thin, bendable side-walls that can be flexed when both drawing and stowing a mag.

g-code softshell scorpion ar mag pouch

This limited and directional flexibility gives the Scorpions one of their biggest advantages: they are fast to draw from, especially in adverse and strange positions. By grabbing the base of the magazine and rolling the mag out of the carrier, it defeats the retention by flexing the side walls. Styled as a combat/le/military style pouch, G-Code Scorpions can have their place in competitions, as well, and cross over the genres with points in favor of both practices.

g-code softshell scorpion ar mag pouch

One of the few AR mag pouches that can accommodate both AR-15, and AR-10 mags (or FN SCAR for that matter), G-Code Softshell Scorpions aren’t a one-size-fits-all option, but damn near it. Being able to change one’s loadout for, say a PRS match one day, and a duty patrol the next does have its perks, so long as the user pays attention to what’s in the pouch. Ideal for a speed mag for those who like to mix and match their kit for a specific outcome, these Ar Mag Pouches are going to stick around for a while.

Condor M4/M16 Open Top Mag Pouch

Colors: Multicam, Black, Coyote Brown, OD Green, Scorpion OCP
Mounting Options: Molle
MSRP: $20-$3oish
URL: www.condoroutdoor.com

ar mag pouch open top

There was a time when the bungee-secured open top mag pouch would have made the front page of a tactical version of Vogue, and although that time has long passed, the concept remains relevant as it has become a staple for a long list of pouch makers. A move towards lighter weight and lower profile from flapped designs, these open top mag pouches are often looked at as the best of both worlds. The open top allows for faster access and the bungee can be left in place or pre-staged to the side aide this process. At the same time, simply replace the shock cord and tab for a more secure hold.

Although less likely to be seen on a belt, AR mag pouches of this type grace plate carriers and chest rigs around the world, and depending on the maker, accept multiple mag types. While often stigmatized as the go-to mag pouch for keyboard commandos who continue to stack mag after mag so far out that they could barely enter a doorway, much less go prone, the long-standing qualities have remained valued by those who use them professionally.

ar mag pouch open top

Magazine pouches of this type are often issued items for those in the right circles, and with that comes the advantage of a supply line. However, for those looking to deploy with these pouches, it is recommended to bring a second one along, especially if using aluminum magazines as a backup. The frequent grind between a mag’s feed lips and coarse dirt or gravel chews through the fabric, exposing and ultimately freeing the mag to drop from the bottom. Fortunately, for those who choose to go this route with their own purchases, they’re considerably affordable and having a spare triple shingle costs the same as some single pouches.

Flap-type AR Mag Pouches

Colors: If you can imagine it, someone probably makes it
Mounting Options: Typically Molle, Velcro, or some combination of both.
MSRP: Cheap to Bougie

ar mag pouch

Characteristically both disdained and loved at the same time, these represent the standard issue of both conventional and elite units across the military, and the sheer variety of manufacturers making these types of pouches attests the livelihood of the concept. Simplistic to a fault, typically a velcro flap secures the contents, where on older models, a snap, button, or even toggle was used to keep it closed.

For years, advanced warfighters have made use of the gear they were issued, and although flap-type pouches certainly come across as the gear of yesteryear, this shouldn’t universally seen as the case.

ar mag pouch double

The virtues of these types of magazine pouches come with their own drawbacks, some of which are esoteric. Securing magazines with velcro means having one more piece of gear that can make noise when operating at night. The sound of velcro is so distinct that it can be recognized from hundreds of yards away.

When choosing an AR mag carrier of this type, look for certain features: double-layered or heavier-duty nylon material is preferred to thinner construction, and having a drainage hole for any fluid is almost a must, even in arid environments. Where there’s plenty of examples of knock-off half-baked examples flooding the cheapest branches of the market, options like Blue Force Gear’s Triple M4 Mag Pouch and First Spear’s M4 Single Pouches continue to chug on.

ar mag pouch double

The trend has long moved away from double-stacked mag pouches, and in conjunction with bungee secured open-top AR mag pouches, flap-enclosed ones most often offend modern sensibilities by continuing to turn otherwise fit looking people into extra-wide caricatures. Is there a place for double-stacked pouches? Probably, can we think of one as a distinct advantage over other options? Airborne operations and the like.

Topping Off

Returning to the earlier sentiment, as often as it is repeated, we still hold to the conviction that it is the end user’s responsibility to choose which options work best for their application. Definitively so, there is no one AR mag pouch choice that will excel in all environments and events, and when the stakes are as high as life or a major match, there is no blame beyond one’s self. Choosing the right AR mag pouch can often resemble sifting through holsters, where one works for a while but eventually is ousted by a rival, changed with wardrobe, replaced by something more suitable for the environment or application.

Thankfully we are the heirs and beneficiaries of decades of experience, training, and conflict, resulting in the cream rising to the top when it comes to AR mag pouches.

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Viktos Operatus XP Jeans Review: A Kick in the Pants

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The world we live in seems to be crumbling around us these days. I want a pair of jeans that allows me to carry everything I need to deal with unforeseen events, without advertising my preparedness to every passerby. I need to wear these jeans for work and chores. They need to be functional. They need to last. They need to perform. Too tall an order? Nah. I spent the last 45 days wearing the Viktos Operatus XP jeans. For me, finding a set of durable work jeans was like Ahab hunting his white whale. It haunted me. I tried other brands of tactical jeans to no avail. They were made of paper-thin denim that decayed into tissue paper from the constant wear-and-tear of a large man doing ill-advised things in them.

Levi’s or Wranglers are fine, but don’t come with the extras some of us want and need in a do-everything jean. Some heavy-duty jeans, like those by Carhartt, are great if it’s 30 degrees outside. They won’t wear out, but you’ll be sweating balls in them until you dehydrate in anything but winter conditions. What I needed was a bit of a hybrid — something durable enough to survive the stresses placed upon it, yet light enough to wear in the summertime when I should be wearing shorts but can’t.

viktos operatus xp

Above: The Operatus XP jeans are available in blue denim and black denim, aka “Nightfjall” if you prefer.

I also needed real pockets that you can, like, actually put stuff in. Too many jeans out there implement pockets as a design aesthetic rather than a functional feature. Pockets become decorative iPhone holders with gaudy stitching and — Odin help me — pocket flaps. I feel dirty even writing it. People who do stuff need pockets that hold stuff. Ever have a grenade and no place to put it? I know I’m not the only one.

viktos jeans blue

How about belt loops that don’t shear off when I run a rigid nylon inner-belt through them? Durable zipper? Gusseted crotch? Yep. I need the things that make jeans more than a fashion statement. Jeans are a tool for me, just like my knife, my phone, or my pistol. They have to work when called on and make my job easier.

Enter the Operatus. No, it’s not a part of your anatomy or a poorly titled James Bond film. It’s the one jean I’ve found so far that meets or exceeds all of the above requirements. Let’s examine Operatus’ DNA and find out if these jeans might be a good fit for you, too.

Survival Traits

Some of us work for a living and can’t afford seven $100 pairs of jeans for every day of the week. Some of us also don’t like doing laundry and end up wearing our pants until they don’t need us inside them to stand up. I end up running my pants to an early death because I’m either too cheap or too busy. So, I need quality, and I need durability.

The Operatus uses a stretch denim blend that I’ve punished lately by wearing them daily without rotating them. I built a shed in them over the summer, which, in retrospect, makes little sense, but I did it. I also installed a lightbar on my wife’s truck wearing them. I thought for sure I’d scuff up the knees as I knelt on the driveway to route the switch wiring through the firewall, but Operatus held up. Viktos’ Attackposture fit also allowed me to squat and contort as needed, whether I was kitted up with rifle and armor running some drills or digging under my wife’s dashboard to figure out where the hell I was routing my wires.

viktos operatus xp jeans fly

Above: Details include a bidirectional zipper, gusseted crotch, and Viktos’ typical-style accents.

I kept Sharpies and pocket levels in the mag pockets as easily as I did mags. There are four extra pockets like this embedded in the Operatus chassis in addition to the traditional five-pocket jean design. If you’re running extended pistol mags like me, they’ll poke out a bit, but not enough to draw anyone’s attention. Standard mags will sink into the pocket, but that also has merit for concealment and you can just slide your finger up your leg until the bottom of the mag pokes up over the pocket opening for grasping.

viktos operatus xp crotch

You can also run AR mags, or a combination square, in several of these pockets. What I really like about this configuration is it allows me to drop some of the bulky Kydex mag holders, should I choose to. I was running two AR mags, two pistol mags, a flashlight, and a knife all in the pants pockets.

viktos jeans pocket

What really appeals to me here is the jeans are multi-purpose. They’re very low-vis and appear as everyday jeans, save for some subtle detailing like the Viktos sword and shield logo. This allows me to go into the big-box store without looking like a gun nerd. When I get home from the store, I can just as easily load my pockets with tools as weapons and ammo. So, whatever my mission profile is for that day: Honey-do or SHTF, Operatus has me covered.

I’ll break down my testdrive into some relevant categories.

Fit

I got the 36×36. The waist is fair and true to size with a little breathing room for gaining and losing pounds depending on what I’m doing for PT. The length is perhaps a bit longer than I’m used to, but their site mentions their sizes running a size larger than standard. As mentioned earlier, Viktos is calling the fit of this pant Attackposture.

The design here has the rear of the jean riding higher on your lower back. Plumber’s crack is thus eliminated. Sorry, plumbers. Intent here seems to be preventing the waist from riding down when squatting, kneeling, or otherwise getting your tactical on. For those of us wearing holsters and kit, if the waist doesn’t shift our gear doesn’t shift with it. It’s reminiscent of the fit you get with a Crye Precision combat pant, but in a jean.

viktos operatus xp

Part of this proprietary crotch-tech also comes with a looser overall fit. No skinny jeans here. By design, the freer fit allows for less restriction while doing actual work versus holding up the bar at your favorite watering hole. The gusset is well-placed and tacked with heavy-duty stitching. If there’s one thing that gives me the ass about my ass is when the gusset fails from being weak, thin, or ill-placed. So far, that doesn’t seem to be a problem here.

Finally, the denim has a little stretch to it. I’ve worn tactical jeans before that did the same thing. There apparently seems to be an inverse relationship between stretch and strength. The more flex it has, the thinner it is and sooner it will wear out. I hate that. Fortunately, Viktos seems to choose strength over stretch here, so high-fives are authorized.

Function

Now that it fits, it has to work. I mentioned the pockets. I love the pockets. There are nine of them in these suckers if I’m counting right. Standard five-pocket design, plus four built-in mag pouches. It’s great. I immediately stopped carrying my Kydex pistol mag holder and just rocked my 9mm mags in the provided pockets. Using the AR mag pockets will impede your movements some, but if we’re loading 5.56 into our pants, we’re probably going to be OK with the trade-off.

viktos jeans

Above: The pockets on the Operatus XP aren’t obnoxious, but provide substantial load carriage.

Notably, for those who have trouble employing the old trouser snake while wearing a gun-belt, Operatus features a dual-fly zipper. That’s right, Rangers. When trying to release the Kraken, forget hunting for that zipper way up under your gun belt or front dump pouch. The garage door on these jeans goes down and up. Just reach for the other slider at the bottom of the fly and pull up to hydrate the earth.

Durability

Forty-five days and counting. So far, so good. I haven’t noticed any premature wear thus far — and believe me, I’ve been looking. When my last pair of so-called “tactical jeans” started to wear into Kleenex at the seat, I couldn’t friggin’ believe it. Now I have premature pant failure disorder, or PPFD, and am constantly checking them to see if they’ve let me down. Nothing to report yet.

The stitching and hardware are premium; solid riveting throughout and no sign of thread-fray. They look to be as well-constructed as can be for a relatively lightweight pant. Again, if it’s the dead of winter, you can rock those heavy construction pants where the denim is like an inch thick, but if there’s no snow, I’m wearing the Operatus.

Comfort

Pfft. Whatever. Let’s pretend comfort matters to someone. Not me, of course. Way too hard for that. What I wanted was Viktos to line the inside of my pants with 220-grit sandpaper, but they wouldn’t do it. Oh, OK, guys. You’ll come around. In the meantime, yeah, the jeans are “comfortable.”

Gripes

The one thing I didn’t like was the angle of the opening of the hip pockets. I found when carrying my pistol in an outside-the-waistband holster and my pocket knife at the same time, the holster prevented me from accessing my knife. Partly, this is on me because I like to carry at the 2:45-ish
position when running OWB holsters. Carrying a full-size Glock 17 with light pretty much occludes access to the right-side hip pocket where I’d normally clip my knife. The geometry forced me to move the knife to the pistol mag pocket on that side, which isn’t a deal-breaker, but I’d rather not do it.

viktos jeans operatus xp

I think the easy fix would be to simply lower the attachment point where the pocket meets the outside seam of the pant. This would allow more clearance to run a pocket knife or light in that go-to position of our jeans while still maintaining its cover as a run-of-the-mill pant.

Verdict

Easy. Get these. I plan to endurance test these things even more over the coming months. If they hold up to what I throw at them, I’ll be buying several more pairs. If they don’t hold up long-term, I’ll report back and let everyone know what I experienced, and my hunt will go on.

In the meantime, if you’re like me and want to be ready without looking ready, these might just be the jeans you’ve been looking for.

[Editor’s Note: Photos by Georgeonna Ward and Viktos.]

Viktos Operatus XP Jean

Colors: Dark Blue Wash, Blue Denim, Nightfall
MSRP: $99 – $119
URL: www.viktos.com

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Looking Back: Protector Symposium 2020

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How would you define yourself in a single word? Perhaps it’s a family title — mom, dad, husband, or wife. Or maybe it’s a professional title that represents your life’s work, such as soldier, officer, firefighter, or doctor. There’s one term that encompasses each of these titles, and likely applies to every one of our readers to some degree: protector. Whether you’re protecting yourself, your spouse and children, or total strangers in a first responder role, being a protector involves making a conscious decision to improve your knowledge and skills for the purpose of preventing harm. As with any other skill set, becoming a better protector involves training.

Byron Rodgers, who you may recognize from our Survivalist Spotlight interview last issue, has put a lot of thought into what it means to be a protector and how to spread this ethos to other like-minded people. This is what led him to form Protector Nation, an organization “dedicated to making the world a better place by making good people dangerous.” This also led to the formation of a conference where a selection of experienced protectors could share their knowledge, dubbed the Protector Symposium. You can read our recap of the inaugural 2019 Protector Symposium in Issue 37.

Given the COVID pandemic and the difficulty of hosting a large gathering in 2020, Rodgers decided to make the Protector Symposium 2.0 an “online global summit” that could be viewed on-demand from anywhere in the world. The list of presenters and topics caught our attention, so we plopped down on the couch with a laptop, headphones, coffee, and a notepad at the ready. Read on for our recap of each presentation, and the lessons we learned from them.

Jared Reston – Always Stay in the Fight

Background: Reston is a detective in the Department of Homeland Security/Gang Investigations unit at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, as well as the assistant team leader and lead shooting instructor for the department’s SWAT team.

URL: restongrouptraining.com

Lessons Learned: As the first guest speaker at the Protector Symposium 2.0, Reston set the tone for the event by recounting a horrific incident that changed his life forever.

casings police line

Above: Reston’s story is a stark reminder that a fight isn’t necessarily won by the first person to pull the trigger. Even if you’re shot multiple times, never stop fighting and striving to win.

In 2008, while working off-duty as a security guard at a local mall, he responded to a call about a shoplifter. As he arrived on scene, the suspect took off running, and Reston chased him out of the mall on foot. After the suspect refused to stop, he deployed a Taser, but the weapon failed to fire. Reston quickly holstered the Taser and grabbed the suspect from behind, but he spun and broke free. During the struggle, he felt a sudden impact to his face. It wasn’t a punch — the man was shooting him with a Glock 21. Reston was struck by seven .45 ACP bullets in his lower jaw, chest, flank, arm, buttock, and thigh as he tumbled to the ground.

Rather than allowing himself to be overwhelmed by this massive trauma, Reston rolled to his knees and drew his gun. He proceeded to shoot the suspect seven times — four to the body as he lunged upward at him, and three with the muzzle of his pistol pressed into the man’s head. Reston’s partner caught up moments later, ensured the suspect was no longer a threat, and called for rescue.

Reston’s overarching message was clear: Stay in the fight, no matter what. Simply staying alive isn’t enough — “Going home safe isn’t the goal. The goal is to win.” Reston didn’t deny that the aftermath was agonizing, but he said that in the moment, pain barely even registered. “Speaking from experience, getting shot doesn’t hurt. The human body is very unimpressed with bullets, especially pistol bullets … Your body does amazing things to keep you in the fight.” He says his desire to win and his ability to revert to his training were instrumental to his survival.

This presentation reinforced the power of a determined mindset, as well as realistic self-defense training. As Reston put it, “There’s a lot of luck in gunfights, but luck favors the prepared. Put the work in on the front end and make yourself hard to kill.”

Ed Calderon – Embrace the Unconventional

Background: Ed Calderon spent 12 years working in counter-narcotics, organized crime investigation, and public safety in the northern border region of Mexico. He now uses that experience to teach students realistic self-defense and survival skills.

URL: edsmanifesto.com

screwdriver

Above: What’s the difference between a Phillips screwdriver and an icepick? Calderon says both can be effective as weapons, but the screwdriver is considered a harmless tool.

Lessons Learned: We’ve trained under Calderon several times now, and we never fail to learn something new and valuable each time. He introduced his presentation with a quote from legendary Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi: “Know your enemy, know his sword.” This may sound trite, but it holds a meaning that’s deeper than you might think — to truly know your enemy, you must experience his weapons and techniques firsthand. Do you understand the effectiveness of a rusty screwdriver as a killing implement, and have you considered how it might be wielded? As Calderon puts it, “The unconventional is only unknown to the conventional.”

This acceptance of the unconventional applies directly to weapons — see “Sharp Edges & Dirty Tricks” from Issue 36 for more details — but also goes far beyond that realm. Calderon explained how travelers can break from tourist norms to become safer while visiting foreign countries. The first step is research. For example, before visiting Mexico, you should look up photos and videos of cartel abductions and assaults, and learn to recognize how these criminals differ from established law enforcement. (If a cop in Mexico is carrying an AK-47, he’s probably not a cop.) Case the area you’ll be visiting remotely through Google Street View or other virtual means, and establish a baseline of typical people, vehicles, and businesses. The destination’s “normal” will certainly differ from your hometown’s “normal,” so this will let you know what is acceptable and what isn’t. Establish entry and exit plans for everywhere you go, and don’t forget to keep an eye on the locals nearby — sudden changes in their behavior can provide an early warning for danger.

ed calderon

Gear selection should also be approached unconventionally. Instead of brightly colored tourist apparel or tactical clothing marketed to the gray man demographic, Calderon says “hobo tactical” is often a better choice — well-worn jeans, a plain T-shirt, an old jacket or hoodie, and a cloth satchel or cheap backpack. He says that even in the United States, $40 can get you everything you need for a 72-hour survival pack. Honey, granola, peanut butter, and instant coffee powder make a calorie-dense survival food; gauze, duct tape, and ratchet straps form an improvised trauma kit.

Don’t dehumanize or underestimate your enemy’s skills, and remember that he won’t always think or act like you do. Calderon says, “The only thing that separates you from them is intention. Our intention is to be protectors; theirs is to be predators.” Study dangerous areas and individuals carefully, and be ready to adapt quickly.

More From Ed Calderon:

Yousef Badou – Hunt for Anomalies

Background: Badou grew up in Kuwait, and has childhood memories of Iraqi tanks rolling through the streets. At age 19, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and went on to teach behavioral analysis at the Marine Combat Hunter program.

URL: emergencedisrupt.com

protector symposium 2020 pointing

Above: Even without hearing the conversation, Badou said it’s not hard to see what’s going on in this photo. A pointed finger can indicate aggression or interest; the woman’s uncomfortable smile and leaned-back posture clearly show that the interest is one-sided.

Lessons Learned: Threat identification is Badou’s specialty, and it’s a skill he firmly believes every man, woman, and child needs to understand in order to save lives. The foundation of his threat identification system is the hunter mindset. No matter how much we distance ourselves from nature, humans are a thinking apex predator. We don’t just wait for prey to randomly stumble upon us — we pro-actively search for it or attract it using our resources and tools. Our intelligence and front-focused, pattern-oriented vision attest to this. Just as we hunt for prey, we can hunt for predators.

Badou uses a simple formula to identify potential threats: baseline plus anomaly equal decision. A baseline is the current norm, and it varies dramatically from place to place or person to person. To establish a baseline at a location, sit for 30 minutes and take notes on anything you observe; for an individual, pay close attention to verbal and written communication, as well as kinesics (expressions, gestures, movement, posture, clothing, and so on). An anomaly is anything that breaks from this baseline, and it should lead immediately to a decision. It’s important to note that your decision may change as multiple anomalies stack up. There are many reasons someone might be sweating, but if they’re also glancing around the room repeatedly and exhibiting pacifying behavior, such as rubbing their neck or arms, it’s probably a cause for concern. Badou says three behavioral indicators should be enough to make a decision — “Three is good enough for me.”

yousef baddou protector symposium

Don’t let denial impede your rapid decision-making process. “Denial is the biggest killer,” says Badou. When we make a non-standard observation, our first instinct is to explain it as something normal we’ve experienced previously — the popping noises you just heard might be interpreted as fireworks, even if they’re actually gunshots. Fight this urge, and make a decision as quickly as possible. Staring in disbelief or waiting for others to reach the same conclusion burns priceless seconds during an unfolding disaster.

Even though anomalies may not be an indicator of a direct threat, you should always be hunting for them during your daily routine. We’re surrounded by human behavior all day every day, so get out there and put your observational and analytical skills into practice.

More from Yousef Badou

Craig Douglas – Learn the Reality of CQC

Background: Douglas retired from law enforcement after 21 years, most of which were spent working in SWAT and Narcotics (including two years of undercover work). He has been teaching close-combat and entangled shooting skills since 2003.

URL: shivworks.com

craig douglas

Above: Douglas demonstrates the underhook technique. By closing the gap and hooking his arms under the opponent’s, he quickly gains control of the opponent’s limbs, preventing him from accessing a weapon on his waistline.

Lessons Learned: How many times have you stood at the range and fired rounds into motionless cardboard? Conversely, how many times have you struggled to break free from the grip of an opponent who’s trying to stab or choke you, or felt the helplessness of having a (simulated) gun torn from your hands before you can use it? The former scenario is comfortable; the latter is humbling, and it’s much closer to what you might experience in a street fight. Douglas experienced many close-range confrontations during his time in law enforcement; he was robbed nine times while working undercover, often sitting in a car next to an armed criminal. This led him to the realization that conventional tactical training doesn’t adequately cover close-quarters combat (CQC) — that is, fights that happen from “5 feet and in.”

Douglas condensed his Extreme Close-Quarters Concepts (ECQC) course into this abbreviated video class, which was filmed at a shooting range with an assistant instructor to demonstrate techniques. Although this class incorporates firearms, all of its skills are founded on an “operating system” of empty-hand skills rooted in ancient Greco-Roman wrestling. Much like a computer’s OS, if these empty hand skills fail, the rest of the system also crashes. The operating system’s three principles — pressure, posture, and position — allow you to use your weapon effectively while blocking your opponent from doing the same.

Whether there’s a weapon in play or not, there are two constants during a “clinch” (i.e. an entangled physical altercation). First, always control the opponent’s limbs, because “everything is always a drag race to get to a weapon.” Second, always take the inside position, since this allows you to break the enemy’s posture and stop their arms from reaching for a weapon. There’s a fine line between lingering in the clinch too long and backpedaling too early — both are potentially dangerous. When the time comes to break contact, always try to exit behind the opponent. Close-range shooting techniques, such as thumb pectoral index and partial extension, were covered as well. Check our Final Weapon column in Issue 39 for more details on the Shivworks Close Contact Handgun curriculum.

Douglas made it clear that knowing how to grapple and control an opponent up close is a critical element of any self-defense system, since most real-world confrontations happen at conversational distance.

Mike Pannone – Practice Broad-Spectrum Preparedness

Background: Pannone is a retired member of U.S. Marine Force Reconnaissance, Army Special Forces (Green Beret), and 1st SFOD-D (Delta Force). He’s also a USPSA Master ranked pistol shooter in three divisions.

URL: ctt-solutions.com

panone stock image protector symposium

Above: If you’re traveling domestically or abroad, it’s critical to establish emergency plans and discuss them with your family. Pannone says these plans should include a means of identifying and locating each person, as well as a safe rally point for anyone who gets separated from the group.

Lessons Learned: “I’m not a theory guy. On the ground in a combat environment, theory gets you hurt. I built my business on practical knowledge and experience,” says Pannone. His presentation took a pragmatic approach to general emergency preparedness, covering a wide variety of topics that apply to our everyday lives. The first topic addressed was first aid, a skill all of us will inevitably need. This includes having the equipment to stabilize minor and major wounds until help arrives, as well as the training to employ those tools confidently. All members of the family should take an emergency medical course, and should practice these perishable skills frequently.

Next, Pannone spoke about firearms for personal defense. He made it clear that equipment is always secondary to the shooter’s skill level — “I’m not nearly as concerned with the firearm someone has than with the level of training they’ve sought. The firearm is just a delivery system for that practice.” If you carry daily, Pannone says you should be doing some form of live-fire training every two weeks at a minimum, and dry-fire training more frequently than that.

mike pannone

Mindset is another critical tenet of well-rounded preparedness. Each of us must ask ourselves, “Can I use this [weapon] for what it’s intended for? In extremis, that’s the extinguishing of human life. Am I emotionally capable of doing that?” Take this question very seriously, and don’t allow your answer to be clouded by macho overconfidence. Pannone says, “The reality of violence, if you’re not emotionally prepared for it, will stun you.” Once you’ve crossed that mental threshold, move on and focus on the mechanical aspects of training.

The remainder of the presentation dealt with personal and family security strategy in various contexts — inside the home, outside the home, in or around a vehicle, and during domestic or overseas travel. The common thread is to formulate simple plans for each scenario — they should be specific to your needs, not prefabricated by someone else — and make sure all members of your family know the details. If an incident occurs, you won’t have much thinking to do. Just execute the plan.

Pannone closed with a memorable statement on the value of preparedness: “It’s not paranoia. Paranoia is fear-based. It’s professional vigilance. That’s proactive awareness. There is no downside to being prepared. None!”

Tony Blauer – Understand the Physiology of Sudden Violence

Background: Blauer has four decades of experience working in the martial arts, self-defense, and combatives industries. He bases his training on a foundation of natural human physiology and biomechanics.

URL: blauerspear.com

tony blauer

Above: This image of spectators reacting to an airborne baseball bat served as a perfect demonstration of Blauer’s Universal Flinch Theory. While we can’t control our innate impulse to flinch, we can control what happens immediately afterward.

Lessons Learned: When sudden, unanticipated violence occurs, humans react with a startle response — we flinch. Muscles contract, hands and arms move to protect the head, and we recoil away from the perceived threat. Blauer calls this our “organic airbag,” since it’s hardwired to protect us, and he says that even Tier 1 operators and world-renowned fighters are equally affected by it. For an example of this, he showed a video clip of interviewer Freddie Starr playing a prank on Muhammad Ali. Even Ali, whose fighting qualifications are undeniable, experienced the startle response. Although we can’t stop the flinch, Blauer says we can and should change what we do immediately after — “Weaponize the startle response.”

Blauer explained that three types of stimuli can cause flinches: visual, tactile, and auditory. Research shows the latter leads to the fastest response, so this is a good reminder to take out those earbuds and keep your hearing unobstructed in potentially dangerous settings. There are also three types of flinch response, which were demonstrated using a famous photo of a baseball bat flying into the bleachers. Some people turn their heads away (oblique flinch), some extend only one arm (cross-extensor reflex), and some take the threat head-on, leaning back with both arms extended. Blauer says the latter is preferable — when hands come up to protect the head, they can be immediately extended into a push or punch. You should then “get off the X” and distance yourself from the danger as soon as possible.

In the second half of his presentation, Blauer touched on a topic that often comes into play immediately after the startle response: fear. He uses the acronym False Expectations Appearing Real. In the heat of the moment, humans tend to visualize the worst-case failure scenario, not the best-case successful outcome. Blauer says you must learn to escape the fear loop and get back in the fight by remembering what it would cost if you didn’t fight — death, dismemberment, paralysis, coma, or your loved ones dying in your arms. “Fear can immobilize you or it can supercharge you.”

Byron Rodgers – Live as a Protector

Background: Rodgers is a U.S. Marine infantryman (retired) who has spent the last decade working in the private security industry, and has run teams of agents in more than 60 countries. He’s the founder of Protector Nation and CEO of Bravo Research Group.

URL: byronrodgers.com

protector symposium 2020 boxing

Above: Rodgers says a protector should be trained and capable of inflicting harm, but discerning enough to do so only when it’s necessary. Work to develop a well-rounded set of soft and hard skills.

Lessons Learned: As the last speaker of Protector Symposium 2.0, Rodgers opened his segment with a simple mission statement: “We need to teach good people to be more willing, capable, and prepared to deal with evil.” He says that self-protection is an inalienable right, and a skill that matters to absolutely everyone — you are a first responder, and there are people counting on you whether you like it or not. Despite society’s prevailing opinion that violence is to be avoided at all costs, experience tells us that sometimes violence can only be stopped by greater violence. For evidence of this fact, watch any confrontation where a victim cowers and submits, and compare it to one where they fight back explosively. Knowing this, good people who wish to stop violence must become dangerous.

To be dangerous is to be capable of inflicting harm. As psychologist Jordan Peterson says, “A harmless man is not a good man. A good man is a very dangerous man who has that under voluntary control.” Much like a cornered animal, anyone can be dangerous under the right circumstances, but this power is amplified for the select few who are willing and prepared to use it for good. We should each understand the parts of ourselves that might make us terrible, and learn to spot those same characteristics in others. While discussing politicians’ inability to recognize unthinkable war crimes committed in the Bosnian War, Dr. Peterson said, “If you don’t have sufficient imagination for evil, then anyone who does wins … Unless you can think the way an evil person thinks, they’ll defeat you. They’ll go places you can’t even imagine.”

byron rodgers

In addition to understanding the enemy, Rodgers says we must remember that failure to plan is planning to fail. We must be prepared. This means training in hard skills, such as first aid, combatives (with and without weapons), and what he calls “renaissance skills” — abilities that make us well-rounded, such as lockpicking, evasive driving, and land navigation. Soft skills, such as social engineering, profiling, and situational awareness, are equally important and more frequently used in daily life.

Being a protector isn’t easy, but it’s necessary in the imperfect world we live in. Rodgers likens protectors to antibodies — the world’s immune system for counteracting evil and maintaining a state of balance. History proves that violence is a fact of life, so we can either deny it and stake our hope on “it’ll never happen to me,” or accept it and be ready to meet it headfirst.

Although the Protector Symposium 2.0 live event is over, you can still access the full-length videos from each presenter. For more info, go to protectorsymposium.com.

Premier Body Armor’s STRATIS Level IV Plates

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We’ve started spending more time with Body Armor and plate carriers here on OFFGRID in the last months, and if you look at the numbers, that has been reflected by the country as a whole over the last year. Although it can be a daunting subject to breach into from the outside, sometimes that is by design. At the same time, the bar is being raised across the country with what is available, and what is owned. In time to address the demand, Premier Body Armor has just announced their new Level IV plates, and here is the full Press Release:

GASTONIA, N.C. – March 1, 2021 – Premier Body Armor is proud to announce availability of its new STRATIS level IV plates. These new composite/polyethylene plates are multi-hit capable and are the ideal for those looking for maximum protection from an exceptionally thin and light plate.

“The new STRATIS Level IV plates are rated to stop multiple hits from the most aggressive small arms ammunition, including M855 and .30-06 AP,” said Frank Stewart, President of Premier Body Armor. “We solve the two most common issues with traditional Level IV plates with this product. Traditional Level IV plates are heavy and fragile. We’ve utilized a tiled composite strike face that isolates trauma to the plate, thus allowing the plate to be drop-resistant and multi-hit capable. We lighten the overall weight of the plate by several pounds by using the latest Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene technology as the ballistic core of the armor. As with all of our armor solutions, the STRATIS Level IV plate is 100% made in the U.S.A.”

premeir body armor stratis level iv body armor cover

The STRAITS Level IV plates are special threat tested against these calibers at a distance of 15 meters:

  • 7.62×39 123gr PS Ball (MSC)
  • 7.62×51 147gr FMJ (M80) – up to 2850 ft/s
  • 5.56×45 55gr (M193) up to 3150ft/s
  • 5.56x45mm 62 grain steel core (M855)
  • 5.56x45mm M855 A1
  • 7.62x63mm M2 AP (.30-06)

These 10” x 12” single curve ESPAI cut plates meet the NIJ 0101.06 Level IV ballistic standard. STRAIS plates come with a 10-year warranty. The 5.3-pound plates are just .9” thick and finished with a Polyurea outer covering for abrasion and moisture resistance.

Learn more about Premier Body Armor and their complete line of armor at Premierbodyarmor.com.

Media contact: David Higginbotham, Murray Road Agency 
E-Mail: David.higginbotham@murrayroadagency.com

About Premier Body Armor

Premier Body Armor was founded in 2013 with the goal of protecting and empowering Law Enforcement and law-abiding citizens with innovative armor solutions, Made in the USA. Built on the backbone of over 20 years of armoring experience for customers such as the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), the United States Marine Corps (USMC), PBA is innovating and changing the way body armor is both perceived and utilized. Bulletproof backpack inserts, ultra-discreet vests, and more have made body armor more practical for daily use than ever before. With partnerships across industries, powerful community engagement, and top-notch customer service, Premier Body Armor is one of the top body armor manufacturers in the USA.

More on Plate Carriers, Body Armor, and What Goes On Them

Strength in Numbers

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I once heard a very interesting, if not somewhat grim, outlook on interpersonal conflict from a soldier I served with. Roughly remembered, it goes something like this: “All things being equal, tactical advantage goes to he who cares the least about what he cares about the most.”

I imagine this has to be the mindset of some social predators. The idea that not having loved ones in your life, or being so self-absorbed that you’re willing to cast them aside on a whim to serve your own desires and impulses, could be perceived as a type of “advantage” or “freedom” to act against others.

I’d like to think that most of you reading this can see past the shallow logic of such a mindset and have hit paydirt by understanding the long-term survival benefits of embracing a family/tribe lifestyle. Every person you fold into your survival family (whether they be blood relatives or not) is a potential opportunity to complement your own knowledge, skillsets, strengths, and abilities. As RECOIL OFFGRID alumni Ed Calderon says, “Take the time to invest in people.”

While many of us see ourselves as protectors of our immediate family unit, I’d also posit the idea that the best way to fulfill that role is by teaching every capable member of your group to protect themselves. I recently had a discussion with my significant other that led to this nugget of truth: One of the greatest acts of love we can show our family is to enable them to be more self-sufficient and … frankly … more dangerous to those who might see them as marks.

I say all that to say this: Do not fall into the trap of seeing your family, household, or circle-of-loved-ones as a liability, or as a weakness to be exploited by someone who lacks those relationships in their own life. See them for their full potential, not just as good people who enrich your existence, but as allies, assets, or teammates to rely on in these uncertain times. To that end, we dedicated this issue to promoting skills and knowledge specifically relevant to the protection of family and household. From Forrest Cooper’s real-time article on the “Porch Vikings” of post-George Floyd Minneapolis and Patrick McCarthy’s recap of this year’s virtual Protector’s Symposium, to Jason Squires’ overview of “Good Samaritan” laws and the next part in Neal Olshan’s series on Criminal Profiling, we wanted to provide a coffee table book for everyone in your network that touches on some valuable lessons for group-based survival. We also included articles on covert escape tools, armor carriers, and gun belts to help you and your tribe make informed decisions on how to outfit yourselves to squeeze every advantage from your gear.

Regardless of whether your survival network is your family, coworkers, or bowling league buddies, make sure you stock up on the gear and, more importantly, the knowledge to be ready for whatever the future may hold. If you invest in your people, they’ll likely prove to be your biggest strength, making the tough times a little softer and a little safer.

[Editor’s Note: This first appeared in OFFGRID #42.]

What If a Winter Road Trip Leaves You Stranded and Injured?

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Illustrations by Cassandra Dale

“Hey, we should climb up to someplace high before it gets dark. Maybe the phones will work up on a ridge or something.” Even before you shoot your friend a look that says dumbest plan ever, he looks down at your damaged knee and says “Oh, right. Never mind.” After a few minutes pass, the snowfall seems to increase and another awful plan gets proposed: “You know, if we could stand by the roadside long enough, some hot girls would probably pick us up, especially with you looking like a broken-legged puppy and all.”

The snow was still falling. The light was fading fast. The car was completely off the road and there was no sign of anyone else in the area. Worst of all, your buddy didn’t have his head in the game. Dan was a cheerful guy and a good friend, but right now you just wish he’d shut the hell up. It’s time to come up with a real plan, you figured. Then the first shiver hit your body. Your thoughts darkened. Maybe it’s already too late for a real plan.

OFFGRID17-Aftermath-01.psd

Cold is one of humanity’s oldest and most relentless foes. Even by itself, the frigid air can rob our bodies of the heat we need to stay functional (and alive). If you add wind and moisture into the mix, hypothermia (the dangerous chilling of the body’s core temperature) can occur in no time. Of course, anyone with enough sense to come in out of the rain will try to go indoors to warm up when the weather gets glacial. But what happens when there’s no place to warm up?

In this edition of What If?, we pose the question: What if you’re stranded in winter? As our ancestors discovered, there’s more than one way to survive in the cold, so RECOIL OFFGRID asked three survival writers for their own spin on a winter survival story.

For this installment, we have Ryan Lee Price, a freelance journalist and outdoors enthusiast who has also contributed to the SHTF column in our sister publication, RECOIL. We also have Erik Lund, a longtime contributor who’s also a federal law enforcement agent with a bevy of tactical and survival experience.

And for the final frosty tale, ROG asked me to carve a story out of the snow as well. I’ve been teaching people how to survive the cold (and many other challenges) for the past 20 years. I’ve also written multiple New York Times-bestselling survival manuals from my experience. And it’s an honor and a privilege to be able to share my stories in the What If? feature. So grab your mittens and some hot cocoa, because the temperature is about to plummet.

The Scenario

Situation Type
Stranded in winter

Your Crew
You and your college roommate, Dan (both early 20s)

Location
Superior National Forest, Minnesota

Season
Winter (December)

Weather
Cloudy, 17 to 30 degrees F

The Setup: Originally from Arizona, you’ve always wanted to ride a dogsled since wearing out a VHS copy of White Fang as a kid. Because you’re staying in your dorm at the University of Minnesota Duluth during the holiday break, you ask your roommate, Dan, if he wants to join you on a spontaneous road trip. Suffering from cabin fever, he happily agrees.

You set up the dogsled tour and assorted activities while he preps his older Acura TL for the three-hour drive to the dogsled winter resort in Grand Marais. You give him a list of supplies and rations to pack into a vehicle emergency kit. “No worries,” Dan says, claiming he’s a veteran of winter driving, having grown up in Dayton, Ohio.

Two days later, you hit the road and find it to be a mild ride for the first two hours or so. Constant snowfall, but nothing crazy. While on Gunflint Trail, just 45 minutes from your destination, Dan hits a patch of black ice and the car spins out of control. It hits the snow embankment, launching off the road and tumbling into some trees.

OFFGRID17-Landscape-04.psd

The Complication: You wake up minutes (hours?) later to an unconscious Dan and snow in every direction. Did you land in a mound of snow or has the snowfall covered your vehicle? Or maybe the car’s upside down? Quickly rousing Dan, you’re relieved to find him otherwise functional with only a cut on his head and some bruises memorializing his injuries..

The shock gives way to pain. You grimace as you look at your knee. It doesn’t look mangled, but it’s definitely not working. You’re not sure if it’s a sprain or worse. You tell Dan to grab the emergency bag; the first-aid kit should help. “I forgot it back home,” he says, looking like he just crapped the bed. “It” and all the other survival supplies. Bad just got worse.

The New Plan: Stranded in the middle of nowhere with snow all around (with more falling by the hour) and daylight fading fast in this northern state, you have to figure out how to get help with the following limitations:

  • Knee injury
  • Vehicle damaged by trees and stuck in snow
  • No cellphone reception or Internet connectivity
  • Time is roughly 3:30 p.m. (sunset is around 4:40 p.m.)

Federal Agent: Erik Lund’s Approach

I didn’t need to say anything; Dan knew how badly he had screwed up.

He hung his head and quietly said, “My bad. I shouldn’t have forgotten the kit.” Dan found his phone and attempted to dial 911. “I don’t have any reception. Do you?” I quickly looked around, but I didn’t see my phone anywhere in the car.

“I don’t know where it is.” We looked around the inside of the car, but couldn’t find it.

The pain in my knee refocused my attention on the immediate problem of determining the seriousness of my injury.

“My knee is pretty messed up. I don’t think I can walk, and I definitely won’t be able to make it through the snow.” Dan asked if I was bleeding or if anything else hurt. “I don’t see any or feel any blood, but I can feel my knee swelling up, and the pain is pretty intense.” Dan said he would try to get out and come around to my door.

After smacking the driver side door with his shoulder, Dan was able to squeeze out and walk around to my side. He tried several times to open the door, but the damage to my side of the car seized the door in place.

Dan walked back around and stuck his head in the car, “That door isn’t coming open, too much damage. You think you can climb over the seats and come out my side?” I squirmed a little and a lightning bolt of pain ran through my knee.

OFFGRID17-Knee-02.psd

I looked at Dan and shook my head, “I can’t move.”

A look of guilt ran across Dan’s face. He said, “I’m gonna head up to the road and check my reception. If I don’t have any signal, I’ll see if I can flag anyone down. I’ll be back for you.” I nodded my head in approval and watched him leave. I laid my head back and closed my eyes and thought, I hope someone shows up. My knee is killing me, and it’s gonna get cold real fast.

After an hour, the sun disappeared and darkness was quickly approaching. Dan finally came back. I could tell by the look on his face the news was not good.

“I walked up the road about a half mile in both directions. No luck on getting a signal, and I didn’t see a single car. My hands and feet are about frozen solid,” he said. I told Dan that I appreciated his efforts, but we needed to prepare for spending the night in the car. Dan agreed and reached into the back seat and started pulling out the heavy clothing we had packed for our adventure.

Despite being on the verge of frostbite, Dan helped to get my sweatpants and snow pants on over my injured knee. After struggling into the rest of my clothes, I finally was able to sit back, rest, and think about our options.

As I started to settle in, Dan said, “I’ll be back, I’m going to make a signal in case someone comes down the road.” He grabbed his backpack and headed back out into the cold night. I asked Dan how, but he just told me to try to keep warm and that he’d be back. Dan opened up the trunk and started digging around. Ten minutes later, I watched Dan walk off into the darkness carrying, of all things, our spare tire.

The wind had picked up and was starting to howl while the outside temperature was falling quickly, but at the moment I was surprisingly warm inside the car. All of the additional clothing provided enough insulation to maintain some warmth for my body. Dan had been gone for more than 30 minutes and, although I was hopeful that someone may have stopped to help us, I was concerned for him.

It was damn cold outside, and Dan was sure to be hypothermic by now. The feeling of helplessness was crushing, but it did take my mind off of my throbbing knee.

Abruptly, Dan stuck his head back into the car. “Give me all of the clothes you have left in your bag.”

I pushed my bag across to him and asked, “What the hell are you doing, dude?”

Dan responded, “I’m going to redeem myself and save your ass!” Before I could respond, Dan closed the door and was moving off back toward the road again. Unable to do anything to help him, I tried to maintain a positive attitude and think about how this trip turned out to be one hell of an adventure.

Dan stumbled back to the car about 20 minutes later.

Climbing into the driver seat, I noticed Dan was visibly shivering uncontrollably. “We’re going to be OK,” he said. Over the next few minutes, my roommate explained how he grabbed the spare tire, some road flares, and the spare quart of oil he kept in the trunk and went up to the road. Stacking the supplies on the side of the road, his next task was to locate some wood that was dry enough to burn.

When he located enough wood, Dan made his way back to the vehicle to collect the clothes that we weren’t using to keep warm. Working his way back up to the road with the clothes, he pulled out the brightest colors in the group and set them aside. Dan walked out into the middle of the road and started clearing the snow away from a small area as best as he could.

Next he took all the of brightest colored clothes and made an arrow on the ground pointing toward the area of the embankment where we ran off the road and our car was stranded. Dan then took the spare tire, deflated it, and rolled it out into the middle of the road.

Dan drenched all of the remaining clothes with the spare quart of oil. He then took a few of the wood logs and laid them out on the ground in the center of the road with several of the oil-soaked clothes packed in and around them. Next, my buddy laid the spare tire on the pile and stacked the remaining logs and branches on top of the tire. He stuck a few of the flares in the oil-soaked clothes and ignited the last flare, pushing it under the tire into the pile.

In a few moments everything was ablaze in a huge bonfire with thick black smoke from the burning tire rising into the night air. The signal fire and arrow would direct anyone coming down the road to our location and the tire and wood should burn for several hours. Dan intended on checking on the fire every hour through the night to keep it going.

When he was finished, I looked at my roommate in amazement and tried to express my appreciation for his ingenuity, but in the end the only words I could manage was “Thank you.”

Dan looked back and me, still shivering, and simply said, “I got this, dude.” I unzipped my jacket and reached across and grabbed his shivering hands.

I placed a hand under each of my armpits in an attempt to warm up his fingers to prevent frostbite, and we bro-hugged until his shivering subsided. Throughout the evening and into the night as I tried to stay warm, he would periodically get out of the car and tend to the fire. Some trips were quick and others would take longer as he searched for more dry wood to burn. Each time he would return shivering and frozen.

I awoke to a loud banging on the roof of the car, a blinding light piercing through the frost-covered window, and a voice yelling, “Hello!” It was past 2 in the morning when a Minnesota state trooper working the midnight shift happened upon our signal fire. It had just about died out, but following Dan’s signal arrow, the Trooper located our car down the embankment.

Thirty minutes later, a fire and rescue unit arrived. The firemen had to cut open the door to get me out of the car. They rigged up a basket and pulley system to hoist me up the embankment. Even after spending more than 10 hours in freezing temperatures, the warm cabin of the ambulance quickly raised my body temperature — unfortunately it also thawed out my knee and the pain came flooding back. I asked the medic how Dan was doing.

She said that some of his toes had frostbite but he would be all right.

While processing that bit of information, the medic added, “The trooper said that without that signal fire, he would have driven right past you guys. There’s no telling how long you may have been trapped down that embankment. It was a good thing your friend kept that fire going.” I looked back at her and smiled, “Yeah, he’s the kind of guy who would do anything for you.”

Average Joe: Ryan Lee Price’s Approach

It’s tough to piece together what happened since everything after seeing the deer dart onto the road was a blur. There were screeching tires, trees, snow, road, a jarring crash, and then blackness. I awoke with Dan’s panic-stricken face yelling at me to wake up. I don’t know how long it had been, but he was upside-down; my whole world was upside-down and all white. My leg was twisted in an awkward position under the glovebox, and it seemed like everything we were taking with us that weekend had exploded around the cabin of Dan’s Acura TL.

It was supposed to be a simple three-hour drive from the University of Minnesota Duluth to a historic resort on the Gunflint Lake near the Canadian border. After grabbing lunch at the Angry Trout Café on the banks of the snow-swept Lake Superior in Grand Marais, we left Highway 61 for Country Road 12, a slender ribbon of blacktop that winds its way north. Being used to the arid desolation of Arizona is nothing compared to the sheet whiteness of northern Minnesota in winter. Thick forests of trees butted up against the road, their branches loaded with snow.

The last thing I remembered before seeing the deer was Lullaby Creek Road on the left because I made a joke about how quiet it probably was. Then, Dan put the car into a sweeping right turn a mile or so later. The next thing I knew, the car was upside-down, surrounded by trees and half buried in the snow. The passenger windows were shattered, there were deployed airbags everywhere, and the windshield was a spider-webbed mess.

OFFGRID17-Searching-03.psd

Dan had already unbuckled his seatbelt and was sitting on the ceiling of the car in absolute shock. “You OK?” he asked.

“I think my leg is broken,” I winced. “Help me down.” Dan unbuckled my seatbelt, and I very ungracefully crumpled onto the ceiling of the car with a crushing pain in my leg.

“We need to get out of here.” Dan crawled around me and shimmied himself out of the window, sinking into the snow. I was able to pull myself out of the window with Dan’s help, but not without excruciating pain. Both of us, in the now fading light of the late afternoon sun, were speckled with various cuts and scrapes; a few of them could use bandaging.

“First order of business, let’s find that emergency kit you packed and get some of these wounds cleaned up,” I suggested. “Is it in the trunk?”

“Um,” Dan started. “About that ….”

Somewhere between expecting a bang but hearing a click, and hearing a bang but expecting a click, the worst sound you’ll hear is your roommate saying, “I left the supplies at home.” It was as if someone just punched me in the nuts. I fumed. It had emergency food, water, matches, signaling devices … everything we might need for a situation exactly like this.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Dan defended. “I’ll just hike up to the road and flag down a car. We’re, what, 50 yards from the road?”

“When’s the last time we passed a car on this road?” I asked.

Dan didn’t need to answer that because we both knew. It was never. Since leaving the café at Grand Marais two hours before, we hadn’t passed a single car.

We were stranded and, with night quickly approaching, likely stranded until morning — so we needed to get our gear together while we could still see it. Dan pulled the carpets out of the car, and we used those to sit on to avoid sinking into the snow. Since the whole point of the trip was to go dog sledding at the resort, we had plenty of winter clothes and likely wouldn’t freeze to death, but my immediate problem was my leg. It was already getting cold and would be quite a painful struggle to tug on snow pants over it. Plus, it needed to be splinted so I would stop involuntarily moving it.

Luckily, Dan and I are both avid magazine readers, so there were a couple of old issues of RECOIL OFFGRID in the back of the car. Their large format and thick pages were perfect for a leg split. Dan wrapped a couple of issues around my knee and tied them tight with shoelaces from my extra pair of boots. It would hold. Now onto other problems.

Dan and I didn’t expect we would be here for more than the night, but we agreed that his trekking up to the road and waiting for someone to come along while leaving me and my leg by the car wasn’t a good idea. At least, not at night. The news during the winter is littered with stories of people dying in the snow mere feet from their cars — plus, we weren’t sure how much snow would dump on us during the night.

Surprisingly enough, being stuck in the snow is similar to being stuck in the ocean or the desert. You’re surrounded by water that you can’t drink like in the ocean, and you’re in a place that’s just as dry as the desert.

Rummaging in his car, Dan found a metal coffee thermos and a mug. We packed those with as much snow as we could, and Dan placed them in the upturned engine compartment. It was still warm and might melt some of the snow into water. Until then, we only had two 16-ounce bottles of water to drink. That is, until they’d freeze.

Darkness was coming fast. We had two choices, neither too pleasant: Either build a makeshift shelter in the snow or hunker down in an upside-down car for the night. We decided on the car. When the temperature dropped below freezing again that night, at least we’d have some shelter. The trick would be to keep the side of the car clear of fresh falling snow so it wouldn’t entomb us during the night.

There was no cell signal at all, and the roadside assistance feature on Dan’s Acura wasn’t functioning. The hazards were blinking, casting an eerie orange pall over the snow. The horn worked too, but we figured we’d save that for tomorrow if we needed it.

We decided against a fire for the moment. With little effort, gasoline could be harvested from the car to help get a blaze going. Additionally, we had plenty of things to burn during the night — canvas shoes, extra clothes, suitcases, sports equipment — for one reason or another, Dan had a few ping-pong balls, which are made from nitrocellulose, a very flammable material.

Since it looked as though we’d be spending the night, we shored up the damaged windows with the suitcases and spread out over the ceiling all of the extra clothes, snow suits, floor mats, and whatever else we could find that would insulate us from the snow below. Since I couldn’t move very far, Dan shoveled as much snow as he could up against the three other sides of the car. Snow is an excellent insulator, and by creating an improvised igloo around the car with snowdrift, it would hopefully help retain heat inside the car.

Sure, it was going to be cold, but with the two of us well-dressed for dog sledding, we would be fine. My leg was now swollen and I was in considerable pain, but it would only be for a night.
At sunrise, Dan would venture up to the road and flag down someone. Perhaps because we didn’t show up at the resort as planned, concern would be raised for our whereabouts. Time would only tell, and as the temperature continually dropped, Dan and I huddled close together to conserve body heat.

Damn it — we left the thermos and mug of snow in the engine bay. It’ll be frozen by morning for sure.

Survival Expert: Tim MacWelch’s Approach

“You forgot the emergency kit!?! Are you kidding me!” I shouted. I looked my friend square in the face, “Look, Dan, people die in situations like this.”

Dan laughed and scoffed, “Die! That’s stupid! Only stupid people die from getting cold. Do I look dumb to you or something?” I shook my head as if to say “no,” but I really wanted to say something else. I pulled out my phone and tried to call 911, but there was no service. When Dan saw me trying to make a call, he followed my example, but had no better luck. Great, I thought, this is just what we need.

Trying to rally my falling morale, I suggested that we see what stuff we had to work with. Dan jumped at the idea and began pulling the luggage and everything else from the tumbled vehicle. We had clothing and outerwear, a bit of food and water, our electronics, and not much else. There was no first-aid gear, no matches to make a fire, no sleeping bags or bedding.

We decided (after much debate and many wild ideas), that we should stay put and build a fire. This could keep us warm and signal our distress to any passing drivers. Dan wanted to walk down the snow-covered road, but he finally agreed to stay after I reminded him again that I couldn’t walk and that he didn’t really want to drag me through the cold.

If my mood had been poor before we formed our fire-building plan, it was truly sour after we went through our supplies a second time to confirm that there were no matches or lighters. Dan’s car was new enough that it didn’t even have ashtrays or a cigarette lighter. Good God, I thought, are we going to die because neither of us smoke?

As I pondered this, I started shivering. This reminded me to put on all the clothing and outerwear that I had. It also reminded me of something from school. My biology professor’s voice jumped into my head and began droning on about our body’s tools for survival. “Shivering is a physiological response to the body’s temperature dropping.” As a pre-med student, I had a slightly better clue to the vulnerability of the human body than business student Dan did, and much more so than most of my classmates who often espoused invulnerability. I definitely understood our peril better than Dan. But what I didn’t understand was how we were going to make a fire in the snow.

No lighter, no matches, no way to light the fire we desperately needed. We took shelter in the car and tried to figure out a way to signal any passing car. We tried to start the car, to run it for heat. The engine wouldn’t even turn over. Dan collected a few sticks from the surrounding brush and used a strip of cloth to create a tripod right on the edge of the road. From this stick “tipi” he hung a red shirt, but as I watched through the cracked car window, the snow quickly stuck to the cloth and soon obscured it from view.

When he returned to the car, Dan talked briefly again about walking through the snow to find help, but even he began to realize just how dangerous that idea would be. It could be a death sentence to leave the car in this kind of weather, so we decided to focus on the fire. Dan dismantled his vape device in hopes that there would be some ignition source inside. As he worked, he grumbled about the irony of the situation.

“You know, if I were still smoking cigarettes, we’d have a way to make fire,” he said.

Comments like that didn’t help us at all, and I swore that the throbbing in my knee increased after hearing Dan’s thoughtless comment. The vape smoker held no way to make a fire that we could discover, so I started thinking about other options. We had two phones and a flashlight. And we needed light to signal for help.

We decided to hang the flashlight from the tripod instead of the red shirt, and this was a solid improvement. We had no idea of the runtime the batteries would provide, but a flashlight twisting from a string was a better signal than we had before. We never actually saw the sun set due to the heavy cloud cover and snow, but by 5 p.m. it was truly dark.

I couldn’t escape the feeling that we would die if we didn’t get a fire, and once Dan returned from setting up the flashlight as a roadside beacon, I asked him to help me hobble to the hood of the car. Dan hit the hood latch, but the crumpled hood wouldn’t rise. We took turns prying with Dan’s small knife and still had no luck opening the engine compartment.

Finally, after beating on the hood while Dan worked the latch, I pried open the hood and surveyed the engine. There were plenty of flammable fluids in a car, and electricity to make sparks. But Dan didn’t even have jumper cables to help our situation.

I swore that if we lived through this, I’d have very different rules about the supplies for winter travel from then onward. If we made it, I thought.

As my hope was growing thin, Dan stepped up for once with a good idea at a good time. He grabbed a cotton sock from his luggage and began to scrape it with my knife. I held my phone aloft for light, and he produced a small fuzz ball of cotton fiber. Then wiggling the battery cable loose, he touched it to the post repeatedly over the fuzz ball until a spark finally lit the cotton.

The fuzz burned bright for a few seconds and then it was gone, but it was proof of concept! I asked him with amazement where he learned such a trick. He said it was called a “prison match” and he learned it from the Survivorman TV show. I looked at Dan with a whole new appreciation. Maybe we had a chance after all. Realizing that we were onto something, Dan dipped a piece of the cotton sock in some steering fluid (the easiest reservoir to reach), and I scraped a monstrous ball of fuzz from one of the socks. After several minutes of work, the battery cable stark ignited the fuzz ball, which in turn lit the oil-soaked sock fabric. Unbelievably, we had created a flame!

Dan fed pages of the car owner’s manual to the oily sock that was quickly melting down into the snow by the side of the car. I scraped the ground to make a clear patch, and told Dan to hurry as he grabbed sticks and twigs to feed our new fire. But then I realized our mistake. We needed the fire up by the road, not down in the ditch with our car. I grabbed another sock, soaked it in steering fluid and wrapped it around a stick. I told Dan I would nurse the fire by the car if he built one by the roadside.

In the darkness, the white snow reflected our firelight and gave us a surprising amount of light to see. I hopped back and forth collecting sticks, and Dan did a fine job kindling a blaze on the roadside. I knew it would be a constant battle to feed two fires, but we needed both for heat and light. With his fire burning bright, Dan returned to the car to build up my fire.

How our fortunes had changed. Just a few hours ago, I had felt that Dan would be the death of us both. But he turned out to be the hero after all.

We sat in the car, doors open to receive the heat of our fire. We dozed a bit through the night. We also ate our food and drank our water. Dan awoke each time the fire ran low and brought in more wood to feed the blaze. The snow deepened as the hours passed, and Dan let the roadside fire go out so that he could focus on the fire that was keeping us warm. It was getting light again and the snowfall had finally stopped when Dan returned to the roadside with several burning sticks to rebuild our signal fire.

The morning was bitterly cold, and our movement was sluggish, but he helped me work my way up to the roadside to warm myself by the new fire. There we sat, perched on our luggage in a sea of white, hunkered by the only color in sight — the beautiful orange fire.

And as luck would have it, it wasn’t too long before we both heard a strange sound like a dull roar. It got louder, and to our elation, we saw a snowplow coming toward us on the twisting road. Dan started jumping and shouting, but the driver was already flashing his lights when he saw two figures by a fire on the edge of the road. The best sound I’ve ever heard was the squeak of the air brakes as the driver stopped beside us.

Conclusion

It’s been said that fortune favors the bold, but in my experience fortune favors the prepared. And there’s no better time to be prepared than in the winter. Survival is hard enough when the weather is nice and the temperatures are within the Goldilocks zone (not too hot or too cold). When the temperature drops, your odds of survival naturally drop with it.

In frigid conditions, staying warm becomes harder. Lighting fires becomes harder. Your water filter can freeze up, and you can easily lose your gear in fresh powdery snow. With all these factors (and many more) stacked against you, it’s critical for you to travel through the winter landscape with the supplies that will keep you alive and the skills to use them.

Keep a well-stocked survival kit in every vehicle you own. This could be a bin or duffel bag loaded with shelter items like coats, space blankets, and sleeping bags. It should also contain water and non-perishable food. Use store-bought bottled water, since the bottles are able to expand without bursting. Bring first-aid supplies, lighting devices, and a way to charge your mobile phone too. In addition, bring back-up signaling equipment in case your phone has no signal and bring plenty of fire-starting equipment. Fire has preserved human life in cold climates for millennia, and there’s no reason to skip it now.

Finally, before we go — if you have a vehicle in your survival scenario, stay there! The statistics are clear. People who stay with a car get rescued. People who wander off into the snow usually die. Stay with the vehicle!

Meet Our Panel

Tim MacWelch

Tim MacWelch has been a survival instructor for more than 20 years, training people from all walks of life, including members from all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, the State Department, DOD, and DOJ personnel. He’s a frequent public speaker for preparedness groups and events. He’s also the author of three New York Times-bestselling survival books, and the new Ultimate Bushcraft Survival Manual. When he’s not teaching survival or writing about it, MacWelch lives a self-reliant lifestyle with his family in Virginia. Check out his wide range of hands-on training courses that are open to the public at www.advancedsurvivaltraining.com.

Erik Lund

Erik Lund has more than 20 years of law enforcement experience - with much of that time spent as an instructor of frearms, defensive tactics, and use of force. He served as a Virginia State Trooper before accepting a position as a federal agent. Lund is also a senior instructor at Mike Seeklander’s Shooting-Performance LLC, a tactical training company. As a champion competitive shooter, he’s earned several regional, state, and national three-gun titles and is ranked as a grandmaster by the United States Practical Shooting Association.

Ryan Lee Price

Ryan Lee Price is a freelance journalist who specializes in outdoor adventuring, emergency preparedness, and the automotive industry. He has contributed to the “SHTF” survival column for our sister publication RECOIL Magazine and is a longtime hiking and camping enthusiast. He currently resides in Corona, California, with his wife Kara and their two children.

More From Issue 17

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Editor’s Note: This article has been modified from its original version for the web.

Make Fitness Happen

Written by

I’ve taken a few firearms training classes over the years and loved every single one of them. A common theme that I was often told was, “you’re a good shooter but you just need to get in better shape.” We often hear that gunfights last only seconds and think that no matter what shape we’re in, we could last that long. That is, until you do the training and realize that maybe you’re not in as good of shape as you think you are.

As I’ve gone through classes (e.g. shooting and moving, vehicle classes, hand-to-hand combat classes, etc.), I realize that I’m not the only one who could use some help on improving fitness. A comprehensive plan should include mindset, diet, exercise, and rest. You need to make fitness happen. There’s no easy way to do it, so suck it up, buttercup!

Mindset

It doesn’t matter what your level of fitness is — without a proper mindset and realistic goals, you will not achieve your fullest potential. If your goal is to lose weight, a reasonable goal is to take the weight loss in 10 percent increments of your current body weight. If your goal is to lose body fat/gain muscle, get a body fat analyzer to track your progress. If you’re “just trying to feel better,” I believe you aren’t being specific enough and are destined to fail. I once lost 50 pounds busting my hump to feel better. Despite being successful in that weight loss goal, I still felt miserable. Why? My mindset wasn’t focused on “proper” diet and rest. I gained it back and started over. My goal was shortsighted, and I lacked vision.

I remembered a book I read in college called Peak Performance: Mental Training Techniques of the World’s Greatest Athletes by Charles A. Garfield and Hal Zina Bennett. I realized I was going through the motions and not visualizing my goals. This was a critical piece that was missing, and once I added it back, I found success. In order to visualize effectively, it helps to have a measurable metric. Such metrics can be percent body fat, waist circumference, and total body weight, to name a few. These should be checked at the beginning of your exercise program and every six weeks. Write everything you do down: diet, calories, macronutrients, exercise, etc., as this holds you accountable to yourself. This can provide valuable feedback toward your progress and improve your chance of success.

Another part of the success and mindset is attitude. This year, I decided to do something I sucked at and turn it into a positive. Since the number-one thing on the list was running, I went all in. In preparing for a half marathon, I was coached by many of my running friends that not every run will be a good one. I challenged myself to find a bit of good in every run. Some days I didn’t go far, but my blood sugars stayed steady. Other days my blood sugars tanked, and I had to walk for distance. Maybe on one run I had trouble with hip pain, but I focused on technique to make it through the run. I always tried to stay positive with every run. With each outing, I improved. By staying positive, I found that my motivation remained high … even when my friends were yelling, “Run Forrest, RUN!”

Diet

Many people think about a diet as a four-letter word. How do you choose which diet is right for you? There are all kinds of recommendations; however, I like to keep it simple. First, use an app like myfitnesspal (www.myfitnesspal.com) to track calories and nutrients. I find that people who track their progress on an app tend to maintain their dietary goals for a longer duration. The key to using any form of diet tracker is to be completely honest with how much you’re eating. Measure everything out.

fitness food diet stock image

Above: Fruits and vegetables are important, but don’t forget herbs and spices to aid in recovery. 

When I counseled patients on a “medically supervised weight loss program,” I first had them record what they ate for one week without any direction from me. I found that 90 percent of the people who came in the following week had obvious issues with their diets. Most of these patients thought they were doing right by eating what they were eating. We would discuss some simple changes, whether it was total calories or macronutrient composition. I’d set goals, or benchmarks, for them to attain. I’d then see them back in three weeks and check on their progress. I’d challenge them to lose half to 1 pound a week. Often in the early weeks I’d see 5 to 10 pounds of weight lost, depending on how bad the diet was initially.

If I thought they were overindulging on calories, I’d take their first week’s data and cut 250 to 500 calories a day. For the average person, it takes 3,500 calories cut to equate to one pound of weight loss. If the patient came back three weeks later and had not lost weight, it was often due to underreporting of food consumed. If the patient already had a reasonable calorie intake after that first week, we’d focus on macronutrient composition. I know there are a lot of different views on what this should be; however, I’d look at their first week’s data as a guide.

Invariably, people would either be heavy on carbs or heavy on fats. We would adjust these to more reasonable levels and discuss foods that would be better substitutes to meet their goals. To reduce carbohydrates, I’d encourage them to avoid processed foods and eat as many vegetables as they could. They were encouraged to eat fruit every day. I’d often direct people to www.allrecipes.com to help them with ideas on using vegetables in meals.

To boost protein, I suggest that people try to get 1.5 mg/kg of body weight a day. Personally, I have to supplement with protein powder to reach that mark. Having a good amount of protein will help with muscle gain as well as recovery after workouts. I’d also try to adjust the amount of protein, as well as calorie consumption, based on activity of the day. Remember that too much protein can be harmful to the kidneys. You might periodically check in with your physician to have a blood test or urine test to ensure that all is good there.

Fats are an important part of our diet and should not be eliminated altogether. In college, I got a wacky idea to cut my fat consumption to less than 10 percent of my total calories. Guess what happened? I got massively depressed. As I was reading about dieting and nutrition, I came across a passage that described how important fat is in our diet. I went to the store to buy some Skippy and felt better in a few days! My depression was caused by not having enough fat in my diet. Now, I aim for 20 percent of caloric intake from fat as part of my macronutrient goal.

Exercise

If diet is a four-letter word, exercise is twice as foul, right? But it doesn’t have to be. This goes back to having the right mindset. I think about exercise in three different contexts and believe the weight of each in your routine varies depending on your level of fitness. First, think about the importance of stretching. Not only does it help to get the circulation flowing to the muscles, it can reduce the chance of injury even when we push our bodies physically.

fitness personal trainer stock image

As we age, flexibility is also important for joint mobility and can help ease the pain from arthritis. Whether you choose to do basic stretching, yoga, or some iteration of these is up to your preference. I like a stretching program by Scott Sonnon that he calls Intuflow. YouTube has multiple videos from Scott, and others, that are helpful. Diamond Dallas Page has his version of yoga that includes isometrics in the movements. Check out his program at www.ddpyoga.com. He has an excellent app if you sign up for his program.

The second aspect of exercise should involve cardiovascular fitness. I love the saying that you can’t walk a mile without taking the first step. For some patients, I’d literally recommend that they walk 20 feet, several times a day. You would be amazed at the lack of fitness some people have that requires them to start at this level. If they can do it, so can you. Start a walking program. Once you can walk for time, say 30 minutes, then increase the speed and walk for distance within that time.

Continue to increase your goals every week. When you decide to start running, try walking for one minute then running for one minute. Again, pace is up to you, but try to work up the time, say 15 cycles of the walk one/run one. Maybe every week or two, increase the amount of time you run (e.g. 2/1, 3/1, 4/2, etc.). Of course, you can also try cycling, rowing, or anything else that increases heart rate. Your goal should be a target heart rate of 85 percent of your predicted maximum (220 minus age, then multiply by 0.85 to get your target heart rate). With fitness watches, such as the Garmin Fenix 6X Pro, you can collect data to guide you to improve your fitness.

fitness stock image yoga

Above: A mixture of strength training, stretching, cardiovascular and core exercises round out a good program.

The last aspect of exercise is strength training. One important part of adding muscle is that it also increases the efficiency at which you use calories. There are several different methods to incorporate strength training. You can go old school and put in your VHS tape of Pumping Iron and work out with Arnold. If you don’t have weights available, you can use bodyweight exercises and improvise weights. (Tires or 5-gallon bottles of water are just a couple of ideas.) Check out Brute Force Sandbags (www.bruteforcetraining.com), which is an excellent option as well.

Another exercise I like is using TRX suspension bands (www.trxtraining.com). I personally found TRX to be helpful with building core strength and cardio, as well as being fun. Functional strength training is another option but requires access to weights. A site that I find useful, along with their Instagram and Facebook pages, is Mouser Strength Dynamics (www.mouserpower.com). I’ve learned quite a bit from John and Hannah over the years and find them both to be excellent teachers and motivators.

In Summary

Taking the first step to becoming more fit is often the hardest part for anyone. Once you get started, the momentum will pick up steam, and you’ll be on your way to making fitness happen. It takes a good mindset, a solid plan, goals, and a combination of diet, exercise, and rest. Where people struggle is maintaining their pursuit of healthy living. This is why I encourage people to write down everything in a notebook every day. It also helps if a spouse or significant other is training with you. You’re less likely to give up on your goals that way. The last part that people struggle with is maintaining their success once their goals are reached. Your choices are to set new goals, to maintain where you are, or, like some people, reverse course and fall back into bad habits. The way I protect the latter is to set a ceiling on weight. Once that ceiling is reached, I get back on the fitness plan, so I don’t erase months of success.

Above: Omron Body Fat Analyzer

There are multiple ways to accomplish each aspect of your fitness journey; however, you have to choose what’s right for you both mentally and physically. If you have trouble developing a plan, look into a local fitness professional to help meet your needs. The websites that I’ve included are just some of the ones that I’ve found helpful. There are many more that are available if these don’t suit your needs. Good luck on your fitness goals. Your life may depend on it!

Successful Mindset

  1. Set realistic goals: If you weigh 250 pounds and want to lose 50 pounds, start with 25 (10 percent) and it isn’t so overwhelming.
  2. Keep re-evaluating your goals: If you aren’t reaching goals over seven days (e.g. losing 0.5 to 1 pound per week) then look at your diet.
  3. Rest is important: Remember, this is the restorative portion and, if neglected, you may not see the progress toward your goals.
  4. Stay positive: Place sticky notes around the house with positive sayings to keep up your motivation; set goals with a partner to encourage each other.
  5. Celebrate milestones toward your goal (e.g. 2 percent weight loss, 1 percent body fat loss, seven consecutive days of exercise).

Above: Garmin Fenix 6X Pro

Dietary Suggestions

Protein is always good with a goal of 1.5g/kg body weight. Eggs and chicken breasts are great; however, vegan options include almonds, oats, quinoa, and lentils.

Fiber is excellent for colon health with a goal of 20 to 30 grams per day. Fruits, nuts, vegetables, and grains are great sources of fiber.

Unless you’re on a potassium-restricted diet due to heart disease or kidney disease, potassium is a challenge to get enough of the daily requirement (about 4,000mg daily). Foods such as bananas, white potatoes, spinach, and salmon contain good amounts of potassium. 

About the Author

David L. Miller, DO, FACOI is an internist in private practice for 20 years. His experiences away from the office have included time as a fight doctor in regional MMA events and as a team physician for 10 years at a midmajor university in the Midwest. Currently, he serves as the lead medical instructor for the Civilian Crisis Response team based out of Indianapolis.

More on Health and Fitness from OFFGRID

Reader’s Bag Drop: Winter Survival Pack Loadouts

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Editor’s Note: In Issue 34 of our magazine, we introduced the new Bag Drop column. In each edition of the column, our staff and contributors share survival pack loadouts and explain the logic behind the items they contain. No two people will carry the exact same gear or have the same needs, so Bag Drop offers some food for thought that can help you consider the gear you carry and the reasons you carry it.

We also asked you to share some of your own bag setups with us. The following is a submission from a reader named Richard Weiss, who lives in a cold part of Michigan between two of the Great Lakes. If you’d like to share your own survival pack setup, send me an email.

Here are some of my survival packs — I’ve got so many. I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Up in Calumet, their record is over 30 feet of snow during the winter, and generally all over the Upper peninsula below zero is the norm in this season. Blizzards are not rare, and we drive 30 minutes to get to Walmart.

My car emergency go-bag contains the following items:

  • Mittens
  • Scarf
  • Below-zero emergency bag (like an ultra-compact sleeping bag)
  • Hand warmers
  • Cree LED flashlight
  • 4 mags for HK VP9 handgun
  • 2 boxes of 9mm ammo
  • Kershaw folding knife
  • iPhone backup battery

For long trips, I also add a gun to the pack as a backup to my carry pistol. It’s a S&W Governor revolver with 2 boxes of Critical Defense .410 shells.

When hunting in the Rockies, I carry a digital camo backpack with water reservoir. It also contains the following gear.

Side compartments:

  • Headlamp
  • Cree flashlight
  • Blood tracking light
  • Various spare batteries
  • Nalgene canteen

Lower compartment:

  • First aid pack with extra Ibuprofen and aspirin
  • Small roll of toilet paper
  • Small pack of wet wipes
  • Mini bottle of anti-bacterial soap
  • Alcohol wipes
  • Waterproof matches
  • Long-flame butane lighter
  • Fire starter cubes
  • Mini roll of red duct tape

Middle compartment:

  • Leica binoculars
  • HD Thermal monocular
  • Heat packs
  • Kershaw folding knife

Deep top compartment:

  • Gutting gloves
  • Jersey cotton gloves
  • Chocolate bars and bagels
  • Bandanna
  • Coil of paracord
  • Reflective-face heavy-duty shelter tarp
  • Small roll bright orange surveying tape
  • Chill choker, reversible color
  • Chuke hat, reversible color
  • Extra mitten gloves

Cinch straps on the outside of the pack retain outerwear while hiking. I remove excess layers while walking uphill to avoid sweating. The top of the pack also has a handheld GPS w/ OnX Maps and 2 carabiners.

I wear a separate gun belt while at my hunting property here in the Yoop. This offers a means of protection from wolves and bears. It consists of:

  • .44 cal Ruger Super RedHawk
  • Rifle ammo pouch
  • Handgun ammo pouch
  • Sheath knife with gut hook
  • Rangefinder pouch

– Richard Weiss, St. Ignace, MI

Infographic: How Animals Survive the Winter

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Surviving in extremely cold weather is a serious challenge, and one that requires careful preparation. This is true for both humans and other members of the animal kingdom. While man has adapted to start fires and don layers of warm clothes, animals have developed other ways of staying alive during the cold season. By studying these adaptations, we can consider new ways to adjust our own winter survival strategies.

Infographic animal survival strategies winter weather cold shelter snow 6

The following infographic from Alan’s Factory Outlet shows how animals survive the winter, with 34 individual examples. Some of these can’t be imitated by humans, while others are surprisingly similar to what we already do in cold weather. Click here to download a full-size version of this infographic.

Infographic animal survival strategies winter weather cold shelter 2Infographic animal survival strategies winter weather cold shelter 3Infographic animal survival strategies winter weather cold shelter 4

So, what can we learn from these survival strategies?

  • Migrating to a warmer environment is always a good plan, assuming you can afford a summer home on the beach somewhere.
  • Adding layers of insulation is an effective way to retain body heat, so prepare additional garments and stow them for cold weather.
  • Building an improvised burrow shelter can help you escape the elements.
  • If possible, hibernate to conserve warmth — ideally indoors, next to a warm fire with a hot beverage and a good book.
  • Although you can’t expand your brain like the chickadee, you can still plan and catalog your supplies to be better prepared for winter.

Plate Carrier Types

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When it comes to the protection of self, family, and home, we spend a lot of time talking about guns — not only our own, but also those a potential adversary may be using. But there’s a second leg to that conversation that often doesn’t receive due consideration: body armor. The proliferation of commercially available hard armor plates has spawned an ever-expanding market for the plate carrier. On one end are the ultra-minimalist “slick” plate carriers. These are typically meant to be worn under light clothing with little or no capacity to carry equipment. On the other end are military-type plate carriers that often come with an array of pouches permanently sewn to the carrier body. These pouches accommodate everything from spare mags to radios, grenades, hydration, and everything in between. The fastest-growing segment of the carrier market is the middle-of-the-road option of modular plate carriers. These carriers can be worn stripped down, but often come with Velcro or buckle attachment points to facilitate the addition of pouches, chest rigs, or placards that can be swapped out to carry different loads. With so many shapes, sizes, and configurations of plate carriers available, we wanted to provide a few examples of what’s out there, best uses, and options for configuration. Your needs will determine which style of plate carrier works best for you, but here are some examples from across the style spectrum …

 

“Slick” Plate Carrier

The absolute minimalist expression for running hard armor plates, stand-alone carriers are the best option when discretion is the order of the day. These types of carriers can be made to all but disappear underneath a light windbreaker, button-up shirt, or even an oversized T-shirt. If you want armor protection but aren’t carrying a rifle, this may be the way to go. These kinds of carriers can be seamlessly integrated into your normal EDC, imposing minimal restrictions on wardrobe while allowing unimpeded access to IWB holsters and other defensive tools.

first spear slick plate carrier

Above: First Spear’s “Slick” plate carrier is an ultralight, bare-bones carrier designed for maximum concealment.

Our example here is from First Spear and is appropriately named “Slick.” The Slick is just about the sleekest, leanest footprint you could ask for from an armor carrier. The body of the carrier is made from ultra-thin, stretch fabric material, with a stretch cummerbund that Velcros in place. It also features simple, Velcro-adjustable nylon shoulder straps. This model was designed specifically for low-profile law enforcement, intelligence, and protective missions that require the armor to be worn under any variety of street clothing. If you remove the plates, the entire carrier can be balled up and stowed in a large cargo pocket. There’s no provision to carry gear directly on the carrier, but it can be paired with a minimalist chest rig (such as the Blue Force Gear Ten-Speed we reviewed in Issue 36) if the situation dictates.

A carrier like this might be good for members of your family who aren’t designated as primary responders to an armed threat, but who want protection from said threats. It’s also an excellent choice to keep in your vehicle if you frequent high-risk areas or must pass through urban areas under civil unrest. 

URL: www.first-spear.com

“Full-Up” Plate Carrier

At the opposite end of the spectrum are dedicated “full-up” or direct-action-oriented plate carriers. These carriers come with on-board load carriage built in, and are favored by military special operations and law enforcement tactical teams, who will almost always be working with a carbine or submachine gun and require supporting equipment like radios, hydration, extra ammo, and distraction devices.

plate carrier tyr tactical

Above: Tyr Tactical’s Basic Plate Carrier is a design suited for full-time tactical teams and armed professionals, but will be hard to conceal when fully laden.

Our example is Tyr Tactical’s Basic Plate Carrier. The BPC comes covered in PALS webbing loops for attaching MOLLE pouches and includes a “kangaroo” pouch in the front that can hold three AR-style magazines. This particular carrier was used by the author while working as a high-threat protective specialist overseas. In addition to the kangaroo pouch, an additional magazine pouch, trauma medical kit, flashlight pouch, and hydration carrier were attached for daily protective duties in war zone environments.

The utility of this style of carrier is somewhat limited for the “average” citizen, due to its bulky nature and overt profile. But if you’re protecting a ranch, business, or other large property where the use of rifles is appropriate and the appearance of being armed (or armored) isn’t a concern, the ability to carry extra ammo and gear on your person could be a boon.

URL: www.tyrtactical.com

Modular Plate Carrier

Modular carriers are quickly becoming the most popular style of plate carrier due to their flexible, reconfigurable nature. They bring a best-of-both-worlds utility to those looking for a single plate carrier to cover an array of potential scenarios. These can be worn as a slick carrier, or in full-up configuration with the addition of placards and drop-down pouches.

plate carrier modularAbove: The Defense Mechanisms MEPC with Maximus Placard.

Seen here is the Defense Mechanisms Mission Essential Plate Carrier (MEPC). The MEPC can be pieced together on Defense Mechanisms’ website, with multiple sizes of plate bags and different types of cummerbunds added à la carte. This allows you to put together the carrier that fits your needs most closely. Speaking just to the cummerbunds, there are four versions available: a 3- and 5-inch-wide version with two and three rows of nylon mesh MOLLE webbing, respectively. Each of those are available as a MOLLE-only version, or as a “hybrid” cummerbund, featuring a section of MOLLE mesh attached to a section of stretch material. The hybrid version can expand/contract to accommodate extra layers of clothing or small size differences between multiple users; this variant also comes with ROC quick-release buckles. These quick-disconnect latches come in handy when using the MEPC with a placard or chest rig, allowing you to don/doff the carrier without lifting up the placard to tear away the Velcro between the cummerbund and front plate bag. Our test sample came with the 5-inch hybrid cummerbund. The MEPC comes with two Fastex buckles hard-sewn to the front of the carrier to facilitate the use of placards while minimizing bulk if you choose to run it slick.

Defense Mechanisms does offer their own front placards, which are scalable in their own right, but we wanted to illustrate the cross-compatibility of these types of carrier/placard systems. So, for our “heavy” configuration, we used a Maximus placard from HRT Tactical Gear. HRT makes their own carrier, but the de facto standardization for placard attachment means there was no issue transplanting their Maximus placard onto the MEPC. We really like the Maximus for situations that require a substantial amount of load carriage — it comes standard with a kangaroo pouch for ammunition, two square general-purpose pouches and pistol-mag-sized pouches on either end. This placard was also designed for maximum modularity. The open-top pistol magazine pouches include flexible polymer inserts for magazine retention. Since these are secured in place with Velcro, we removed them and repurposed those pouches to carry a pair of SOFT-T tourniquets. The kangaroo ammo pouch is also Velcro-lined, and the Maximus is available with three types of soft-loop inserts for different types of magazines: a three-mag insert for AR-15 style mags, a two-mag insert for larger AR-10, FAL, or M14-style mags, and a five-mag insert for submachine gun or pistol-caliber carbine mags. The two general-purpose pouches include loops for gear retention. We used one for medical equipment and one for pyrotechnic gear — a Sport Smoke smoke grenade and IWA international civilian-legal flashbang device. This combination of placard and carrier allow us a high-profile armor carriage setup ideal for tactical training or high-threat defense scenarios.

If a couple of spare mags is all you need to have on you, Tactical Tailor makes Velcro-backed magazine pouches (not shown) that can attach directly to the loop panel on the front of the MEPC. This gives you a few extra reloads without the bulk of a larger placard like the Maximus.

Finally, if you already have a stand-alone chest rig, this can also be integrated onto the MEPC, assuming your buckles line up properly. A small company called AXL Advanced produces a handy product called the Chest Rig Retention Kit. This kit consists of four Fastex buckles on shock-cord loops that can be threaded through the MOLLE loops in your cummerbund. The system allows you to adapt a variety of chest rigs to your modular plate carrier. This is a great tool to have in your gear locker if you want to run multiple types of carriers with one chest rig.

In our examples here, you see the Redwire Gear Emergency Management Rack chest rig, which was featured as a stand-alone chest rig in Issue 38. With the AXL Advanced kit, that same rig was adapted to the Defense Mechanisms carrier as placard. Now you only need a single chest rig that functions with two types of plate carrier configurations.

Above: The AXL Advanced Chest Rig Adapter kit can adapt chest rigs into plate carrier placards, with its ingenious system of buckles and shock cord.

But if a placard or chest rig alone isn’t enough load carriage, modular plate carriers can often be augmented with drop-down or abdominal pouches, sometimes referred to as danglers. These pouches hang freely below the plate carrier itself and are typically used by tactical teams to carry medical, breaching, or signaling supplies. To illustrate this, we tried out the Removable Organized Modular (ROM) pouch by Gadsden Dynamics. The ROM is a simple, single-compartment drop-down pouch that’s fully loop-lined and comes with several removable loop retainers for gear organization. The ROM offers a unique quick-detach feature, allowing it to be “torn” off of its mounting placard via the use of friction-release buckles. Paired with a dedicated placard like the Maximus, it can be used as a larger compartment for more comprehensive medical kits. The Redwire EMR is also paired with that company’s own Demo Pouch, which we filled with chemlights, strobes, and a Sport Smoke as an emergency signaling kit with low-light capability. Individual equipment load-outs are highly personal and mission/need specific, but drop-down pouches allow an exponential increase in storage without any extra front-facing bulk.

These are by no means the only options available in each category. There are many companies offering a myriad of carriers, placards, chest rigs, and drop-down pouches. But these examples offer a good outline of the different types of carriers, their potential uses and different options that can be cobbled together for that Goldilocks just-right-fit for your wants and needs in armor and load carriage.

URLs:

Some Notes About Plates

Armor plates, protection ratings and cuts/sizing could fill an entire article all by itself, but since we’re talking about carriers, we wanted to touch on some of the variations in plates and what’s out there.

For the sake of brevity, we’re going to talk about Level III and IV plates, and we’re going to skip over rolled steel plates — which, despite their bargain-basement cost, come with a host of pitfalls including substantial weight and a higher risk of spalling. Of course, steel plates certainly offer better protection than no plates at all, but they aren’t our first choice given the existence of ceramic and polymer alternatives.

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has set forth a standardized testing protocol for armor plates that has been the national template for many years. The top two tiers of rifle-rated hard plate protection set forth by NIJ are Level III and Level IV. The very thinnest of bottom lines is that NIJ-compliant level III plates must defeat six rounds of 7.62x51mm NATO ball ammunition, similar to commercial .308 Winchester. Level IV plates must stop between one and six rounds of 7.62x63mm NATO (.30-06) M2 armor-piercing ammunition. The commercial market has filled in the gaps with non-standardized protection levels like Level III+ and “Special Threat” plates, which may augment the NIJ standards with additional protection against 5.56mm NATO “green tip” armor-piercing rounds or 7.62x54mm rounds like those fired from the Russian Dragunov sniper rifle or PKM machine gun. Make sure you thoroughly read the manufacturer’s protection ratings before purchasing any hard armor plates to ensure they fulfill your personal requirements. Also, note that many plates are said to “meet NIJ standards,” but may not have been independently tested and certified to be NIJ Compliant. Always check the manufacturer’s documentation thoroughly for test results, or search for the most current Compliant Armor list on nij.ojp.gov.

From an end-user perspective, most people are concerned with a couple of key characteristics: cost, protection level, weight, and thickness. Lighter plates are easier to wear for long periods, but may also be thicker. Thicker plates may offer more protection but also add bulk, if concealability is a concern. And all of these things will affect price. What follows are some examples of plates at different protection and price levels We’ll highlight the key dimensions for direct comparison. In an attempt to keep the comparisons as “apples to apples” as possible, all plates are size medium SAPI-cut plates.

Prime Armor Level III Plates

Size: Medium
Dimensions:10 by 12 inches
Thickness: 1.1 inches
Weight: 3.75 pounds per plate
Advertised Protection Level: III
Advertised Threat Rounds Defeated:

  • 5.56x45mm NATO M193 FMJ
  • 7.62x51mm M80 FMJ
  • 7.62x39mm FMJ

Price: $398 (set of 2 – note: sold per plate at $199 each)

prime armor plates

Notes: This is the only model of plate that Prime Armor sells, and we think these plates are an excellent starting point to balance price versus protection. However, they’re so thick we had to swap our size medium Defense Mechanisms plate carrier for a large just to fit these plates. They aren’t what we’d choose for low-profile use. If that’s not a concern, a pair of plates comes in at sub 8 pounds and sub $400, which is a pretty good ratio of cost to weight to protection.

Be aware that they won’t protect against any armor-piercing rounds. This includes the ever-popular 5.56mm “green tip” M855 ammo that’s widely available on the commercial market, and, in our opinion, the armor-piercing ammo you’re most likely to encounter inside U.S. borders. There’s also “mild steel core” ammunition available in 7.62x39mm Russian, which is similar in capability. Though less common than green tip, it’s still out there and should be factored into the level of protection you choose.

Having said that, we also think these plates are an excellent option for CQB and shoot-house training classes. Such classes often require students to wear rifle-rated plates, but also prohibit the use of any kind of armor-piercing ammo. So, Level III plates hit the sweet spot for a situation that requires rifle protection but where you know armor-piercing rounds won’t be present. Their lightweight polyethylene construction makes these plates a breeze to wear for hours on end multiple days in a row.

URL: www.primebodyarmor.com

Spartan Armor Level III+ Plates

Size: Medium
Dimensions: 10 by 12 inches
Thickness: 1.1 inches
Weight: 4.65 pounds per plate
Advertised Protection Level: III+
Advertised Threat Rounds Defeated:

  • 5.56x45mm M193 FMJ
  • 7.62x39mm M67 FMJ
  • 7.62x51mm M80 FMJ
  • 5.56x45mm M855/SS109 AP
  • 7.62x39mm M43 Steel Core

Price: $721 (set of 2)

Notes: These plates are the most expensive on our list, by a healthy margin. This is a good opportunity to re-emphasize the balance of cost against other factors. It might make sense on the surface that higher protection levels equal higher cost. But, really, it’s a combination of protection and weight that produces the cost.

The Level IV plates listed on the next page offer higher protection, but these Level III+ plates are substantially lighter for almost the same level of protection. In fact, the only difference in protection between these Level III+ plates and the Level IVs are .30-06 armor piercing. Unless you’re expecting to get in a firefight with adversaries carrying M1 Garand rifles, Level III+ plates will stop anything you’re likely to encounter inside the United States, and they’re almost 5 pounds lighter than Level IV equivalents. Does that matter? A loaded 30-round AR magazine weighs 1 pound. A 100-ounce water bladder weighs over 6 pounds. Then, add pistol mags, smoke grenades, radios, or whatever else you keep on your kit. Depending on what your loadout looks like, the extra money and small sacrifice in protection level may provide you with a more comfortable, well-rounded setup that still meets all your needs.

As previously stated, “Level III+” isn’t an official NIJ rating. By that scale, these plates are only Level III-rated as they don’t cover the aforementioned .30-06 AP rounds. But if you see that plus sign, or other notations like “Special Threat rated” on a product description, make sure you read down into what specific calibers/rounds are covered by that plate.

URL: www.spartanarmor.com

Level IV Plates:

We have two examples of Level IV plates here, both from Hoplite Armor. We wanted to show you how even two plates of the same rating from the same manufacturer can offer trade-offs in dimensions and cost. Hoplite has a wide selection of plates in a variety of protection levels. The two models seen here are #26149 and #26135 respectively. The primary difference, on first glance, is that the 26149 SAPI cut plates are covered in a thin fabric sheath while the 26135 Swimmer cut plates are coated in a hard Line-X coating.

hoplite plate carrier swimmer cut

Why does the outer shell matter? If you’ve ever seen a photo of a plate that has been shot, you may have seen a light, almost flaky substance that appears to be crumbling and falling out of the bullet hole like crushed plaster. This is normal to see, as the composite material gets crushed/sacrificed to protect the wearer. Hoplite says that using Line-X coating instead of fabric helps hold this material together and keep it inside the plate, enhancing the multi-hit capability of the 26135 model. 

hoplite esapi level iv plate

The 26149, with fabric shell, is still multi-hit capable. The hard shell is simply an enhancement of this capability.

Hoplite Armor Level IV Plates

Size:

  • 26149 – Medium (SAPI Cut)
  • 26135 – Medium (Swimmer Cut)

Dimensions:

  • 26149 – 12.5 by 9.5 inches
  • 26135 – 11.3 by 9.6 inches

Thickness:

  • 26149 – 0.74 inch
  • 26135 – 0.74 inch

Weight:

  • 26149 – 7.65 pounds per plate
  • 26135 – 6.7 pounds per plate

hoplite plate carrier level iv swimmer cut

Advertised Protection Level (both models): IV

Advertised Threat Rounds Defeated (both models):

  • 5.56x45mm NATO M193 FMJ
  • 7.62x51mm NATO FMJ
  • 5.56x45mm M855/SS109 AP
  • 7.62x51mm NATO AP
  • 7.62x39mm API
  • 7.62x39mm M43 Steel Core
  • 7.62x54mmR L/LPS/B-32 API
  • .30-06 M2 AP

Price:

  • 26149 – $479 (set of 2)
  • 26135 – $399 (set of 2)

Notes: If you choose to run a carrier like First Spear’s Slick, which is made of a very thin fabric material, the rough Line-X coating on the 26135’s may eventually damage the carrier. An ultra-light, slick carrier run by itself (no chest rig or pouches attached) may make the heavier plates with fabric shell an acceptable trade-off. But if you’re running a larger carrier with four to five loaded magazines and additional equipment, the 2-pound difference between these plate sets starts to matter a little more.

URL: www.hoplitearmor.com

hoplite plate carrier level iv esapi

Conclusion

Again, your armor plates are part of a larger load-out. The key to long-term success with minimal fuss and no double-spending is to do your research ahead of time and assemble your components as a protection/load carriage system that meets all your requirements. Size, weight, thickness, and protection level will all influence plate selection. Load-carriage requirements and concealability/outward posture will likely be deciding factors for plate carriers. The examples shown here are by no means a comprehensive list of what’s out there, but a sampling of some of the different combinations that can be had.

[Editor’s Note: Photography by Patrick McCarthy. This Article First Appeared in OFFGRID #42.]

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