We all know tactical gear, molle, and kevlar is super cool. I mean if you don’t have a bitching plate carrier and some Cryes, “do you even gun bro?” Alas, this gear is very cool, but it is hardly ever practical for the vast majority of us. This article is going to look at innovative tactical equipment that is concealable, and would allow you to use it without everyone thinking you like to Operate from time to time.
As we stated above we are looking for more of a Jason Bourne look, and less Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Not only is this type of equipment very cool, it is also used by certain types of folks and yes those folks are secret, and ninjas. It is also much more practical as you can use it for a variety of more normal tasks.
The first thing we are going to be looking at is some concealable body armor, both soft armor and hard armor.
Concealable Soft Body Armor
This type of armor system will be concealable underneath clothing, but could be worn underneath a zip off jacket or hoody if required. The body armor below is a concealable soft armor vest from Crye Precision.
This vest has some interesting features. It is extremely thin and 3d cut to map closer to the torso. This will keep it from printing quite as much.
It also has space behind the front straps for magazine, or a radio, making this a great piece of equipment to leave your tactical gear on and simply strap it on and go.
You’re probably saying that sounds great Jake, but what if my imaginary enemies are shooting rifle rounds at me. As we know soft body armor does absolutely nothing to protect you from high velocity rifle rounds.
In this case you will need a plate carrier, with some rifle rated plates. It doesn’t get much more low profile than the Slick plate carrier from First Spear.
With the elastic cummerbund, the plates will be held very closely to your body. This carrier will accept swimmer cut, or sapi style armor plates, such as these plates from Velocity Systems.
The plates are only .65 inches thick, weighing in at less than 3lbs a piece. They will stop mild steel core 7.62-39mm AK rounds. They are level III rated, not level IV, which means that 30-06 and certain armor piercing rounds will most likely defeat this armor.
Now that we’ve covered our armor systems, let’s move on to some other low visibility equipment.
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Low Visibility Pistol and Rifle
Just like in the armor section we are going to give you a selection of gear depending on your personal preference and the dictates of your imaginary mission.
For the pistol, I’m going to recommend the Glock 19 because it’s been battle tested and it’s not super expensive. It has also been redesigned recently and Glock has made some great changes to it.
You can pick up this Glock 19 Gen 5 from Buds Gun Shop for around $539 which is a pretty good deal.
I figure if it’s good enough for SEALs, and SOCOM, then it’s probably good enough for us. It is also wildly popular for concealed carry because it is not a large framed pistol, but it can still hold 15 rounds of 9mm.
Speaking of magazines. You will most likely be needing some type of carrier that is low profile. You won’t find a slimmer carrier than the Bravo Concealment Kydex series (Amazon Affiliate Link)
If we need to carry a rifle, or a AR style “pistol”, we also have many different options, but these are definitely going to cost like 4 or 5 times what a Glock 19 will run you.
One of the main reasons you would carry a rifle is if you needed to make longer range shots, or you want a more lethal cartridge.
For concealable rifles it doesn’t get any better than the Sig Sauer Rattler, in 300 blackout.
This rifle is very short. It features a 5.5 inch barrel and a gas piston design. It’s overall length when folded is only 16 inches, which will easily fit into a variety of back packs and could even be slung tightly to the body under a heavier jacket.
If you have a rifle then you will need at least one back up magazine in a carrier (Amazon Affiliate Link). Just as before, I recommend Bravo Concealment because I’ve actually tested their products, and they are high quality and don’t break the bank.
So far we have gone over ways to stop people making holes in you, how to make holes in others, but how do we fix holes that miss our body armor?
Medical Equipment
This is a vitally important set of equipment to carry. From what I’ve seen Dark Angel Medical makes some very good kits. The Ankle Kit, is designed to be worn around your ankle and will hold a variety of medical equipment including: Combat Gauze, Nitrile Gloves, CAT-T Tourniquets and more (Amazon Affiliate Links).
In case you don’t know how to use any of that life saving stuff. Here’s 3 free hours of training that is super detailed.
Now that we have the big three taken care of let’s move on to some more ancillary equipment that’s still super handy.
Knives
I generally prefer to carry an assisted opening knife with a very solid lock up. The best I’ve found so far is the Zero Tolerance 0350 (Amazon Affiliate Link).
This knife has a very well designed grip, and fits the hand nicely. The most important feature is the “tooth” or flipper that is used to extend the knife partially before the spring assist finishes the job.
When in it’s opened position it acts as a guard, and keeps your hand from sliding forward onto the knife blade. This is incredibly common when pushing or stabbing the knife into an object.
For a full review click here to see all the details of the 0350.
Calling in the QRF
In the military even the most badass units will occasionally bite off more than they can chew. In these cases they call in the Quick Reaction Force, or QRF for short.
As a solo Jason Bourne basement operator we too will need to call in the proverbial calvary if we get into trouble. I always recommend calling the police in the case of real danger, but you might not always be somewhere where the police can respond quickly, i.e rural areas, or other countries.
In this case I recommend the Mayday Safety App. It’s inventor Ryan Cleckner is a man of many hats. Not only is he a business owner, constitutional law lawyer, but in another life he was a Sniper in the 75th Ranger Regiment, and he is an expert instructor in all things long range shooting.
This app is awesome, because it is free for individuals and it allows you select your personal QRF. If you run into trouble you simple push a button and an automatic alert is sent to all your friends, that you’ve selected, prompting them to contact you.
This is an amazing resource for those that run into situations that the police don’t need to respond for, and especially for areas where they can’t or won’t respond. Not all countries have well trained competent police forces.
Final Thoughts
This gear is pretty cool, and undoubtedly useful. I don’t recommend you carry all of it every day. Please don’t turn into one of those EDC weirdos. They are very odd.
But pieces of this equipment can be used in a variety of situations, which ultimately is much better than $1500 dollar piece of specialty gear that is of no use 99.99% of the time.
Thoughts ? Questions? Put them below where I can get you a quick answer.
