Tactics and VELCRO

[Silent Earth]

Tactics and VELCRO


How many of you good people have Velcro strips holding your pockets, cuffs, pouches etc shut?


May I respectfully ask of you to get your hubby / wife/ partner / colleague to carry out a quick experiment one night this week.

Grab your jacket or bag or whatever essential prepper gear you have secured with Velcro (leg pockets on Cargos are common sources) and go outdoors into the dark.

Ask your friend or helper to listen at what distances they can hear you tearing open your pocket / pouch/ hood / cuffs etc

Yes its surprising isn’t it? On one test I did when we were camping my wife could hear my son opening the Velcro straps on his sleeping bag at a range of near as damn it 70 feet!!.


Velcro IS convenient, Velcro is FAST but Velcro is the tactical preppers worst enemy because it gives away your location to anyone else in the area over a good distance especially at night.

Take a closer look at your tactical bug out gear and ask yourselves sensibly “Which bits of kit I can convert to Fastex Clips or Canadian Slotted buttons, or elasticated tags or Draw cords and any other SILENT but secure method of keeping your gear stored.

I recently bought an expensive tactical soft shell from a very reputable supplier of kit to the military, security and adventurers. The jacket itself surpassed my wildest requirements on quality, fit, function etc except for the CUFF fastenings.

Here is a first rate garment designed in part for its low noise signature (rustle etc) meant for use by troops, cops, etc as an outer garment that is sold for its STEALTH capability has bloody Velcro cuff tags. Not only are they noisy when adjusted by the wearer but they frequently snag on foliage or other bits of kit and make enough noise to ruin your day. Why Velcro when elastic or draw cords makes more sense and a lot less noise.

Velcro is NOT the preppers friend on any kit you may be using when you want to remain undiscovered.

NR

 

[Graynomad]

Yep, that stuff is loud.

 

[Marv.Schmitz87]

Depends on what you try to do with it. Velcro is strong as hell. In direct competition it outlastet a steel chain by a lot.
For nois reduction reasons it sucks pretty bad. I prefer buttons or silenced zippers.
But the whole velcro system is pretty neat.

 

[Silent Earth]

Oh there is no doubt Velcro is neat and very useful, but its no good for any gear you require for silent bugging out or patrolling.

 

[psalm 7]

I use Velcro pouches on Tactical entry and other close combat sets but on patrol and sniper sets I use old school gear with snaps mostly surplus from 1990's back . The 2 point sling I have on my long range Sniper Rifle ( Remington 700 in .300 Win Mag ) is a Vietnam era silent sling made from cotton canvas .

 

[Silent Earth]

Aye for the Rifleman at large silence is indeed golden !!

 

[jontte]

no velcro on my trousers, jacket's another ball game,bob is of so old model they didn't have that stuff and if they had it, it wasn't used for army stuff here.
any suggestions how to replace velcro from a tactical vest and with what?

 

[Silent Earth]

Toggles and or Fastex connectors?, or those metal clips the US used to use to affix gear to webbing

 

[jontte]

those might do the trick, had a thought useing thin elasticcord and possibly a "canada button".
you put the button down and a string of that cord on the flap covering your pockets, then strech the cord over the button and it should hold

 

[jontte]

ok, now I have my vest more or less the way I want it, no velcro where I keep my ammo, didn't take it away, only covered it so if the need comes I can still use it,just take the cover away, I'll going to post some pics about it there on thar gear-thread, but patience my fellow preppers, I can do this and that but sometimes the co-op between me and this computer isn't so seamless as it should be

 

[Maverick]

we had a similar discussion regarding velcro and someone came into the discussion and claimed he had a technique to silence velcro and played a video to prove it works, I agree, velcro isn't a good option and should be avoided.

here is the video if you want to watch it 46 seconds long:

 

[Gazrok]

No to velcro. I mostly use coated carabiner clips that don't rattle. Of course if moving fast though...you're going to be noisy no matter what...With gear.....

 

[jontte]

yup,unless you obtain the knowledge of how to levitate?
I'm pretty bad at that, could try it after a big bowl of pea-soup..