When I came home from work today there was a box on my front porch and guess what was in it. Yes, the Protech Shift 360 plate carrier and the accompanying rifle plates. I put the box on the table, cut it open, and there it was. Immediately my ceiling opened up and Mad Dog Mattis rappelled down from a Huey, landed, looked at me and gave me a nod of approval and thumbs up right before he SPIE rigged out leaving me to marvel this piece of kit alone. Ok, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration but as soon as I put hands on it I loved it.
This setup is hands down the lightest kit I have ever put on, which is saying something because I’ve run a variety of different carriers with a variety of different plates. Not only is this system extremely light, but it is very comfortable as well.
The whole plate carrier is covered in laser-cut laminate molle so there is no room for weak stitches in between the loops. It has integrated the First Spear Tubes into the cummerbund and the front/rear of the shoulder straps. Protech is claiming that this is the fastest scalable plate carrier on the market, I will test that claim.
Over the next 3-4 weeks, I’m going to be pushing this setup to see where its flaws are and how good it really is. I will be conducting PT (Physical Training) with it, weighing it, testing the scalable speed, shooting in it and much more. I plan on using both my Eagle PC with ceramic plates and my Ferro Concepts PC with steel plates to compare this kit too and I have very high hopes for it. After its all said and done I’m going to test the ballistic capabilities of these extremely light plates by putting some rounds on them of both 5.56 and 7.62. Protech is saying that these plates can take up to 6 rounds of 5.56 or 7.63 before they are compromised. We will see!
Author – Wes Nanny is currently a Sgt in the Marine Corps until January at which point I will be ending my career with the Marine Corps to join the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in Texas. I did 8 years as a grunt being a team leader and squad leader. I deployed to sangin, Afghanistan in 2010-2011 with 3rd battalion 5th Marine Regiment. After that I stayed with that unit and went on the 15th and 31st MEU’s. Iv attended numerous schools like CLS, TCCC, Assault climbers course, combat hunter trainer course, HRST masters course, infantry squad leaders course, raid leaders course and some others I cant think of. In my spare time when im not with my family I like to climb, shoot, and hike. I stay very current on firearms and fear of all sorts. I also did some side work with custom kydex for the last two years.
