The Telor Tactical Go Band takes the idea of a simple go bag and places it on your waist. By go bag I don’t mean a Get home bag or a Bug out bag, but a simple bag with some extra mags, a good knife, and some basic medical gear. If you keep a long gun in the vehicle preferably your bag would have an option for extra rifle, or shotgun ammo. You may also choose to keep a bigger handgun in the bag than your traditional EDC and some mags for it. All that goes with on this belt. Using a belt for mounting gear isn’t new, but it has had a resurgence. Nearly everyone in my squad in Afghanistan moved most of their gear to belts for a variety of reasons. Most often it’s of access and how easy and fast the belt could be put on and taken off when crossing rivers.
As a civilian now I prefer the belt if I’m not going to be wearing or carrying armor. I’m also not tossing a plate carrier in the backpack I tote with me. The Telor Tactical blends belt, with go bag, and then with LBV to give you a discreet and easy option to carry a little more than your EDC. The Telor Tactical Go Band is essentially a belly band that is modular in nature. The belts have a generous portion of PALS webbing for attaching whatever your heart desires. It’s outfitted with a prepositioned holster that is positioned in accordance with your dominate hand. There are options for large and small gun, and revolvers and automatics. My compact semi auto holster can hold everything from my Walther PPS to my CZ P09 duty.
Behind the holster is Sil-Air silicone and a section of Slip Not. The Sil-Air does keep the gun from digging in, even though the weapon is held tight to the body. In my testing, I jogged, ran, and sprinted and the belt stays put when properly adjusted. The holster is basic but retains the weapon well. The holster isn’t terrible, but retainment is awkward and done via a velcro strap. I have never trained to defeat an over the gun retention device, so this is entirely new for me. I could always install a PALs holster, though.
The PALS is easy to use, and there is enough for a generous loadout. You get two small pouches with the belt that can be moved and grooved for your personal use. The patches are small and perfect for some medical gear, handcuffs, or revolver speed strips.
The belt is made from Medical Grade Spacer fabric. The owner of Telor Tactical has experience in the medical products involving tissue management, positioning, and orthotics. It isn’t odd they use this material, and it is a good choice. It keeps cool and doesn’t chafe, or rub the wrong the way. Even when worn directly on the body under a shirt it’s more comfortable than expected.
Where this beats your average war belt is concealability. It’s bulkier than a holster and gun, but with a baggy shirt or jacket I could conceal it easily should I need to. My loadout was my full sized CZ P09 with two full mags, giving me a total of 43 rounds of 9mm. One standard capacity AR mag, two packets of Combat Gauze, my ESEE 4, and a CAT tourniquet. This is a pretty barebone kit meant to work hand in hand with the trunk AR, giving me sixty total 5.56 rounds. I’m not heading on a patrol to Afghanistan anytime soon, but I reckon I can engage anything south of a ninja squad. I’m planning to add a small flashlight and a multi-tool eventually. With this kit, I have my normal everyday carry items, including another handgun and tourniquet.
With my kit on the belt I can fold it up easily and it can fit in the front pocket of my Blue Force Gear Jedburgh with relative ease, gun and all. It has the advantage over the go bag by the shear factor I can wear, and it presents my gear conveniently. It’s also smaller, and more convenient than any plate carrier or LBV. It’s easy to use, extremely comfortable, even after extended wear, and endlessly customizable.
The belt itself could be useful to plain clothes cops or an off duty cop. They could carry that extra gear they may need for rough situations including extra cuffs, ammo, zip ties, and what not in their vehicle and put it on at a moment’s notice. A low profile PSD team could instantly switch to war mode if the event of an attack. Let’s not forget general survival needs in a nonpermissive environment. Sometimes you can tote an M4, and sometimes you need to be more discreet. You toss a little sub gun in a bag and jock up with the Telor Tactical under a shirt or jacket. The belt would even work for home defense if the homeowner has time to toss it on they’ll be well supplied in case of a fight. Personally, this is my very bad, no good, terrible, rotten, situation kit. The kind of situation I can’t escape from, and may need a rifle for.
Guest Author: Travis Pike is a former Marine Machine gunner who served with 2nd Bn 2nd Marines for 5 years. He deployed in 2009 to Afghanistan and again in 2011 with the 22nd MEU(SOC) during a record setting 11 months at sea. He’s trained with the Romanian Army, the Spanish Marines, the Emirate Marines and the Afghan National Army. He serves as an NRA certified pistol instructor and teaches concealed carry classes.
