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May 3rd REVIEW – Cobra Buckle Rigger Belt

PRODUCT:     Cobra Buckle Belts

MANUFACTURER:      Gansta (Custom sewer operating out of Melbourne), custom order

DESCRIPTION:

Simple rigger’s belt fitted with a cobra buckle for easy access. Loose tongue is secured via hook and pile tape.

Belt is 45mm wide (width of cobra buckle pretty much determines the width for Ganny).

Well, with all the talk about rigger’s belts, I had a yarp with my favourite stitch witch and was amazed to see he offered a nice belt.

I ordered two off Ganny at different times.

My green belt is a sandwich design. Two layers of belt, lined with hook and loop to allow the different layers to marry up. It’s intended to give an anchor point for drop holsters, pouches and what have you, this also makes the belt very stiff if you should wish to wear a concealment or drop leg holster on it.

I’m currently using it as an “escape belt” with sheath knife, a couple of pouches for navigation and survival equipment stowed in the top of my pack ready for quick donning when I go bushwalking. I’ve added a VTAC Brokos war belt outer sheath to better aid in this role.

When I get off my backside and get into some competitive pistol shooting, this belt will be used for that role too.

My black belt, which is only a single layer, is one I obtained for underground use, when I was installing 40 pair underground telephone cable, and needed something to hold up my pants that would interface properly with the techvest I wear, carrying my cap lamp battery, and Self Contained Self Rescuer (SCSR) rebreather unit.

Underground coal mining is bloody hard on men and equipment, since coal dust mixed with diesel,  other POL’s, water, sweat, salt and other industrial chemicals combine to form a very abrasive paste that can wear through skin, clothing, textiles and small machinery parts like you wouldn’t believe.

The belt held up after I went had to write off half my uniform allowance after a 6 month job underground. I’m wearing it as I write this review.

The nice wide belt helps a lot with maximising comfort levels when wet cotton clothing starts to chafe skin. The single layer also aided in comfort whilst bending, twisting, climbing, lifting and other heavy activity required for driving underground articulated loaders (where the driver seats are often orientated “sideways” to axis of motion), where very stiff equipment can bite into the body more than I could have imagined. I’ve ridden in the back of armoured vehicles for years, and never seen anything as uncomfortable as driving an underground articulated loader before.

Now, Ganny won’t give any assurances for rating his belts for any loads, but I suspect it will be more than sufficient for emergency use.

The only negative thing I can think of with this belt is the width of the buckle prevents it from being passed through normal belt loops on standard King Gee work pants. This is easily sorted out by removing the male end of the cobra buckle, and threading the running end through my pants. Since a shift is normally 12 hours, normally stretching to 14 hours underground, this is a very small point. It’s bugger all effort to remove the belt at the end of the shift.

I also find the cobra buckle is perhaps slightly too high profile when I wear them in conjunction with pack hip belt or chest webbing for field work. But on some things, I’m just damn picky. For these applications, I wear a very low profile Kifaru belt. Your mileage however, may vary, depending upon your applications.