I went today to my local sports authority to look mainly for swimming goggles today and as I passed the clearance section in the gun department I saw this:
It's not like the other shotgun shell belts...it's not loops, it's little pockets...kinda like a CAPLESS HARNESS.
I checked it out and the price wasn't bad, so I picked it up.
The material on it is Neoprene, VERY comfortable and squishy for a belt. It's well made and uses a standard belt with a plastic buckle). I noticed that the harness is a sleeve with the belt slipped though it and secured with stitchings on the end, so if anything goes wrong with the belt (IE: Buckle shattering) just snip the stitches off and replace the old belt with the new.
This is the belt loaded on me with some tubes.
My main concern with this belt was the fact that I'm not using it for it's intended purpose of being a shotshell holder. Would it hold tubes well? To put it in perspective, I own a flipped out harness already, it's DESIGNED for paintball purposes. To compare the amount of force needed to remove the tube, I tugged out a tube with only my index finger and my thumb on the flipped out.
This belt holds the tubes with just a PINCH more of snugness, which in my opinion, is even better. Not to mention that instead of most other capless harnesses that utilize a "hood" (this usually isn't snug, it's just to keep the paintballs in, hence I call it a hood) and an elastic loop to hold a tube in place. This neoprene is more like a giant loop but with a closed off end. It's pretty good for what it does. However, I'm not familiar with Neoprene's material properties, so I don't know if storing it with the tubes in it will deform it or loosen it.
One advantage to using this belt harness is the fact that it can hold 12 grams too, really snug like it's distant, distant, cousin the shotgun shell. If I was a 12 gram, I'd fall asleep in there, that's how well it fits.
:guinness: Bottomline:For about $17 total, I could have myself a capless harness. Almost all the capless harnesses, even pre-owned ones, come out to at least $30 shipped on average. I can't quite conclude anything about field performance quite yet as I won't have time to play paintball anytime soon since I'm taking 19 credits this semester. This is an oppotunity for those who don't want to shell out $30 + shipping for a full size capless.
On the bottom of the page I have a link to Froogle for where you can buy online, but it seems the price range would be around $25 - 27 shipped, so take a look at your local hunting or sporting goods store to see if you might bump into this goody first.
If 6+5 packs existed in stock class, this will be something close to it. :laugh:
Random info:
neoprene shotshell belt - Google Product Search
EDIT: It doubles as a scarf also! It's pretty warm!