This blog post was originally posted at WarriorCHL in March of 2017.
I’m sad to say I never knew what a true gun belt was until after I left the military. Spanning the entirety of my career I used cotton or nylon belts. Cotton was pretty durable, but if the webbing snagged, then the entire belt would come undone. If nylon belts snagged, you could always take a lighter to them and fuse the torn portion. But regardless of the differences between these two materials they always warped over time. I never thought anything about it considering my civilian belts did the same.
During my last tour at EOD School, I noticed a master chief wearing a western style buckle with a leather belt in BDU’s. I heard him say something in regards to gun belts being accepted gear for battle dress and chalked it up to E9 magic of doing whatever the hell you wanted. As I began to delve deeper in to issues of concealed carry and teaching, I learned more about what a true gun belt is.
For those of you with pictures of John Wayne in your head, let me say I’m not talking about a gunslinger’s belt.
A modern gun belt uses very thick leather to prevent warping. Some even have a core of hard plastic or metal. I got the chance to beta test the Steel Core gun belt from Relentless Tactical. I hate saying this, but the difference between this belt and any other regular belt I’ve worn has to be experienced. With regular belts, hitching your pants up every so often is a fact of life. This is compounded when you add your EDC gear. Modern gun belts nearly eliminate this. The Relentless Tactical Steel Core belt is more like a hoop that perfectly suspends your pants and creates a stable platform for your holster.
Carrying everyday can have its discomforts. But I recommend this piece of kit to help. Go check out their website. Aside from the great quality, you'll get amazing customer service.