Face Armor

Every once and a while a fad will hit the shooting community, the one I am talking about today has many names such as, tactical beard, face armor, combat beard, as well as a few other new names popping up every day. The ancient Greeks viewed beards as a sign of virility; Spartans even punished cowards by shaving off portions of their beard. Have you ever seen a picture of clean shaven Viking? I didn’t think so.

While some would argue that the origins of the modern tactical beard can be traced back to a Chris Costa, I believe it was a picture of a Green Beret, call sign “Cowboy” operating in Afghanistan in 2002. Many Special Forces operators would grow beards until their ban in 2010 to help build the trust of local elders in Afghanistan, in the civilian world the only tactical advantage that a beard offers is for dropping panties according to Matt Devito.

The disadvantage to those wearing a full set of face armor is that it may interfere with equipment such as gas masks, respirators as well as other medical equipment hence the military’s policy against facial hair. This is important to remember for those people that have gas masks as part of their preps. They will ultimately not be able to get a good seal on the mask.

Everyone wants the latest and greatest gear that SF is running. All you have to do is visit any forum or social media page and watch the pissing matches commence over gear. There is always the one guy that states “It’s what the SEALs use.” Face armor is just one thing closer to getting them to feel like they are real life SEALs. Just add thumb over bore shooting technique, rock tape, and they will be shooting better in no time.  

Who do you think has the best tactical beard?

New MultiCam Patterns

 Yesterday was a date that a lot of us have been watching for a while. MultiCam finally officially released photos of their new patterns, Arid, Tropic, Alpine, and Black. We leaked a photo a few days ago of the MultiCam black frog shirt a few days ago on our Facebook page and many people seemed intrigued.

While the original MultiCam pattern is known to be extremely versatile, MultiCam has decided to step their game up and build climate specific patterns. Personally I believe these are to be in direct competition to Kryptek on the commercial market, however MultiCam was recently awarded a contract by the Army to be their official camouflage pattern.

In a time when a lot of car manufacturers are going retro and simply updated older muscle car designs, such as the Challenger and Mustang; I feel this is exactly what MultiCam has done as their patterns are not much different than the camouflage that modern patterns such as UCP and MARPAT replaced.

Arid was designed to reduce the visual and IR signature in an open rocky desert environment. While it has a striking resemblance to the three color desert camouflage pattern that replaced the “chocolate chip” it has some green in it and pairs nicely with the original MultiCam pattern.

The Tropic pattern reminds me a lot of the rare ERDL uniforms during Vietnam. Unlike the ERDL the new Tropic pattern sports the MultiCam shapes that are more random and looks to be extremely effective in blending in the jungle environment.

Alpine is MulitCam’s new arctic or winter pattern. Like most winter camouflage, it is predominantly white with a few gray splotches ranging from light to dark. The MultiCam claims that it can be paired nicely with the original pattern however I don’t think that it would be a good idea to have winter camo in a snowy environment and an original MultiCam plate carrier on your person.

The last new pattern is MultiCam Black. The Black pattern was designed for law enforcement officers operating in high risk areas. The pattern is like no other I have seen before. MultiCam Black features black as the main color and has accent colors, ranging from sage green to gray. Originally I had heard that the black would only be available to LEO and military personnel, however it is available on their fabrics page for commercial use as well.

While the Arid, Tropic, and Alpine look to be great additions to the MultiCam family for military personel and civilians alike, I am not sold on the Black pattern. I feel that this will be about as useful as other black and urban camouflage patterns. What are your thoughts?

View the patterns here