The Bison Belt by Ferro Concepts: A Review
My experience with belts comes down to three variations; The Bison Belt, the T-Rex Arms Orion Belt, and an EDC belt with pouches thrown on. I'm by no means an expert and my experience with belt types is limited to what I've shared, but I have hours upon hours with each setup to warrant a valid opinion with some weight. At the very least, I've used the three most common archetypes of belts extensively, therefore, something hopefully can be concluded with that experience. I will be covering the Bison Belt as that is what this is a review on, but I will be comparing and calling back to the other belts.
The Belt
The Bison Belt touts itself as a lightweight and low-profile belt that is allegedly as robust as any other belt out there. It's aesthetically pleasing with its exposed thermoplastic material, also giving it its structure and rigidity. The plastic material is cut out and creased towards the goal of keeping its form, and weight down, while also being flexible.
It uses an inner belt, which is a simple belt with velcro along the outside. You put on the inner belt like any other belt. Then the outer belt has velcro as well and you attach that along your waist onto the inner belt and then buckle it up with the D-Ring Cobra buckle. The webbing for attaching gear and pouches are also very lightweight and low profile while not conceding any setbacks or limitations.
My Setup
My Bison Belt is configured for training. The idea was to have something light and slim that had all the bare essentials for running drills. I have a High Speed Gear taco for AR mags on my left hip. I like this option because when I need to I can tighten the pouch and it holds MP5 and other PCC mags effectively. On my right hip are two Esstac pistol mag pouches. These things are solid and excel at retention and reindexing mags. At my six o'clock is my dump pouch. Running it there is a little unorthodox, but with shooting rifle righty and pistol lefty, having the pouch there means I can equally access it with my alternating support hands. Lastly, I use a SafariLand UBL Mid-Ride and a QLS Receiver plate to host my holster on my left side forward of my AR mag pouch.
What I Like
The belt comes as advertised: It's lightweight but still robust enough where there’s no sagging from the heavy contents attached to your belt. It's strong enough to bear the load of your mags, a full dump pouch, and your holster. And then in regards to the low-profile aspect, it certainly delivers. When it's all geared out, the Bison Belt looks more natural and functional than my Orion Belt. The Orion looks super overt and very much so on the larping side of things, whereas the Bison Belt just looks streamlined.
The velcro pairing of the inner and outer belts is also a key feature that helps the belt stay consistently in place. Compared to the Orion Belt, there's no side-to-side wiggle when moving and twisting your body. There's no need for repositioning the belt after said side-to-side movement. And lastly, the belt does not lift or slide up when doing things such as running, retrieving mags, or your handgun from the holster. In line with that too, the Bison Belt does not sag down over time and it also doesn't list to one side if the weight is imbalanced as the Orion does. All these issues, the Bison Belt mitigates with its velcro system and that's huge for me.
What I Don't Like
The biggest shortcoming of the Bison Belt is the inner belt. However, the inner belt is something that can be easily replaced. I've yet to do that as it hasn't been a big enough of a nuisance to require it, but I do still dislike it all the same. What's so bad about it? The hook loop buckle is a pain in the butt to adjust. To make it even worse, for some reason after a certain point, mine just jammed in place. It just won't move and my fine adjustment for tightness now comes down to the outer belt. The inner belt is stuck in a decent place where I don't need to tighten or loosen it, but if I were to lose or gain weight, then that'll be an issue. It also doesn’t feel high quality. For a $215 item, you would expect a crucial component of it to be a bit more robust and impressive.
Would I Recommend It?
It's hard to recommend gear as it comes down to what your purpose is. However, if you're trying to larp, do some matches, or run some drills with a rifle and pistol then the Bison Belt will certainly do. As things are, those are my use cases and experiences with it and so I could recommend it if those are your intended uses. Besides the inconvenience of the inner belt, there have been no shortcomings or pain points for the set-up. It's my current go-to belt and has done a great job when training and running matches.
Author: John Gelardi
