The term bandolier originated in the 1570s, and meant shoulder belt.  The advent of firearms saw the bandolier change from a utilitarian item, into  ammunition carrying attire.  Enter 2012, and  Grey Ghost Gear is bringing the bandolier back with a more modern, and low profile twist. 

I’ll point out that I was dubious about the elastic involved, but I figured I would give it a fair test when it arrived.  My test was simple, I pulled four PMAGs out of the back of my cruiser, and hung it over the passenger seat for a shift.  I figured with the way I drive, combined with the magazines hanging in a manner so they would be most likely to fall out, that I would be picking them off my floor within 30 minutes.  It never happened, not only didn’t they fall out, but they didn’t slide or shift at all.  If you saw a city cop driving around with a bandolier, that was me.  After a few days, I became convinced these weren’t going to just fall out regardless of how I drove or what curbs I ran over. 

I figure there are two purposes for this bandolier, one is ammo storage in vehicles, packs, armories or bags.  The second is low profile carry of magazines.  On my next set of days off, I set off in civies wearing the bandolier and 4 fully loaded PMAGs.  While wearing a hard shell jacket, it was just about impossible to tell I had this on.  I wasn’t about to walk the streets wearing a man dress or anything, but I felt the concept was close enough.  Guys who are trying to keep a low profile in certain lines of work understand what I mean. 

The downside to this bandolier is that you really need to use PMAGs, and Grey Ghost Gear was pretty upfront with that.  The heavy elastic grabs the ribbing of the PMAGs, but without that ribbing, it wouldn’t function the same.   Grey Ghost sent us an email and gave us a price update of 4-Mag Bandolier – $39.95, 6-Mag Bandolier – $44.95.  I admit, I thought these would be slightly cheaper, but it was explained to me the material costs are what keep this more expensive.  This makes sense, as a cheaper specified material would reduce cost, while reducing quality.  We’ve all seen stretched out elastics before, and I don’t want any part of cheap stretched gear which doesn’t hold form.