NVGs To-Go: OTTE Gear’s V2 OG Helmet Bag

What do you personal that prices upward of $10,000 however is fragile sufficient to interrupt if it’s dropped just a few toes onto a tough floor? Until you’re a collector of Ming vases, vintage Waterford crystal, or high-end digital camera gear, it’s in all probability a really quick checklist. However there’s one factor that many navy members, regulation enforcement officers, and capturing fans put on that matches this class: evening imaginative and prescient.

A set of dual-tube night vision goggles (NVGs) can simply set you again $8K to $15K, and this gear is extraordinarily delicate to laborious impacts, long-term gentle publicity, and different environmental harm. That doesn’t even embody the price of the associated equipment that accompany NVGs — helmet, mount, ear safety, clear eye safety, infrared lights, battery pack, and so forth. It’s a considerable funding, so you must defend it accordingly.

I’ve gone via just a few completely different strategies of carrying my NVGs over time, together with small gentle instances and laborious Pelican instances lined with foam. Though these labored superb for the evening imaginative and prescient system itself, they nonetheless left me with a helmet and pile of equipment I wanted to hold individually. However just lately, I discovered a carrying case from OTTE Gear that stows all my NV-related gear in a secure, easy-to-transport bundle.

• Make and Mannequin: OTTE Gear V2 OG Helmet Bag w/Nods Field
• Capability: As much as an XXL Ops Core ballistic helmet with AMP ear professional connected
• MSRP: $199
• URL: ottegear.com

The OG Helmet Bag

Constructed from 500D Cordura nylon sandwiched round a thick layer of closed-cell foam, OTTE Gear’s Helmet Bag is designed to guard a ballistic or bump helmet of any dimension via XXL. It includes a Y-shaped adjustable retention strap that holds your helmet firmly in place contained in the bag, and a full-clamshell flap that opens broad to supply easy accessibility to its contents. It’s out there in quite a lot of exterior colours, starting from the standard black, ranger inexperienced, and coyote tan to MultiCam, “chocolate chip” desert camo, and OTTE Gear’s signature Poppies of Struggle sample. The inside lining is a shiny orange 500D Cordura that provides numerous distinction in dimly lit environments.

One interior wall of the OG Helmet Bag is lined with three pockets for small gadgets, comparable to clear capturing glasses, in-ear listening to safety, chemlights, and spare batteries. The opposite aspect is lined with loop materials that accepts Velcro-backed equipment like IFF strobes and morale patches. The underside floor has a small discipline of PALS webbing for MOLLE-compatible equipment or pouches.

Behind the bag behind the helmet, there’s a padded divider that matches round a detachable OTTE Gear Nods Field — an oblong zippered case that matches single- or dual-tube evening imaginative and prescient, a mount, and different gadgets like batteries or eye professional. The Nods Field has two extra adjustable dividers to forestall contents from bouncing round. Each the Helmet Bag and Nods Field are made within the USA.

My Loadout

So, let’s take a fast have a look at the contents of my OG Helmet Bag. Before everything is a Team Wendy EXFIL LTP bump helmet (dimension XL). It’s geared up with a TNVC Mohawk counterweight/battery service, in addition to a Nitecore NU05-MI USB-rechargeable inexperienced/IR strobe on high. The precise aspect rail has an Inforce WMLx Gen 2 white/IR gentle connected to a Thyrm VariArc swivel mount, offering forward-facing illumination outdoor or upward-facing “umbrella” lighting indoors. The left aspect has a Streamlight Sidewinder Stalk white/R/G/B/IR admin gentle.

Stuffed on both aspect of the helmet in the primary compartment, I’ve a pair of Apex Protective shooting gloves and a set of Gatorz Blastshield ballistic-rated clear capturing glasses. Facet pockets comprise just a few customary chemlights, in addition to a Blue Power Gear Marco mini-chemlight dispenser — the latter was designed for LE and MIL customers to mark cleared rooms, nevertheless it’s additionally helpful for marking capturing positions and obstacles on the vary. The final pocket comprises a set of SureFire Sonic Defender earplugs.

The double-padded Nods Field comprises a set of AGM World Imaginative and prescient NVG-40 green-phospor evening imaginative and prescient goggles, a Wilcox G24 mount, and some small equipment. There’s a weatherproof Thyrm CellVault loaded with three spare CR123 batteries, plus a SureFire X300V white/IR pistol gentle that may be swapped onto whichever handgun I convey to the vary. Lastly, I’ve a CR123-powered Fenix CL09 magnetic mini-lantern that may be clipped or caught close to a loading bench or staging space to supply a bit of purple or inexperienced gentle. It’s simply sufficient to make it simpler to load mags or clear malfunctions, however not a lot gentle that it interferes with evening imaginative and prescient techniques.

Above: Eye and ear safety are a should for any sort of firearm coaching, however nighttime coaching additionally requires quite a lot of white, multicolored, and infrared gentle sources. I additionally advocate bringing a set of gloves — chilly, numb arms make the whole lot harder.

Closing Ideas

Irrespective of who you’re, $10K is a considerable quantity to spend. When you’re going to place that sort of cash into evening imaginative and prescient, you must do the whole lot in your energy to maintain it secure whereas it’s in storage or in transit. The OTTE Gear Helmet Bag does simply that, whereas additionally defending your helmet and protecting essential equipment organized. Along with the helmet bag, OTTE makes some very nice attire (just like the LV Insulated Hoodie seen within the first picture), utility pouches, chest rigs, and different gear that may make coaching and vary classes extra handy — day or evening.

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Written by Patrick McCarthy