T&E: Down Range Gear NOD Lanyard

It's been a while and I sorta owe our friends at Down Range Gear an apology for the delay, but we've finally had the opportunity to do a no joke test and eval on their NOD retention lanyard.

Look, Down Range Gear is a cool little company that makes the kind of solutions that others ignore as too small for the trouble -- MALICE clip belt stabilizers, drop rig belt hangers, enhanced goggle strap keepers -- you get the idea.

Well they have this neat little solution for a problem that plagues many a Joe and Grunt -- and gives Gunnies and Sgts 1st Class fits: a low profile NVG retention system.

Down Range Gear sent us a package of them for T&E and I passed them along to some Joes I know in Kandahar who put them through their paces. Here's what they thought...

As for the NODs lanyards, they're definitely a high speed version of our 550 cord tie downs. They're kind of a pain in the ass to install because you have to undo the rhino mount base plate (we never seem to get them back on "just right"), but the install was well worth the trouble. The male/female clips are easy to attach and detach with gloves on and no more tacky carabiner dangling from your camo/name band. The bungee cord stretches with ease and it doesn't hinder the sight picture at all. I say that because some of our 550 cord tie downs are either too tight or too lose and your eye naturally tries to find the right angle at which a clear picture is present or you're consistently readjusting your helmet or rhino settings.

The only downside we found out is when you have them on and you accidentally hit the detach button on the NODs/rhino mount, the NODs will swing into your eye causing a mild case of "scope eye", but that of course is if you're not wearing your clear eyepro (but we rarely wear them at night anyhow because its uncomfortable, so it's our fault.)