TAD GEAR Ranger Hoodie v3.0
One week ago I picked one of these up via TAD gears web site. I have been eyeing this jacket for a little over 6 months now. I have read the reviews on military moron’s site, and lightfighter.net. I finally decided to pull the trigger on one.
Sizing/fit: This was always a question in my mind as I have read they run large. I’m 6 ft 185 lbs and have a 44 inch chest (without armor on). I bought this jacket to wear over concealable body armor and a uniform shirt. I settled on the large and if fits perfectly. It is form fitting (without giving you the saran wrap feel) and offers sufficient room for, drawing a pistol, shouldering a long gun, and performing H2H combat with out bunching up.
Material: The jacket is made out of Malden Mills windpro fleece. It does a good job of keeping the wind at bay and keeping me warm without bulk. Mind you this is not their “Shark Skin” jacket that is designed to cut the wind, it is fleece but it contains 4 times the wind stopping ability of normal fleece.
Features: The jacket has a pocket on each bicep with Velcro on the outside so you can attach your favorite moral patch (or in my case my agency patch). The pockets are big enough to hold a field notebook and pen or Field Interview cards. The left sleeve also has a forearm pocket that would be ideal for holding ID’s or business cards.
The torso pockets are up higher than you would normally find on a commercial jacket as they are on the chest area. They can also double as a torso vent as they open to huge internal mesh pockets. Also you will find internal d-rings for attaching gloves or to dummy cord your compass to.
The thumb holes on the sleeves are debatable I can see them having their place if you are layering gloves and throwing a hard shell over this. But for a general outer shell jacket I don’t think they are really all that necessary.
The hood is very nice it sits high enough on your neck to provide some warmth but low enough not to effect your per ferial vision while scanning.
Review: I’ve worn the jacket in varying temps from 35° and zero wind down to 5° with a 35 mph wind. (*caveat in the above stated conditions I was also wearing an under armor mock turtleneck, level II body armor, and a long sleeve poly-cotton uniform shirt). I was still very comfortable in all of the above stated conditions provided I stayed moderately active.
Last night I was outside investigating an accident and was stag net for approximately 40 mins with little wind and temps around 25°. I started to feel the cold after about 30 mins. Not enough that it affected my ability or function but enough that it reminded me of the temp and if I was going to be out much longer that I would either need to get my ass moving or put on another layer.
So far the jacket fits my needs perfectly. I would recommend this jacket to anyone who is looking for a verstile light fleece jacket.
Photos to follow… until then you can check out the photos on TAD's website here.
TAD Ranger Hoodie
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