Could Velcro be your undoing? (pun intended)

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Silent Earth

A True Doomsday Prepper
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Could Velcro be your undoing? (pun intended)
Velcro the hook and loop fabric fastening system, it appears everywhere from clothing to luggage, to internal panel fittings in vehicles and especially on military equipment, but ask yourselves this " After TSHTF is Velcro going to lead indirectly to you being robbed, attacked or even killed? ".
Please let me explain to you why I have removed as much hook and loop Velcro from my prepping clothing and gear as possible, it all relates to my time in the British army.
Sometime in the late 80s to early 90s two things happened in the UK military world, one was the introduction of new and supposedly improved clothing and equipment for the soldiers, and secondly and much to many peoples surprise the army relaxed its attitude towards rank and file soldiers buying their own after market clothing and equipment.
Boots to waterproofs to rucksacks to extra pouches etc all suddenly available to serving qualified UK troops, Goretex,Velcro, Teflon, Cordura all became the 'in' things to improve your issue kit with.
I doubt I was the first to notice, nor the last either but one MASSIVE and potentially dangerous aspect of VELCRO came to light and in my case it happened one weekend as I was trying to find a half company of troops on a five day exercise practicing the basics of Camouflage and Concealment and Escape and Evasion..
I was late leaving the depot to catch up with the lads and for some reason the other NCO instructors had moved the lads from the agreed Bivvi location to another, but had omitted to let me know WHERE they were.
So off I went looking for them just as dusk was coming in, Damned if I could find them before light started to fail, they were bivvied up for the night by now and in full camouflage gear. They could be anywhere in about 3 square clicks all I could see was undulating meadow and the shadowy outline of various copses of woodland.
Bugger Bugger Bugger I thought I'll never find the little shits now.................... but wait what was that I thought I heard?...................couple of seconds later I heard the same faint noise, and again, and again then maybe four or five more times in the next 30 seconds.
So I moved across the meadow towards the treeline, I caught the faint smell of cooking but still could not see anything, but there it was again two or three times that same now much clearer noise so I honed in on it.
I entered the treeline and almost fell onto their encampment, but what was it that drew me to their well cammoed up location? Then I saw it troops huddled around getting ready to eat, opening pockets on water proofs pockets, pouches, some wearing disposable NBC gear they had been training with etc and the noise was them tearing open the velcro fastenings on their assorted gear and clothing.
Without the noise of the Velcro being ripped open by the lads I dont think I would have found them that evening. I mentioned it to the other staff and the OC at the debriefing two days later but I dont know if any action was taken to feed that info back to those running the army. But I do know more and more old timers started replacing Velcro with buttons, toggles, elastic shock cord and press studs where they could.
Yes Velcro is bloody useful and I doubt we could function as well without it, But I ask you just to take a closer look at your gear and see what if any pieces of Velcro on your Tactical / Survival gear you could replace with something much quieter. Because when TSHTF Silence is Golden.
 
strange as they seem to put velcro just about every place possible..but perhaps you don't have to think about things like this when you travel with a full squad,covered by tanks and helicopters.
 
strange as they seem to put velcro just about every place possible..but perhaps you don't have to think about things like this when you travel with a full squad,covered by tanks and helicopters.

Aye but imagine being the solitary Finnish prepper at night in the middle of an absolutely silent Finnish forest know that Russian Spetnaz are patrolling the area when you start ripping open pockets, adjusting cuffs etc ????

or being the American Urban prepper moving through a dying urban metropolis governed in the main by ethnic gangs or corrupted PMCs supposedly working for the government, wondering who is watching from the semi abandoned tower blocks, or lurking just inside the looted shops and your velcro adjustable rifle sling snags on a piece of abandoned vehicle?
 
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hell of a thought mate,which made me getting my box of snap fastners and do the neccerary thing,luckily I have canada buttons too for bigger pockets,it takes some time with the sewing machine to make the holes for the buttons,but it's time well spent.

so much comes back from my army training,when you read about things here,how far sound travels in a silent forest for ex...
bloody hell,this memory of mine :(
in the old cammie suit m62 I have,there are no velcro,only buttons,rest of the gear,well that totally different,mucho work.
 
Yeah my DPM Smock got modded to the max, Velcro gone, press studs , Canadian buttons, shock cord, etc and heavily washed to get rid of the rustle and a double doses of cold wash die so its very dark now to suit my fav operating time, dawn and dusk
 
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glad you took this up here,not all think everything through and basically some are lazy (like me) and go for what's been bought.
I tend to modify EVERYTHING in some form or other, I only bought a 5.11 Rush Moab 6 about a week ago and I've started modifying so it so it stays closer to my body by fitting a waist strap, Many others use the four spare straps provided to make compression straps to the pack, I modified two of the straps to function as one. Weight is a soldiers and preppers enemy, as is over complication.

All kit is BASIC kit and should be tweaked and adjusted or modified to suit individual needs, just like most people rifles and carbines, few people if any keep their guns to factory standard nor should they do so with their kit.
 
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one jacket done,with the two others I will not be in a hurry.
still gave a big thought about alone in the forest with some spetnaz dudes,to be honest ,chances against them are kinda bleak ;)
 
one jacket done,with the two others I will not be in a hurry.
still gave a big thought about alone in the forest with some spetnaz dudes,to be honest ,chances against them are kinda bleak ;)


Wong Mon Ami, SFers it doesnt matter who they are SAS, SBS, SFSG, SRR, Seals, Rangers, Delta, GSG9, Gerbirgjaeger , first of all they have to find you, BEFORE they can hurt you
 
that's true mon ami,what I've learnt by now,when I'm no longer young ,is moving slowly and quietly ;)
 
buttons and snaps work great on my jacket,I thought the buttons would "work like new things"but no,just like those were there from the beginning.
 

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