This Review is by "maniac3641." As always if you have questions or comments etc, feel free to comment below.
When I first started playing stock class, I would run around the field with 10 round tubes and 12 grams in my pockets. Predictably, it caused quite a bit of ruckus and wasn’t comfortable. Often times I would reach for a tube and find my paintballs had spilled and burst. As I got more serious about stock class, I looked into different harnesses and found two products I was very interested in.
The Review:
These Forearm guards are custom made from Special Ops. As expected, custom products take more time to make and ship. but it is well worth the wait.
Special Ops states: “Most orders will ship within a week or 2 but we guarantee that all orders will be shipped within 30 days from order placement. 3 day and 7 day RUSH options are available.”
Features & Specifications:
- Great for carrying 12 gram CO2 cartridges or 10 rd tubes. Also can hold tubes of Tiberious “First Strike” rounds.
- Padded and comfortable.
- Lightweight
- Available in 5 different camouflages: ACU Digi, Coyote, Crye Multicam, MarPat, and Woodland.
- Made in the USA by a great company with great customer service.
- 18 slots, 6 slots on each strip to fit up to 18 12 grams, or six 10 rd tubes and six 12 grams.
- 3 Elastic bands secure the forearm guards to your arm (These are meant to be worn over clothing or even pads, so it will a little loose on your bare arm).
- It has also has slight padding to protect your arm from paintball impacts. (Not meant to bear the brunt of a dive/slide, this would put all your 12 grams and 10 round tubes in the dirt anyway).
- The guard also extends and tapers, configuring to cover your hand up to the base of the fingers, adding sting protection on hands.
I have owned other wrist and forearm carriers and was not impressed. First off, I like how the SpecOps guards look, and they fit into the rest of my gear nicely. They carry what I need onto the field dependably. Depending on what you have loaded onto them, you will barely notice the weight on your arm. It is very secure and distributes the weight evenly.
As long as you have some layers on your arm (one or two shirts etc), they stay right where they are supposed to. I ordered them in Crye Multicam, which matches the rest of my gear. Many companies have yet to offer genuine Crye Multicam, so this was excellent. I find these are a fantastic product at a great price.
Cons:
As stated above, the forearm guards are a superior product compared to what I have used before. However, carrying a load on your forearms and getting it to conform and really stay put on your arm is really quite difficult. As such, they has a few general cons to be addressed.
The biggest con (could be a pro as well) is having to wear a layer or two under this forearm guard, or allowing for the larger forearms. I have “average” size forearms. As a result, if I was to wear these with no sleeves, it would be too loose to bother with. My solution is simply to wear arm pads underneath.
The only other problem is that while carrying the heaviest load possible (18 12-grams), they tend to shift and move while running. But again, that is a natural con to these products and can’t really be helped too much.
My last small con is that it was advertised with a loop to go around your finger to secure it. The product I received didn’t have that. To me, it is no big deal, and if more of a personal preference than a defect. Since I wear this with armpads (that secure the same way) I don’t use it anyways, so it wasn’t a big deal to me.
*Note: I did not contact the company to get this remedied as I like it better this way. If I did, I’m sure they would correct it with no problem.
In conclusion, this is a great product that I would definitely recommend to stock class players. I have always been a fan of Special Ops work, and they continue to produce quality and innovative products at good prices.
Rating: 4.8/5.0
If you are interested in them, check out this link:
Note by Justin: Before ordering, you may want to contact Special Ops about them. Considering they are custom made, chances are, you can order them to fit a better if you don’t want to wear pads underneath. For him, it works fine. If you don’t want to, this may be a better option.
