Tenicor heavy Zero belt

[frozentundra]

My Zero belt never had much rigidity. I found it had to be uncomfortably tight to support even a Glock 26 AIWB. It was the worst gun belt I have ever tried--for me that is. (Obviously a lot of people like it.)

It's funny how different people are. I wish my Zero belt were even more flexible.

I find the 'rigid gun belt' advice to be perhaps the worst I ever received about firearms outside of Joe Biden home defense tips. It took me many years of discomfort to realize this. I have become a bit of a carry minimalist, but even with a G19 type gun, I think the Zero is stiffer than I need.

[Cool Breeze]

What are you guys carrying where you need such stiff belts? I like many started out with Ranger belts then went to wilderness 3 stitch. The less stiff belts work better.

Picked up a Zero underbelt a few weeks ago, perfect for AIWB with a 43x upto a G34.

I am not sure the Zero Heavy could be considered "such stiff" belts as it has been stated that it only slightly stiffer than the original which is not stiff at all.

Personally, I'm trying to find something to aid the gun not flop out over the belt line so much. I'm using a JM George holster on its lowest setting and also playing with different cushions, wedges, pillows, as well. I was curious to see if a slightly stiffer belt would help with my particular problem. What's your current setup?

[Clusterfrack]

I prefer to wear my belts fairly loose. If the belt is rigid vertically, that works. Vertical rigidity often requires horizontal stiffness too, and a thick belt. The Swift CSM solves that problem with a polymer insert.

[Trajan]

I am not sure the Zero Heavy could be considered "such stiff" belts as it has been stated that it only slightly stiffer than the original which is not stiff at all.

Personally, I'm trying to find something to aid the gun not flop out over the belt line so much. I'm using a JM George holster on its lowest setting and also playing with different cushions, wedges, pillows, as well. I was curious to see if a slightly stiffer belt would help with my particular problem. What's your current setup?

Lightweight. I don't even carry a fixed blade anymore. Literally just a 43x in a tenicore holster. The built in wedge prevents the flipping out sensation you'd normally get with a short gun like that.

I also have used it around the house and at the range with a G34 in one of Dark Star Gears original AIWB holsters. It's sort of like a shaggy clone. I've found for AIWB I just need vertical rigidity. The tactical hola hoops made the guns print more.

I went with the inner belt one just so I could use my overbelts with it too. I clip the gun on the non-covered section.

[Cool Breeze]

So I did some preliminary testing with this thing and here are my initial impressions. First some background.

Belt 1 - My go-to belt was an Aegis and I eventually just found it too stiff and digging into my hips all the time. Plus the style of the buckle required it to be tight or it didn't work so there was really no way I could find an in-between setting. Tight enough to hold everything where I wanted would not engage the latch of the buckle. I don't necessarily mind tight belts but that belt hurts when tightened and I ditched for a Tenicor Zero.

Belt 2 - The Zero is the exact opposite in that its super comfortable on the hips but I do notice my gun flopping over a bit. This made me use more wedges and that caused a few issues. A perfect wedge for concealment resulted in so much pressure of the grip towards my stomach that I couldn't bend over. Lowering the amount of wedge caused some flopping of the gun and a lot of pressure of the muzzle in my groin area - enough for me to almost quit aiwb. The wedge that came with my JM holster was uncomfortable and small. I then used a heal cup from an extra cushion shoe insert but that eventually became painful - not sure how. The past week, I got some synthetic pillow fill and made a little pouch and that is like the biggest aiwb game changer I have found yet after doing this for about a decade. For some reason, it is much more cushiony and I can use enough of it to prevent the gun from flopping but there is also enough give to move around and bend. So comfortable in fact, I questioned whether I needed a Zero Heavy belt. Oh well, I bought it at the same time I was testing the pillow so let's try this new belt out.

Belt 3 - Tenicor Heavy - Its looks like a really thick belt but my eyes were deceiving me. Calipers measure it at 6.00 to 6.15mm. I then measured others I have: Zero - 3.6, Aegis - 4.45 (but also looks thick), Galco dress belt 6.3, Kore Leather belt 6.44. So both my leather belts are thicker. That being said, they taper from the middle to the sewn edge on both ends. I also confirmed that the Heavy does fit through my suit pants. If form follows function, this could be an option for you. For AIWB, I am glad I sized up to get the heavy part on the AIWB holster clip. For some pants I am just on the first belt loop, for other I am just past. If I got a smaller size, I would have rotated it too far for my liking. That being said, the extra tail that I have does require a few extra fiddles to get through the loop when putting it on and is not as convenient or fast as my 32 zero - a minor complaint. Rigidity (as pointed out by others) is a tick greater than the zero - nothing show stopping - but in the world of aiwb - every tick matters so we will see.

So the goal was to see if I could get more concealment and comfort out of this thing than the Zero and my new synthetic pillow wedge. When carrying AIWB, I usually wear flannel button downs in the winter and patterned non-flannel button downs in the spring/summer. Golf shirts, with their very thin synthetic material, are the hardest for me to conceal because they show everything that is underneath them. I used that for the test. I found that my red dot G19 in a JM George did print slightly less than with the Zero. The edge of the red dot housing and the top of the magazine baseplate were not as noticeable (if at all) with the heavy compared to the zero (where the points where always there if you were looking) and I was able to wear the Heavy slightly looser which allowed me a greater range of movement for bending over. I also tested the Heavy with the holster on the non-heavy portion and did not have the same success so, at least for me, it is important for sizing if you don't want your buckle rotated around a lot. My non-heavy portion of the belt measured 9 1/4 inches for size 34. I am actually curious why this wasn't factored into the sizing from Tenicor from the beginning - maybe they don't view this as an AIWB belt - a little annoying. A size 32 with about 5 or 6 inches of non-heavy tail would probably work great but according to Clusterfrack the 32 has even more non-heavy tail than my 34 so who knows.

Anecdotally wearing it around every day, I will say that I found myself, out of habit, tightening it to the same level as I do the zero and this resulted in a less comfortable experience around my hips compared to the Zero. Luckily, that was more out of habit than necessity, and I then just loosened it a bit and things were great. I will also add, that when I was carrying OWB - the extra stability resulted in the gun flopping less, which is also a win. This would be a great belt for plain clothes LEO who need to carry a bunch of stuff.