Best Tactical Cargo Pants

[John Hearne]

Followup:
I received the knee pads this week and have been wearing the knee pads for a couple of days. The factory offers two kinds of pads, a hard and a soft, I ordered the soft.

Everything is tradeoffs and these kneepads err on the side of serious protection. They are effectively a double layer of stiff foam. The good is that they offer a lot of protection. The negative is that they are bulky and very obvious when being worn. If I were on a SWAT team, these might be a great solution. For someone who wants some incidental protection because your knees are old, these are a bit much. I like the size and placement of the knee pads in these pants. I may try to find a source of some thinner, single layer foam and make my own.

[vcdgrips]

LAPG makes an insert @6.99 that clearly mimics the 5.11 ones. As the pocket area of the pant is what is driving the train, those might work.

https://lapolicegear.com/lapg-ac-tk4...4aAriHEALw_wcB

I wonder if some “old school” sleeping bag/sit down padding could be repurposed, either in original thickness or “filleted.”

https://www.walmart.com/ip/EVA-Hikin...4?athbdg=L1700

[JAD]

I have a couple pairs of Kuhl Outsidrs that have held up really well. Light enough for the summer and roomy enough to go over long Johns. Good pockets (tho not deep enough for a J frame). Very rugged.

[John Hearne]

LAPG makes an insert @6.99 that clearly mimics the 5.11 ones. As the pocket area of the pant is what is driving the train, those might work.

https://lapolicegear.com/lapg-ac-tk4...4aAriHEALw_wcB

Follow up in case anyone cares. I tried the LAPG pads and they weren't great. The knee pad pockets in the pants are on the large side and the LAPG pads floated a good bit. They were definitely thin and if the factory pads were too thick, the LAPG were probably too thin.

I did not know there was a rich aftermarket for slide-in knee pads out there but I ended up trying some pads off of Amazon. This is my first day with them but they seem to fill the pocket well - there's some slop to either side but it makes sure the pads stay flat. They are definitely thicker than the LAPG pads and may be the Goldilocks option. The instructions say you can wash the pants with the pads in place so this looks promising. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VHFD4LE...ing=UTF8&psc=1

[rob_s]

Getting warm out again, so thought I'd continue the tangent on tactical cargo shorts...

Have we talked about the 5.11 TacLite pro 9.5 yet? *Seems* to tick some boxes for me (elastic waist, belt loops, couple of extra pockets, not too baggy, not too long...) but are these just the OG 5.11 shorts re-imagined, and just as baggy?

Ideally I'm looking for something that moves and isn't too constricting, but also isn't too baggy and/or long (not trying to be all jorty up in here). I like having elastic waist for both bumming around house but also being able to add a belt and IWB.

[rob_s]

Getting warm out again, so thought I'd continue the tangent on tactical cargo shorts...

Have we talked about the 5.11 TacLite pro 9.5 yet? *Seems* to tick some boxes for me (elastic waist, belt loops, couple of extra pockets, not too baggy, not too long...) but are these just the OG 5.11 shorts re-imagined, and just as baggy?

Ideally I'm looking for something that moves and isn't too constricting, but also isn't too baggy and/or long (not trying to be all jorty up in here). I like having elastic waist for both bumming around house but also being able to add a belt and IWB.

Jesus Christ, looks like I answered my own question 4 years ago... If the below is what I have now, they are definitely baggier in real life, although the length isn't bad. Not sure if they've been updated since then.

So LA Police Gea had 5.11 taclite pro shorts on sale.
https://lapolicegear.com/511-taclite-pro-shorts.html

Got a 34” and a 36”. 34 fit better even though in many brands, like Levis, I seem to have left the land of the 34. They aren’t perfect (modern cell phone doesn’t fit the small pocket, elastic isn’t as tight as I’d like, material is a little too plastic-y) but for knockaround shorts that are <$35 they’ll do ok.

Funny that I’m back where I started 15+ years ago. Royal Robbins 5.11 were for sure my first “tactical” pants and shorts.

The vertex are probably my favorite that I’ve tried. They look just un-lame enough that I don’t mind leaving the house in them if I need to. The 5.11 and other cargo shorts I have are good for a Home Depot run and not much else. But at the price of the Vertx I don’t really want to wear the for chorin since I’d feel bad getting them munged and don’t want to pay the price to replace them.

[Clusterfrack]

Getting warm out again, so thought I'd continue the tangent on tactical cargo shorts...

Have we talked about the 5.11 TacLite pro 9.5 yet? *Seems* to tick some boxes for me (elastic waist, belt loops, couple of extra pockets, not too baggy, not too long...) but are these just the OG 5.11 shorts re-imagined, and just as baggy?

Ideally I'm looking for something that moves and isn't too constricting, but also isn't too baggy and/or long (not trying to be all jorty up in here). I like having elastic waist for both bumming around house but also being able to add a belt and IWB.

I haven't tried the new ones, but have arrived at a general conclusion: all pants and shorts should be made of cloth that stretches. Mechanical stretch or Lycra/elastane makes a huge difference in range of movement and comfort, especially with a gun carried AIWB.

[rob_s]

I haven't tried the new ones, but have arrived at a general conclusion: all pants and shorts should be made of cloth that stretches. Mechanical stretch or Lycra/elastane makes a huge difference in range of movement and comfort, especially with a gun carried AIWB.

yeah, I don't disagree with this, but the most important part to me is the old-timey elastic waistband for around-the-house-and-choring-and-camping shorts.

We were camping this past weekend and I have some shorts the wife got at Target that are amazing but they are my "fat" shorts and I done gone and lost that Covid weight so everything required a belt, which just isn't great when you're just trying to get out of the camper to go have coffee by the river before the sun comes up...

[GyroF-16]

Getting warm out again, so thought I'd continue the tangent on tactical cargo shorts...

Have we talked about the 5.11 TacLite pro 9.5 yet? *Seems* to tick some boxes for me (elastic waist, belt loops, couple of extra pockets, not too baggy, not too long...) but are these just the OG 5.11 shorts re-imagined, and just as baggy?

Ideally I'm looking for something that moves and isn't too constricting, but also isn't too baggy and/or long (not trying to be all jorty up in here). I like having elastic waist for both bumming around house but also being able to add a belt and IWB.

I’ll check in with my recommendation for 5.11 Apex shorts

https://www.511tactical.com/apex-short.html

No elastic waist (which I find uncomfortable when wearing a belt and carrying a holstered pistol), but roomy without being baggy.
Great for shooting matches and doing chores, but also pretty presentable for going out into the world for normal life.
At $75 MSRP, they’re kinda pricey, but I mostly wait for sales and buy multiples.

[Casey]

I’ll check in with my recommendation for 5.11 Apex shorts

https://www.511tactical.com/apex-short.html

No elastic waist (which I find uncomfortable when wearing a belt and carrying a holstered pistol), but roomy without being baggy.

Just to clarify, there are stretch panels in the waist—it's the pieces of different fabric that form the pocket bags, forward of the 3:00 and 9:00 belt loops. It's not your traditional tunnel elastic waistband, and it's more comfortable.