AllOutdoor Review – 5.11 Maverick Battle Belt D-Ring Review
Patrik Orcutt 05.30.23
5.11 has supplanted itself in the market as a provider of a wide variety of gear and has really made the term tactical even more mainstream in the last few years. Providing everything from workout shorts and sandbags to hiking backpacks and combat pants they really do have their fingers in many markets these days. They recently launched a new version of their 5.11 Maverick Battle Belt with a D-Ring attached and that will be the focus of this review.
The 5.11 Maverick Battle Belt D-Ring was provided by 5.11 for this review and while I am allowed to keep the product indefinitely, this will not change my opinion on this product or any of 5.11’s current or past offerings. I have taken the Maverick Battle Belt D-Ring on several range outings and have run it through its paces over the past few months.
Battle belts have become more and more popular over the years in both home defense, military, and competitive shooting circles. Often time carrying equipment on your hips is much more convenient than on body armor or a chest rig. It usually allows people to train with less weight and is often much more comfortable. Many people look at a battle belt as being their “first-line” gear. Without getting too into detail, your first-line gear is the gear closest to you that you always carry. This includes items such as magazines, first aid, and water. 5.11 released the standard Maverick Battle Belt last year and has just dropped the D ring variant this past winter.
Specs – 5.11 Maverick Battle Belt D-Ring
- Primary Materials: TAC-LAM™ Nylon Cordura® laminate | Nylon Webbing
- Width: 1.75″ belt width
- Buckle Type: Austri Alpin COBRA® buckles
- MSRP: $180
Inner Belt – 5.11 Maverick Battle Belt D-Ring
The first part is an inner belt with that being a piece of laminated nylon webbing with a loop face for the outer belt to secure itself to. The inner belt can often be worn as a standalone piece of kit as an EDC belt with jeans. While I think this is a great idea, I personally prefer to wear a thinner belt when I’m carrying a handgun. The Maverick inner belt is a bit on the chunky side for me. Right out of the box, you’ll notice that this belt comes pre-shaped. This means that it will sit more securely on your hips and will be much more comfortable over a longer period of time when worn.
Outer Belt – 5.11 Maverick Battle Belt D-Ring
The second part of the belt system is the actual battle belt or outer belt. The outer belt is constructed with proprietary TAC-LAM™ high strength laminate, dual nylon webbing and hook backing for inner belt attachment. This is the meat and potatoes of the dual belt system and is where you will mount all of your gear. This outer belt will securely fasten itself to the inner belt via the aforementioned hooked backing.
Personally, I love this concept for belts and I find this kind of system to be so much more comfortable than an old-school battle belt or war belt. Everything is much more secure to your body and therefore when you start running around all of your gear wont start flying around. While 5.11 is certainly not the first company to produce a belt like this, it’s nice to see them throw their hat in the ring.
5.11 opted to go with a branded cobra buckle on this belt and I think that was a good choice as the Austri Alpin buckles are pretty hard to beat. The buckle is very solid and help secure the battle belt together while being incredibly easy to disengage when doffing the belt. One advantage to having a cobra buckle is that if you’re low crawling over rocks and dirt, you’re not going to have any random debris come up and depress your belt.
In my testing of this belt, I mounted a few accessories on the side of it to include a pistol holster, a medical kit, an AR-15 magazine holder, and a duel, pistol mag carrier. Everything was super easy to attach to the laser-cut laminated MOLLE excluding the Safariland pistol holster. In order to attach a Safariland holster to this belt, you need to take off the male end of the cobra buckle. Unfortunately, removing the cobra buckle on this particular belt proved to be quite a challenge, and I ended up having to cut a little bit of the belt in order to make it happen.
The part that gave me the most issue is where the Velcro is sewn into the nylon belt. This part of the belt is just barely too thin to get the buckle through without modification in my experience. To be completely honest, this was a very frustrating process and I hope to see 5.11 fix this issue in the future if this is happening to other customers, too.
Performance – 5.11 Maverick Battle Belt D-Ring
Overall, I can say this belt performs exactly as advertised. It holds all of your gear and keeps it very secure to your body in the summer months. This is definitely the type of belt I prefer to shoot with as it’s a lot cleaner and creates less heat around my waist. In the winter months, though, I will go back to my old style of “War” Belt with its single-piece, paddle belt because those are easier to get around jackets and clothing than the two-piece style belts.
I didn’t get a chance to actually test out the D-ring in a traditional setting, like on a helicopter or in a rappel, but it does appear to be quite robust and capable of holding a lot of weight. I also like that they included a small Velcro loop closure to secure the D-ring when not in use.
One other issue I have with this belt is the inner section the 5.11 tag can easily get between your Velcro pieces. It’s not a big deal, but just seems kind of like a design oversight in my opinion. I think they could easily move this tag to be on the other end of the interior of the inner belt and that would alleviate any Velcro connecting issues.
Likes
- Robust Design
- High Tech Materials
Dislikes
- Heavy
- Difficult to mount pistol holsters
- Poor tag placement
Competitive Options – 5.11 Maverick Battle Belt D-Ring
- GBRS GROUP ASSAULTER BELT SYSTEM V2 – $199.99
- BFG CHLK Belt – $349.95
- Ronin Tactics SENSHI Belt – $179.95
Wrap Up – 5.11 Maverick Battle Belt D-Ring
I think the Maverick battle belt with the ring is overall a good piece of kit and for anybody who loves to do handgun shooting especially in the summer, it’s kind of a must-have. This belt will run you about $180 for the D-ring variant while without the D-ring, it’ll only cost you $145. I think that’s some solid value and if you’re looking to get one of these kinds of belts, it’s much cheaper to go without the D-ring unless you need it. There are definitely some quirks with this belt and I’m really not happy with how hard it can be to mount a pistol holster.
