The Magpul Tejas “El Original” Gun Belt is what happens when tradition falls into bed with technology By combining the best leather with the best polymer for the purpose. And thus Magpul invented a whole new genera of gun belts.
The top grain bullhide was taken only from the shoulders of the finest English speaking bulls, while the polymer is mixed from the finest carbon atoms harvested from dinosaurs buried deep in the earth.
Open Wide
At 1.5 inches wide and a quarter-inch thick, the Magpul Tejas Gun Belt would be a formidable weapon on its own, but it true purpose in life is to carry your weapon with style, grace, and undying devotion.
What makes the Magpul Tejas Gun Belt unique in the gun belt world is that it successfully mates reinforced polymer with leather forming a cohesive and practical belt. The polymer lines the user of the belt ring while the bullhide rounds out the public side.
The strength of the polymer allows the adjustment holes to be closer together at about ¾” apart. Closer than usually found on leather-only belts where the risk of holes stretching or tearing into each other is greater.
The Original Tejas Gun Belt retails for about $85. For a hundred bucks more you can get one that substitutes sharkskin for the bullhide. Or for $25 less you can get the Tejas “El Burro” that lacks both the sharkskin and the bullhide leaving you with just a heavy duty polymer belt. Plenty functional, but less the fancied-up materials.
Open Carry
The human-facing side of the Magpul Tejas Gun Belt handles sweat like a champ. The polymer side of the belt is impervious to water weather salted or not. In fact the polymer of the Magpul Tejas Gun Belt is impervious to just about everything. Modern synthetics are amazing and to have one half of a high quality leather belt be magical synthetic is worth the admission price.
To test the limits of the Magpul Tejas “El Original” Gun Belt, I packed a particular handgun all over the grizzly infested snow-covered backcountry of my neck of the woods. Strapped to my hip on my Magpul Tejas Gun Belt were 3.5 pounds of Ruger Super Redhawk Alaskan with Galco Leather Holster and six rounds of Buffalo Bore 340 grain .44 Magnum +P+ ammo. That’s over 55 ounces of asymmetrical belt tugging gun weight! For reference, a fully loaded Glock 17 with 17 rounds onboard weighs just 31 ounces or just a little more than one-half of the weight of the Alaskan. It’s like wearing a fully-loaded Glock 17 and a fully-loaded Glock 26 on the same side of the belt at the same time.
After hours of hiking through the snow on many occasions, I have to say that the Magpul Tejas Gun Belt is by far the best gun belt i’ve ever used. Not that my other gun belts don’t serve me well, but the overbuilt composite (leather and polymer) design is impressive. The weight of the holstered gun and big bladed sheath knife is distributed all around the waist, and there was no twisting, sagging, or leaning off the hip. Honestly, at first i was aware of the heft of the gun on the belt, but not much later, even the heavy Alaskan melted into my stride as the Magpul Tejas Gun Belt carried the weight with no added attention. Where range reviews of the Magpul Tejas Gun Belt fail is that the true merits of this belt begin to shine many hours into packing a heavy gun that can only happen through authentic carry.
Buckle Up
The stiff Magpul Tejas Gun Belt requires a bit of patience when buckling up for the day. The flexibility of the belt is nowhere as much as thin leather or nylon webbing belts like the 5.11. Instead the Magpul Tejas Gun Belt is a rock-solid platform to wear your gear. Sometimes I wonder if the Magpul Tejas Gun Belt is more of a gun belt than a pants belt, but I’ve not yet reached the level of bodily decay to need a belt to prevent dropping my “trou” unintentionally.
And since the sales of the Glock 19 compare to the Ruger Alaskan at probably 10,000 to one if not more, I did plenty of “lightweight” testing carrying a G19 around. Compared to the Ruger Alaskan, the G19 was weightless and rode on the Magpul Tejas Gun Belt with invisibility.
Dress for Success
The Magpul Tejas Gun Belt, while an excellent gun carrier, is also a fine looking piece of your dress-up kit. You can rock this belt at the office, the night life scene, and of course the gun range. At no time does the Magpul Tejas Gun Belt feel like it doesn’t belong as some gun belts do.
In Summary…
The Magpul Tejas Gun Belt is not your grandfather’s gun belt. It is a modern take on a historical weapons carrying trend. The combination of leather and polymer should satisfy the most discriminating belt wearers. But now that the dust has settled on my review of the Magpul Tejas Gun Belt, I just have to say that since I want the feel and sound of leather (especially with wheel guns) with the strength, durability and downright imperviousness nature of Polymer, I am 100% sold on the Magpul Tejas Gun Belt as the best dedicated gun belt.
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