New: Grayl UltraPress Titanium Water Purifier

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Anyone who has heard of the “5 Cs of survival” — cutting, combustion, cover, cordage, and container — should recognize the importance of having a vessel to carry water. In a worst-case scenario this might be something as simple as a scavenged Ziploc bag or plastic water bottle, but ideally, your container should be made out of metal. This allows it to be placed onto or suspended over a campfire or stove, providing a way of boiling water for drinking, cooking, and washing. It also increases the durability of this crucial survival tool. Recognizing this, Grayl has announced a new version of its excellent UltraPress water purifier (which we previously wrote about here). The Grayl UltraPress Titanium comes with a multipurpose cup that fits around its purifier bottle assembly.

As with the original Grayl UltraPress, the UltraPress Titanium is fast and simple to use for purifying water. Just pull the purifier bottle from its outer shell, scoop water into the shell like a cup, loosen the SimpleVent cap to allow air to escape, insert the purifier bottle back into the shell, and press down. Water is forced up through the purifier cartridge, removing viruses, bacteria, and protozoa as well as sediment, flavors/odors, and other contaminants. The Grayl purifier cartridge been independently tested and verified to meet the NSF/ANSI P231 standards for microbiological purifiers (refer to our previous article on water purifiers to read more about these standards).

In addition to its primary function of scooping water, the UltraPress Titanium outer shell can be used like a large titanium camp cup. You can place it on an isobutane portable stove or mini wood stove, heat it on a propane grill, or even hang it over an open campfire. Two retractable handles and a micro D-ring have been integrated into this vessel, so you can pick it up or suspend it as needed. We could see this being useful for making coffee, cooking ramen, or just heating up some water for a freeze-dried camping meal.

Obviously, once the outer shell has been used to scoop up contaminated water, you shouldn't consume water directly from it until it has been thoroughly boiled or passed through the Grayl purifier cartridge.

Grayl says the UltraPress Titanium comes with a one-way silicone cartridge valve, making it possible to fill the bottle with regular liquids such as electrolyte drink mixes, coffee, tea, or even beer without damaging the purifier cartridge. This is a unique upgrade, and one that makes the bottle much more useful on a day-to-day basis.

The new UltraPress Titanium is expected to be available in late Fall 2022 at an MSRP of $200. For more information, go to Grayl.com.

Letter from the Editor: Glitches in the Matrix

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Today, we live under an ever-increasing burden of technology. It seems as if, everywhere we turn, the so-called “system” is playing a greater and greater role in our daily lives. The benefits of this construct are undeniable — the level of communication, convenience, and access to information we now take for granted was only seen in science-fiction movies when I was in grade school. But that same access and omnipresence has also created a deep sense of dependence for many of us. At times, it seems almost insurmountable. Anybody who’s ever checked their phone or opened their laptop to see an unexpected loss of wireless service knows the almost immediate sense of panic that comes with being severed from that invisible umbilical cord.

The unfortunate side effect of this phenomenon is that, even as people gain easier access to potentially life-saving tools and information, they become less prepared to deal with unexpected disconnection from their electronic safety net. Ironically, the cause of this problem is also the solution. A quick internet search provides us the following definitions:

  • INFORMATION: what is conveyed or represented by a particular arrangement or sequence of things.
  • KNOWLEDGE: facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.

How do you survive a lack of access to information? Through knowledge — the acquiring of information and skills that remain accessible or programmed in your brain through means other than immediate reference. This is why we dedicated the current issue to “Unplugged Survival” — surviving without immediate access to the network of modern conveniences some call “the grid.” Rather than encouraging you to abandon technology entirely, our hope is to equip you with skills and knowledge of available tools that can make a grid-down scenario nothing more than a mild inconvenience.

TV static – no signal

Dean Freeman walks us through the equipment and techniques for Tenkara fishing — a centuries-old method of catching fish developed in Japan that requires little equipment. In fact, the fishing rods don’t even have reels. RECOIL OFFGRID Web Editor Patrick McCarthy reviews the Goal Zero Yeti — a portable power station with enough juice to keep portable devices and appliances running during short-term disasters and wilderness excursions. Joey Nickischer outlines a simple DIY project for solar-powered showering. In addition to the hygiene benefits, a warm shower can be a legitimate morale booster in tough times.

Of course, unplugging isn’t always a matter of physical necessity. Perhaps there are times when you simply want to safeguard your privacy or increase your security in a post-internet world. That’s why we’ve also included features on how to set up your own “burner” phone, a What If? scenario centered on internet dating safety, and Part II of Yousef Badou’s series on situational awareness.

Regardless of your survival, safety, or situational needs, we’re here to arm you with the skills and equipment that allow you to live life on your terms — not paranoid of an uncertain world but prepared for it. Rather than relying on your ability to download information instantly to a computer or smartphone, focus on downloading it permanently into your most powerful supercomputer: your brain. As always, your choice remains simple: be scared or be prepared.

Infographic: The Deadliest Serial Killers in America & The World

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The concept of serial killers is one that invokes a mixture of powerful emotions — terror, revulsion, and morbid fascination. The statistical likelihood of ever encountering one of these murderous individuals is very low, but if you do encounter one, you may never realize it. They're some of the ultimate examples of wolves in sheep's clothing, and many of them are textbook psychopaths who are experts in deception. Much of society's fascination with serial killers, as illustrated by countless movies and TV series about them, is a byproduct of a desire to understand these criminals, since we feel more prepared to defend against something we have studied and analyzed. The following infographics provide snippets of information on the deadliest serial killers in America and the world as a whole — a total of nearly 100 individuals.

America's Deadliest Serial Killers

First, this infographic from Security Baron lists the most prolific serial killer in every state. It includes details on the time frame of their crimes, the number of victims, the methods they used, and the sentences they received (for those who were caught). Although most serial killers are men, their other characteristics — such as age, race, profession, and motive — vary widely. Some claimed their killings were an act of mercy, while others openly reveled in the suffering of their victims.

The World's 50 Most Prolific Serial Killers

The next infographic from SmartAdvocate takes a look at 50 of the world's deadliest serial killers. Yet again, we see both men and women with a variety of professions and motivations. A handful of these names, such as Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, are repeated from the previous graphic. In total, eight of the 50 serial killers committed crimes in the United States.

 

Kia Boys: The Growing Trend of Kia & Hyundai Thefts

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From NyQuil-marinated chicken to the milk crate challenge, TikTok has served as a petri dish for countless ridiculous and ill-advised trends. In many cases, we only hear about these trends after a handful of isolated cases garner significant media attention — one woman plastering her hair with Gorilla Glue makes headlines, but most viewers roll their eyes rather than following in her footsteps. However, there have been a few incidents where TikTok fads spiraled out of control to create substantial real-world problems. The so-called Kia Boys trend falls into this category. What started as a series of viral videos from a group of masked teenage car thieves in the Milwaukee area has escalated to a nationwide surge of Kia and Hyundai thefts. And unlike other forms of car theft, criminals are able to steal these vehicles with nothing more than a screwdriver and an ordinary USB cable.

Above: This 2011 Kia Forte is one of many models affected by the Kia Boys theft trend. (Photo via Flickr.com/thekcb)

Why Kia and Hyundai?

Above: This still from a Kia Boys documentary by YouTuber Tommy G shows a group of men joyriding in a Hyundai Elantra.

Authorities say this problem affects all 2011-2021 Kia vehicles and 2015-2021 Hyundai vehicles, a total of approximately 10 million cars, but not other makes and models. This is because — allegedly as a cost-cutting measure — these cars were built without “chipped” keys and engine immobilizers. In vehicles with engine immobilizers, the ignition system will only function when a key that has been programmed with the appropriate code is inserted. In other words, you need both a physical key (the metal part) and a digital key (the chip) to start most modern cars. That's not the case with late-model Kias and Hyundais, which only need a physical key.

Above: A public service announcement from the Norfolk Police Department in Virginia. The department reported a 35% increase in thefts of Kia and Hyundai vehicles in July 2022.

When criminals realized this, they began looking for ways to circumvent the key cylinder on the steering column. Unfortunately for Kia and Hyundai owners, this was also surprisingly easy. On these vehicles, the cylinder can be pried apart with a screwdriver in a matter of seconds, revealing a rectangular tab that can be turned to start the car.

Another item that's commonly-found in almost all vehicles — a USB cable — fits perfectly onto this tab:

Above: This still from a video by Fox 2 Detroit shows how thieves use a USB cable to steal these cars.

Numerous police departments throughout the United States have reported a sudden increase in car thefts since the TikTok videos began circulating in July 2022. According to a CNBC report, St. Petersburg, Florida announced that more than 1/3 of all car thefts between July and September were linked to the Kia Boys trend. Chicago officials stated, “Vehicle theft is up an astounding 767% due to an emerging TikTok challenge.” One auto shop owner in Ohio said that more than 30 Kia and Hyundai vehicles were towed to his shop with damaged steering columns in a single week.

In Tommy G's Kia Boys documentary video, one masked teenager expressed no fear of punishment: “You only going [to jail] for like three weeks. It’s a misdemeanor.”

Preventative Measures

Above: A public-service bulletin from the Los Angeles Police Department.

Although some might expect Kia and Hyundai to recall these vehicles and install immobilizers, that appears unlikely due to the immense cost of installing new ignition cylinders and re-keying every affected vehicle. Some estimates place this cost at more than $5 billion.

In a statement to the Cincinnati Enquirer, a Kia America spokesperson said that “no car can be made theft-proof” and continued, “All of our vehicles meet or exceed Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.” Unhappy with this conclusion, owners have filed lawsuits against Kia and Hyundai in at least seven states. One lawsuit claims that these companies “blatantly [valued] profits over the safety and security of their customers.”

While the lawyers fight it out in court, authorities recommend Hyundai and Kia owners install a steering wheel lock (like the Club pictured above) and/or hidden kill switch to reduce the risk of theft. Unfortunately, auto parts stores in some major cities have reported shortages of these devices. It's also advisable to follow common-sense measures such as parking in a well-lit area and keeping your car locked at all times. A GPS tracking device such as an Apple Airtag might help you recover a stolen vehicle, but as we discussed in the past, Airtags are also used by criminals to track desirable cars.

New: Thyrm PyroVault 2.0 Zippo Case

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Even if you're not a smoker, a lighter is an extremely valuable addition to your every-day carry gear. It can help you get a fire going immediately in an emergency situation, but it's also great for more mundane tasks like lighting finicky stove burners and melting the ends of paracord or nylon webbing. A lighter can even be a useful social engineering tool, since offering someone a light is a good way to get a casual conversation started. With this in mind, Thyrm recently unveiled the new “2.0” version of its PyroVault Zippo case, which offers weather- and impact-resistant protection for a Zippo lighter or butane torch insert.

The new Thyrm PyroVault 2.0 Zippo case features a dual-walled, two-tone exoskeleton design. It has an integrated gasket seal to keep dust and water out; this also keeps fuel in so classic liquid-fuel lighters won't dry out quickly. The lid has a stainless pivot axle and torsion spring, and it snaps shut with a new low-profile latch.

Also, as seen in the cutaway graphic in the image above, the PyroVault has space for an included SOL Tinder Quik fire starter.

The PyroVault 2.0 accepts classic liquid-fuel Zippo lighters, as well as Zippo's newer single-torch, double-torch, and yellow flame butane inserts. It'll even work with Zippo rechargeable arc lighters and various aftermarket inserts from Z-Plus, Thunderbird, Blazer, and other companies. Personally, I've been carrying a single-torch Zippo butane lighter as part of my EDC for more than a year, and I have found it to be a substantial improvement over the classic Zippo insert that always seemed to be dried out when I needed it.

Six colorways are available for the PyroVault 2.0 Zippo case, as seen in the image above. These range from high-vis orange to muted urban grey. Each includes an integrated lanyard loop at the bottom.

The Thyrm PyroVault is designed and made in the USA. Pricing ranges from $35 with no insert to $48-53 with various Zippo lighter inserts — since Thyrm is a Zippo dealer, you'll save some money buying an insert from them, as opposed to buying it separately. For more information, go to Thyrm.com.

Pocket Preps: Corrosion Resistant Knife Buyer’s Guide

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To borrow a phrase from the firearms side of the house, knives have two enemies: rust and politicians. The latter is more complicated to deal with, but you can sometimes defeat the former by choosing a different blade material or treatment. A knife’s edge is composed of millions of microscopic serrations made of chemical compounds known as carbides. In blade steel, the carbide is composed of iron and carbon. The size and amount of these carbides affect how sharp a blade edge can be made as well as its wear resistance. However, because of the iron, they’re prone to rust and corrosion. For many knife users, extreme corrosion resistance is a necessity. You might need to do work in an extremely humid environment, or maybe you find yourself on the deck of a boat showered with salt water for long periods of time. Either way, you don’t want to find that your latest and greatest carry knife has rusted and pitted.

Another vein indirectly related to corrosion resistance is whether the blade has a metallic signature. Some of the pieces we’ll look at have none; these would be ideal for military and first responder types who may have to work around dangerous ordnance where a spark or even the magnetic presence of iron could trigger an explosion. (Refer to our nonmetallic knife guide for more details on the performance of various materials.) We take a look at some blades made from true “super steels” in this regard, as well as a few made from alternate materials. While researching this guide, several knives were offered to us with corrosion-resistant coatings such as Cerakote. The problem with these coatings is that the very nature of a knife blade renders these useless for protecting the edge from rust. The carbides will always be exposed when using the knife for cutting or even sharpening it. For this reason, we dismissed many blades that purely relied on a coating like nickel or hard chrome as well.

Mick Strider Flamed Titanium Nail

Blade length:
3.5 inches

OAL:
6 inches

Weight:
2.1 ounces

Handle Material:
Cord Wrap

Blade Material:
Titanium

Price:
$125

URL:
mickstridercustomknives.com

Notes: Strider Knives has a history of using every last piece of material from their knife-making endeavors in almost every project. Their WP models were smaller knives made from small pieces of leftover steel used in their larger combat knives, and the Nail represents the by-products of using titanium. This is a short, discreet piece that has a solid look and is a very capable stabbing tool for self-defense. Titanium contains no carbon and will not rust, so something like this can be left on a boat, in a car, or outside virtually forever without oxidizing. It comes in a minimalist Kydex sheath.

Pros:

  • A cord-wrapped handle provides for an excellent grip in any environment.
  • The point on this is like a needle, and you should have no problems poking holes in anything with it.
  • Titanium’s light weight and superior corrosion resistance make this a great backup self-defense piece.

Cons:

  • This is pretty much a spike or a shiv intended for stabbing. It couldn’t be used to slice bread or baton wood, for example.
  • Not a regularly catalogued item. You’re more than likely only going to find one at a show where Strider is attending, or on one of their social media or website drops if you want to avoid the secondary market.

Spyderco Native 5 Salt

Blade length:
2.95 inches

OAL:
6.95 inches

Weight:
2.4 ounces

Handle Material:
FRN

Blade Material:
LC200N

Price:
$205

URL:
spyderco.com

Notes: Spyderco has a proven line in what’s known as their Salt series. These knives are made from extremely corrosion-resistant, nitrogen-based steels. They typically have high-visibility yellow handles, which are valuable when using them in the water, should you drop the knife or need it to stand out from the background (unless you paint the inside of your boat bright yellow, of course). The Native 5 Salt marries this treatment to one of Spyderco’s best U.S.-made designs. The spearpoint blade has a nice choil so you can choke up on it for more delicate tasks. The lockback mechanism is a time-proven design. The blade shrugs off any attempt at corrosion whether fully immersed in fresh or salt water.

Pros:

  • The handle shape is a hallmark of Spyderco’s designs and extremely ergonomic.
  • This was my first outing with LC200N steel, and I walked away impressed. Its chief property is substituting nitrogen for carbon in its composition. This is a very tough and seemingly corrosion-resistant knife.
  • Spyderco’s round hole makes for a fast manual opener.

Cons:

  • I get the use of FRN as a handle material to keep costs down, but milled aluminum handles or scales made of G10, carbon fiber, or Micarta might’ve made for a higher-quality feel.
  • Piggybacking on that, there are no liners. I’m sure this is a cost-saving measure and a way to minimize the threat of corrosion, but liners could make a great knife such as this a little bit better.

Sandrin Monza

Blade length:
3.38 inches

OAL:
7.67 inches

Weight:
4.3 ounces

Handle Material:
Titanium

Blade Material:
Tungsten Carbide

Price:
$399

URL:
cabotguns.com

Notes: The Sandrin Monza is the latest folding knife offered by this Italian company. This knife, and all Sandrin knives, are distributed in the U.S. by Cabot Guns, makers of some of the highest-end 1911s in the world. This blade is unique as it’s made from tungsten carbide. It’ll never rust and its edge will outlast almost anything else made by man. I reviewed one of their earlier offerings a few years ago in RECOIL magazine, and this one is a huge improvement in terms of being a daily user.

Pros:

  • The blade is made from polyhedral tungsten carbide with a Rockwell Hardness of 71 HRC — that means it’ll hold its edge seemingly forever.
  • Extremely lightweight and a true pocketknife for EDC use. Its locking system is unique and one of the more impressive I’ve seen in a while.
  • The knife is well-suited for most cutting chores, much more than some of Sandrin’s first offerings.

Cons:

  • It requires two hands to safely close the blade. The lock is strong and reliable but retracting the lock bar one-handed might cause an injury.
  • There’s no lanyard hole on the handle.
  • Tungsten carbide requires a specialized sharpener, and if you don’t have the equipment or know how to use it, the knife would have to go back to Italy for a tune-up.

Böker Anti MC

Blade length:
3.23 inches

OAL:
7.68 inches

Weight:
2.5 ounces

Handle Material:
Titanium

Blade Material:
Ceramic

Price:
$144

URL:
bokerusa.com

Notes: Böker was one of the first companies to produce a working folding knife with a ceramic blade. Ceramic blades have been used in kitchens for food prep for decades. They require less sharpening, are lighter in weight, and won’t rust. The Anti MC is the latest incarnation of a ceramic folder produced by Böker. It’s a far cry from their initial offering nearly 30 years ago that had a 1-inch blade with a price point closer to custom knife territory. This one is the same size as a standard EDC pocketknife with a titanium frame lock handle.

Pros:

  • This is one of the lightest EDC knives out there, and the ceramic blade and titanium handle make it truly rust-free.
  • A ceramic blade is razor sharp and will retain its edge 10 times longer than a carbon steel blade.
  • This is a very dressy-looking knife and will appear non-threatening should you need to use it in a social setting such as a restaurant.

Cons:

  • You’ll need to exercise a little more care with this one; ceramic is brittle, and the blade can literally shatter when dropped or used to cut an object that’s too hard (such as bone).
  • While ceramic seems to be able to cut forever, resharpening this knife will require a fine-grit diamond sharpening stone or belt.

Tom Krein G10 Bulldog

Blade length:
3 inches

OAL:
8 inches

Weight:
2 ounces

Handle Material:
G10

Blade Material:
G10

Price:
$250

URL:
kreinknives.net

Notes: Tom Krein is a custom knifemaker who also has his own production company to mass produce many of his own designs. He’s known for producing extremely sharp blades, and for many years was known for producing incredible regrinds on other maker’s blades. I’m typically not a fan of G10 or plastic blades, as they usually cannot hack it as a cutting tool for very long without carbides bonded to the edge in some manner. However, Krein’s skill as a sharpener really shows itself here, and his grind toward a thin edge makes for a surprisingly good cutter if you know the limits of the material. My first incident with this blade was thinking it was a trainer until I was shown how it cut through a plastic water bottle.

Pros:

  • This is a 1:1 nonmetallic copy of Krein’s popular Bulldog model, a short clip-bladed non-folding knife.
  • Because it’s G10, rust or corrosion won’t affect it, and the knife is extremely lightweight. It doesn’t weigh much more than its Kydex sheath.
  • Surprisingly sharp and stabby due to Krein’s angles of sharpening and ability to make a thin edge

Cons:

  • Since it has a G10 blade, its ability to remain sharp won’t last as long as other materials. Chores like batoning wood or skinning a deer are a bit much. This is more of a defensive tool against soft targets.
  • More or less a custom piece and subject to availability

CRKT Hirin

Blade length:
3.39 inches

OAL:
8.69 inches

Weight:
5.9 ounces

Handle Material:
Titanium

Blade Material:
Bohler M390

Price:
$250

URL:
crkt.com

Notes: Looking like a cross between a high-end gentleman’s knife and something out of Star Trek, the Hirin from CRKT is a knife design by Dew Hara and produced in Maniago, Italy. This initial offering of 500 knives is proving to be popular with collectors and users who want a virtually rust-free knife. The blade rides on ball bearings to make for a smooth and classy opener. The skeletonized handle and blade make this a working piece of art and craftsmanship that’s highly corrosion-resistant on every level.

Pros:

  • This blade has the perfect symmetry of a dagger blade without the double-edge factor. Skeletonized to reduce weight.
  • Action is smooth; the blade flips open on ball bearing pivots.
  • Bohler M390 steel proves to be great at edge retention, corrosion resistance, and simply as a working steel.

Cons:

  • The look of this knife might be too artsy or busy for some. Because of its perfect symmetry, it’s possible to try to open it from the wrong side in the dark.
  • This was a limited-edition run from CRKT. It may be sold out unless they produce another run; therefore, secondary market prices may apply.

VZ Grips Diamante G10 Dagger

Blade length:
4.75 inches

OAL:
9.9 inches

Weight:
2.4 ounces

Handle Material:
G10

Blade Material:
G10

Price:
$99

URL:
vzgrips.com

Notes: VZ Grips is known for making amazing G10 grips for handguns and AR-15 rifles. They’ve also been making a variety of special-use daggers, pens, and other items out of G10, such as the Diamante Dagger. The difference between this dagger and other G10 knives is the incorporation of some scary sharp serrations milled into the profile of the blade on each side. These are key to using this blade as a cutting tool as opposed to just for stabbing. You can choose either a leather or a Kydex sheath for this model.

Pros:

  • The serrations are reminiscent of shark teeth. They mimic in macro size the pattern of carbides found in a steel blade and make for a very efficient cutter.
  • The G10 handles are offered in a variety of colors, and you can match them up to the VZ grips on your favorite firearm.
  • You could leave it on the bottom of the ocean or in a saltwater fish tank for years, and it’ll come out exactly as you put it in.

Cons:

  • Some states regulate the ownership and/or carry of double-edged daggers, so be sure to check your local laws.
  • While capable for most tasks, it still has some limitations. Good for EDC, not so much for bushcraft.

Infographic: The Most Dangerous Hobbies

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What's your favorite weekend pastime? Some of us like to travel, either by plane, car, or motorcycle. Others enjoy sports such as running, swimming, cycling, or horseback riding. If you're a bit adventurous, maybe you like to scuba dive, hang glide, or climb mountains. Of course, an element of danger comes with all of these activities, but it's not always easy to differentiate what only feels dangerous from what might actually kill you. The following infographic from ChessInTheAir.com offers a ranking of a few of the most dangerous hobbies based on the statistical likelihood of death per hour.

Of course, statistics can get complicated and there are a lot of factors at play here, so this should only be treated as a rough estimate. Some of the data is restricted to a specific country (e.g. backcountry skiing in Austria may not be representative of risks worldwide). Other data is skewed for activities that were historically far more dangerous than they are today (e.g. Formula 1 racing, which is based on death rates since 1950). However, it still offers some interesting revelations about dangerous hobbies — most people wouldn't assume that riding a motorcycle to work is more dangerous than scuba diving hundreds of feet beneath the ocean's surface.

For more perspective on dangers that affect our daily lives, check out our previous article, “The Most Common Causes of Death.”

The opening image in this article includes a U.S. Air Force photo taken by Staff Sgt. Sara Csurilla.

The Deception Detector: David Matsumoto Interview

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We might like to believe we’ve encircled ourselves with people we can trust, but is there really an accurate way to identify those attempting to hustle you? We deal with liars on a daily basis. Some are easy to spot, while others are like the Ernest Hemingways of bullsh*t, and catch us completely off-guard. If you know what to look for, however, the odds of being able to sniff out the fakes go up exponentially. We’ve all heard the popular lore about eye contact and various other rumored honesty tests, but the art of professional lie detection is an area of study with its own unique rules of engagement. One name that stands out in this field is David Matsumoto. Not only has he created a scientific basis for lie detection and threat assessment, but he’s also backed it up with years of fieldwork and credentials to prove he’s one of the most reliable resources out there. David spoke to us about the techniques he teaches agencies around the country to uncloak the bad actors and keep people safe. We walked away from our discussion not only a bit more cognizant about ourselves, but also very leery about what the prospects of human interaction are shaping up to become.

Our Interview with Dr. David Matsumoto

RECOIL OFFGRID: Tell us about your company and what you do.

David Matsumoto: Humintell is a company that does consulting, training, and applied research on behavioral indicators associated with deception detection, interviews and interrogations, social influence, and threat assessment. We do a lot of applied research for government customers in those areas and a lot of training for intelligence, security personnel, and law enforcement all around the country.

Above: David’s company offers numerous online courses and live workshops on reading people, threat assessment, micro-expressions, and a variety of other topics at www.humintell.com. (Photos by Conrad Bui)

 

How did you get into this field of study?

DM: Like most things in my life, it was happenstance. Basically, when I was an undergrad at the University of Michigan, I was asked to be part of the honors program in psychology, which required me to do research that I had no idea how to do. I did a study on how young kids can understand the emotional content of what their caretakers are saying, even though they don’t understand the words. That led me to further research on nonverbal behavior. Over the last 40 years, I’ve been doing that kind of research which has led me to the various kinds of things I do today.

What led me to my company was, even before Sept. 11, myself and other colleagues in my field were often asked by the government to opine on various videos of individuals around the world and whether they were lying or not. They asked us to discern what kinds of things may be going on in their minds. That went on and off for a good 10 to 15 years until Sept. 11 happened. When it did, behavioral detection-related things for security became a very hot topic. We were asked to do more stuff, so we set up the company to deal with requests that were coming to us from the government to be able to handle that kind of information.

What’s your educational background?

DM: I have a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in two majors, psychology and Japanese, and I have a master’s degree and PhD in psychology from UC Berkeley.

You are a college professor as well, right?

DM: [Laughs] That’s what they keep telling me. Until they fire my ass or something like that.

What sort of courses does your company offer to the general public?

DM: We have stand-alone online courses on how to basically read facial expressions of emotion, and other topics like reading people. There are also general topics about deception detection, threat assessment, and things like that, so we have a menu of online general courses for people who come to our site. For certain customers, we have more customized, in-person training where we go and teach people how to use these techniques and knowledge in interviews and interrogations.

What kinds of companies/agencies typically utilize your services and for what purpose?

DM: We do a lot of work with law enforcement. They’re probably our biggest customer. They learn about the latest behavioral indicators related to mental states. Our stuff is quite different than what others in this field purport to do. We base what we do on indicators that are validated in science and vetted in the field because we’ve been doing this kind of training of operators for a long time and we know a lot of the science.

Law enforcement learns how to apply and read various behavior indicators in terms of when they’re conducting an interview or interrogation with anybody — suspects, witnesses, informants, assets, victims, etc. We’re very fortunate to work with the State Department, diplomatic security, Marine Corps, and different areas of the federal government. In the past, we were doing a lot of work with intelligence operators as well. In fact, we’ve also done a lot of applied research for intelligence agencies to find what the best practices are in behavioral indicators associated with certain types of mental states to help information solicitation. We have a lot of customers in that area of work.

What specific behaviors do you teach people to identify and interpret?

DM: The content of our work runs the gamut of all kinds of behaviors. With regard to deception detection, we focus on two specific areas. The first is facial expressions of emotion, how to read those, and how to read what are called micro-expressions. And a large part of our work is also focused on linguistic and grammatical features of speech. There are certain types of linguistic and grammatical features of speech that our research has shown are consistent across cultures and languages to be indicative of deception and veracity. So, a large part of our research and training is in those two buckets of content.

Within the nonverbal, whenever we have the ability, and given the customer requirements, we train on other kinds of nonverbal behaviors like gestures, whole body movements, postures, voice, and other things.

Are there any well-known cases you’ve worked on you can tell us about?

DM: There are well-known bad actors who’ve been in the news where we’ve played a very small part because, as you know, there’s a large number of excellent operators who are hard at work tracking them down. A lot of our original work in this area was done for an intelligence agency, in which someone we worked with was one of the chief interrogators at Guantanamo. As we all know, there they have detainees who are being interrogated quite often.

Although we are never fully debriefed, we have been told that based upon some of our modest contributions, we played a small part in helping individuals get information that led to successes in the field that eventually involved some pretty big names, the outcome of which many of your readers likely have seen on television news. Where and how our stuff was used and with whom is a mystery to me because they don’t tell us that stuff, but I know our work played a role in dealing with those kinds of people.

Above: David’s been doing judo continuously for 55 years and was a former train-the-trainer instructor for the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Hunter program. Here, he’s standing in front of a traditional Japanese drum (taiko) at his dojo, the East Bay Judo Institute. The drum was a gift from the Kodokan Judo Institute in Japan in commemoration of an official U.S.-Japan high school exchange program. 

What are key indicators of deception or threats?

DM: Those are two related, but different things. With deception, here’s the issue — there is no “key indicator.” That’s one of the problems with deception detection. Research and fieldwork have shown that the best indicators of deception are not one or two things, but are a cluster of things. There’s not one indicator that occurs with everybody and not even one for the same person. Like, I don’t believe people have a usual “tell” in general. When you talk about clusters of things, that can run the gamut from being a facial expression of emotion combined with a certain type linguistic or grammatical feature of speech, combined with a certain type of gesture or head movement. That’s why there’s no one key feature and that’s part of what makes it very difficult.

Given the constellation of indicators out there, the two most important ones are facial expressions of emotion, especially micro-expressions, and certain types of grammatical features of speech. The problem is that a lot of people want to think there are certain conclusive key features. These things have been popularized in the public over the last 50 years or more. I think that’s why behavioral indicators have gotten a bad rap in some quarters. One of the reasons is a lot of training that occurred in the past was based on indicators that were not validated or vetted in the field. That’s a big problem.

For example, there’s a myth out there that, when people are lying to you, they don’t look you in the eye. That has never been shown to be true in research, despite the fact that there’s a big myth out there about it. When people are trained on that, they look for that, and then they make the wrong interpretation. That has led to difficulties in using behavioral indicators. So, when we’re talking about key indicators, we always focus on groups or clusters of different types of behaviors. They exist, but it’s not one or two.

With regard to threat indicators, they’re different. There are different phases of a threat cycle. If you’re talking about a person being indoctrinated and radicalized along a pipeline of extremism, there are certain types of indicators that exist that are different than when a person is an active bad actor conducting an op. Even when they’re in an operational cycle, the indicators are different when they are planning an op, preparing for the op, doing surveillance and recon, or hidden in an area of operation. So different phases of what we’re calling threats are associated with different types of indicators. That’s the way we approach both our applied research and training in this area because the indicators about threats are just different at different points in time along the threat cycle.

How is nonverbal communication built into human emotion?

DM: First of all, people have evolved along a phylogenetic line. Words are relatively recent and with humans only. Nonhuman primates and other animals, along their phylogenetic lines, have certain types of emotions. Even before nonhuman primates, you had animals with very basic types of emotional states like pleasure, pain, and whatnot. When you look along their phylogenetic lines, those emotional states are increasingly being differentiated given the social complexity of the animal we’re talking about.

So, nonhuman primates have certain emotions, but humans have even more differentiating emotions. I say that because, when you look to animals prior to humans, all of the emotions are embedded in a nonverbal expressive signaling system, whether it’s gestures in their faces or in their actions. Humans are the only ones that have the words that make everything more complex, but emotions in general are encoded in a nonverbal expressive system well before humans along a phylogenetic line.

How are things like facial expression, body language, perspiration, and pulse tied into human behaviors and emotions?

DM: All of those things you mentioned are basically a part of this expressive behavioral repertoire that’s part of a package of events that occurs when people are emotional. The whole point about emotions is that they prime individuals for action. They prime people for behaving or thinking a certain way. The nonverbal behaviors that we’re seeing are output signals of this important system. Emotions actually drive a lot of behaviors and thoughts. That’s how emotions serve as the basic motivation for all kinds of behaviors. When we’re talking about nonverbal behaviors, we’re reading outputs of that internal system and this gives us insight into other people’s motivations, personalities, intentions, etc.

Are these behaviors always autonomic?

DM: No. Some of them are autonomic, but things like facial expressions are created by the movements of the muscles in our face. Those are skeletal muscles. That’s all CNS (central nervous system) related, not ANS (autonomic nervous system). Perspiration, heart rate, etc. — those are being driven by ANS. What’s going on when people are emotional is that those ANS and CNS systems are firing in different ways and that’s why you can see different outputs from two very different systems.

How controllable are these behaviors? Are they involuntary or can someone be taught to control them?

DM: The initiation of a lot of the expressive behaviors you’re talking about, like immediate facial expressions, the start of sweating, and the impulse to act a certain way, a lot of them are uncontrollable because they’re initiated by what I call a central command system in our brain. The further in time you get — and we’re talking about fractions of a second — once things become more conscious to people, they become more controllable. In general, what we’re talking about is the farther away from the initiation of the response you’re talking about, the more controllable things become.

Of course, this is all influenced by how strong the emotion is in the first place. If people are enraged, they’re less controllable than when they’re just a little ticked off. And then there’s a lot of individual differences in this because people are very different. People are born very differently with regard to their emotional systems. Some people get very expressive and are unable to control themselves, whereas some people are just more reserved to begin with. So, it’s a combination of things that are uncontrollable with a lot of things that are controllable. It depends on where in the process you’re talking about.

Above: David’s been to four Olympic Games: 1996 in Atlanta, 2000 in Sydney, 2004 in Athens, and 2008 in Beijing. Here he stands in front of the 2008 Olympic flag signed by the U.S. judo team, of which his daughter Sayaka was a member. 

Why, when we lie, does our body produce a physiological reaction differently than when we’re honest?

DM: There are several reasons why, but essentially it comes down to this: When people lie, especially when stakes are involved, liars lie about their thinking, and think about their lying; and liars lie about their feelings, and have feelings about the fact that they’re lying. All these varied cognitions and emotions are tied together neurologically and produce physiological reactions and expressive behaviors, many of which are observable.

What are the biggest reasons you think people fall victim to deception?

DM: It’s very clear we all have a truth bias, which means that we all want to believe whoever we’re talking to and whatever we’re talking about. We are also born with the inability to detect deception. Human societies, as we know them, are built upon some degree of ignorance about others’ true feelings and thoughts. They’re based on our ability to not know what everybody else is thinking and feeling and for us to always be regulating whatever we are thinking and feeling.

I think a lot of it is biologically innate, but because of those pressures, I think there’s a lot of us who have that truth bias. We are ignorant to a lot of the deception around us. On top of that are all our individual biases. We just have a difficult time believing when someone is lying to us and I think that blinds us in a lot of ways. On the other hand, there’s the opposite bias where some people just don’t believe anybody. So, there’s individual biases that affect this entire thing, but it’s all overlaid upon a truth bias that I think we all have.

How effectively do you think people can be taught to mask their innate emotions?

DM: I think people are very good at learning how to mask their emotional reactions. I think we all do that as part of everyday social life. Another thing that I think that is related to a lot of what I think your work does is we also then learn to ignore our emotional reactions. What I mean by that is I think, especially in society today where things are so comfortable for so many people, that we’ve learned to downplay and ignore whatever visceral reactions are occurring around us. Part of that is because most of us live in such a comfortable world that, even when we feel that there may be something going on, we’re able to argue it away that nothing has happened. I think in our world today we are being desensitized to various emotional reactions which, in the past, would’ve helped us survive. Human society today has become so managed with regard to how people survive without that reaction and response. I think that’s a big thing that’s happened over the last 120 years.

What are the most popular misconceptions about lying and lie detection?

DM: That there’s a key indicator that you can always use to tell when a person is lying, like when they don’t look at you in the eye while they’re answering. It’s a big myth out there that’s had policy implications, training implications, and all kinds of other implications in the real world. I think that’s a big issue.

I understand that judo is also big part of your life. Do you feel it’s helped you with your chosen area of study or vice versa?

DM: You know, I don’t know whether it’s helped or been helped by my chosen area of study. I do think that judo has been such a big contributor in other ways in my life. There are people who are very good at what I do and don’t necessarily do judo. They’re very good observers of behavior and whatnot. I do think judo has grounded me to appreciate people with skills who can react in dangerous situations, especially those who’ve chosen to do so on behalf of others in a group, in a society, or in a country. Judo is so physical and humbling that it’s given me much greater appreciation of those who do that, and it makes me much more motivated to do what I do really well for them.

Whether it’s helped me to be a better observer of micro-expressions, I don’t know — probably not. But it’s grounded me in these other ways that are so much more important to me. I’m truly grateful for having done judo all these years.

Above: David has authored numerous books on culture and psychology.

Do you think all humans are born with basically the same emotional baseline?

DM: No, everyone is really different in their emotional baselines. Some people are very emotional and some are much more reserved, so where people are on a baseline of reactivity is very different. People are similar, however, in the fact that we all have the same ability to have the same set of emotions.

How are these emotions affected by nurture and environment?

DM: I think nurture plays a large role in helping people learn what to be emotional about, what to attach that emotional system to, and what to do with it when emotional. Nurture doesn’t affect what they’re starting with. It’s like a color palette. We all start with the same color palette. Nurture tells us when to color, what to color, and what to do about it once we color, but it doesn’t change the fact that all humans have that same coloring palette. So, in that sense, nurture is huge. The effect of nurture is so large that it sometimes allows people to discount the impact of nature. But I also happen to believe that nature has a profound effect on our emotions.

Please explain the differences between behavior and emotion.

DM: Emotion, to me, is a package of events that’s a reaction to certain types of stimuli that we perceive. It involves certain types of cognitive changes, certain kinds of physiological changes, and certain kinds of changes in expressive behavior, like facial expressions, how we use our voices, and things like that.

For behavior, I’d like to differentiate between what I call expressive behavior, which is an immediate reaction, and what’s known as instrumental behavior, like hitting something or taking a walk — those are the outputs of an emotional reaction. So, behavior is a component of emotion, but it’s not an emotion in and of itself. Emotion is an internal reaction that’s a result of an information processing system in our brain.

How does one’s foundation of what’s right and wrong get formed?

DM: The research theorizes that there are universal aspects of morality across different people. There are cultural differences on specific types of morality, but there’s some universal basis for it. What we don’t know is the innate basis of that versus the learned basis of it. People think that all humans are learning what is good and bad, right and wrong, and base their moral system on nurture. We’re learning this as we’re enculturated and growing up as infants and young children.

When we learn as infants and young children what’s appropriate to do for ourselves, which is what our parents are teaching us all the time, we’re by default learning how to understand the behaviors of others and whether they’re right or wrong, good or bad, etc. Morality and right or wrong is largely learned, but it’s learned because we have the ability to have emotions, the ability to have language, and the ability to have thoughts. It’s those innate abilities that allow us to have nurture that leads us to that morality.

How much do genetics play into behavioral traits?

DM: They’re large, but let’s be clear. It’s called trait tendencies. There’ve been estimates of the impact of genetics on trait tendencies. The studies have shown that the impact of genetics on the tendencies to have certain traits is about 50 percent. So, 50 percent of the value inherent in our behaviors is largely driven by some aspect of genetics that’s been encoded in our DNA. Another 50 percent of our behaviors, in general, tends to occur because of whatever we’ve learned and whatever our individual differences are.

How consistent are emotional traits and nonverbal behaviors across different cultures?

DM: Some are very consistent. With facial expressions of emotion, research over the last half century has demonstrated that there’s six or seven facial expressions of emotion that are universal across all cultures. That is, when people have those emotions, they produce it on their faces in the same facial configurations. Then there are cultural differences on when to express them, how to express them, how much to express them, etc. And there are cultural differences on other aspects of emotion, like your attitudes about emotion and your values about emotion. For example, there are big cultural differences in whether certain cultures value happy emotions versus some cultures that value more sad emotions. So, there are cultural differences in attitudes, values, opinions, and world views about emotions. There are more cultural similarities in the actual reactions that occur when people are emotional.

Above: Aside from being an expert on reading people, David is a longtime practitioner of judo. Here he demonstrates some of his skills as an 8th-degree black belt on Tiga Tactics’ Conrad Bui.

How does culture affect personality?

DM: It depends upon what aspect of personality we’re talking about. If we’re talking about the traits we mentioned earlier, which are behavioral dispositions or tendencies, it seems that culture doesn’t affect that very much. Now there are big cultural differences in aggregate levels of traits, but it’s not known whether people with those traits maybe migrated to those areas back in history or whether people living in those certain environments created those personality traits. That’s not known, but it’s clear that culture doesn’t necessarily impact personality traits as much.

When we’re talking about aspects of other personality like roles, role identities, and the kinds of things we should do in certain roles, then clearly culture has much more impact there. For example, there’s a role that I play here in this culture today called “father.” What I learned in the role of father is a certain understanding of father, which is different than the role of father in, let’s say, the Middle East. If I’m in Afghanistan, the role of father may mean something slightly different or largely different. So, there’s a lot more cultural differences on those aspects of personality that go beyond the traits.

How does one’s sex affect emotional traits and nonverbal behaviors?

DM: Many people think men and women are very different in their emotionality. I actually don’t believe that. I believe that men and women are very similar in their emotionality. Where there are differences is in the context in which men and women generally learned how and what to express. One stereotype is that women are more emotional within the home talking with the man, whereas the men are less emotional. In that context, those kinds of contextual differences may exist.

However, there’ve been studies that’ve shown that if you just measure or assess the amount of the emotions expressed by men and women throughout the day across all contexts, there are no differences. What that means is that whatever differences we think exist between men and women, they’re all contextual. In terms of emotionality, I think men and women are very similar. I think where men and women differ is the contexts men and women have learned to be expressive and what kinds of emotions we have in those contexts.

Does mental illness, such as psychopathy, affect these behaviors since there are people who may believe their own lies?

DM: Mental conditions, drugs, and brain injuries are all the wild cards of the emotional system. They can throw things off in many different ways. Today, it’s thought that psychopaths don’t have emotions and are not empathetic. I don’t believe that. I believe that they’re not empathetic and don’t show emotions in certain contexts, but they are certainly emotional. They’re just emotional about different things. You and I may not be happy that we ruined someone else’s life and took advantage of them. However, a psychopath would be happy about that. They have happiness; it’s just attached to different and certain weird things.

The question is why are they attached to different things? I don’t think we have a good answer. I think there’s some faulty biological wiring that’s occurred because research has shown that there’s very little that can change psychopaths. I also think that’s true for sex offenders, child molesters, and certain groups of individuals who clearly have an emotion system and are just wired differently. That’s why they’re hard to change.

Do you feel polygraphs have value anymore? There’ve been cases where people committed a crime and passed their polygraph exam without triggering any indications they were lying.

DM: The research says that the use of a polygraph with a skilled examiner is very effective in differentiating truth from lies. The research is very clear about that. It’s also clear that there’s cases in which convicted individuals have later been exonerated. To me, it’s impossible to take individual examples of the opposite effect and to then say that the effect on the entire group of findings is inaccurate. If we understand the way research is done, it’s all group based. If I’m going to establish the efficacy of a polygraph, a vaccine, or whatever, I’m going to establish its efficacy based on a group tendency, like an average, a large percentage, or something like that.

Given that, there are always going to be false positives. Of course, we want to minimize those kinds of false positives and negatives. No question about it. But the existence of false positives and false negatives don’t argue, to me necessarily, that something may or may not be effective as a whole. The question is how do we adjudicate the ones that are slipping through? Public viewpoints today may often say, well, look at that one case over there. No question that those are travesties if they turned out to be correct, but that doesn’t necessarily suggest we have to throw out the entire system that’s done it correctly for 95 or 99 percent of the time. I think there are different ways to ask those questions.

What does the research say about how the internet has affected human behavior and emotions thus far?

DM: Well, I’ll tell you, the biggest effect of the internet, social media, and other kinds of electronically mediated communication is all bad in terms of what it’s done to society. It’s created greater senses of isolation, depression, and loneliness. In that constellation of anxiety and emotion, it’s very clear that research over the last 20, 30 years of internet and social media use has produced more negative effects on a population level. And of course, those are all affecting our emotions.

Wow …

DM: Yeah, it’s huge and I feel like it’s counterintuitive. You get on Facebook, Twitter, or whatever it is and think you’re connecting with your friends, but then the question is who becomes your friend, right? We’re all wanting to get the “like” and this kind of stuff, which turns out to be unfulfilling for us in terms of our psychology. The other side of that says something about what our humanity requires — people interacting with each other and trying to get some sense of satisfaction, fulfillment, or worth about ourselves from actual interactions. I think that the internet in general, and social media in particular, has done a disservice in that area because it’s helping to decrease actual human interaction.

I remember when I first started thinking about this back in the ’80s when the Walkman came out. When kids got into the car to go someplace with their family and put on their Walkman headphones, that cut off their interaction with the family. When I saw that I was like, wow, that’s really not cool. You see that more and more today where people are together, but not really together. They’re physically around each other, but not really communicating. And there’s something to be said about people actually interacting with others — humans are wired to do that and need to do it. We’re seeing the effects of that not occurring in this population research we’re talking about. The detrimental effects of it are very clear.

I would think it’s probably somewhat difficult to quantify all that. We live in a world where most people think that, if you can’t see it and can’t measure it, then it doesn’t exist. We’re social beings and we know something ethereal happens when we interact in person as opposed to through an electronic device. How do you calculate the ethereal effects of human interaction versus the effects via electronic devices?

DM: You’re probably right; it’s very difficult to capture those ethereal effects, but what you can capture are the effects of not having that. For example, it’s relatively easy to assess people’s levels of self-esteem, self-worth, self-confidence, depression, anxiety, or whatever psychological variable you want to throw at it. I think how the research is addressing your question is by examining how those psychological effects have changed in the absence of that kind of interaction.

You can compare what the data looked like before and after the imposition of the internet and social media. It’s very clear. Where the internet and social media are occurring, it’s having negative effects on people. The interpretation is that those ethereal effects you mentioned, which are not measured, must exist. There’s an interpretation by proof of negation of the opposite kind of thing. But it’s very clear and research has been going on for like 20, 30 years about these negative effects.

About David Matsumoto

Age: 62

Hometown: Richmond, California (originally from Honolulu, Hawaii)

Children: Four children

Martial arts rank: Hachidan (8th degree black belt in judo)

Recommended reading list:

  • The Bible
  • The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book) by Don Miguel Ruiz
  • The Origin of Species and The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin

Favorite quote: “It matters not whether you’re better than someone else. The only thing that matters is that you’re better than who you were yesterday.” — Jigoro Kano

Website: humintell.com, davidmatsumoto.com

Plate Carrier Placards Overview: Part 2

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Editor's Note: In yesterday's OFFGRIDweb-exclusive article, we shared Part 1 of our deep dive into the subject of plate carrier placards. If you haven't read it already, go check it out — it explores four different placards for general-purpose and weapon-specific applications. Read on for Part 2 of the article, where we'll address a MOLLE-compatible placard that allows you to bring your own pouches, and show how modular placards can be applied to chest rigs in situations where armor may not be necessary.

Direct Attachment: Dynamic Principles Laser-cut MOLLE Placard

What piqued our curiosity with this placard was not its load carriage. While we appreciate the use of laser-cut, we were more interested in the fact that this Dynamic Principles placard actually has TacTik buckles mounted directly to the ends of it. Our Arbor Arms CAS 2.0 plate carrier already uses a QD cummerbund with TacTik buckles, so this presented an interesting new option not to how we load our plate carrier, but to how our carrier wears said load.

Using the Dynamic Principles placard allows us to bypass the need for those buckles, since the cummerbund arms can “click” directly into the placard itself. The CAS 2.0 specifically has the ability to remove the TacTik buckles from the front plate bag. So, if you were to use the Dynamic Prinicples placard as your “dedicated” front plate for this carrier, you could rely solely on the placard's own buckles.

Above: The cummerbund on our Arbor Arms plate carrier can be connected directly to this Dynamic Principles placard, maintaining a snug fit and eliminating the need for sandwiched Velcro adapters.

What’s gained from this? If your cummerbund is elastic, or partially elastic, this would push the mounting point further forward and put a little bit of additional load on the elastic. If you have a problem with your plate carrier bouncing or shifting, or just prefer a snugger fit, this is one way to address that. Likewise, you now have cummerbund holding tension directly on the placard – the part which is bearing all the weight of your ammo and other gear. Any placard, especially those with heavily-loaded MOLLE pouches woven into webbing loops, will begin to sag after extended periods of those pouches pulling on those loops. Repeated tearing and re-pressing of the Velcro, plus environmental factors like dust, mud or water, will also weaken the bond between plate bag and placard. Even if your plate carrier sits snug against your body, those pouches on the front may still shuffle, rustle or bounce a little when moving once placard fatigue sets in. Using the cummerbunds to literally pull-in against the placard helps secure the placard, and the load its carrying, against your carrier for a more secure placard-plate-carrier-torso sandwich.

Having said all that, we certainly don’t want to overlook the placard itself. The all-MOLLE design gives maximum modularity to use whatever pouches you may already have in whatever configuration you prefer. If none of the “pre-set” placard options we’ve covered tickle your fancy, you could simply purchase several of these and build out your own pouch suite on each one for different purposes. We set this one up for general carbine use – think range days or weekend classes.

The double magazine pouch is from Wilde Custom Gear, paired with a Bleeder/Blowout Pouch from HSGI. In addition to the standard-width six rows of MOLLE loops, the Dynamic Principles placard has three elastic loops. A wider loop on the bottom edge of the placard for a fast-access tourniquet, and a narrower loop on either end ideal for Sharpie markers, chem lights or other slender, cylindrical tools. These loops are a nice touch that add some low-profile bespoke storage for a couple few small items to make life easier for the end user. There are plenty of all-MOLLE placards out there. But the direct-connect feature, and “nice touch” onboard elastic storage set this one apart in a sea of otherwise-all-the-same.

Wraparound Placard: JTACtical Solutions

JTACtical Solutions offers another solution for scalability in the form of two products: their Elastic Mag Placard and their MOLLE Wrap. The Elastic Mag Placard is a simple 3-mag shingle for AR-style rifle magazines. The pouches are elastic, with loop-side Velcro on the front of each pouch. The MOLLE Wrap offers three rows and eight columns of MOLLE. If all you need is ammo, run the mag placard by itself.

Need to beef up your loadout to handle additional tasks? Add the MOLLE Wrap for additional load carriage. We like this concept because you could keep several of the MOLLE Wraps on hand, pre-configured for different tasks/situations. There are also some loops on each end of the wrap meant to accommodate First Spear Tubes buckles. With some zip ties or small carabiners, they could easily be adapted for hanging 550 cord or chem lights off of.

We kept our loadout of the MOLLE Wrap simple: three G-Code Scorpion Softshell pistol mag pouches. Two shorter pouches for Glock 19 mags, and a longer pouch for a flashlight. No matter what additional equipment you need to swap on and off, you’ll never be without ammo with this setup.

What About Placards on Chest Rigs?

Plate carriers like the CAS 2.0 are great for hosting a variety of placards, but is there an equally modular solution for those who don’t need to wear armor? The answer we found comes by way of Javlin Concepts, in the form of their JCR (Javlin Chest Rig).

The JCR is lightweight design that, like the CAS carrier, is able to host placards from across an array of manufacturers. The JCR Base consists of two rigid, lightweight, Tegris panels covered in soft-side Velcro and connected by an X-style shoulder harness. It should be noted that there the JCR Base does not come with any kind of cummerbund or closure system, so you will have to add your own. We went with a 3-inch Hybrid Skeletal Cummerbund by Defense Mechanisms.

This cummerbund is designed to attach to their Mission Essential Plate Carrier by large Velcro panels sewn to either end of the cummerbund, but the configuration of the JCR Base panels allow them to adopt the Def Mech components without any hassle or heartache. The flexible, semi-elastic cummerbund arms are equipped with TacTik quick release buckles, identical to those on both the CAS 2.0 and the Dynamic Principles placard – creating a seamless ecosystem between panel, plate carrier, and chest rig.

The rigidity of the JCR helps support even fully-laden placards and cummerbunds, while adding little additional weight or bulk to the system as a whole. It can also be worn over slick or low-profile armor carriers for a scalable two-part system that can include armor as needed.

Placard Compatibility and Fitment Tips

Above: The Wilde Custom Gear PCC placard (discussed in Part 1) on our JCR chest rig.

There are three primary factors that will affect how well your placards fit to you plate carrier: buckle size, width between buckles and lead length from the “male” end buckles to the placard itself – the latter affecting at what height the placard sits. These dimensions are not standardized across the entire spectrum of plate carriers and chest rigs, or even within the same manufacturer, which is demonstrated in our sampling here. A couple of the issues we noted:

  • The lead length (from buckle to top edge of placard) was different even between the two samples from HRT Tactical. The Shotgun placard had a longer lead length than the Maximus
  • The width between buckles between the two HRT placards also varied somewhat. The Maximus buckles were a little narrower than the female buckles on the CAS, while the buckles on the shotgun placard lined up perfectly.
  • The buckles on the Wilde Custom Gear subgun placard were sewn almost directly into the top edge of the placard, with little lead. The male buckles on the Wilde placard were also closer together than the female buckles on the CAS carrier.
  • The buckles on the LBX Tactical Placard were a different size, ¾-inch, as opposed to the so-called-standard 1-inch buckles on all the other placards.

Above: The HRT Tactical shotgun-specific placard attached to the Javlin Chest Rig.

None of these issues are an indictment of the placards, or their manufacturers. But consider it an advisory that there is not a hard industry-wide standard for these kinds of placards and their mounting footprints. The lead-length/placard height issues were easily remedied, thanks to the design of the Arbor Arms CAS 2.0. The CAS 2.0 has multiple sets of cutouts for mounting female QASM-type buckles and, since the buckles are not hard-sewn to the carrier, they can be moved to whichever row of mounting loops provides optimal height. Likewise, those placards with slightly-narrower buckle spacing didn’t suffer. The width disparity was not enough to prevent any placard from clicking in to either the CAS or JCR and sitting flat.

Above: The LBX Tactical Variable Assaulter Panel placard attached to the Javlin Chest Rig. The 3/4-inch buckles on this placard had to be swapped out to match the 1-inch buckles on the JCR.

The only “hard stop” was with the LBX Tactical placard, as there was no easy fix for the buckles on the placard being too small for the buckles on the plate carrier. Again, we do not hold this against LBX, as their website clearly states on the product page that the Variable Assaulter Panel comes with ¾-inch buckles. We remedied this issue on a factory visit to Arbor Arms – where they were able to do a little slicing and sewing to mount 1-inch buckles on the LBX placard.

Closing Thoughts

Based on our experience, it’s unlikely that one plate carrier or chest rig will play nice with every modular placard on the market. But we were able to find enough positive matches across an array of manufacturers to make the prospect viable. Straying outside of the sample combinations listed here is certainly possible, although may take some trial-and-error. Be prepared to either utilize a few companies’ return policies or have some conversations with their customer service reps to determine width-between-buckles before you put money down.

The JCR—the only chest rig we’ve seen to utilize a blindly modular system—further expands the possibilities for a successful multi-placard “armory” that doesn’t require lugging around armor plates. The idea of one host with swappable faceplates is far more attractive than setting up multiple, dedicated rigs for different uses. But your needs will dictate how necessary or beneficial this type of placard ecosystem would be for you.

Plate Carrier Placards Overview: Part 1

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The market for plate carriers, chest rigs, and modular plate carrier placards has seen unprecedented growth in the last 10 years. We still remember when things like bandoleers and chest rigs were being custom-sewn for special operators by their parachute riggers. Now there is an ever-expanding playing field of plates, plate carriers, chest rigs, and accessories that nearly guarantees an off-the-shelf solution for any use case. However, this huge variety of choices comes with some drawbacks.

An Overload of Options

One of the side of effects of this tactical nylon renaissance is something we call “kit glut”. There are so many options to choose from, that we wind up choosing separate options for individual use cases.

It’s frighteningly easy to wind up with a row of plastic tubs or cardboard boxes in your attic or garage containing:

  • A chest rig for range days and classes
  • A slick plate carrier for low-profile concealed protection
  • A chest rig to wear over the slick plate carrier when more firepower is needed
  • A plate carrier for recon or surveillance applications
  • A plate carrier for direct-action or assault applications
  • et cetera…

Some of this could be driven by professional requirements. For example, if you are a patrol officer who serves on your department’s SWAT team as a collateral duty, you may have different armor carriers for patrol use and entry-team use. If you are in a military unit with varied mission sets, you may fall into the “recon vs assault” conundrum and have a kit for each. If you are a civilian running multiple weapon systems (a shotgun or pistol-caliber carbine for home defense, but an AR or AK for SHTF use) you may have a carrier or chest rig dedicated to each system.

Streamline Your Kit with Modular Placards

While there’s nothing inherently wrong about building a handful of chest rig and plate carrier setups for different tasks, it costs a significant amount of time, money, storage space, and potentially heartache. This is why the advent of modular plate carriers with interchangeable front panels (or placards) is so appealing.

 

Above: This Dynamic Principles Laser-cut MOLLE Placard served as our direct-attachment setup. Stay tuned for a full list of its features and components in Part 2.

While there are a myriad of variations available, you’re likely familiar with the basic layout of a modular plate carrier: slick front with loop-side Velcro and a pair of quick-release “pinch” buckles, sometimes known as SRBs (Side-Release Buckles) or QASM buckles (Quick Attach Surface Mount). The placards then attach to the carrier with both Velcro and buckle.

Above: These buckles on the plate carrier support the weight of the placard, and prevent it from peeling off the Velcro unexpectedly.

Some carriers will come with a basic MOLLE-loop-covered placard as a standard offering. Other companies offer the plate carrier as a standalone purchase, with a suite of different placards available a la carte. But the true beauty of a QASM-placard-based system is that you are not confined to the manufacturer you purchased your carrier from.

The plate carrier you see here is a Arbor Arms CAS 2.0—Communicator Armor System—loaded with Level III+ plates from Prime Armor. These plates weigh less than 5 pounds each while still being able to stop 7.62x39mm Armor-Piercing ammo out of an AK-47, or the military’s new M855A1 round in 5.56mm.

Like many modern plate carriers, the Arbor Arms CAS is a testament to modularity. To prove our point, none of the front placards showcased here are from Arbor Arms. Only their carrier is used. If you purchase your own CAS 2.0, Arbor does have their own placard options, and they are good. But we want to showcase the vast compatibility across brands. The following overview is a sampling of different placards from different companies, with a variety of unique features. This list is not even remotely inclusive of what’s available in the market-at-large. But we hope to give you a starting point to plan out a survival armor carrier, or perhaps streamline your existing setup.

General Purpose Load Carriage: HRT Tactical Maximus Placard

The HRT Tactical Maximus is an excellent plac-of-all-trades (see what we did there?) that offers well-rounded load carriage for a variety of jobs while still bringing some modularity. The Maximus is built off a velcro-lined “kangaroo” pocket that can accept a variety of elastic inserts, which are included, for different magazine types.

There is a 3-mag AR-15 style mag insert, a 2-mag insert that accepts AR-10 or similar mags, and a 5-mag insert for subgun/PCC sticks. There is even a full-length zipper-top that can used if you don’t want/need to carry any rifle mags at all. In that case, the kangaroo pouch would be ideal for everything from food to maps to medical gear.

Each end of the Maximus has a pistol mag pouch. These pouches have full cover flaps that are removeable, as well as S-shaped polymer inserts that provide mag retention without the flap. The polymer retention inserts are also removeable, allowing the end pouches to hold other miscellaneous items like flashlights, multi-tools, folding knives, small OC spray cans or a bundle of chem lights. The front of the placard has two square general-purpose pouches hard sewn in place. The square zippered GP pouches have elastic loops inside to retain an assortment of gear.

On our test sample Maximus, we used one of these pouches as a personal trauma kit, and the other to hold pyrotechnics – one smoke grenade from Sport Smoke, and one flash bang from IWA International.

Lean Load: LBX Tactical Variable Assaulter Panel

If you want maximum ammo storage, we’d suggest looking elsewhere. But that’s not the point of LBX’s Variable Assaulter Panel. An offshoot of London Bridge Trading, a company doing custom nylon gear for elite professionals long before anyone was paying attention to such things, LBX brings the same ingenuity and verified design experience to a more commercial-facing market. The Variable Assaulter Panel features a single sewn-on rifle mag pouch with a double-pistol-mag pouch layered over that. The rifle magazine is retained by shock cord, the two pistol mags by a single large Velcro flap. The one hybrid ammo pouch is flanked on either side by two rows of sewn-on MOLLE webbing.

Could you use said webbing to add more mag pouches? Absolutely. But we think that’s sort of missing the point. There are plenty of other front panels purpose-built to hold more ammo. We see this as an option for someone who 1. Does not use a carbine as their primary weapon, and 2. Does not expect a protracted gunfight. Plainclothes LEOs who use plate carriers for warrant service or fugitive recovery could find the Variable Assaulter Panel an excellent fit. To that end, we adorned this panel with an open-top handcuff pouch and radio pouch from Sentry Tactical.

 

Of course, this placard is hardly cop-specific. We set up an alternate loadout featuring a pair of civilian-legal flashbang devices from IWA international, in Longship Design Frag Pouches from Unobtanium Gear. We also added a Quick Open Sled IFAK from Wilde Custom Gear, which features a removable tray for your med supplies.

For the prepared citizen, 30 rounds of 5.56mm and 30 rounds of 9mm—plus whatever is in your weapons—ought be enough to solve just about any problem you’re likely to encounter, short of a full-blown foreign invasion. Which is why we like the Variable Assaulter Panel’s stripped-down design. It keeps a modest amount of ammunition front-and-center on your loadout, while allowing proper space for other items, from radios or med kits to fire-starting tools or meal replacement bars.

PCC-Specific: Wilde Custom Gear CZ Scorpion/SIG MPX 30rnd Placard

If your go-to gun is a submachine gun or PCC, this Wilde Custom Gear placard is a straightforward choice to maximize firepower. There is a caveat to this. There are some important dimensional differences between magazines, depending on which PCC platform you’re running. Whether you’re running curved mags like a Scorpion EVO or MPX, or straight ones like B&T, Colt SMG or Glock-pattern “happy sticks” will make a difference as to which pouches or placards you need.

In this case, Wilde specifically states this placard is for CZ and SIG magazines. Whichever you’re running, the Wilde placard will hold four magazines in individual pouches with shock-cord retention. Each pouch as a column of laser-cut slots for attaching additional pouches, so you can carry more than just bullets on board this placard.

We added some various sundries including a Blue Force Gear tourniquet pouch, pair of chem lights, Emdom Multitasker pouch and HSGI TACO with a mini smoke grenade from FAST Ordnance.

Shotgun-Specific: HRT Tactical Shotgun Placard

Like the Wilde Custom Gear PCC placard, the HRT Tactical Shotgun Placard is a very straightforward solution for ammo management, and perhaps the least-complicated design of all the placards featured here. What you see is what you get here – 21 elastic loops in three columns with just enough space between them to hold 2-¾ or 3-inch 12-gauge shotgun shells. That’s enough to completely fill a standard Remington 870 or Mossberg 500 three times, with a 6- or 7-shot tube. More if you’re using a shorter pistol-grip or breacher model. It’s also exactly 10.5 reloads for a double-barrel, if you ascribe to the current President’s philosophy of home defense.

Our only gripe is that it that the loops are just too big for 20-gauge shells. Having said that, if we were facing a problem that we felt would require almost 30 rounds from a shotgun to fix, we’d probably be bringing a 12-gauge anyway. Covering the entire front placard with elastic loops does preclude any other type of load carriage on the front of your kit, but this placard was made for one purpose and one purpose only – making a whole lot of shotshells available in a hurry. If that’s a niche you need to fill in your preparedness plan, we think this is one of the better ways to do it.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this article, which will contain info about direct-attachment MOLLE placards, a placard-compatible chest rig from Javlin Concepts, and tips for getting your placard of choice to fit your plate carrier.