Viktos is known for many things in the firearms world, but primarily for its clothing options. From boots to my favorite flannel jacket, Viktos excels in producing soft goods. That doesn’t mean they haven’t broken into other markets; the Taculus MX Chest Rig is evidence of their excellence in those pursuits.
I love a good chest rig. The Marine Corps broke me of ever wanting to wear armor during training. Should I? Sure, but in Florida’s heat, I like something lighter and cooler.
The Taculus Chest rig is a minimalist design for carrying three to six magazines, and not much more. Sometimes, simple is better, which brings us to the question: Who is the Taculus for?
The Taculus: Find Purpose
The Taculus offers three main advantages over other chest rigs. It’s plug and play, it’s affordable, and it’s simple.
I’m not a real big gear nerd. Many premium chest rigs are sold in parts. You pick your placard, your straps, your side straps, etc. You piece together what you want. That’s an amazing thing about gun and gear culture.
However, that’s not for me. I want to buy a chest rig and hit a single button to complete the purchase. I don’t want to piece mine together, and I’m willing to make what I buy work.
The Taculus provides that. It does so at a $99 price point. When we exist in a market where some placards cost that much, having a full, out-of-the-box usable design for that price is outstanding.
Finally, the chest rig’s simple design, small size, and portability make it easy to stash and store. For LEOs, it can be tossed into a bag and deployed quickly and easily when necessary. If you need the rifle, you might need some reloads.
Modularity: More Than You Expect
What magazines does it work with? Well, most of them. Namely, the AR-15, the AK, and the AR-10 options. This covers the three most popular rifle types in the United States. This is a big benefit for me because I’m always testing and training with new things. Having a chest rig that can work with a variety of rifles is fantastic, but we aren’t done there.
We also have the option to use 9mm magazine inserts. These inserts allow you to carry two pistol magazines in a rifle magazine slot. This means being able to carry extra spare magazines for a handgun or SMG. With three inserts, we can carry six pistol or SMG mags in our Viktos Taculus.
Additionally, the front of the magazine pouches is laser-cut MOLLE webbing. This allows you to attach extra pouches, like a spare pistol mag pouch, if you don’t want to give up a rifle magazine slot.
- Armor Integration: If you want to add the Taculus to armor, you can. It has MOLLE slots on the back, and if you remove the straps, you can attach it as a placard to a plate carrier.
- Soft Armor: Premier Armor makes a soft armor insert that fits inside the chest rig. This provides a limited source of armor, but having some is better than none.
- Storage: The Taculus comes with a small zippered pouch on the bottom of the rig. This is great for a micro-sized IFAK or a multi-tool.
- TQ Hanger: The bottom of the rig has a handy little hanger for tossing a tourniquet in for quick access.
Running and Gunning
At War Hogg Tactical’s Rifle/Pistol CQB course, I used the Taculus chest rig. This gave me 16 hours of use, all wrapped up in two days of shooting. I’ve used the Taculus on and off for years now, but this was by far my longest period of use.
In this training course, I loved the rig’s compact, lightweight design. It was hot, really hot, so the rig kept me running and gunning pain-free. The straps are wide enough to provide excellent support and adjustable enough for me to position the rig right where I wanted it.
The magnetic clips on the sides make it easy to put on and take off. The top hooks are simple, but effective. It never came loose or failed. The straps are padded and wide enough for plenty of comfort for 90 rounds of 5.56.
You can add bungee retention to the Taculus chest rig, but I never felt the need to. The magazine pouches sit fairly high on the magazine, providing excellent retention without an active device.
The high cut means you don’t get a super-great grip on the magazine while reloading, so you need to grab what you can and hold it tight as you draw. I ended up moving to a pinky-and-ring-finger draw that let the magazine rest against the rest of my hand.
Comfort, Modularity, Simplicity
The Taculus chest rig gave me a simple, affordable option that’s now held up to years of abuse. I can use it for quite a few different firearm platforms and modify it as I see fit to match any mission.
The Taculus scores high in my book for my needs. If you like picking and choosing each piece, it’s not for you. If you want a plug-and-play option, then the Taculus is your go-to.
