Cordura Half Masks

[beta678]

Thought I'd ask and see if anyone has any experience with these lower face masks. I've never really seen anyone run one before, short of some Japanese players on youtube, and even then they're rather uncommon.

Anyways, here's the mask in question. Looks rather minimalist and seems to offer a decent amount of coverage and protection for teeth, which is my main concern.



Also seems like it'd allow for a pretty good cheek weld compared to my fitted/customized mesh lower which has absolutely little to no give at all.



Any thoughts, experience w/ this sort of mask? Curious if its worth picking up and perhaps modding a bit, maybe add a smaller mesh section somewhere for additional protection for more critical areas like nose/teeth.

[Red Dot]

I played around with something similar last year, bottom line is it really retains heat and moisture from your breath so it really made my eyepro a lot worse with fogging and generally more uncomfortable then with a mesh lower.

I've bent the sides of my mesh mask a bit to help aim down the sights. I might even actually cut some of the check mesh out so I can really get a feel for the rifle, they are pretty cheap so you could experiment on a mesh mask or 2 yourself.

[Maniac Marshall]

yeah I thought the image above was just fog at first

[lurkingknight]

do you like fog? cause that's how you get fog.


Take away half that material on the cheeks and replace it with fabric mesh. It only needs to provide structure to keep the piece in front of your teeth where it should be. Make it single layer and put a cup of steel mesh over the mouth for even more breathability.



my ongoing solution to the mask issue.. you can see that I've cut my mask down at the cheeks so I can get a cheek weld, but I found the single strap way too tight and it basically crushed my face... I put foam on the inside of the mask to try and make it sit better but it still doesn't fit well.

So you can see the shock cord loop coming out of my cap near my ear. I've sewn in 2 loop velcro patches on the sweatband of the cap and made 2 loops of shock cord with hook side tabs... When I put the other side of the loop on the mask sides, the cord loosely holds the mask up and gives it room to move around while more or less staying in front of my teeth, it doesn't bump in the way of my vision when I shoulder my rifle, and the back strap is loosened to the point that it's more of a guide to prevent the mask from slipping too far in front of my face.

I used this setup at nightfall, and made a set of the loops with patches on it for someone else who had an opscore, he secured his mask to the velcro already on the helmet and it worked well for him as well.

Having the 3 point hang works well because now I can undo one side and vent, take a drink or it's loose enough I can get the tube up under the mask. If I tighten the back strap and secure the left side, the mask will still hang to cover most of my teeth and be completely out of the way for shouldering on the right side.

[beta678]

Guess the soft cordura mask is a no go then, sounds like I'm better off modding another mesh lower if its prone to even more fogging.

Originally Posted by lurkingknight

Ah, I remember you posted that mask in my DIY mesh mask thread way back (PS nice setup, G36 pmags=win!). I made a rough sketch up of a similarly cut mesh lower in a note book somewhere after I saw that but I haven't picked up another mesh lower to work on since then.

My current mask, which hangs off my headset via straps, fits well enough and is comfy but I still need to upgrade some parts to make it easier to take on and off (need some button snaps and a length of strap), I'd like to make it akin to a fighter pilot's O2 mask with regards to the straps. Guess I'll make a V2 mask and just cut the cheek profile a bit higher to allow for a better cheek weld.

Reason I've been looking into masks w/ better cheek welds is due to my new setups. My current mask works fine w/ red dots and such but when it comes to magnified optics, its just not giving me a decent enough cheek weld to use them effectively.

[lurkingknight]

mine is a magnified optic and works fine with the way I have it set up.. there is a slight issue with it pushing up into the dead spot between my eyes when I have all the straps on sometimes... it doesn't block vision but there's enough of it that I can see it from both eyes from different angles and it looks really weird to me. Which is why if I do another iteration I'll be completely cutting a mask up and doing something with kydex and cordura with a bit of steel mesh.