Tactical belts blew up a few years ago as a must have piece of kit and now we have a source for a high-quality cobra belts made in Canada by a veteran owned company. Sheepdog Tactical Equipment and Training is based in Ottawa, Ontario and makes several products in-house including their 1.75″ Cobra Belt. It’ll hold your pants up, and then some. It features the current standard in the tactical belt industry, an authentic AustriAlpin Cobra Buckle.

image courtesy of Sheepdog Tactical

Editor’s note: While the writer of this article is a friend of the owner at Sheepdog Tactical Equipment and Training, he paid the retail price for this belt for personal use. You dear reader are getting an honest gear assessment.

Overview

Sheepdog Tactical Equipment and Training is a veteran owned company based in Ottawa, Ontario. In addition to training, Sheepdog Tactical also offers firearms and tactical products, and produces their own line of gear. You can find  Sheepdog Tactical on Instagram, and Facebook, and at their website sheepdogtactical.ca 

The 1.75″ Cobra Belt is one of their in-house designs. The belt is manufactured in Canada from high quality components including the ubiquitous AustriAlpin cobra buckle. Sheepdog offers 1.75″ Cobra Belt for $70 CAD. They also offer a version of the belt with an integrated D ring, the 1.75″ IDR Cobra Belt which retails for $80 CAD. The 1.75″ Cobra Belt can be found here.

Review

The construction of the 1.75″ Cobra Belt is very high quality. There are no dropped or missing stitches on the belt that arrived. Sheepdog Tactical folds over the nylon making it two layers thick before sewing the Sheepdog 1.75″ Cobra Belt. The loop section is generous and measures 14 inches long. Sheepdog Tactical offers the belts in sizes small to XL and in black, coyote, and olive drab. The belts run true to size, so don’t use your pants measurement when ordering. I have a 40.5″ waist and the medium still has plenty of adjustment. This belt runs true to size, and actually measures from 37 to 41. It would be possible to gain an extra inch or two if you don’t completely mate the hook and loop together.  For this review we’re looking at a medium size black 1.75″ Cobra Belt which actually has some yellow accents. The yellow edge stitching was an unexpected detail that makes the belt look just a little more unique. The yellow stitching indicates that the nylon has been load tested and rated.

Notice the yellow stitching on the edge of the Sheepdog 1.75 Cobra Belt

The I’m a big fan of the AustriAlpin cobra buckle and have been using one with my HSGI Battle Belt for nearly two years. I moved to cobra buckles after experiencing a plastic buckle failing during a weekend training course. In fact, this belt is nearly identical in construction and quality to the HSGI Rigger Belt I use in that battle belt. The difference of course is the price. One feature that I prefer on the Sheepdog 1.75″ Cobra Belt is that it does not have the interior Velcro lining that the HSGI Riggers Belt sports.  The equivalent HSGI Rigger Belt is going for $77 USD vs the Sheepdog 1.75″ Cobra Belt retails for $70 CAD. This makes the made in Canada Sheepdog 1.75″ Cobra Belt at least $30 less with today’s exchange rate, on top of that you’re only dealing with shipping within Canada.

Sheepdog Tactical 1.75 Cobra Belt buckle

There is one design feature I wish was different. The tail of the belt is cut and finished flat. I would prefer it was cut at an angle to allow the belt to thread more easily through belt loops. While this is a small complaint, the belt is 1.75″ wide and that is a close fit on most jeans or tactical pants. Cutting the tail in such a way that it would be tapered would aid threading and make donning the belt ever so slightly easier.

I lied, there are actually two features I wish were different. My second issue is actually a feature that is advertised. Sheepdog Tactical says “To ensure comfort, we did NOT include any stiffeners in this belt.” Which I suppose for an every day belt is the best option for most people. However, as a shooting belt I would prefer an internal stiffener to help keep all my kit in place. Sheepdog Tactical solves this with another product; their two layer Sheepdog Shooting Belt which looks like an IPSC belt on multicam flavored steroids. Running a kydex holster and full size 1911 on the Sheepdog 1.75″ Cobra Belt has not been a problem. The belt does seem to sag a little but with the weight of the full size pistol but it is perfectly functional. The Sheepdog 1.75″ Cobra Belt is not my first choice for a shooting belt as a result of the lack of internal stiffener. I don’t find it to be significantly more comfortable than stiffened gun belts I normally wear.

There was also a small logistics hiccup when I ordered this belt. Sheepdog Tactical Equipment and Training had just moved their operations and they had run into a problem with forwarding materials to their new address. This delayed the delivery of the belt used in this review by several weeks. Fortunately the folks at Sheepdog Tactical Equipment and Training are good at keeping their customers informed about what was going on. While I experienced a delay with this belt’s delivery, it was well worth the wait, and should not impact any new orders as they have successfully moved their operations. The Sheepdogs were also kind enough to through in some extra goodies to make up for the delay.

Pros

• Belt is made in Canada
• Competitively priced
• Cobra Buckle
• High quality materials
• Excellent workmanship

Cons

• Flat rather than tapered tail

Summary

It’s a belt, it’ll hold up a pair of pants. But the Sheepdog 1.75″ Cobra Belt is also incredibly well-built and the attention to detail is excellent. It makes for an excellent belt for everyday wear. It works well as a range belt but it’s not as stiff as belts designed for competitive shooting. Being made in Canada and priced very competitively makes the Sheepdog 1.75″ Cobra Belt for a great alternative to US made cobra belts. The Sheepdog 1.75″ Cobra Belt is definitely worth looking at if you’re in need of a new belt. Be sure to tell them you read about their belts on EverydayTacticool.