This updated version of the gear carabiner is brought to us by ITW Nexus. Because the Tac Link is not designed for rappelling or bearing the weight of a human the company doesn’t refer to it as a carabiner. It does however hold up to 300 pounds, unlike the Grimloc that is designed to break loose under approximately 80 pounds of pressure for safety.
Sizing is a little larger than the typical gear carabiners that most people use. This will allow for a decent amount of gear to be placed on the Tac Link and allows it to attach to things the smaller ones wouldn’t.
The Tac Link is made of GhillieTEX material. GhillieTEX is a lightweight polymer material that has a reduced infrared (IR) signature over other materials. The GhillieTEX won’t scratch up your gear like metal carabiners and will not produce noise like metal carabiners will. Also, the Tac Link won’t become as hot as metal during hot temperatures. The only metal on the Tac Link is the corrosion resistant stainless steel spring.
Some other unique design features of the Tac Link:
- Textured outer spine for better grip with wet or gloved hands.
- Large opening that doesn’t have the typical notch on the upper portion of the opening like carabiners have. The lack of this latch helps to prevent gear from snagging when removed from the Link. I really like this feature and wonder why no one thought of it before. I always have problems removing items with one hand because they get caught on this little notch.
I’ve been using the Tac Link for a while now and it’s held up well. In fact it looks brand new and has held some heavy weight when using it to hold my pack. The only weakness I’ve found is the gate portion… when it’s open it’ll bend side to side a bit. I haven’t forced this to the point of breaking because I’m sure you could break it this way, but I wanted to note that it will bend side to side, but I haven’t had it break during normal use. I bring this point up to point out that yes it bends a little when open, but during normal and even hard use, I can’t see it breaking.
Overall, I really like this replacement for the carabiner for carrying gear. If you’re using a climbing or cheaper metal trinket carabiner for your load carrying needs you should definitely consider the Tac Link as a replacement.
This Tac Link is built by ITW Nexus (known for quality products) and is distributed by other companies. I suggest MilSpecMonkey. You can find it here for $4. 8.5/10.
Ben 
Smooth