I've got two ballistics two bumps and a night cap.
The most recent ballistic has a re-padding job that I really love ... soft, bouncy all a round padding that makes my other helmets feel like they might as well not have any pads !!
I used to load my helmets up with lots of crap. Lights and magazines and spare batteries ... as well as the NV/Thermals on front. One shooting buddy advised against this and warned about "neck compression" ... I've been wearing "heavy" helmets for 8 years now ... and upon reading about "neck compression" I do not have any of those symptoms (I'd probably be dead if I did ) ... but until I learn more about the subject, I decided to lighten up. I was already carrying a gerber recon 3 lumen RGBW light in my pocket anyway ... and often carry a Petzel RW head light as well. So I'm well stocked for admin lights regardless. The illum on the head was nice, but now a days I've added ELIR-3 illums to my relevant stoners, so don't need both.
But I have re-read German's thoughts on the "cost/benefit" (weight cost/ballistic benefit) ... and find it very interesting !! There certainly have been several cases I read about where the ballistic helmets made a difference, but if those cases are truly "one out of a million" ... then the extra ounces are probably not worth it. Though having a bump with the best possible padding and shroud would still be desirable. I do put comms on half my helmets and keep the other half of the comms in separate headsets. They can actually be worn under the helmets, though having comms on the helmets seems easier/faster to don.
The night caps work for single tube/single thermal (or maximally a 14 + coti) but I can't get NC to work with duals .. the weight of the bridge and the two units on front cannot adequately be balanced by counter-weight on the rear, due to the lack of solid platform. I still get "motion" when moving ... with the NC ... when I go beyond 14+COTI ... YMMV
The most recent ballistic has a re-padding job that I really love ... soft, bouncy all a round padding that makes my other helmets feel like they might as well not have any pads !!
I used to load my helmets up with lots of crap. Lights and magazines and spare batteries ... as well as the NV/Thermals on front. One shooting buddy advised against this and warned about "neck compression" ... I've been wearing "heavy" helmets for 8 years now ... and upon reading about "neck compression" I do not have any of those symptoms (I'd probably be dead if I did ) ... but until I learn more about the subject, I decided to lighten up. I was already carrying a gerber recon 3 lumen RGBW light in my pocket anyway ... and often carry a Petzel RW head light as well. So I'm well stocked for admin lights regardless. The illum on the head was nice, but now a days I've added ELIR-3 illums to my relevant stoners, so don't need both.
But I have re-read German's thoughts on the "cost/benefit" (weight cost/ballistic benefit) ... and find it very interesting !! There certainly have been several cases I read about where the ballistic helmets made a difference, but if those cases are truly "one out of a million" ... then the extra ounces are probably not worth it. Though having a bump with the best possible padding and shroud would still be desirable. I do put comms on half my helmets and keep the other half of the comms in separate headsets. They can actually be worn under the helmets, though having comms on the helmets seems easier/faster to don.
The night caps work for single tube/single thermal (or maximally a 14 + coti) but I can't get NC to work with duals .. the weight of the bridge and the two units on front cannot adequately be balanced by counter-weight on the rear, due to the lack of solid platform. I still get "motion" when moving ... with the NC ... when I go beyond 14+COTI ... YMMV