Individual Camouflage 6 Color Desert Sniper Netting by 4 Star Military Surplus

This is the second set of these beads I own, a motto that I live by, two is one and one is none. So these beads are not cheap knockoffs that someone just made up on the dining room table somewhere. these are made to last. Anyone who does search and rescue or goes hiking will appreciate these beads.

Nice to have if you’re land navigating with a compass and a map. The beads don’t slide too easy, which is good so you don’t go too far or not far enough because of a false bead count.

We used to make these in the Army. For the price, just buy it and save some time. You have ten beads below and four on the top. You use the bottom ones first. For every 100 meters that you go, you slide a lower bead up to the knot. After ten beads, that is one kilometer, then you slide a top bead up and slide the bottom ones down again, keep on going up to four kilometers. If you are moving more than four clicks (kilometers), add beads to the top. One hundred meters is 333 feet roughly. Go out and find some varying terrain off the side of the road. Measure out 333 feet using a 100 foot tape measure. As you go along, have another person roll out and tie to every few trees a tape that is used as a "hand rail" for people using the pace count course. Count every time your left foot hits the ground from beginning to end. Then you know your pace count, and when to slide a bottom bead up. I am 5"6", and my pace count is 66. I did this kind of stuff for 22 years in the Green Berets. You can also set up a pace count course by measuring with a vehicle. Every tenth of a mile on the odometer is 160 meters, therefore, there you have one mile equaling 1600 meters. Not hard to do. Always know the basics of land navigation, i.e., map and compass, pace count, because I have been out in the middle of nowhere and GPS batteries do die, and you can only carry so many batteries. Remember, everything you put in your ruck sack weighs you down. Learn the basics, then learn GPS. Airborne!, De Oppresso Liber. MSG (R), US ARMY SPECIAL FORCES.

Pace counters are really useful for any counting that you need to do and don't want to just forget where you are. It works like an abacus - in that there are two sets of beads and one set represent singles, some others tens. As you can see, the beads are separated by a knot in the middle of the cord. That loop at the top is for attaching to something like a button so you can hang it and use it one handed - handy.The beads are plastic and not great quality, but how good a quality do you need? The cord is decent enough quality but it would be better if it were paracord. So the quality is OK, you get a small sheet of instructions with them, but for something that arrives in a standard envelop paying over $4 seems ridiculous. Having said that I bought two - a month apart. Why? Because me and my wife both find them useful for hiking and because I couldn't find the cheaper (base price plus handling) anywhere else on the internet.There are two ways of using the beads, the first is once every pace or ten paces (or other unit you are counting), or by distance - once you know how many paces represent a given distance. Here is an explanation of how to use them I found online:"Now that you have your pace count down you can start to use the pacer beads. Now take and attach the pacer beads to either your clothing or field harness, and pull all of the beads either up or down (your preference but do it the same way all the time). At nighttime you will not usually be able to tell how far you have gone. And if you are using a map and a compass and are trying to get to a certain point then it is important to know how far you have traveled.So find the place you need to get to (in meters), get your compass heading and start moving. Every time you reach 100 meters (by counting your steps) you pull one of the beads from the bottom set of nine beads up (or down) and start your pace count again. After you have all of the nine bottom beads pulled up you will have traveled 900 meters, count your next 100 meters.Now this time you pull up (or down) one of the four beads that are in the top section, these beads represent 1000 meters traveled. You now pull down the nine beads in the bottom section and start your count again, pulling one bead in the bottom up each time you have gone 100 meters. Each time you get all nine beads pulled up you go another 100 meters and pull one of the top beads up. This will allow you to keep track of 5000 meters that you have traveled."

OK, these are good quality ranger beads. But I want to address how to get your 100 meter pace count. You don’t need a super long tape measure or anything fancy. Just go to your local high school with a 400 meter track. Count your paces around it and divide by four. Or if there’s a football field inside the track, pace off the 100 yard length plus one end zone. That equals 110 yards, which is very close to 100m. Or, best of all, find the 100m dash on the track straightaway and pace that. Easy peasy.

I like that these are made in the USA. I lost the set that I had from my Marine Corps days. These will fill in as replacements. But, They won't carry the same memories for me.

I'm shopping for pace count beads and Amazon reminded me that I had bought these in 2016 (for a GORUCK Navigator). Almost all of the beads broke within 6 months. Too bad it seems that quality hasn't improved based on recent reviews. If these are sold as Ranger pace count beads, they need to be better quality. Since 2016, I made my own with gutted paracord and craft beads from Michaels (some of which eventually broke, but they lasted years and were easy to replace). I'm just considering these kind of nesting/trapezoid-shape beads that you can't easily find in craft stores (with large enough holes for 550).

I ordered two, one each from two venders of the 4 on this listing.Wardog-Surplus was a cheapo small bead 'meh', minimalist string of beads. But better than rocks in your pocket.Marsalles, on the other hand, are really nice beads. As in the picture. Larger beads than most with a bell shaped taper. Good Quality. For my other bag, I'll get another set from them, replace the cord with my own and add some knot-work for even more style.