The Little Halligan for Everyone

The Breaching Rescue Bar from GOOD DUDE CONCEPTS certainly lives up to its name. It is distributed here by REISER HOLDING DEFENSE and offers emergency responders of all kinds a range of breaching tools for quick access when other means are not (yet) available.

The tool is primarily intended for use by emergency and rescue personnel to enable them to access it quickly in critical situations; but it is also designed for and well-suited to police and military use. Let’s take a closer look together.

The Breaching Rescue Bar, or BRB for short, is a handy breaching tool made of 420 HC steel that can handle all essential tasks. It is available in a standard version (€139.99) and a Cerakote-coated version (SuperGrip) for an additional €20. For transporting and attaching the BRB to a tactical vest, etc., Good Dude Concepts has developed a special pouch (€45) in collaboration with Blue Alpha that securely holds the tool and keeps it readily accessible at all times.

But let’s get to the point: the tool’s performance. It leaves almost nothing to be desired. Thanks to its flat design (265 mm x 95 mm (striking tip) / 27 mm (handle) x 9.6 mm), it stows away quickly, takes up little space, and is MOLLE-compatible. With the bag’s large Velcro surface, it can also be positioned in a vehicle or on transport crates for quick deployment, and at approximately 560g, it is a lightweight.

The tool itself includes the following features:

• Glass ripper blade for cutting/tearing laminated glass/composite glass/safety glass
• Impact tip
• Multi-purpose lever

The striking tip is flatly shaped to reduce the risk of injury when carried on the body, and the impact force is specifically applied through the flat cutting edge so that the tool can penetrate across its full width.

This is important for using the Glass Ripper Profile, which is located on the inside of the tool below the striking tip. These “teeth” allow you to “cut open” even laminated and safety glass.

The tip’s design is intended to ensure that not a single second is wasted in an emergency; while a true point would direct the impact energy even more precisely at the target—thereby slightly reducing the effort required to open the glass—it not only carries the risk of the tool getting stuck but also requires several highly precise strikes to create an opening for the Glass Ripper profile. This costs valuable time that first responders on the scene do not have.

The team at Good Dude Concepts put a lot of thought into the development and proved that their field experience pays off.

However, this eliminates one application option: driving the tool into softer materials like wood, etc., to clear them—though this is clearly acceptable.

The lower end of the handle is shaped like a crowbar and allows for prying open light to medium obstacles, such as light doors and windows. Due to its comparatively narrow design, additional striking of the lever is generally not necessary, making it possible to open the obstacle with one person instead of two. Here, too, the influence of real-world operational experience and the focus on the target audience are evident. As a first responder at the scene, you don’t have dozens of personnel on site; instead, you may have to manage on your own.

The BRB is also well-suited for military operations, particularly in urban and house-to-house combat, as it enables even small teams to create simple access points when the group’s breaching set is currently with another squad. In this way, any soldier can essentially become a “small” breacher and perform at least basic mechanical opening procedures.

The striking tip and multi-purpose lever are particularly useful here for opening doors or windows, breaking window panes, and clearing window frames.

In this context, I personally feel that a small tool is missing that would potentially round out the range of applications: a small hammer head on the back of the striking tip.

That aside, I come to the following conclusion:

The Breaching Rescue Bar from Good Dude Concepts is an absolutely well-thought-out and cleanly designed first responder tool designed to facilitate work quickly and effectively in dangerous situations. Thanks to its compact design and thoughtfully placed tools, it offers real added value for both emergency and rescue personnel, as well as police and military forces. Of course, it does not replace the breaching backpack, but it certainly holds its own when compared to the Halligan tool. Due to its compact design, it naturally cannot generate the same leverage as a larger tool, but this can be remedied if necessary with an extension (pipe, etc.).

Personally, I am convinced that the BRB is a valuable piece of equipment for all emergency responders, rescue personnel, police, and military.

The BRB is available from REISER HOLDING DEFENSE. Government pricing is available upon request.

REISER HOLDING DEFENSE online

Khi Pa Landgraf, KLStrategic, www.klstrategic.com