d -
The BHI controversy has been around for a while. People claim that BHI gear made in Korea or Mexico or wherever is all junk. Nonsense. I know Mike Noell and he's a straight shooter. If anyone ever has a problem with BHI gear, they replace it. A lot of the moaning you hear is from arm-chair "SHTF" types. The general claim is that the stitching is not the best quality. Well, I've never seen trouble like that. Any quality control problems with the stitching were quickly ironed out long ago. They use the same 1000 denier that the other guys use, so it's not really a material quality question.
Personally, I use gear from BHI and Eagle in the field (Eagle vest, BHI pouches, BHI pack). And I'm not gentle on it. I dive, shoot, climb, crawl or whatever with all of it. Never have I (or anyone in my unit using it) experienced a failure. I must admit, stick with Camelbak over Hydrastorm tho'.
There are several good vendors that post here. My unit uses Brad West at Dakota Tactical ( [url]http://www.dakotatactical.com[/url] ) and have never had any troubles. Dan (javahed) also is excellent.
Take care,
-SARguy