Now the reason why you need to prioritize gear is twofold,
weight and limited space on your modular load bearing equipment.You don’t need
to cover every square inch of your load bearing gear with pouches and
items. If your organization only gives you
2 rifle magazines for your patrol car or you only happen to own 2 uzi mags for
your SMG you don’t need to have the carry capacity of an SF operator. Remember that modular gear is modular. If you get more magazines or get more gear
that you need to carry, you can add more pouches later.
There are a few guidelines that you need to consider. These are not hard and fast rules but things
to make your life easy.
1) Never mount
pistol magazine pouches in the same area as your thigh holster. It seems like a good idea but consider that
you will be drawing the pistol with the hand that is closest to it. Now try reaching across your body with your
opposite hand to grab magazines. It is
hard right? Now add extra bulk to your
body from a tac vest or body armor and it becomes downright miserable to
do. The Serpa Holster is certainly a
good holster but my advice is to never add the magazine pouches to the holster
plate.If you are using a thigh holster like the Drop Zone holster, avoid the
temptation to add pistol pouches to it.
Use the molle webbing to add pouches for multitools, knives or DDs.
2) Do place your
primary magazines close to your stomach.
Because of the way the human body is built, the hands naturally fall to
the groin area. As you move away from
that area it becomes slower to move, grab and manipulate. Primary magazines should be mounted as low as
possible on the body. Things that you do
not need to grab in a hurry (like water canteens and snivel kit) should be
placed farther back under the arms.
Things such as secondary magazines and things that get accessed a lot
(like compasses) should be higher on the body for ease of access. Some people advocate one side of the body
over the other. For example, they
suggest putting mag pouches on the left side if you are right handed. This is good advice if you don’t plan to do
off-hand shooting. Three Gun shooters
and operators doing CQB will need to shoot with their off hand from time to
time so I place my mags right in the middle so I can grab them no matter what
hand I am shooting with.
3) Avoid mounting
pouches upside down. I think this needs
no explanation but there is a caveat;
pouches that are mounted past the arm area on the back can not be opened
or accessed unless you turn the pouches upside-down. I do this with smoke grenades.
4) Standardization
of First Aid. If you are part of an
organization, standardize where your first aid supplies are located. In my army unit, first aid supplies are
always on the left hand side pouch.
5) Know your
operating environment. The RCMP ERT
teams learned this the hard way (by hard I mean expensive). The ERT teams had 2 camouflages, the US
Marine MarPat and the Crye Precision Multicam.
Hands down Multicam was the favorite and there was a reason; during the
day, the Multicam pattern was superior to everything and worked
everywhere. In the plains of
Saskatchewan to the forests of Northern Alberta to the socialist wasteland of
Ontario, during the day, Multicam was a clear winner. But during the night, Multicam was too
light. ERT members started to
“Ghost”. They might have been wearing
day glow orange for the concealment value that it offered. Now they are switching to all MarPat. Yes it is not as cool and not as effective
during the day but at least it works day and night.Now I am not slagging
Multicam. If your operating environment
is daytime only, you can’t go wrong, there is no better. I live in Central Alberta. The camo pattern that I use is plain, old,
boring, flat, olive drab; unstylish, dull and uncreative. But at night in the forest it is second to
none and during the day it remains effective (although not as much as CadPat or
MarPat). Solid black is scary and intimidating but actually is really bad for
concealment. If you want to enter a room
and make the bad guy drop a steaming load in his pants, SWAT black is your
color. If you plan to sneak around the
bush or the city, black is not your color.
6) Know your
equipment. If at all possible take your
equipment in to the retailer and fit it to a pouch. Standard items such as AR mags is a safe bet
for mail and internet orders but for things such as DDs, flashlights or
unconventional magazines you really should fit it before buying it. It will save you money and grief. In addition to that, find a retailer who
knows your kit as well. Ex-soldiers,
ex-mercs and ex-cops tend to have a better idea about operations then a 17 year
old who can’t buy a gun yet. It makes me
angry when a kid says he knows all about the ‘AK47’ because he played a bunch
of video game shooters.
Let’s talk about load bearing gear itself. Chances are, if you are reading this, you
intend to buy your own gear. It is
irrelevant if you are doing this because the issued kit sucks or you want to
shoot competitively. On gun forums (most
notably being CGN) I see most people buying vests but almost none of them use
the upper portion of the vest or if they do, they put something useless like an
admin pouch that they will never use. My
question is, why spend the extra money for something that you are not using to
its full potential?If all you want to carry are some magazines for a 3-Gun
Match, why not get a simple chest rig?
Some of the best made chest rigs are built by Drop Zone right here in
Canada from US made materials.
If you need a plate carrier but you don’t need a huge amount
of molle capacity, the BDS plate carrier or the Line of Fire Grab and Go
Carrier offer a full chest of carrying capacity. They lack “real estate” for pouches on the
sides but as I already explained, the sides are slow to get at anyway.
The CIRAS is certainly a good plate carrier and it offers
the “real estate” on the sides but at a price of $600 you might find your wife
getting pissed off at you. Did I mention
that my common law wife left me in 2005?
Personally I like a separate armor carrier from my load
bearing equipment but this comes from the army where I may not be allowed to
remove my armor but I need to do work that does not involve fighting (digging
trenches comes to mind). Certainly it is
faster to get your stuff on when you use a plate carrier with molle so do what
works for you.When you do set up your gear, know where your stuff is, have a system and train with that system. I have a friend who has decided that it is too troublesome to take his assault vest out to the range so he does not train with it. This is a problem as he is not practicing the muscle memory to grab his equipment from the correct places when he is under stress. At the risk of getting off topic I will simply state - "Train as you Fight" and "You don't rise to your expectations, you fall to your level of training".
Finally don’t buy gear from someone you can’t track down and
punch in the face. Quality matters and it is better to spend $320 on a pack once then $60 on a pack
every year.
I’m not saying that all 3rd world nylon gear is
crap, I am just saying that most of it is. Cotton is an organic material. It will rot in the sunlight and with moisture over time. Airsoft type gear is always made with cheaper cotton thread so eventually the stitching will fail. Professional grade gear is always made with a synthetic thread like polyester. Can you tell the difference?
In conclusion, don’t be cheap and let
practicality and common sense prevail.
Look for those with experience and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
