Originally Posted by
TehLlama
It's a case where the first time you need to fire round #31 (or #21, etc.) the user needs access to that magazine in a pretty damned big hurry. It's a low probability of relevance thing, but the moment you're emptying that first magazine in anger, it starts being critically important.
FWIW, my .mil loadout kit for mounted/helo/other vehicular ops was: two mag pouches on the belt, and just a few of magazines in the center part of the plate carrier. It's a case of whichever is more convenient to grab, just get that mag - in the turret of our rather cramped CESAS MRAP, the belt mounted pouch was useless, but in the prone the belt pouch was tremendously more accessible than the chest mounted pouches. Travis isn't onto anything new, just making some more aware that primary weapon system magazines needn't be all in the same place.
Concealability and ability to carry spare rifle magazines to me are a very niche consideration, since spare rifle mags only matter if you have - a rifle. Not even a PDW type Mk18 with 20rd magazine conceals truly well, so running body armor and other support equipment means you're dressing to simply make it less painfully obvious that you're packing 110+ rounds and a 400m capable weapon system; and the sorts of folks with that as a legitimate need aren't exactly going to the internet for advice, since they have access to training and ammunition budgets to be creating those sorts of TTP's for themselves and others.
Instead, the biggest realistic consideration is being able to operate a motor vehicle (and/or work from within one) while kitted up, which means the default michelin man layout of an uber-plate carrier makes little sense, and it's back to a case where a condensed setup is more valuable. Next would be ability to work from the prone, since this is often the most overlooked need of gear - it's nice to see highly proficient shooters go to town from 7-50yd from standing or kneeling in the open or behind cover, but that's a case where fundamentals built there have value, but in a two-way range being close to the ground and not getting hit is typically the most practical place to be, and unless part of some highly trained team that's the location where time is going to be spent.
The last issue is how quickly can a kit get jocked up into - for a job where you're deliberately going into harm's way a bit of time can be fine (full plate carrier, belt, helmet, etc.), but if a simpler kit can be installed a lot more quickly, it's worth a lot more on the civilian side. Again, really low probability/rare need of needing ballistic protection and/or spare rifle magazines, but having to get jocked up reactively it doesn't make sense to have something that takes more than 30 seconds to get all set up with (including rifle w/ sling, sidearm), so something simpler (and preferably modular) makes a ton more sense.
For my part, after ditching the idea of stacking more than one magazine thick over ballistic protection, I've found that having magazines where I can get at them fast doesn't restrict my mobility all that much, and that stacking three rifle magazines front centered chest (low down), two magazines on the belt (support side, opposite secondary weapon) I have more than enough rounds for the carbine without making anything too inconvenient; and mostly making everything else about that thin (pistol magazine pouches w/ 4 spares, multitool, tertiary light); the last thing I'm sorting out finally is managing integration with backpacks - the TT/GreyGhost removable operator pack is a good 'almost there', but that's the biggest part where I'm not truly happy with my gear arrangements.
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