Gear loadout pics and descriptions

[BC520]

Something to consider, gravity is not your friend, and you will not see a current professional carry their knife in such a manner.

Something to help you is 8 mags is a bit much. Both in weight and bulk. Trying to maneuver in tight areas of homes is more difficult the wider you are, and your center of gravity is affected a bit. Divide it up, carry four on your vest and carry some more in a small pack with other items needed.

My frame of reference is from doing the work of entries in a number of home styles in the US the past decade. I've carried gear like yours, and found out over time what was more efficient. The knife, well, I'll admit I carried one just like that in that manner back when I was a kid in Boy Scouts...and I learned way back then it wasn't a good idea.

[viperashes]

It's an Eagle SPC with the MTV cummerbund mod. It makes this thing a LOT more bearable to wear for extended periods of time.

From the front, you can see my 6 double stacked mag pouches mounted low and central. It gives me a lot room to bring my rifle or pistol into my workspace when I reload, and makes it easy to grab mags quickly. I also have a combat gauze in a kangaroo pocket that is just behind my mag pouches. The pouch opens via the tab that the end of my sling is clipped to in the picture.

I've got my rifle sling carabinered to my carrier across the left shoulder strap, since I'm left handed, but I can still shoulder my rifle on my right side if I need to. My rifle is always in my workspace, and rides high, which makes it easy to sling and keeps it controllable even when I have to draw my pistol.

I also added padding to the shoulder straps using a sleeping mat, and used regular silver ducttape wrapped around the straps to make it more comfortable. It looks like shit, but it works well. And concider, with a fully loaded rig, all the weight rides right at the top of your shoulder straps, so this is something to concider doing.







On the right side, you can see that I have my two pistol mags, one mounted at 2 o'clock and one at 3. My dump pouch is at 3 o'clock and is on a padded patrol belt, which is kind of hard to see in the picture, because it's under my blouse. I keep a CAT tourniquet behind the 2 o'clock mag in the front of the SAPI pouch. This one is missing in the picture because I took it out to do some training.







The back is fairly straightforward. I have my sling carabinered on the lowest row of MOLLE to take up as much sling slack as I was comfortable with. I used a locking carabiner here, threaded pretty tight through 3 loops of MOLLE just because I want to be sure it's not going to snag and come undone, but for general application, it doesn't need to be this intricate.







On my left side, I like to keep things really clean. Being that it's my strong side, it means that I have a lot of room to work, keep my elbow tight when I have my rifle shouldered, and nothing is in the way when I need to draw my pistol. I used to keep a CAT on my shoulder, but because I have my sling mounted there, I moved it to the same place the one on the right is, in the front of my side SAPI pouch. This one is also missing in the picture.

My IFAK is mounted at 8 o'clock, with a CAT slung under the top flap for easy access, making 3 that are centrally located for arm or leg use, and are easily accessable. I have my IFAK loaded with 3 CATs, 3 combat gauze, 2 decompression needles, and 3 pressure dressings.

My drop holster is a SERPA that has had the hood cut down to the "sporter" style cut. It helps a lot for drawing quickly. I also cut the top strap off the thigh platform itself, and shortened the suspension straps to make it ride higher. I basically drop my hand to right about where my left pocket is so it's one easy motion to draw my pistol when I need to. The holster is also mounted to my patrol belt. I have the cam-lock quick detach thing on my holster, partially because it gives a little bit more play on rotational positioning with how it screws to the thigh rig, but also because my pistol holster actually sticks out farther than it does directly mounted to the thigh rig, which means less reaching for my pistol, and an easier draw in full gear.







My gear is pretty straight forward and utilitarian. I've got my "tactical Operator hat" and HL earmuffs on just for shits and gigs in the picture. I wasn't about to put my Kevlar on because I hate the damn thing and it doesn't really show anything related to what I'm trying to point out.

[kaltesherz]

I'm uber jealous of your issued SPC, those things look comfy and well made, I would have run over my grandmother with a tank to get one when I was over.

Twice.

Your IFAK looks pretty bulky and awkward, but maybe that's just from the angle. Is that issue? Also are you guys allowed to tuck in your blouse? I'm not that familiar with USMC SOPs...

[zekus480]

This is the right way to display pics of your kit. It makes monkey see monkey do a lot easier when we can see how someone's equipment works when worn and possibly take away something beneficial. Thanks for an outstanding post!

[viperashes]

I'm uber jealous of your issued SPC, those things look comfy and well made, I would have run over my grandmother with a tank to get one when I was over.

Twice.

Your IFAK looks pretty bulky and awkward, but maybe that's just from the angle. Is that issue? Also are you guys allowed to tuck in your blouse? I'm not that familiar with USMC SOPs...

My SPC used to be issued. Down to the SERPA holster, QD mount, mag pouches, MOLLE mount the mags are on, etc. Including my patrol belt. I've had this stuff for several different vacations now. Especially when they are broken in, and with the MTV cummerbund mod they are AWESOME.

My IFAK isn't horribly bulky. It is a little bit big, but I think it's just mostly the angle of the picture. I could probably repack it and it would look a little better, but how it is now works and that's what matters the most with something like an IFAK.

As far as the blouse goes, no, we don't wear cammies on patrol. I had just gotten back from work and a buddy of mine had his camera, so I had him take the pictures quick. I wasn't worried so much about throwing FROGs on for the pictures. I was just trying to give a frame of reference for my gear.

The pictures were actually taken for a friend on another forum that was asking about gear setup, but I decided, since this thread was here, that I would share it with M4C as well.

This is the right way to display pics of your kit. It makes monkey see monkey do a lot easier when we can see how someone's equipment works when worn and possibly take away something beneficial. Thanks for an outstanding post!

:tup: My pleasure.

[tpdavis89]

From left to right: HSGI Mini EOD Pouch, Eagle M4 Mag Pouch x2, HSGI X2R TACO Double Rifle Magazine Pouch, ATS Medical Pouch (Small), The Rack is an Eagle All-Molle rig.

[gogetal3]

19D Cav Scout. Recently back from Korea, most likely looking at Afghanistan in the future. Been waiting patiently for a year to put this rig together. I've had the opportunity to look at many different pieces of gear. Compare and price. There are several different types of rigs I liked. I just have to weigh what I want most vs. the options it affords and the price too.

TAG Gladiator Coyote brown, with Hydration carrier on the back
From Right of rack to left
Condor EOD/Utility Pouch
Condor Quad Mag pouch/bungie
Condor single pistol mag pouch (used for tool/flashlight)
Condor Electronics pouch
Condor Quad Mag pouch/bungie
Condor single pistol mag pouch
Condor Rip Away Medical Pouch
BDS Wolf hook Single Pt sling.

Attachment 10233
Attachment 10234
Attachment 10235
Attachment 10236

[kaltesherz]

19D Cav Scout. Recently back from Korea, most likely looking at Afghanistan in the future. Been waiting patiently for a year to put this rig together. I've had the opportunity to look at many different pieces of gear. Compare and price. There are several different types of rigs I liked. I just have to weigh what I want most vs. the options it affords and the price too.

TAG Gladiator Coyote brown, with Hydration carrier on the back
From Right of rack to left
Condor EOD/Utility Pouch
Condor Quad Mag pouch/bungie
Condor single pistol mag pouch (used for tool/flashlight)
Condor Electronics pouch
Condor Quad Mag pouch/bungie
Condor single pistol mag pouch
Condor Rip Away Medical Pouch
BDS Wolf hook Single Pt sling.

Just a friendly piece of advice... ditch the Condor crap. It's Airsoft gear that's meant to look and feel like it can hack it but will fail you after hard use. And when large amounts of grumpy muslims with automatic weapons and RPGs are trying to kill you it's not the best time for gear failure. I'd look at Eagle, LBT, HSGI, etc for quality kit that will hold up.

Also when you do upgrade I'd recommend you make your set-up a little more prone friendly and lighten it up.

[gogetal3]

Just a friendly piece of advice... ditch the Condor crap. It's Airsoft gear that's meant to look and feel like it can hack it but will fail you after hard use. And when large amounts of grumpy muslims with automatic weapons and RPGs are trying to kill you it's not the best time for gear failure. I'd look at Eagle, LBT, HSGI, etc for quality kit that will hold up.

Also when you do upgrade I'd recommend you make your set-up a little more prone friendly and lighten it up.

I appreciate your feedback. I'm not new to any of this. Been shooting for quite some time now and been making plenty of purchases in equipment and firearms. I attribute a lot of those successes to the individuals on this forum. The best educated decision a person can make is through experience. I've used and still use Eagle, HSGI. Excellent products. I've also used Condor, Diamondback Tactical. In various weather climates and nasty conditions. Personally haven't had an issue with them. I'm positive someone else has had negative experiences with any of the above mentioned products. I've read up on gear, pondered over concepts I thought would work for me. I've read up on the ethical issues plaguing the gear industry with design theft and mine is better than your's. Slander this and that. Tough industry to be in. Before I left for my new duty station I visited a dear friend of mine who is in the industry. We had a good long discussion about the options out there. Realistically what makes sense. Then I watched him make a duty belt for me using his techniques for construction. I'm sure there are a hundred different forms of stiches out there. Some better than most. But if the product meets functionality, the design's desired application, reliability, affordability then it passes my test. I say affordability because I don't believe it is ethical to charge a 1000% return on products. I'm not purposely going to set my rig on fire, drag it over constatine, wire frag it, then repeat. Although the gear I have now has seen some nasty days with constatine wire, and has held up just fine. And if I should happen to come in contact with that stuff again. Then I expect it to fail because it is after all just fabric. I don't know of any nomex pouches to date, or completely tear proof ones, and I wear armor to at least protect my vitals. I'm under the mind set to beat the living shit out of my gear every chance I get to know it's limits. Considering the crap I get from the Army is just that, I'd say I'm ahead of the curve. People speak about gear as though it will never fail. I don't place my life in the hands of my gear. It is a false sense of securty. Like sitting in the MRAP and thinking there's no way anything can get through this hunk of metal. I'll rely on my training and mind set to get me through. I agree with you about the prone thing. I don't run the quads typically. I use my Diamondback duty belt with 4 mags on there drawing from the belt and feeding the belt from my rig with 6 residing there. Also have a dump pouch on the bastard.
Everybody is entitled to they're own opinions and I respect that. I was in a shop yesterday with my buddies looking at a $50 SAW pouch. He was buying two. He refused to listen to any arguements against the purchase. I wasn't being passionate about not buying them. I was just pointing out the pros and cons vs. another piece of equipment we had seen. The material and design is proprietary to the shop we were in. Good quality company. Very well known on here as well. However I did not feel they're product was justified at $20 more than the previous SAW pouch we examined. The material was thinner and just didn't feel right. Many buy it though and use it daily. Boils down to preference. But that's not to say I wouldn't consider it "Airsoft Crap". Because that's what it felt like to me. I don't play airsoft. But if I was a dealer, or business man geared in selling tactical equipment I'd want the rich kids money as well. Because it's just as green. It's like saying Airsofters don't use Surefire products. They're not stupid. They want quality products as well. I keep my mind open and try new things regardless.

[viperashes]

You seem super defensive, so I'm not sure how receptive you will be to this, but I would consider dropping a few mag pouches if those are all single pouches double stacked. With as much shit as you have on your LBV, the shit is going to get heavy. Also, I almost consider 6 mags on my kit almost too many. Keep some extra mags in a patrol pack if you keep one with you, but having close to 2 full combat loads on your kit is rediculous.

Having that many double mag pouches taking up all of your workspace is going to be uncomfortable too. Having room to hang your arms is a pretty big deal out here. Being that you have so many pouches and your kit being that bulky, I would concider getting some sort of patrol belt if you plan on continuing to carry that much shit. Many guys out here hang mag pouches off of their patrol belts and will carry 4-8 mags on their belt, depending on the type of mission and the area that they are operating in. I just hope to God that you don't end up in the Green Zone with a kit that looks like a tank.

I'm not sitting here bashing you, I'm giving you realistic constructive criticism, so don't get assmad about my comments.