New Mag Carrier Design, Input Requested

[militarymoron]

good to see someone else thinking along the same lines! i did something very similar with a couple of kydex pistol mag pouches by mounting them to a bawidamann PUP. i wanted to minimize the amount of belt space that they took up. i dislike the pancake-style mag pouches with rivets on both sides that take up twice the space that they need to. it wasn't an optimal solution but worked for what i wanted it for.

my input: go for it! also, a bit of space between the mag pouches is necessary, depending on the floor plate on the mag. you don't want the rear one touching the front one. also, if you can figure out how to make your mounting plate even narrower (like the PUP shown below), that'd be nice.

[walkingbush]

It's an honor to hear that from you MM. I'll play around with narrowing the platform and will post the results later.

[GlockWRX]

You could also have the magazines at a very slight angle to each other. The bottom of the mags can be nearly touching while the top of the mags can be slightly apart. This gives room for the mags to be extracted without interference but takes up the least amount of space.

[walkingbush]

It seems like that would take up the same amount of space since the top mounting points would be the same distance apart as it would if mounted vertically parallel. That said, everything I do is custom so I'm happy to configure the holder in whatever manner a customer asks for.

[GlockWRX]

For magazines with small baseplates like the Glock, it probably wouldn't matter, but on mags like the M&P which have larger baseplates it might make a difference. If you held the aft most magazine vertical and then put an angle in the forward magazine you could end up with an effect similar to the clipped corners on the RCS mags. But it would vary with the amount of clearance needed for the magazines.

[jtb0311]

Does the open face of each carrier flex at all? I'm curious if the mags are still withdrawn in a traditional manner or if you can sort of bend them straight out of the carrier, basically snatching them away from your body instead of drawing them vertically? I've used kydex holsters, but my mag carriers have always been nylon or leather.

[bzdog]

I like the approach. I use a Mitch Rosen 5DM which is very similar, but in leather.

http://www.mitchrosen.com/product_li...cessories.html

I agree something thin in Kydex would be nice. The only concern I have is if the flexing and strain on the back curved area and the belt cutouts might lead to stress fractures.

-john

[walkingbush]

Does the open face of each carrier flex at all? I'm curious if the mags are still withdrawn in a traditional manner or if you can sort of bend them straight out of the carrier, basically snatching them away from your body instead of drawing them vertically? I've used kydex holsters, but my mag carriers have always been nylon or leather.

There is very little flex, so you would not be able, under normal circumstances, to "break" the magazine free out the side. The design adds just enough spring to provide a spring tension against smooth objects like magazines.

I agree something thin in Kydex would be nice. The only concern I have is if the flexing and strain on the back curved area and the belt cutouts might lead to stress fractures.

Kydex is very resilient to flex over a broad area, as would occur in this application. Where I've seen issues with stress fractures is where there are tight bends (belt clips for example) that experience frequent flexing over a specific point. Also "stress risers" can cause fractures. Stress risers are any square point or linnear edge that focuses stress in one location. In fact the belt clip example may fall into that category as well. I design all my products to eliminate stress risers, thus the wide radius on the belt slots. I also used .125 material on the back plate for additional strength.

I've sent a T&E sample of a holster with similar belt loops to a fellow M4C member and he'll be doing a destructive test and review to see how well the concept holds up. I look forward to seeing how that turns out.

[AKDoug]

I love the design. This solves a big issue I have with normal closed mag pouches. In my last class we were rolling around in gravel while it was raining. My kydex pouches absolutely filled with gravel. Ever try to clean them out while still wearing them? Impossible. Of course, I found out the were collecting crap after inserting two mags into them and jamming the mags full of small rocks. Your design would clean out easy.

[jtb0311]

I think it's a pretty slick design.