Chest Rig 101- Introduction to the Art of the Chest Rig

[shrewd yasu]

I'd stick with the rifle for primary. Maybe keep the gauge and a bandolier around to give a friend or family member in the event that everything goes real bad?

Lose the 308 and the guage and now your kit is much lighter (so now you can run some plates maybe?) and you can toss in an extra few mags.

More than anything I'd suggest a few classes with reputable instructors. Moor my first I had an old nylon 'instructors belt' with 2 fast mag pouches stuck on and a pistol mag in my back pocket. Now I'm a fan of the brokos belt with 2 pistol and a rifle mag, dump pouch, and medical.

Get some training brother, and keep reading threads like these and try things out, but remember to always put practical first.


Oh, and 25 rounds of gauge is nice and all for a HD situation, but if shit is bad enough that as a civvie you need to strap on a plate carrier loaded up with mags....25 rounds that need to be individually loaded sorta sucks when you can charge your ar with 28 rounds in about a second

[Jellybean]

That is 20 rounds of 00 buck and slugs. Does that change your view?

Well, I'm not trying to take a side here on what gun you should use, just give what helpful info I can. But 20 rounds *is* better.
I couldn't tell in the picture if it was some sort of flapped GP pouch, or a shotgun ammo pouch.

I also didn't notice the .308....

In light of the now 4 separate calibers being carried, as well as your previous statements, it seems that a little more info would be helpful on what your intended theory of use is.

For example, the first post you state a "home defender" theory of use. So given the somewhat odd loadout, it would seem correct to assume that you have multiple guns in multiple positions around the house, and that this is based on having a rig that can be used to throw on and have ammo on hand for each?
However, (and this is an issue that's been covered a lot in multiple threads here, if you're looking for more opinions/ideas) there's a couple things to look at with this- will you have time to get the CR on? Are you planning on a mid-night home invasion, or fending off an attack on your homestead post-SHTF?

Then what I mentioned earlier- what is your go- to gun? Is the nightstand gun your handgun? Shotgun? Rifle? Which cal. rifle?
This will dictate what your basic ammo load focuses on.
If a home invasion, is the intent to clear your house (is there a good reason to do this?), or hold a room and wait? I think we can agree, in both situations there, you don't need 4 different calibers on one rig.

If it's a post-SHTF situation, with your guns at multiple points of your house to defend from, since you're planning a static defense, why not simply store the needed ammo with the other guns? Say some sort of bandolier or "mag bag" like the old Eagle/Blackhawk bags or UW Gear's bandolier version, or just an ammo can full of shells or loaded magazines?
If you have the need to defend different points of your home, then another question is are you the only one responsible for this?
Seconded by why are you the only one? I think we can agree that at some point this is not going to work out well for you without help. In which case, if you DID have help, then surely they can use their own weapons and carry their own ammo, right?

If we take the post SHTF situation a little further, why bother packing the extra calibers at all? Say you have time to toss on your vest with a rifle or shotgun primary ammo load, and your handgun backing it up. Why not simply store more ammo for your primary at the strategic points in your home? (caches I can see multiple calibers, but that's another topic).
Or let's say you get overrun and you have to fight your way out of your house and GTFO of Dodge. In such a case, then it would seem to place even more emphasis on picking one primary and loading for it, so that you don't end up unintentionally cheating yourself out of badly needed ammo mid-bugout, or to have a secondary with it's own ammo supply.
Not to get to preachy to the choir, but ammo for the gun you have in your hand is more important than ammo for one in the next room.

Then the statement of "also intended to be a throw in the vehicle and have a variety of rounds at hand for different weapons."
But this would then seem to conflict with the previous home defender role, given that I see this working even less for a vehicle kit.
Do you carry all four guns in your vehicle all the time? If so, why?
Do you have buddies to make use of them? In which case, see previous about them carrying their own gear...
Buddy handout ammo? But again, see the "carry your own damn gear" section.
For if one of them goes down and you need their weapon? But then this would seem to point to a need to un-invest from a caliber or two, and re-invest in some standardization so this is not an issue.
In case of battlefield pickups? Ok, maybe some 12ga. shotgun ammo I could see since it's so common, but how many goons are going to be packing AR-pattern .308s? I'd guess you'll most likely end up thumbing them out so you can single- load the hunting rifle you picked up...
And if you're planning on battlefield pickups, frankly any plan that involves or relies on that sounds like a lot of crap hitting the spinner if you're down to that option...

Finally, if you haven't already, consider maybe adding some sort of medical equipment to your loadout- doesn't matter if you have a full IFAK, or a TQ and an IBD in your pocket- just *something* to keep yourself from becoming an immediate casualty. Armor if possible isn't a bad idea either.

Anyway, not trying to be a dick, just genuinely curious about the reasoning behind your current loadout, and trying to provide some extra food for thought.

[HKGuns]

Just the kind criticism I was looking for.....JellyBean. As your post implies, it isn't that well thought out and all the points you make are all quite valid.

I guess I need to better define the intended purpose and work through all of the points made in the above posts.

[BuzzinSATX]

Thanks OP for a great post.

[docsherm]

Remember that a chest rig will never be the "do everything" solution. Know what you want it to do and go with that. Never try to carry every kind of magazine you hown on it. It will just do many thing badly.




I am trying to come up with my next topic and I am interested in what people want to hear about. I was thinking about the Battle Belt vs. the Chest Rig or the Chest Rig vs. the Plate Carrier.

Thoughts?

[uffdaphil]

Battle belt is my preference.

[aguila327]

I would really like to see something on battle belts v. chest rigs

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[VIP3R 237]

I would really like to see something on battle belts v. chest rigs

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

As would I. I think for most civi's the battle belt is optimum.

[SteveL]

Remember that a chest rig will never be the "do everything" solution. Know what you want it to do and go with that. Never try to carry every kind of magazine you hown on it. It will just do many thing badly.




I am trying to come up with my next topic and I am interested in what people want to hear about. I was thinking about the Battle Belt vs. the Chest Rig or the Chest Rig vs. the Plate Carrier.

Thoughts?

I would very much like to hear your thoughts on both of those topics (one at a time of course). Maybe you could tackle both of them as parts 2 and 3. However, if I had to pick just one it would be the battle belt.

[shrewd yasu]

Remember that a chest rig will never be the "do everything" solution. Know what you want it to do and go with that. Never try to carry every kind of magazine you hown on it. It will just do many thing badly.




I am trying to come up with my next topic and I am interested in what people want to hear about. I was thinking about the Battle Belt vs. the Chest Rig or the Chest Rig vs. the Plate Carrier.

Thoughts?

i'd like to read a belt/vs chest rig also, as i find myself torn between the two. I generally just run a belt with mag pouches, dump, medical, pistol and am pretty much good for local competitions and walking around in the woods, but chest rigs look fun.

i'm of the opinion that if it's time to strap a whole rig to my chest i'd rather it be on a plate carrier anyway