Originally Posted by
HKGuns
Doc, I'm not an assaulter, just a middle aged home defender. Other than my obvious need to find a better pistol location (still trying to figure out where or if I want a pistol holster) critique this setup that is designed around my three main cartridges I would use in various bad scenarios.
Please critique or offer improvement suggestions for this hastily put together setup. That is somewhat also intended to be a throw in the vehicle and have a variety of rounds at hand for different weapons. I'm not real big and can manage the weight just fine for the intended purpose.
I'm sure there are some 101 level mistakes here that others can potentially learn from along with me. I've never put one together until recently.
I'm not Doc, and I'm not an expert either, but having gone through a lot of similar gear for a similar role, maybe I can help by asking a few questions;
First off, the pistol holster-
You mention intent is a "toss in vehicle" kit. Is this like a farm/offroad vehicle, or your daily driver?
In your state can you CCW? If so maybe you could ditch the MOLLE holster in favor of your EDC piece on your belt line?
If not, I guess you could just store the handgun in another holster, and stick it on your belt when needed.
Actually, I'm just going to come out and say it- I've found those universal MOLLE holsters to be universally awful.
I'm sure you could find a better option than that for you secondary, that you could mount on your belt line with relative ease- G-code is pretty cheap and has a number of mounting options....Or Safariland if you need more of a drop/offset to work around pouches and such. That way you can have a better draw, and free up valuable MOLLE space on your CR.
Per the " three main cartridges I would use in various bad scenarios".
Do you have ALL three firearms on you or accessible at all times? Or are you planning on "battlefield pickup" or such? Do you run 3-gun competitions with this?
If not, it seems you could ditch some items.
What is your go-to long weapon- shotgun or rifle?
Again, depending on your chosen go-to, you could ditch some ammo. I'm guessing by the load out your primary is a rifle.
In that case, how far is 6 rounds of shotgun ammo really going to get you? Especially since you're probably not going to be carrying all three weapons at the same time...right?
Also tying in with the previous on ammo is that you can consolidate the space you use on your rig a little- for example, (and I'm totally going with the obvious based on the picture, so it's just a guesstimation), let's say you ditch the shotgun ammo. You now have 2 extra MOLLE slots on your rig- rejoice!.
Now I also hate (personal opinion alert!)the combo 3 rifle/3 pistol mag pouches. It's kind of a waste of space considering you could mount 6 pistol mags in the MOLLE space they use to mount three...
Three ways you could go here-
1) Use a single-stack triple or quad M4 shingle, and then use the available frontal MOLLE space to better effect- you can now mount your pistol mags, secondary handheld light, Multitool/folder, TQ, etc. without needing the sideways pistol pouch on the bib (I'm coming for that one later...). Hell, you could even slap on a few shotgun shells if you feel you need them. You would also now have 3-4 slots on each side for other essentials such as an IFAK and general purpose/sustainment stuff.
2) Use a triple double-stack M4 flapped or bungee pouch- think about it- an M4 mag + Glock mag is easily the width of a pair of stacked M4 mags, right? You could consolidate your Primary mags into one spot instead of taking up room everywhere. Plus with this method you are now guaranteed 4 slots of MOLLE on each side of the rig- depending on your needs, you can mount more or larger pouches to 4 spaces of MOLLE than you can with three. However, personally I refuse to have less then 2 secondary mags on my rig, so you will use 2 slots there. However, if you're clever you can use the space behind them for either a 7th M4 mag, or a small fixed blade knife (unfortunately GP pouches generally seem to sag with pistol mags mounted to them).
3)Single M4 2x mag shingle with your pistol mags/light/kinfe/ etc. pouches on front, then 2 double stack M4 mags on either side, leaves you with 3 MOLLE slots on each side (see SKD's chest rig as an example)
So either way here, you can consolidate your gear and gain more use out of your available space.
Per the bib, I don't know what your intended use is there, but with 2 of the 3 above setup suggestions, you could ditch the horizontal single mag pouch, which means you may not need it at all.
I'm not a big fan of bib mounted stuff in general, but I can see the utility especially on a chest rig with limited space. Personally I would lean toward a small pouch that would enable me to hold a few more items, as opposed to just a flat "ID/Patch panel" pouch- more like a "map, compass, pencil/marker and similar assorted goodies" as opposed to just a flat ID/patch panel pouch. Or you could do a couple small individual pouches, for example if you had a small/flat enough GPS, and then a pouch for your compass/markers/etc. However, the thing is here to NOT mount a pouch so big it interferes with you drawing your primary magazines... It's a fine line- you'll have to experiment with what works for you- and this kind of goes for everything mentioned here.
Maybe you already have it- just putting out some extra ideas that I hope help you out.
Last edited by Jellybean; 09-14-14 at 14:42.
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