Chest Rigs and Mags for your Black Rifle

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TV-PressPass

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I have chatting with a buddy at my indoor range this week, as I just got a new chest rig from Tasmanian Tiger (expect a video!) and essentially wanted to show-off slash shoot-the-s**t.

He's real CF, and we were discussing how many mags my rig holds, how many I carry, how many his holds etc.

I have 6 mags on there, and one LAR in a mini-pocket.

He has 16, stacked out like a brick in front of him.

Now I realize he's soldiering with his and I'm running and gunning (or hiking and biking) with mine, but he essentially argued that even if I'd had 30 rounders and was carrying with CF, 6 mags was not enough for anything rifle related.

I'm of the opinion that if I'm carrying an extra 16-20lbs on my front, then I'm not going to be doing much running, jumping, or swimming with it.

I can't even picture what prone is like with that on . . . actually I can: Anyone here heard of planking?

Now my Taz-Tiger vest is pretty flexible, so I could be double stacking the built in pouches out to a 9 mag capacity pretty darn easy.

But how many mags do you carry on your vest/rig/pocket pouch or whatever you use to carry mags on the range or in the bush?

 
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Well, not for a black rifle but I have a 10x 5/20 M14 mag setup that is a real ##### when it comes to prone. It's so bulky it makes any hope of bipoding with the mag a pipedream. Kneeling is fine, and standing is great because if I'm getting tired I can rest my front elbow on the shelf of mags! God I need to work out more...:redface:

I'm about to assemble another setup for my first black rifle (Oooooooo!:cool:) and I damn nearly bought your used TTMAV gear on the EE Press Pass, but I think I'm going to spring for the split front MAV. All I need to carry is 55x rounds. With a couple LAR mags mixed in it's going to be a nice slim setup IF I can stop my stomach from expanding at it's current rate. :p

Now if only somebody would push the limits and produce a 10/30 LAR mag! :stirthepot2:
 
Always depends on what I'm doing.

Most of the time I use a bandolier with 3 30 rd mags (SIG, AR or AK) or 4 20 rd magazines for the SIG.

If that's not enough I also wear my chestrig with 4 30 rd magazines.
 
If you were living in the US in gun friendly states with 30 round magazines and you needed to defend yourself with an AR, 4 extra magazines would be plenty.

Consider for CCW, many in US carry small pistols with only 6 shots or so with 1 or 2 reloads.
 
I think it comes down to a major difference in aplication and perspective.

Most combat arms guys I know would carry at minimum a double combat load, so not less than 10 mags on them. This is because they want to be prepared in the event of a prolonged firefight. Some guys will have all the mags loaded onto the the front of the vest so that they are all accessible whereas some will run a lower profile vest with extra mags in their ruck/small pack. I can see where the CF fellow you were talking to is coming from, in his line of work you are potentially screwed (and maybe screwing others) if you aren't carrying a sufficient load of ammo.

When it comes to everyday shooting on civy street. There are very few that would go off into the bush and require them to hump that much ammo or even on the range for that matter. It is much easier for CQB shooters, 3 gunners, etc... to replenish their mags after shooting a stage/string. Therefore, there really isn't a need to carry so much ammunition and one can get away with using a much lower profile rig.

I would be willing to bet that if there was some sort of 3-gun match held that had 8-10 stages and shooters weren't allowed to top up in between stages you would see significantly larger capacity rigs on the competitors.
 
The general trend these days is lightening the load. Most of my men just finished a year or so in Kabul running 7-10 mags total. Most only kept 6-7 on their second line and the rest were either in go bags or back pouches.

Tell your friend he should reconsider the magazine brick and spread out his load, not so hot for mobility or even gun handling. From the sounds of it your load out is just fine for your applications. Consider a first line belt with a backup mag.
 
Lighten the load when you can, balance the load if you can't. I carried 10-20 mags but never more than 8 on my front. I had 2 on the c-8, 8 on the rig and the rest in a go bag with med gear.
 
Overseas I ran 3x triple mag pouches and one utility pouch on my left side/hip; smoke , nades, tccc and 2 utiliy pouches on the right side. My belly was clear so I could get on the ground (mav 4 no center piece). Back in canada I run 4x double mag pouches and two utiliy pouches.

Civy side... The most mags I own for a single gun is 5.... So the rig tends to be a lot lighter.
 
One point about the MAV is that with the 1pc is that it's a ##### to get in and out of. You can get used to it but putting it over top any sort of jacket with a hood is a #####.
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Oh I hear that man. I definitely hear that. I love that the Taz-Tiger has clips at each point of the shoulder straps. I swear I used to compress my chest cavity every time I tried to shoulder into the MAV vest and it still hung down around my belt level.

And I do have a backup mag under my arm-pit in a single-mag elastic shingle. Set up specifically so I can reach and load from it in prone position. Tricky with a Tavor!
 
Here's my Mav. I've been running one of these in one way or another for probably the last five years. In it's current configuration it will carry nine AR mags.

- Split Front Mav
- X-Harness
- 3x TT Triple Mag
- 2x BFG Utility
- DS Tactical Blow Out
- Esstac Double Frag
- TT Joey (Nalgene)

Mav.jpg
 
TV-PressPass said:
I'm of the opinion that if I'm carrying an extra 16-20lbs on my front, then I'm not going to be doing much running, jumping, or swimming with it.

I can't even picture what prone is like with that on . . . actually I can: Anyone here heard of planking?
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TV, I want to see pictures (ideally video) of you with this setup. Preferably on your bike! ;)
 
8+1 one in the gun for bush shooting. How much I carried overseas isn't really valid in this case since I was on a KAF tour.
 
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