Battle Belt setup...let’s see them

Just did this one recently. Still playing around with the final setup but so far so good.
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Condor LCS Cobra belt (surprisingly nice)
Esstac Kywi 3x pistol, 2x short rifle
Safariland mid-drop w QLS
R&R Kydex holster as well as level 1 Safariland for my different guns (why I added QLS)
Maxpedition roly-poly mid dump pouch
Will likely add a TQ

I want to keep the belt as basic as possible. If I have no free molle, I’ve gone way too far.
 
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Just saw this thread so I’ll have to post a pic tomorrow but wanted to ask... you guys have 2 rifle mags on your belt, how many do you have on your chest rig/plate carrier?

I have one on the belt and 3 on my chest. Just looking to get different opinions from you guys.
 
Just saw this thread so I’ll have to post a pic tomorrow but wanted to ask... you guys have 2 rifle mags on your belt, how many do you have on your chest rig/plate carrier?

I have one on the belt and 3 on my chest. Just looking to get different opinions from you guys.
My belt is setup with the assumption that I won’t be wearing a plate carrier (primarily range/training use). If I do have a PC on then great, I have 2 extra mags.
However, 1 Rifle mag in the belt seems to be more common for the reason you mentioned, at least that’s my take from browsing arfcom’s battle belt thread.
 
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Got six rifle on my belt and 2 pistol. None on my plate carrier. Trying to get all the weight I can off it per a suggestion from a friend who knows how to set up a kit. Will get some pics later. Mostly HSGI gear.
 
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Debating whether to keep the battle belt or just move everything to my PC. Every time I come to a decision I change my mind.
 
If you talk to some real operators most of them try to get as much off the pc as possible and onto the hips. They do not want all the weight on their shoulders. Much more comfortable over a long haul to have weight on your hips.
 
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Just saw this thread so I’ll have to post a pic tomorrow but wanted to ask... you guys have 2 rifle mags on your belt, how many do you have on your chest rig/plate carrier?

I have one on the belt and 3 on my chest. Just looking to get different opinions from you guys.
Running 6 mags on my chest rig
 
If you talk to some real operators most of them try to get as much off the pc as possible and onto the hips. They do not want all the weight on their shoulders. Much more comfortable over a long haul to have weight on your hips.

"Real operators"?

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I have always hated that word for soldiers, sailors, and Marines.

If you have the 'right' PC, the cummerbund will distribute some, but not all, of the weight. Of course the issue with the PC isn't the accouterments, but the armor. Two or three mags, an IFAK, and a pistol doesn't weigh that much.

You are right, though, it's a balance of how much weight, and how to distribute. I usually wear the belt for the range and classes, and the PC for things that go bump in the night. I also wear the PC for workouts as a weight vest.
 
"Real operators"?

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I have always hated that word for soldiers, sailors, and Marines.

If you have the 'right' PC, the cummerbund will distribute some, but not all, of the weight. Of course the issue with the PC isn't the accouterments, but the armor. Two or three mags, an IFAK, and a pistol doesn't weigh that much.

You are right, though, it's a balance of how much weight, and how to distribute. I usually wear the belt for the range and classes, and the PC for things that go bump in the night. I also wear the PC for workouts as a weight vest.


By real operators, current and past SF group guys. Just showing them my plate carrier with level 3 soft armor and level 4 ceramic plates and mags attached, they all said get it all off the carrier. First if you get hit and need it off you do not lose all your gear. Second the weight on the front of the carrier pulls you over and wears you out fast. If you are going to run mags on the carrier put them horizontal on the back. Easily took half the weight off my carrier. But I had a full load of 6 mags plus ifak and small pouch on my carrier. You all can do what you want but I will follow the advice of the guys I know have been to the sandbox and did stuff most of america would rather not know about.

As I said I may drop to 4 mags on my belt still undecided or put a couple back on my plate carrier. Moved my IFAK to the back of my plate carrier as well. All that is on it is a small admin pouch, an IFAK, a tourniquet and the what bladder. My belt has a G19 holster, a knife, a large admin pouch that carries various small tools, 1 double taco and two double tacos with pistol holders. So 6 ar mags and 2 pistol mags. It is heavy but comfortable on the HSGI battle belt.

My belt and plate carrier are with me whenever I travel.
 
By real operators, current and past SF group guys. Just showing them my plate carrier with level 3 soft armor and level 4 ceramic plates and mags attached, they all said get it all off the carrier. First if you get hit and need it off you do not lose all your gear. Second the weight on the front of the carrier pulls you over and wears you out fast. If you are going to run mags on the carrier put them horizontal on the back. Easily took half the weight off my carrier. But I had a full load of 6 mags plus ifak and small pouch on my carrier. You all can do what you want but I will follow the advice of the guys I know have been to the sandbox and did stuff most of america would rather not know about.

Not busting chops, lol, but I am a card-carrying, certified BTDT. Any "operator" that tells you definitively he has 'the perfect set up' either hasn't been doing it long enough or has too many static operations.

It is an evolving art, figuring out gear, gear distribution, weight distribution, etc. I am not saying you (or your "operators") are wrong, and I agree with most of it. Mission drives the gear. For us non-"operators" (civilians), yeah, dressing out like you are going to need 8+ rifle mags, 3+ pistol mags, like an extended patrol is ridiculous, and you should always shave weight and configure to your mission.

By the way, I found another picture of an operator:

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I thought this would be a cool way to showcase some belt setups guys! I’ve only seen one other pic besides the one I posted...
 
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Not busting chops, lol, but I am a card-carrying, certified BTDT. Any "operator" that tells you definitively he has 'the perfect set up' either hasn't been doing it long enough or has too many static operations.

It is an evolving art, figuring out gear, gear distribution, weight distribution, etc. I am not saying you (or your "operators") are wrong, and I agree with most of it. Mission drives the gear. For us non-"operators" (civilians), yeah, dressing out like you are going to need 8+ rifle mags, 3+ pistol mags, like an extended patrol is ridiculous, and you should always shave weight and configure to your mission.

By the way, I found another picture of an operator:

View attachment 230840

Completely agree. They do as well. Like I said one good friend has given several suggestions. Like get it off the front at least and move it to the rear in horizontal holders. Still easy to get to but makes the weight feel better was one suggestion. Other was to put it on a belt. Current trend is to get it off the chest. Also looking at head gear and trying to reduce neck fatigue is high on their list. My next purchase will be a helmet and NV.

As far as 6 mags and 2 pistol mags like I said it is in my vehicle with me all the time. If SHTF and I am stranded with a long walk home I want all the ammo I can carry. Also have a decent back pack in there as well I can move stuff to if needed. All about what you think you need immediately, what you can store in a back pack or similar and what you feel you can replace or acquire during the "event." Also forgot I have a radio pouch for a small UHF/VHF radio on the belt. Most of it is all light except for the ammo and the plates.

With a chest rig, battle belt, and a backpack plus the rifle it would be a long and painful walk home for me. But I would do it to get to my wife and dogs. LOL

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3034C0DC-9BEB-4310-8D89-F117D468527D.jpeg Gcode outer belt. I like the inner/outer belt systems and thisbelt seems to work good for me. No complaints so far anyways.

Blue alpha gear edc inner belt that I use as my everyday belt (I highly recommend them)

T rex arms ragnorak holster. Seems to be nice and tough. Didn’t care for the owner when I first saw his videos (seemed like a douch) but after watching a few of his longer table top videos and hearing what he had to say, I’ll be buying more of his stuff in the future. He’s definitely an awesome shooter.

Esstac pistol and rifle pouches. They work great I really like them.

Plain jane med kit. I wouldn’t mind getting something a little slimmer/less bulky.

I don’t have any plates at the moment. I had a set of steel plates but sold them after figuring out they were way too heavy for me to wear any length of time. For now I’m just using a spiritus chest rig with a few odds and ends I might use around the farm. Zip ties are for game cameras, not detaining midgets lol.
 
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Completely agree. They do as well. Like I said one good friend has given several suggestions. Like get it off the front at least and move it to the rear in horizontal holders. Still easy to get to but makes the weight feel better was one suggestion. Other was to put it on a belt. Current trend is to get it off the chest. Also looking at head gear and trying to reduce neck fatigue is high on their list. My next purchase will be a helmet and NV.

As far as 6 mags and 2 pistol mags like I said it is in my vehicle with me all the time. If SHTF and I am stranded with a long walk home I want all the ammo I can carry. Also have a decent back pack in there as well I can move stuff to if needed. All about what you think you need immediately, what you can store in a back pack or similar and what you feel you can replace or acquire during the "event." Also forgot I have a radio pouch for a small UHF/VHF radio on the belt. Most of it is all light except for the ammo and the plates.

With a chest rig, battle belt, and a backpack plus the rifle it would be a long and painful walk home for me. But I would do it to get to my wife and dogs. LOL

Hard agree, 'staging' is imperative. How I 'load out' now is different than how I did deployed, and it's just a natural extension of first line/second line/third line gear (as you do). The PC stays at home. I 'might' get a slick or add a single mag to one for the vehicle, not sure.

Those new helmets, they are super light and comfy. Now 'they' have NODS, a video camera, IR marker/strobe, light. When I got out we were using gen 1 Team Wendy, and then they were a lot heavier than the stuff they (and others) are putting out now with just NODS.
 
Esstac Kiwi for the win! For those of you who have short arms or a big stomach, i suggest a single mag pouch next to your pistol for doing one handed mag changes from the holster. Also, you guys need to think about a retention holster. When your Operating Operationally you may have to jump around and hit the ground (in an operational way) and your sidearm will fly out and land on the ground and scare the ever loving sh#t out of the other Operators. Especially if it is your hand tuned Glock Perfection Operators trigger you did at the kitchen table. The one you sneeze at and it goes off? Yea, that one.

PBJ AK you need a CAT7 on there within easy reach and one in the IFAK.

btw, due to the "Covid" my battle belt doesn't fit me anymore. I refuse to buy a new fat battle belt.
 
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Debating whether to keep the battle belt or just move everything to my PC. Every time I come to a decision I change my mind.

I think the real question is.

At what point do you get to play dress up?

Meaning, if you got the time to get dressed up, what are you going to put on?

For me, I CCH so a battle belt is a range toy

My next layer of dress is a slick PC.

After that, my imagination fails me
 
@Variable

after reading your post i figured I could move the tourniquet from my chest rig to the belt. I do have another in the med kit as well. May move it around still but I do appreciate the “criticism”.

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I’d also I’d like to have one if the safari land retention holsters but when I was shopping around I didn’t see any available without a wait. So I figured I’d give the T. rex arms a go.
 
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I think the real question is.

At what point do you get to play dress up?
Meaning, if you got the time to get dressed up, what are you going to put on?
For me, I CCH so a battle belt is a range toy
My next layer of dress is a slick PC.
After that, my imagination fails me

It's for classes and larp'ing. I think it would be useful during the apocalypse (see Larp'ing.) It also gives you +10 tactical points.

V
 
I think the real question is.

At what point do you get to play dress up?

Meaning, if you got the time to get dressed up, what are you going to put on?

For me, I CCH so a battle belt is a range toy

My next layer of dress is a slick PC.

After that, my imagination fails me

Great question. I got the plate carrier initially for simply working out, as a weight vest. But then I had some extra kit laying around so I turned it into a functional plate carrier. I realized at that point all is missing were for real plates so I bought some. I add a couple 15 lb weight plates to it for some of my exercising, weighted pull ups, etc and then pull out the weighted plates and leave the ballistic plates for body armor.

So it certainly did not start out as anything meant to be functional, now it is cross-functional. So when I'm not working out and it sits by my bedside, and strictly for a things that go bump in the night scenario.
 
Another thing i don't see here is dump pouches? Where do you put empties or half empties? Where is your water bottle or "Tactical M&M's" stored? You need to have a dump pouch, it's handy. I will also add that Crye makes some suspenders that i use. I know there are probably better suspenders for my belt, I use Grey Ghost belt me linked btw, but they were made by Crye so i figured they were awesome. Suspenders really help with weight distribution when the belt is full of mags. You can throw your PC right over the suspenders. My PC is for refill mags to the belt. I prefer to keep the front slim as possible. But all my "operator" experience is in Ryan's super long classes at Apex. Wearing all the kit during the summer is an endurance race. We haven't had one of those this year. Hopefully next year.
 
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I only see one identifiable dump pouch and that is Chuckman's, possibly the HSGI looking one is one, now that i look at it and see a drain hole. The other two.... no idea. Could be anything, mystery pouch A. Unless these rigs are never used... Once you use them they look like Chuckmans. If the gear looks perfect it is probably never used.
 
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I only see one identifiable dump pouch and that is Chuckman's, possibly the HSGI looking one is one, now that i look at it and see a drain hole. The other two.... no idea. Could be anything, mystery pouch A. Unless these rigs are never used... Once you use them they look like Chuckmans. If the gear looks perfect it is probably never used.
The Maxpedition Rolly-poly has been around for a long time. They have multiple sizes and versions, very well built as you would expect from them. I love the compact nature when not in use.
 
If you talk to some real operators most of them try to get as much off the pc as possible and onto the hips. They do not want all the weight on their shoulders. Much more comfortable over a long haul to have weight on your hips.
this is counter-intuitive to me and the very opposite of backpacking concept. For example, with backpacks, you secure tents and other heavy items at the top where they are supported by your shoulder. I can definitely attest to the fact that this weight distribution is favorable with human physiology.

That being said, backpacks dont secure weight 'directly at the hip' the way a belt does (but they do have waist straps to help displace some load across waist and to mitigate torsional forces). My mind is also terrible at abstracting physical engineering principles, so im admittedly far from a subject matter expert.
 
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this is counter-intuitive to me and the very opposite of backpacking concept. For example, with backpacks, you secure tents and other heavy items at the top where they are supported by your shoulder. I can definitely attest to the fact that this weight distribution is favorable with human physiology.

That being said, backpacks dont secure weight 'directly at the hip' the way a belt does (but they do have waist straps to help displace some load across waist and to mitigate torsional forces). My mind is also terrible at abstracting physical engineering principles, so im admittedly far from a subject matter expert.

Like I said above, mission drives gear. I don't like the battle belt and the PC because to me there too much weight and redundancy. To me, I prefer the PC over the battle belt. That said, if I am on a day-long patrol and not a kinetic operation, I would not run the kitted-up belt, add a MAP or med bag to the back of the PC, and drive on. If I am on a kinetic operation, kicking in doors or a raid, my PC would be slicker and I would likely have more on the belt.

If I have to move 120 pounds of gear over the mountains over the course of a few days, I would reconfigure everything differently.

In civilian applications, it's all a moot point: aside from a class or on the range, when would you ever be kitted up for an extended time?
 
this is counter-intuitive to me and the very opposite of backpacking concept. For example, with backpacks, you secure tents and other heavy items at the top where they are supported by your shoulder. I can definitely attest to the fact that this weight distribution is favorable with human physiology.

That being said, backpacks dont secure weight 'directly at the hip' the way a belt does (but they do have waist straps to help displace some load across waist and to mitigate torsional forces). My mind is also terrible at abstracting physical engineering principles, so im admittedly far from a subject matter expert.


Actually no you do not. I used to backpack a lot with the boy scouts. A good back pack puts all the weight or at least most of it on your hips. The shoulders are not the primary load carrying point. A properly fitted backpack has little shoulder weight. Shoulders are just there to keep it upright.
 
Like I said above, mission drives gear. I don't like the battle belt and the PC because to me there too much weight and redundancy. To me, I prefer the PC over the battle belt. That said, if I am on a day-long patrol and not a kinetic operation, I would not run the kitted-up belt, add a MAP or med bag to the back of the PC, and drive on. If I am on a kinetic operation, kicking in doors or a raid, my PC would be slicker and I would likely have more on the belt.

If I have to move 120 pounds of gear over the mountains over the course of a few days, I would reconfigure everything differently.

In civilian applications, it's all a moot point: aside from a class or on the range, when would you ever be kitted up for an extended time?

For me, Vest + belt doesn't work. My mags hit the bottom of PC. Definitely spot on with the 'mission driven'. My 'mission' is range efficiency and proficiency, so I wear belt 90% of time. 10% of time I like to get in a little more passive exercise (and my armor is heavy) or im doing shooting drills involving non-frangible rifle ammo at steel targets w/in 25 yards
 
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