Help adjusting a chest rig

**vigilus** · Posted On: 10/28/2008 11:33am

Hey guys looking for some help.

I picked up the HSGI Weesatch to use. It's a plate carrier that holds 10 mags in internal pouches and some room for additional pouches.
The Wasatch has more oom to put **** on the sides but I really don't like having pockets and crap under my arm pits-I'm always hitting my hands. So instead I went for the smaller Weesatch which of course doesn't have as much space for stuff mounted on the sides.
Here's what it looks like so far and what I need to put inside.

I'm trying to travel as light as possible.
On it I have/need 10 Magazines. 2 frag grenades,1 smoke. Some glowsticks. A personal radio. dump pouch. A pair of NVGs and a medical pouch with some quick clot, bandages, chest needles, nose tubes etc.. (NVGs aren'trequired to carry but I prefer having them on my vest rather than in my assault pack. I put a couple odds and ends in the NVG pouch like a camera and GPS and headlamp (some not shown). 12 40mm grenades ona belt.

Problem is, the vest is veryfront heavy and with a row of double stacked mags and then 2 big pouches on it (Mini Modular EOD and a TT replica) the friggin thing sticks out pretty far-bordering on looking a bit silly. When I try and shoot in the prone while wearing it I almost look like im humping a football. Shooting is a little awkward too.
The weight of the vest causes the front to drag down and sag so I'm constantly hiking it up and trying to pull the back piece down. We're not allowed our ballastic plates in anything other than our soft armor so I can't put plates in my rig to try and balance the weight out. I'm currently tryign to rejig it by moving the pockets farthest to the sides (kinda REALLY regret not getting the larger Wasatch now). I'm not sure if adjusting the pockets will help. I also ordered a smaller pocket for my NVGs as the one I'm using is pretty large and bulky. Gonna take a couple of weeks to come in.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can;
-better distribute the weight
-not make the front of the chest rig extend so much
-stop the front from sagging (hook the back on to my belt by bungie cords??)
-should I have the front pockets beside each other at the front or widest part with the grenade pouches lower and in between them?

Thanks

**theotherserge** · Posted On: 10/28/2008 12:40pm

dude, you poor f__ers and your gear!

Speaking as a blatant civilian (so just long-hiking and toolbelt humping experience) I don't think I'd use a bungee connection, anything springy is distracting and will interfere with your walking cadence.

Does your assault pack counterbalance this? And can you clip the two together to get more of a whole unit?

It seems like having the front pouches wider will give you an easier prone position, but the hell if I've ever fired an assault rifle with -what- 60k of gear?

Seems like anything you can do to get it to hold tighter to your body so the rig doesn't swim/bounce around on its own will make more of a difference than bulkiness. Hope that is some helpful input, at least for the sake of eliminating stupid suggestions!

*waits for the real help to arrive*

**Carpe Noctem** · Posted On: 10/28/2008 8:05pm

Two suggestions:

Try a split chest rig, like a Tactical Tailor 2-piece MAV. A rig like that buckles in the middle, allowing you to undo it in the prone.

If you want to stick with the HSGI rig, try moving some of that to a leg platform, or possibly a first line belt. You can get modular leg panels and configure them as you like, depending on how anal your chain of command is.

**mrm1775** · Posted On: 10/29/2008 2:02am

First off, good on you for keeping you PVS-14 on your gear. That's a piece of gear that should remain on your body at all times when in the field. As far as weight distribution goes, you may have to suck it up and put those large pouches on your side. You might be able to get them low enough to give your arms plenty of freedom, provided you aren't wearing side plates.

Drop leg platforms suck! Especially if you are humping up and down mountains. However, I did have a hip pouch for some of my mags, which I can't find in Blackhawk's catalog anymore, but there should be some out there. It attached directly to my belt and secured with one leg strap, so it rode like a very high drop holster and wasn't very noticeable.

**vigilus** · Posted On: 10/29/2008 3:29am

Ya man, I hate leg platforms (no offense to the guys who swear by them).
I used to be a walking quarter master but now it's ammo water night vision and medical supplies. My med pouch is a little more stocked than normal because I'm trying to fit all the important **** from my issued advanced first aid pouch (for lack of a better word) leg bag into my chest rig because I can't stand that thing flopping around my theigh. Even when I'm using a pistol I prefer it on my chest.

I think you're right MRM, I'll probably push the puches out to the side and see if that helps balance the sucker out. I might even see if domestic 9er will let me drop another $250 on the larger Wasatch which has more space on the sides for kit and sell my smaller one. Seemed like such a good idea at the time. Just balls that **** takes 3 weeks to a month and change to come in the fucking mail.

Theotherserge, I usually don't hump my assault pack around with me, it's stashed in our vehicle. We're operating in/from our vehicles or with them close by most of the time so I can afford to dump some of that kit. If I do have it though then yes it balances my stuff out but their hard to fight in.

Is it true marines only issue night vision gear to their leadership elements?

**Carpe Noctem** · Posted On: 10/29/2008 8:40am

Either do what mrm suggested and mount them on the sides, or get a separate first line belt that would ride below your rig. That'd give you enough real estate for the NVG, blow-out kit and EOD kit.

That's the thing about rigs with internal mag pouches; over-stacking becomes an issue really fast.

**Colby** · Posted On: 10/29/2008 9:49am

Originally Posted by GuiltySpark

Is it true marines only issue night vision gear to their leadership elements?

I wouldn't be terribly suprised if that were true. I was a grunt for about 3 years in 1/5, and got to go to Army Ranger School. I was amazed at all the gear that the Army non-rates and NCO's had access too. All of the gear was brand new (by comparison) than the issued stuff I had back at my unit. NVGs were one of those items that not everybody got in the fleet. We were still using the binocular NVGs, when the Army had the new stuff. I was a little jealous. Plus, those fucktard RI's made me carry the pig the whole time.

I don't know what to tell you as far as your plate carrier goes. We didn't have those when I was in, we just had flak jackets. Climbing over **** with all of the duece gear was bad enough because you'd occasionally get something hung up. I can't imagine going over walls or through windows with any sort of speed with all of that stuff on.

**mrm1775** · Posted On: 10/29/2008 12:35pm

Originally Posted by GuiltySpark

Is it true marines only issue night vision gear to their leadership elements?

It was years ago. The Corps gets the short end of the budget stick and access to cool gear reflects that. By the time I went to Afghanistan, though (2004), every grunt had at least a PVS-7B, with about a quarter getting PVS-14s. Since about 2006 every swinging dick in the infantry has been issued the 14. As far as I know the PVS-7 series may have been all but phased out.

Everyone gets an ACOG now, too. I think MARCORSYSCOM has developed an optics fetish over the past few years.

**Yrkoon9** · Posted On: 11/01/2008 10:07am

Attach your camelback to the top rear with quick connects. Should provide some pull forward. I use a 9 mag pouch low on my wide not near my armpit. The new IOTV's that we have make front loading difficult without a custom rig. The **** I carry on front is my MBTR radio, multitool, and a small pouch of misc. My med pouch is on my back toward the side. No - I can't reach it very easily. Its for someone to use on me, not for me to use on someone else.

Balancing your weight for good distribution is an art and everyone's body is different. Some people prefer their magazines right on their chest. I ride in a stryker most of the time and cant get in and out of the hatch if I have too much diameter. My platoon sgt is fat so he has to have a quick-disconnect magazine + extras for his front when we dismount. Kinda funny.

My medic is a big dude and watching him get out of the stryker with his bag can be funny. He has to sling it around real quick and oftentimes his eyepro go flying or his ACH gets cocked on his head and he spins all the way around.