That's pretty sweet, not gonna lie. Too bad I'm not allowed to play with grenades.

They're basically just big firecrackers, right?  What guy doesn't like a big firecracker?  

I've got a half dozen sets of belt kit I'm going to have done here soon.  Among them are a set in ATACS ix and a set in Rhodesian Brushstroke.  I'm planning on sewing the ammo pouches on these two sets on permanently, since pouches are going to be hard to find in those camos, so might as well sew them on.  But if anyone wants them with molle on the pouches and belt for the ammo pouches, let me know in the next few days before I finish them.  Both will have a buttpack and 2 x nalgene water bottle pouches.  The other sets of beltkit will have the ammo pouches set up with molle.

I'll be putting them up for sale in the EE here soonish when I get them finished.

Are there any belt kits where the pouches can slide to the front so you can sit down in a vehicle? It is not an original idea, I just don't have experience if it has been tried and just does not work.

Nothing that I can think of, most of the ones on here are hard sewn together, not sleeved over a belt. You could do this, but it would be pretty miserable to move around in, the tall hippo pads are what makes these kits so comfortable and stable.

A few folks use a shorter, padded molle sleeve over a 2” belt with suspenders, but that wouldn’t be any better for this purpose, since the suspenders are connected to the sleeve.

Think someone earlier mentioned that a lot of guys wearing heavy belt kits would slip out of the yoke and spin the belt around to their front to ride in vehicles.

I have been reading a few different forums about belt kit and couldn't remember if "slip out of the yoke and spin the belt around" was mentioned here or some where else.

Could you have the thinner belt that the pouches slid on be on the outside and have a wider padded belt on the inside?

I don't have a lot of kit to try this out myself.
Maybe it is not doable or someone would already be making it.

I think on my kit instructions it mentioned, “put my thang down, flip it and reverse it.” I did not know what that meant. Maybe related.

People have tried this kind of thing before.  The problem becomes that the pouches become unstable and loose, which makes them flop around when you move.  That flopping around is one of the reason people hated early belt kit.  When I was running ALICE gear as a kid, if I had to run even 100 yards while wearing a set of ALICE gear, those mag pouches would flop around and I'd end up with bruises on my thighs that looked like someone was punching me in the thigh.

Unless you can come up with some kind of locking system on every pouch that locks and unlocks easily so that you can spin the pouches around, this won't work.

OK I think he is referring to the guy I was talking to about wearing Brit belt kit for twenty-something years.  When he said spinning it around, he meant the whole belt kit, as in wearing it backwards for vehicle ops.  You would slip out of the shoulder harness, loosen the belt and just spin the whole damn thing around so the clean front is now the clean back.  Or for longer jaunts, he said you could just empty the back pouches, and press them flat.

So in trying to solve a small inconveniences it leads to a big problem.
I have some thoughts on how to slide the pouches forward but still be ridged when slid to the back.
I will need to do some prototyping and sewing to see if my idea works.

Yea man.  Do it.  Seriously.  I'm a big supporter of people doing stuff like that.

Hmmm.  Cool.  Post up.

While fiddling with the dz rig i had the brilliant idea of combining the belt part with a FMCO vest for shotgun shells. It would have been my jungle point man/drone warfare/Watch me getting kicked out from the range rig.
It was and hilarious twist to the serious idea of trying for the review if different harnesses fit the belt part.
Sadly they don't line up particularly well

Pic of vest?

I've been throwing around the idea of adding a single 2 mag AR mag pouch, horizontally, above the normal 3x2 AR mag pouches on a set of web gear. That or a tanker style holster on the left side, mags on the right, with the same idea.  Attached to the belt.

I really want the M203 vest material above the waist, like a survival vest, with mag pouches. That way I can add mags to an LBE rig easily.

You mean the actual nylon material?  Made into a stripped down vest, kinda similar to the general shape of the base vest of the M203 vest, and with stripped down mag pouches on it, so you can up-gun your magazine loadout if you wanted to?  

The British have something kinda like that.  Two examples below.  Though those are a bit more than you'd want.

https://www.kitmonster.co.uk/product_info.php/products_id/53

https://www.kitmonster.co.uk/product_info.php/products_id/1978

Why not just use a chest rig for that though?  The LRRP and SOG units during Vietnam did that, using Chicom chest rigs.

Or why not get one of those cheap FLC vests and rig up what you want on it?

If you really wanted one, it wouldn't be hard to make one.  Heck, you could buy one of those M203 grenade vests, carefully pop the seams on the 40mm pouches, and then sew on whatever pouches you wanted.  There are a bunch of Eagle brand surplus mag pouches that are brand new and actually well made on the surplus market dummy cheap.  Those would be easy enough to sew on - I've made chest rigs using those pouches, cut off the molle off the back and sew right onto a blank chest rig base.  Worked out fine.  You could do the same with one of those grenade vests.

Or throw some placard clips on the shoulder straps.

My idea would require an equal number of pouches. Half would slide on each side. The pouches would need to slide at least 6". My paper models seem promising, but I won't know how much sag or bounce there will be until it is fully made and fully loaded.
I will post some pics once I figure out how to.
How far forward can the magazine pouches be before they get in the way of kneeling?
Photos I have seen seem to have the one magazine pouch in front of the center of the hip bone and one behind the center.

That's about right.  The issue isn't so much kneeling as it hits the front of your thigh when you go to step, picking your foot up.  It causes issues long term.  The kneeling / going prone is just an added bonus.

What are typical pouch sizes, for 1L Canteen, Nalgene bottle, and 3 mag? For the 3 mag, what is typical AR vs AK pouch size.
Would fully loaded mags be the heaviest items to fill a pouch with?
I am thinking of stress testing my design with all the pouches full of mags.
It would be the worst case scenario for sag on the pouches.
Sorry, if there is a better forum to ask this question.

3 x AR or 2 x AK magazines are generally the go-to for belt kit magazine pouches.  Generally you will have 4 of those (2 sets of 2 on each side) (or 1 set on one side, and a 'commander' pouch on the other - which is basically a SAW ammo belt pouch in size.  Generally.)

Then you have 'utility' pouches.  These are the British style ones.  Generally you will want to use these for 1 liter water bottles (nalgene) or canteens.  Two of those behind the ammo pouches, one on each side.  They are usually pretty oversized than you would need for a water bottle.

Then in the middle / back, you have 1 or 2 x Utility pouches (usually the same size as the water bottle pouches)  OR a USGI style buttpack.  These are directly in the back of the belt.

It's hard to tell you how big they are.  It's a bit more complicated than that.  Generally though, for British style belt kits, they tend to be about 8" tall.  Ammo pouches being smaller.  Some belts are narrower, and a few taller.

Also realize that alot of people wearing belt kit will depend on the ability to rest a backpack directly on top of the rear 'shelf' of pouches.  Using the pouches to support the weight of the backpack.  This will put ALOT of weight on the rear pouches.  (the rear pouches include the water bottle pouches)

Sorry I haven't been posting as many pictures of my sewing, been doing a bunch of stuff recently.  Here is a picture of a stack of magazine pouch lids I just finished up.  They will be going on or with the sets of belt kit I'm working on finishing up.  I just finished them a couple minutes ago.

@marnsdorff
I've actually been looking for 2 3 mag pouches for one of my belts.

Do you have a website?

Does anyone have a good recommendation for a pouch to use for IFAK that’s 2 or 3 molle rows wide? I don’t like the way my current ammo pouch fits an IFAK pullout. It’s too deep and not wide enough, and the rain collar is really tall. I’d like something a little wider that’s easier to access and will hold a full blowout kit better.

You could always try a USGI IFAK pouch(SAW 100 round pouch) or a Molle canteen pouch. They are three columns wide.

I do not have a website.  It's actually on my list to do, and probably the next sale I make, I'll be using that money to put up a page.  

I can hook you up with pouches.  Do you want 2 x individual pouches, each holding 3 x magazines?  Or a double pouch, two pouches connected, each holding 3 x magazines?  I usually do the 2x3 setup, but I can do individual pouches.  

Mine will hold 3 x 30 round Pmags, or 2 x AK magazines.  They are optimized for AR mags but work fine for AK mags.  Similar in layout to the ones Diz uses on his Diz rig, but slightly different construction and design, and I use fastex buckles.  2 columns of MOLLE per pouch.  They also have webbing on the sides of the pouches and a bungie cinch system.

I don't have good photos of my ammo pouches, I've been planning on taking detailed photos of the ones in this current batch I'm making right now.  The few production ones i've done have gone out to buddies of mine, but I took pictures of my early prototypes to show you the basic pouch design.  Be aware that these are early prototypes, the stitching is messy and there have been a few subtle design changes done since then.

This first one was done on my old machine.  The stitching is quite messy, I was working with and tweaking the pouch design and fitment with magazines on this one.  This is the first of the prototypes I did an actual Cordura (I do most of my design work with cheap canvas).  This one doesn't have the side webbing panel.  But the basic pouch design is there.  I made a couple changes with buckle placement and the shape of the lip of the body of the pouch since then.




This next pouch is the next prototype I did after the one above.  This pouch is currently on my personal belt kit.  Again, the sewing is messy, and I tried using webbing instead of binding tape for the bungie cinches, but this is the basic pouch I do now.  




This is the inside of the pouch, with 3 pmags in it.  You can see that I have this one double lined with 330d cordura multicam fabric.  I have switched to lining the inside with 3" wide webbing like Diz does for my standard production (unless I'm using 500d cordura, then I always double it up), but I can do it either way, or with both, or just single layer.  Just depend on what you want.




This last picture is one of the production mag pouch lids from this batch I'm working on.  You can see how I've cleaned up the stitching.  The prototypes I just did lines of stitching for the buckles for instance.  The production ones I'm taking the time to do proper reinforced X stitching.  They are just more refined.  




They hold their form well.  They are well built, I don't skimp on stitching.  If you want old-school, complete lid box mag pouches, these are what you want.  

If you get back to me quickly, I'll throw your mag pouches into this production run and save you some money.  I have Multicam (well, OCP), Woodland, ATACS ix, and a couple solid colors in stock, 1000d Cordura.  I also have Mutlicam Tropic, Rhodesian Brushstroke, and 499 Tan in 500d.  I can do it in whatever you want, as long as I can get the fabric.  

I'll be posting some detailed pictures of these when I get these all done.  As well as using them for my site when I get it up and running.

Let me know if you have any questions or whatever.

I'd try one of the IFAK pouches.  They are cheap right now .

I'll take 2 of the 3 mag pouches in woodland. Not connected.

Make sure your address is on the package I'll give you a ton of woodland marpat Cordura that I got from a mill in rhode Island. It doesn't have egas on it but it's waterproof.

I'll pm you for payment

Roger that.  I'll add them to the run tonight.  Give me a few days, they'll be done.  Probably shipped out next week.  Send me a message for payment and your address.

And yea man, I'll send you my address.  If you send me fabric, you'll get the hookups.  I'll make you something cool out of some of it.

While investigating Sarco site, I came across some Reproduction (and possibly Original) items that might be of interest to gear-makers, as well as users.

Certainly, niche items, but some of them are so inexpensive as to seem useable for models for other items.

Mag pouches and bandoliers seen HERE German and Japanese cloth items might be of interest.  

In addition, some packs, including a Brit and Rhodesian packs are seen HERE

While few modern Civvy rifles have a stripper clip guide, many older Military rifles have such, and the users of them are legion in their numbers.  Folks wanting a "Harness" or Bandolier for the stripper clips of their Mil rifles might be customers if product is offered in modern materials.

For that matter, some modern bolt-action rifles will accept 10-rd mags (or greater).  Folks using such rifles may be able to use adapted platforms from the past.

I have a Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle bolt-action rifle.  I got lucky in finding some "decent" 10-rd mag pouches from Tactical Tailor, on-sale long ago.  (*see below) I believe that a "few" GSR rifle users might be interested in finding an inexpensive way to carry multiple 10-rd Ruger mags for this platform, as well as similar mag-fed platforms from other rifle Mfrs; perhaps along the lines of the German neck-caried bandolier.

Perhaps users of similar mag-fed rifles might be interested.  Again, a niche item.  

Submitted in the hopes that "gear-makers" will take a close look at what was done in the past and learn from it.  Items are cheap enough to use as patterns, IMHO.

*Tac Tailor pouches came with plastic snaps; possibly why they were on extreme discount.  Replaced plastic snaps with Mil-spec blackened brass snaps, along with an added "pull-tab" to the lid of the pouch. All worked perfectly thereafter.

Disclaimer: NO financial interest.

I have a completely illogical affinity for that grenade vest.

I think grenade vests might be making a comeback.  

Look at the grenade bandoliers I posted awhile back.

UM, making vests/pouches/bandoliers for rifle mags might be a "wiser" use of time/materials.

I'm just thinking about the trench warfare / urban combat that has been dominant recently

Concur with above comments.  None of us know how Drones will impact future Warfare, nor how to counteract such drones. During WWII, vast additions to ship-borne AA fires were added to any and all ships to combat Jap suicide planes.

Modern Drones are much like WW II Jap suicide planes, except modern drones are far more versatile than ancient Jap aircraft.

Jap suicide aircraft had a huge impact on US Navy tactics.  I'm not so sure US had figured-out Jap suicide planes before the end of the war, aside from mounting multiple AA guns everywhere possible.

If Invasion of Jap Home Islands came about, I reckon that all the stored (camouflaged) Jap aircraft would have been launched against US invasion fleet, and plenty of targets for the Jap aircraft.

An historic "Bloodbath" for certain.

Submit discussing Drone warfare in a separate thread, especially "modern" drone warfare.

Yea that's probably another good side topic.

Radar directed fighters intercepting the drones before they ever got to the battlefield did more than AA guns did.  There are already talks of bringing back a prop-driven light fighter plane in order to intercept drones.  I will LMFAO if we bring back the P-51.  (especially the badass turbo-prop modded versions they did for air racing)

Also, I think light SPAA gun units - think those old quad .50 gun setups - but radar and thermal targeting systems added to them - will start to become popular.  Accompanying any unit of any size.

Don’t know your exact needs, but my buddy is a big proponent of running the SO tech recce vest with his belt kit. You forego any ruck with it, and if you’re truly in a jungle it would suck. But I see some merit.

https://sotechtactical.com/products/recce



@thatguy01 you take on any commissions? I’d like my velocity harness just like this but 8 point. I can send you a bunch of RG webbing with the rig. DM me a price if you’re interested.

Don’t know your exact needs, but my buddy is a big proponent of running the SO tech recce vest with his belt kit. You forego any ruck with it, and if you’re truly in a jungle it would suck. But I see some merit.

https://sotechtactical.com/products/recce


IMO this vest is a gold option, light, packs small, easy to carry a little extra gear and ditch or pack away when empty. It does not solve all problems, but to carry more for a little extra time/distance it fits the bill.

So are we there again?

That's a pretty easy mod, you could do it at home on a domestic machine if you wanted.  You're not having to deal with tons of webbing or thick layers of cordura.

If he doesn't want to do it for you, let me know and I can do it.  

What's old is new, and there is very little truly new.

I did see on the IG today a UKR Yak-52 (prop trainer) intercepting a RUS drone, with the passenger engaging with a machine gun.

Yea, the prop planes might be making a comeback.

Check this one out.  Turbo-prop P-51's are tactical gear too right?  I mean, this one was originally designed to do gun runs in the jungles of Vietnam, so it's KINDA on topic?  

https://www.flightjournal.com/usaf-almost-brought-back-p-51-mustang/

Water-cooled Prop planes were FAR more vulnerable to AA fire than air-cooled Radial-engine aircraft such as the US Thunderbolt. No comparison, IMHO.  

IDK if aircraft with properly shielded turboprops might be an interim answer to drones.  Perhaps another reason to keep the A-10, if configured to be an anti-drone aircraft?  I suspect the drone problem will be addressed on multiple levels.  Detection, Identification, and then Neutralization.  "Neutralization" means preventing drone from striking a valuable target, not necessarily destroying it. Long-range drones may not have the capability of returning home to be re-used.

Detecting, Identifying, and then Neutralizing Drone controllers will likely be key.  Drone launchers and especially Drone controllers highly mobile, but quite vulnerable if stationary.  Drones independently controlled by "other means", including satellite guidance and/or terrain maps will require different means to defeat.

Nearest thing in recent memory is US Vs. Japan Kamikaze aircraft attack.  This unexpected onslaught played Hell with US Navy and caused a lot of casualties as well as immediately adding LOTS of AA guns to existing vessels.  Missiles followed for stand-off aircraft which launched guided missiles, like the German WW II guided missiles:HERE    

First two stages of electronically-guided drones are understood, and either jamming or attacks on guidance points are possible.  "Mid-flight" Neutralization probably electronically based, but exact freqs controlling drones always changing.  Requires extreme adaptability on part of defender, as well as attacker.

Close-in, final defense is likely to be with as-yet to-be-determined kinetic defenses.  Old Mossberg extremely long-barreled "Goose Gun" shotguns might see a rise in popularity in some quarters.  Mil will likely take years to find decent kinetic terminal defenses.  For sure Mil will need to re-think thickness of "top-armor" on most armored vehicles, possibly adding other devices to protect the vehicle and crew.

Regret very brief discussion of these devices.  I'm sure others have other comments to add.

Again, likely a subject for a separate thread.

Corsair > Thunderbolt.  But yea.

And half of that stuff will be obsolete once they start to mass-employ drones with automated AI targeting systems - no commo needed that can be jammed, etc.  Load up 50 of them in a civilian looking semi truck, quick launch the whole batch at once, scoot off to hide somewhere before a counter-strike arrives.  

But yea, convo for another thread.

A little preview of the Rhodesian camo belt kit that's in this batch I'm trying to get finished up.  Personal stuff keeps delaying me getting them done.  But yea.  It's going to look great when it's done.

Lookin' good!

Yea, I'm not going to complain.  Going to tweak the mag pouch pattern a touch after this run, just a couple small changes to lower production time.  Doesn't even change the finished product really.  

I'm hoping to end up with enough saved up in the business after this run to buy a 2nd Juki to use as a permanent binding tape machine.

Now that former back issues are (seem) to be in the past, I'll be experimenting with "Brit kit" bought long ago.  Will eventually branch out with various packs which might be suitable for the "belt-carried" platform.

Also had a dream last night about mixing and matching some "furrin'" items with existing ALICE rigs, specifically the padded Brit waist belts which appear to be "sold-out" from Sportsmans guide.

IDK, but some of my best ideas come to me in dreams; sometimes failures, but often enough successes.