Battle Belt vs. Plate Carrier Type Gear

[kaotiskt]

I like the belt setup for skirmishes. You are faster, lighter and won't die to over heating on those warm days.

I run both for milsim games. PC holds 6+1 and belt holds 1 (thinking of making it 2 soon) plus 1 pistol mag pouch.

Seems to work for me, and often I don't even get to use all 8 (or 9 with the one in the gun) before having a chance to reload at base.

Play around with it, start small. Work from there.

[Kremator]

You got pockets, those are good enough.

if you run out of pockets your pants fly can be opened to store one more in a quickdraw format.

[Tom Ross]

I wore a battle belt on myself and it is very heavy in itself. My back even started to hurt. And then I put an Inguinal hernia support belt under him. And it turned out much easier. The belt helped me with loads on my back.

[HarleyF]

Originally Posted by Tom Ross

I wore a battle belt on myself and it is very heavy in itself. My back even started to hurt. And then I put an Inguinal hernia support belt under him. And it turned out much easier. The belt helped me with loads on my back.

I can attest to this, I wore a battle belt setup for only a year and had to switch to a PC and belt setup, it was just too hard on my lower back and hips. Because you're carrying all your gear in on small area of your body it takes a toll.
Distributing the weight across my body helped immensely

[06jorkee]

Start with a good, stiff belt and build from there; but if you're going to carry a ton of stuff, then invest in good 2nd line gear to help distribute the load properly.

I'm a big fan of velcro inner/outer setups myself, and both of my Pekan Wiski (1st and 2nd gen) have treated me very well and held up to a lot of use with no signs of wear yet. If you're more partial to the battle belt style setup, then I'd steer you toward an HSGI suregrip belt, as I've had great luck with those too.

As far as a carrier goes, the sky is the limit; it all depends on how much crap you plan on hanging off it, and what your budget is.

When I first started out shooting, I ran a Ferro Concepts slickster with Spiritus chassis that served me very well. After getting more into/more invested in shooting, I upgraded to a Crye AVS.

One thing I will say if you're going to use a carrier/chest rig for airsoft; unless you're going to run plates in them, stay away from the Esstac KYWI rifle mag pouches; they're so tight that without some weight to hold it down, your entire carrier will lift up when you try to pull a mag

YMMV for airsoft, but for reference, my setup for real steel shooting is:

1st line- Pekan Wiski Belt
-2x Esstac KYWI pistol mag pouches (the best, IMO)
-1x Esstac KYWI tall M4 rifle mag w/shotgun loops
-1x HSGI Taco pistol mag pouch
-1x HSGI Taco pistol mag pouch (old style w/ flap)
-Safarliand 6354DO on a mid drop QLS fork

2nd Line- Crye AVS
-1x Crye front molle panel
-1x Esstac KYWI Triple M4 mag
-2x HSGI single pistol taco
-1x BFG small admin pouch
-1x Ferro concepts dangler
-1x HSGI m4/pistol taco
-1x Tyr flashbang pouch
-1x Crye MBITR pouch
-1x Ferro FCPC back panel
-1x Persec TQ holder