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Training Courses

Jig Stick

Gunny Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Aug 27, 2010
1,439
4
44
Pittsburgh PA
I will be attending my first of many training courses on Nov 9th. I will be taking some private lessons from the guys at ATG Worldwide based in Lisbon Ohio.

ATG Worldwide - Home

Since I am fairly competent with my bolt action rifles out to 1200yds, my first 4 classes will be focusing on carbine training. I was wondering if anybody can point in the direction of a quality chest rig or belt that would work well for carbine courses, and still be able to function for me when I partake in other courses as well. I was leaning hard towards a HSGI battle belt with some TACO mags, a dump pouch, and a KYDEX pistol holster….but I'm wondering if some sort of chest setup would be better? I have no experience in tactical matches or training what so ever.

My instructor is currently in DC doing some work down there, but is supposed to get me a list of gear that he is confident with. I would like to do some research on my own in the meantime.

Jigstick
 
Ive taken many carbine, rifle and advanced rifle training classes and own both chest and battle belt setups.

Hands down the HSGI Suregrip with their Corba Riggers belt, suspenders, Tacos, Dump pouch and Kydex holster is the best all around setup I have found. I also have a HSGI Blowout pouch with a tourniquet on my belt. Kydex holster was custom made by Dale Fricke Holsters. I have multiple Fricke holsters for all my guns, they are my favority and high quality. The color of that P226 holster on my battle belt wasn't what I though it was going to be but nothing a can of Krylon can't handle.

When going prone a chest rig is extremely uncomfortable and mags are very difficult to access.

Here's a picture of my setup

 
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I have gone the way of a "Battle Belt" option. I like it as it gets in the way less, and is very easy to adapt to various types of shooting. I went the way of an S.O.E 1.75" Kobra Belt as an internal to a TYR Brokos Belt. It is very modular, you can run your belt over sections if you choose for direct mounting of any gear you can think of, especially nice for my Kydex holster. This is where the SOE Belt comes in great, it is stiff and rigid and can take the weight of whatever gear you throw at it and wont contort/warp. I then went with a raven concealment kydex holster for my handgun, and went with taco AR mag pouches and taco pistol mag pouches stacked on one another so I have 3 AR mags and 3 pistol mags. I will admit that the tacos were a bit of a pain to get all setup, but they do hold very well. I then put on a tourniquet holder with a C.A.T. as every shooter should have at least one CAT for an emergency. Then installed my angel med pack to the rear. I personally don't run a dump/admin pouch... Personally I feel they encourage bad shooting/prioritization habits (now that is not a fact, that's just how I feel about them).

One of the many reasons I went with the TYR Brokos is the fact that being able to have access to the base belt was huge. Having the holster directly attached to the base created this rock solid close to body feel for my pistol. I setup an HSGI belt with the raven and I felt as if my pistol holster had a lot of movement so I sold the HSGI and went with the TYR. Another great thing about the TYR for an ops standpoint is the ability to use class 3A armor in it as well as the fact of it being able to be attached to a vest whether a tac vest or true armor. Now as far as comfort goes, I could and have worn this for over 8 hours straight and you barely notice the weight of your equipment in comparison to having to wear a vest putting it on a standard tac belt. I love the setup and every time I visit the range or wherever, the belt literally has me geared up to go without any prep besides adding my mags/gun.
 
Ok. I will take a look at the TYR belt too. I was concerned that my pistol would "swing" out and feel wobbly being attached by molle. So you bring up a good point. And pardon my lack of experience, but what is a C.A.T.?
 
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I perfer the belt option as well. I find it hard to get really low if I've got a chest rig on.

I run the VTAC Brokos with HSGI Tacos and a Sarariland ALS holster. I used to run suspenders until I found it to hinder me spinning the belt if I needed to get to something and I was shooting off hand.
 
The G-Code RTI holsters look really nice. Any experience using them on a belt? Do they sit tight on the belt?
 
Ok. I will take a look at the TYR belt too. I was concerned that my pistol would "swing" out and feel wobbly being attached by molle. So you bring up a good point. And pardon my lack of experience, but what is a C.A.T.?
CAT = combat application tourniquet. Its a Velcro tourniquet with a windlass to tension the tourniquet body. I think windlass is the word, it basically just twists to tighten once velcroed to the injured extremity.
 
I believe the Tyr Brokos belt has loops to attach to a plate carrier.

I saw a setup on a belt that I really like using a G-Code RTI holster. The holster is sitting below the bottom of the belt. I can't for the life of me see what adapter is being used to drop it down like that. My arms are kind of long, and keeping the holster up high on the belt is going to feel kind of awkward.
 
I also run a G-Code RTI holster on a VTAC Brokos belt. I like the setup.
 
Not having a dump pouch in .mil settings is understandable and completely different when you are civilian. Civilians don't have supply and support bringing mags to them from the rear which is why I have always been taught in all training classes I've taken that mag retention is key. If you buy the right dump pouch and position it properly it is very quick and easy to drop mags in their while reloading, without looking and you don't notice its on your belt. To small an opening and you will fight getting the mags in the pouch, to big and they will fall out when your running. I've used the Maxpedition Folding Rollypoly for many classes. You don't need it then keep it in its folded position as shown on my battle belt above. You need it pull the Velcro tab, unroll it and Velcro and its got the perfect size opening to easily drop in mags but keep them from falling out when running and diving to prone.

If a dump pouch causes bad shooting/prioritization habits for you then you haven't trained enough with your gear/setup to make using one second nature.
 
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