/gq/ - gear queer

I haven't seen any reviews on their stuff, is it The Good Shit or is it only good for larping?

Eagle MBAV but if you get one you'll probably regret not getting something nicer tbqh.

Where can I find a new MBAV? It looks like you can only get them from vets who stole them on ebay.

I'm open to alternatives. I just want something that's going to be comfortable and has a cummerbund.

just being on ebay doesn't mean they're stolen, they've been commercially available. afaik they're out of production now but entrygear still has a handful. the velocity systems scarab is nice, as is the crye jpc and the eagle MMAC

Honestly get better plates, it'll go a long way comfort wise. AR500 is garbage and should be replaced anyways.

Attached: 20190510_191449-1512x2016.jpg (1512x2016, 710K)

The JPCs look really slick but I'm concerned about comfort. Will the skeletonized cummerbund let full mag pouches dig into you? The SPC was so padded. I'm a little skeptical about these high-speed set ups out of a fear of too little cushion.

Yeah I know. I bought them before I joined the military. I also tested one of my ar500 side sapis and was not super impressed with the suppression of spalling.

>Will the skeletonized cummerbund let full mag pouches dig into you?
i've been leaving the sides mostly bare so hard to say

just get a crye avs or lbt 6094. those are gonna be the most similar without being complete shit

Looking for a decent LBV for AR mags. Any recommendations?

>Two completely different carriers
>Recommending a 6094
s mh.

I've always run 2 double mag pouches on my support side cummerbund. The SPC has that semi-rigid polymer insert in the cummerbund so it didn't cause any issues.
I also hated the issued belt, so I kept everything I needed on my flak. Pretty much all the real estate that was available was used.

It should be fine unless you're putting your mag pouches on the inside?

Another issue with the non-rigid cummerbunds is that you need to wear them snug or your pouches are going to be flopping.
I always ran the SPCs rigid cummerbunds loose so that it didn't constrict my breathing. I feel like the chest contriction will drive me crazy; especially if I end up taking it running.

youre the first person ive heard of not liking 6094. whats wrong with it? i only have a jpc and avs but the 6094 looks very similar to what we were issued in the marine corps

> I feel like the chest contriction will drive me crazy; especially if I end up taking it running.
I've never used the SPC, only the MBAV, but the JPC's shock cord setup expands way easier than the elastic in the MBAV. I have mine set so it's snug and doesn't beat me up when i have to go prone or stand up, and it is fine to breath in.

6094 sizing is all over the place, in my experience my plates fit like a hotdog down a hallway (yes it was a correctly sized carrier)

i agree. im using the the new stretch cummerbund from crye and ive used the jpc and i never had a problem with it being too tight

It's not that I don't like it, I liked it when I had one; It's that it's somewhat antiquated and absurdly overpriced for what it is. It MSRPs for around $400 when it should cost $200, there's no reason to buy one when the Mayflower APC, AWS OCPC, JPC, First Spear STT are all around $200 and offer a lot more design-wise.

fair enough. guys i worked with used it so thats the extent of my experience with it

So I guess I'll just get with the times since I can't get a direct analog to the SPC.
Which JPC should I get?

2.0 is fine and you can get the zip on panels if you want. if youre looking to load up the plate carrier id consider the avs. i used my jpc as an assaulter type load out and i felt like i had too much stuff on it.

im not the person you replied to but everything I've bought from fireforce ventures has been pretty garbage

>So I guess I'll just get with the times since I can't get a direct analog to the SPC.
Not exactly true, there are carriers with firmer cummerbunds and padding like the AVS. Also if you have soft armor pockets in your skeletal cummerbund that'll definitely increase the rigidity.

Like I said, I didn't like to use belts so everything went on the PC. 3 double mag pouches, 2 grenade pouches, knife, long horizontal pouch just for earpro / eyepro so it wasn't crushed, nvg pouch, flat-pack on the back.
>assaulter
What do you mean by this? Like more of a light-weight raid-type setup?

mags, plates + side plates, breaching tool, radio, water bladder. would have been much more comfortable with the avs setup i have now. the jpc imo is more suited to a slick setup like a few mags and a radio at the most.

I'm looking at the AVS but it doesn't have the semi-rigid polymer insert that the SPC did. With the cummerbund its really less about padding and more about protecting your sides from the pointy corner of a magazine pouch.
With the actual front and back portions I am still skeptical about the lack of padding. Is it comfy for you over long periods / running around? My only experience is with the SPC with was padded and had soft armor inserts front and back, and the banshee which has no padding whatsoever and it feels terrible just putting it on.

I see. I guess I'm leaning more towards the AVS at this point.

I won’t know before I wash it a few times to get out the roughness and take it out to the boonies a few times. So far it seems that the fabric is very strong but the stitching was sloppy. I’m having the pants cut up at some point and turned into crye g3 pattern pants at some point

The AVS has a harness frame that is semi rigid.

Attached: AVS_Harness_03.jpg (450x442, 21K)

should Grey Ghost be removed from. the pastebin? I saw their minimalist carrier on person today and it looks like condor gear. does it get a pass because it's made in America?

Padding is pretty overrated if you have well fitting light plates.

Thank ya, didn't see that.
What are the top-tier ceramics?

im using the harness with my avs and it solves the padding problem while giving me a spot to mount side plates and running my antenna re-locator

pic of side plate setup pls?

I'm looking at this vs the base config and I'm wondering how long this thing takes to don / doff.
Do you use just the harness as your cummerbund or do you use the skeletonized one on top of it?

Attached: avs_assault_config.jpg (270x300, 38K)

Not him, I use both. Honestly doesn't take much longer to don, maybe 0.5s per side. doff is just as fast as a normal plate carrier, faster if you use the shoulder buckle

>Top tier
Whoa there cowboy, honestly "top tier" is pretty subjective depending on the desired protection level, it also depends on if you're going to use soft armor.
Special threat standalone III+ plates or really light level IVs can go up to almost a grand a plate.

i dont have the side plates on now but its exactly like this from cryes website
im running the crye stretch cummerbund over the harness. it takes no longer than a normal ditch/don. the harness slides into a spot on the front platebag and then my cummerbund velcros like normal

Attached: side plate.png (413x271, 94K)

Looks like the AVS is what I'm going to end up with.
I guess I'm looking for level IVs and then some soft armor. I Know they can get pretty expensive - I saw the bill my buddy got from CIF after his flak was stolen.

So do you run this for work? How bad are the side plates? Side sapis in the SPC were cancer.

i did, im out now, but with the harness i didnt notice the side plates. the harness makes the entire plate carrier kinda float on you and its also rigid enough where the side plates, radio, and mags wont dig in your side. im sure the other user can vouch for it too.

Well if you have standalone level IVs you don't really need front and back soft armor. ICW level IVs are a much better bet if you intend to use soft armor, they're thinner and lighter while providing the same protection provided you have a soft armor backer.

since the side plates go between the harness and cummerbund it's pretty comfy, they're not digging into you unless you're a weird shape. with the cummerbund cinched down they don't flop around like they do mounted to the outside of a cummerbund , either

ofc when you're wearing this it does add some bulk vs just having them up against your body but i think the tradeoff is worth it unless you're a tunnel rat or something

I'm not well versed on the necessities of soft armor. I assumed we were issued soft armor front, back, sides to help with IED frag.
So soft armor will be extra padding, but might be a thicker overall package? What's a good standalone plate?

Sounds solid.

Thanks for the knowledge.

no problem. if you buy the avs and its components you wont really need any other plate carrier set ups. you can scale it up and down to most mission sets

So ICW means in-conjunction-with meaning the plate needs a backer to achieve the labeled rating, like SAPIs and ESAPIs are ICW thus require soft armor. If you intend to use soft armor you should go ICW and ESAPIs are pretty good for the money as long as they're in good condition; Crye, Arbor Arms, Velocity Systems sell soft armor.
Otherwise Hescos are a good brand for standalone.

Do you know of a good retailer to buy it from? Don't want to get raped on the price b/c I don't know the right website to go to.

directly from crye or optactical has their stuff in stock a lot. op tac will give you a live stock, crye will email you after you order if something is back ordered

Hescos are really cheap. What happened to that 1k per plate? Do you think it's better to run soft+plates or standalones?
What do you use for plates?

What’s a common Level IV plate weight, 7-9 pounds a plate? Also will 8 pound plates be to much weight for a slickster?

i use issued plates that my buddy may or may not have turned in and then passed on to me but im gonna get hesco IV plates soon

I mean, I can show you 1k per plate.
>store.atarmor.com/AT_Armor_Special_Threat_Optimized_STOP_BZ_IP_Plate_p/at-stop-bz.htm
>highcomarmor.com/product/guardian-4sss2/

Soft+ICW vs standalone depends on you, whether you care for extra frag coverage or not. Weight and thickness usually ends up being about the same if we're comparing two good setups. Standalone is usually cheaper though.

I'm guessing hescos are about the same weight as the standard military SAPIs? The price looks legit.
I see. I guess hescos are the way to go. I'd like soft armor since there's seemingly no detriments other than cost, but that's more research.

hesco has several weights for each armor rating. just pick how much youre willing to spend vs how heavy you want your plates. the lightest level 4 plates they have are close to $1000 each

Well, if you're getting the standard AVS plate bags you're not getting any extra coverage so there's no point in soft armor and on the MBAV plate bags the extra coverage is arguably very little.
Also no, ESAPI/SAPIs weigh less than most level IV Hesco plates because they're ICW. If you're going to get standalone Hescos I suggest you go for a multicurve model.

I see. Just looked it up. They seem to be significantly lighter across the board. Apparently large SAPIs are 13lbs a piece.

Nvm SAPIs weigh like 4.6 for larges.

Dude these things are like twice the weight for level IVs

? A medium standalone Hesco 4400 is 7.9lbs and an ESAPI is 5.50lbs without a backer, around 7.1 with a backer.

Ok nvm I'm stupid.

>What are the top-tier ceramics?
Give me a price point and a size.

Like $1k per plate and IDK about the size...I'm going with the Crye AVS. Don't know whether to do standard/MBAV/swimmers plate pouch.
I use a lot of real estate on my PC.

>Don't know whether to do standard/MBAV/swimmers plate pouch
the amount of useable space shouldn't change between standard and MBAV

They offer them as a seperate options on their website. I don't know what the difference is.

just the part that actually takes your armor. if you're using standalone plates i'd just get standard. the crye sizing is based off of SAPI sizes so you should make sure the plate you want comes in the right size for your body and your platebags

Sup boizzzz

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>1k per plate
L4 plates generally top out much lower than that. The Highcom 4S17M is a very good L4 at around $300 - but heavy. The real money is in the L3 plates - generally ICW a Kevlar backer. L3 does not have the overall stopping power of an L4, but they are rated for multi-hit and are generally lighter. These are standalone and fit your budget:
>highcomarmor.com/product/guardian-3s11m/
If you want heavy and heavy duty then go 4S17M:
>highcomarmor.com/product/guardian-4s17m/
There are no easy answers. Your fundamentals are overall stopping power, multi-hit capability, weight, and cost. You are always compromising somewhere.

Thanks. Thoughts on swimmer's cut?

Now I'm just wondering how common AP ammo is in Africa...

>Thoughts on swimmer's cut?
hard pass imo. i have never had any trouble with range of motion or mobility with correctly sized SAPI-shaped plates. (granted i shoulder the buttstock as described in pic related)

Most swimmers cut plates on the commercial market are also single-curve and not multi-curve like the military issued SAPIs/ESAPIs.

fuck i meant to attach this

Attached: DmTj0n2WsAM2_FZ2.jpg (491x490, 123K)

Gotcha.

Well, you can go L3/L4 ICW a Kevlar backer if that is a concern:
>highcomarmor.com/product/guardian-34i1/
They will be a little heavier than an L3 - probably lighter than an L4. They will have multihit capability, if that is a concern. If they do get tagged, the backers will probably survive so you do not lose all of the investment like you do with a standalone plate. Sometimes the backer gets wasted, though. You gave a reasonable budget so you have a lot of options. Most people are unrealistic.

I like the option to double up. Where can you find the weights on their website? I'm not seeing it.

Dunno. They just rebuilt the website. It used to be in "specifications" but now it's fucking gone. I'll keep looking. You could try looking for the same plate at Chase Tactical. I think they had weights.

Sucks that they're a pound heavier than ESAPIs

Update: Chase definitely has weights under "Size Chart".

Weight is always a concern. If it sucks hard enough then you compromise elsewhere. I have a second set of lightweight plates in case injuries/exhaustion preclude me from using my heavy plates.

Dude this sucks. Where can I get Level III/IV ICW plates like ESAPIs? Wiki says that medium ESAPis are 5.5lbs per plate.

If you have a government letter then Velocity Systems has some good options. What is your intended role?

No letter. It's for personal use. I'm just looking for the same protection / weight afforded by ESAPIs

For unrestricted/easy availability Highcom (for the midrange on up stuff) and Hesco (for the more budget stuff) are my bread and butter. I think you need to deal with a couple of extra pounds unless you jump a lot of hoops. LTC has some civilian available options but I have been away from that stuff for a while so I am fuzzy on them. You might give that a spin. Are you in a rush?

I didn't realize that our old ESAPIs were that good by civilian standards. I'm not in a rush.

Are Mystery Ranch bags worth?

Yes.

The old ESAPIs are ok. A lot of people shit on them but they are a decent option. Anything better than them in one category is likely compromising somewhere else. I will dance with this a bit and get back here Monday morning. I believe these people to carry all of the LTC stuff that is open to the public:
>lightweightarmorsolutions.com/index.php/2017/03/13/leading-technology-composites-provider-rifle-plates-socom/