Chest Rig Recommendations

Personally my preference for a decent chest rig would be the Hayley strategic DC3RM along with the drop down pouch, I run that along side a shooters belt and am able to run 5-6 m4 mags comfortably along with a few other necessities, sometimes I’ll also run a flat pack if I need to carry a hydro pouch and extra ammo, but obvs all depends on budget as it can be a rather pricy setup ?
I do like the look of the Hayley rig. Wish I could justify the price for the amount of use it's going to get as I'm not able to play as much as I used to few years ago. Might look into it further if the Arktis turns out to be not so great.

I run a 1 Tigris Placard system, very small chest rig, 3 m4 mags on my chest, a viper dangler on the bottom of it holding another and then 1 in the gun. I run that when running my normal battle rifle setup, same again but with a belt and pistol if I'm on the DMR and the same chest rig again if using my hpa pistol.

Really nice build quality and not overly priced.
That's a good shout too.

Thank you all for the great suggestions. Really appreciate it!

3 hours ago, Barny said:

Have you seen these? 

Looks a bit tight to me when he puts the M4 magazines in. Reminds me of the PC when I had to stuff two magazines into one pouch and sometimes struggled to get them back in or even out. Hopefully the Arktis proves me otherwise. 
yeah. some of the rigs can be overpriced and in the end not worth the money you pay. That's why I mostly turn towards stuff that is used by the military. Not for the wannabe soldier looks, but for the durability. And some surplus can be bought at very good prices and last you ages. Might not be the most comfortable and lightweight kit, but certainly can last and stand the wear and tear.

 
Knock offs are never worth the money, that Krydex rig is just another chinesium copy of a spiritus rig with some branding.

 
Knock offs are never worth the money, that Krydex rig is just another chinesium copy of a spiritus rig with some branding.


That really does depend wholly on your budget and how much of it you want to sink into one item. All the legit gear that's out there is designed with professionals in mind. Some of it is made for range days (Helikon TMR for example) but most of it isn't. None of that gear is designed purely for airsoft with the exception of WTF gear as that started out as Paintball kit.

If your actual survival depends on the performance of your gear then absolutely, buy good kit. Buy the branded stuff. If your gear just needs to survive a Sunday skirmish once a month then sure, buy it if you want to but if you have other priorities in life like family, mortgage, eating, then Chinese gear is absolutely fine.

 
Totally agree it’s budget dependant. I like to “buy once cry once” but that said it doesn’t mean real has to be expensive.

A pat.83 chest rig is the same price if not cheaper than that Krydex rig and it will stand up to so much more abuse, it’s one less thing to worry about breaking in our game of toy guns.

 
A pat.83 chest rig is the same price if not cheaper than that Krydex rig and it will stand up to so much more abuse, it’s one less thing to worry about breaking in our game of toy guns.


I take it you're talking about a second hand pat. 83 chest rig? Although even then you're still looking at upwards of £50 for a genuine one.

 
I run a 1 Tigris Placard system, very small chest rig, 3 m4 mags on my chest, a viper dangler on the bottom of it holding another and then 1 in the gun. I run that when running my normal battle rifle setup, same again but with a belt and pistol if I'm on the DMR and the same chest rig again if using my hpa pistol.

Really nice build quality and not overly priced.
Have you got a link to the 1 tigris?

 
This thread gave me the kick I needed to get an SADF M83 chest rig. Probably one of the best purchases I have made!

Can take M4 or AK74 mags easily, side pockets fit my timed and impact BFGs and the skinny pen pocket takes the reloading tool. Throw a tin of primers in the tiny pocket and I am set!

Even with 6 (!) TM M4 gas mags and 2 BFGs it is comfortable with no hot-spots on the straps. My Viper Spiritus clone is ok with 3 mags in but add any more and after a while it starts to kill my shoulders. I will be keeping that for CQB and short games; for woodland / OPFOR / and long games the M83 will be the go-to ?

I will be adding some Velcro OneWrap to the strap ends to tidy them up and might add an elastic section to the waist strap (along with cordura “concertina” cover) to allow for pie intake ??

View attachment 78310

 
The only thing I found with these rigs is that the M4 magazines tend to sit quite low down in the pouch, which can make getting them out in a hurry difficult unless you’ve got ranger loops or Magpul’s on them. 

 
That will tend to happen in anything that can take both AK and AR/556 mags since AK mags are so much bigger.  Having your mags sit nice and deep with lots of protection and retention is good in a military context, but if you have something loop-lined (spiritus/haley) you can use inserts that have a bottom like the MP2s or ESSTAC KYWIs and set your own depth.  Or, in both an older chest rig or modern micro rigs when using the elastic inserts with no base just put some foam in the bottom of the rig.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yeah I know about the magazine size difference, in the past I’ve stuffed bits of cardboard into the bottom of the pouches to make M4 ones sit higher. 
 

Good shout on the better retention though. 

 
I am using Magpulls on my M4 mags but also plan to try stuffing a chunk of pipe lagging in the bottom to raise them up a bit (also allows me to place empty mags “feed lips up” so I don’t grab them by mistake!)

 
I run a Tactical Tailor Mini Mav that I've had for a while. I think they've changed shape and buckle types over time though - the new version is a bit squarer. It will take a triple M4 pouch an 2 pistol mags, to give an idea of size.

Works well for me in conjunction with a belt rig. I have a couple of HSGI tacos on the belt rig and then feed them from extra mags in the chest rig. The advantage to this of course is that you can use different chest rigs for different loadouts and the tacos will work with any of them. I've set up the harness on the belt rig with buckles so you can just swap them out (kind of like Mayflower did on their PC's).

 
Back
Top