Warbelts

Over the last 12-18 months I have branched out into the worlds of Vietnam airsoft and M14 ownership, I have also expanded the amount of gear I own in an attempt to support these two new areas as well as updating some existing gear.

Whilst building these belts, I've been faced with some interesting dilemmas:

1. How do I carry everything I need to carry?
2. How do I carry everything I need to carry without overloading the belt with unnecessary crap?
3. How do I make the belt versatile enough to support more than one weapons platform?

All of these belts were required to carry the following:

• Magazine pouches for at least eight rifle magazines.
• Magazine pouches for at least two pistol magazines.
• Space for at least one 1-litre water bottle or canteen.
• Space for at least 1000 spare rounds (0.2g BBs).
• A handgun holster.

More or less all of the above criteria has been met in the three belt kits I am presenting here. The Vietnam-era belt kit will carry eight 30-round M4 magazines (four in each pouch), but only four M14 magazines (two in each pouch) which requires me to carry the rest of the magazines in a Claymore bag or pockets or some such. Adding a third magazine pouch will probably require e to move the pistol magazine pouch to the webbing strap or something, but that is a problem for
another day. MOLLE, in the case of the modern M4 belt, allows you to stack pouches, as in the case of the triple pistol magazine pouch on top of the double M4 shingle, which makes better use of belt real-estate and the stacked warrior utility pouches allows space for a canteen, ammo or SAW pouch and batteries and presents much less of a problem when faced with the requirements that I placed on the equipment, in fact the only real change to this belt compared to when I originally posted it here is the larger Warrior utility pouch to allow the belt to carry a 1-litre canteen if required.

This belt doesn't conform to the magazine requirements as it will always be worn with a chest rig (currently either the Tactical Tailor two-piece MAV or the 5.11 mini chest rig).

The belt that I had most trouble with was the M14 rig. As this is designed as a stand alone rig, unlike the M4 belt, and will not be worn with an accompanying chest rig or plate carrier and as a result has to carry four large magazine pouches which take up most of the belt. The belt is currently supported by a USGI load bearing vest, but I'm not keen on this and the additional pouches serve very little use when carrying an M14. Ideally, I would like a MOLLE version of this load bearing vest, but there is no real MOLLE analogue. The FLC comes close but features a built in belt and is not available in OD. If I can find a cheap coyote FLC I may give it a try, until then, this will suffice. Once I have equipped the M56 belt with a more appropriate harness, the LC2 suspenders will find there way back onto this belt. The pistol magazine pouch will also get swapped out at some point for one in OD.

The one thing I'm really not happy with on this belt is the SAW pouch. Can't quite put my finger on it, but it's not quite right. I think a large Tactical Tailor utility pouch may replace it in the near future.

With all that in mind, I bring you the 2011 Autumn warbelt range.

The M1956-based Warbelt

Still a work in progress, this belt consists of mostly M1956 webbing (pistol and rifle ammo pouches, belt & compass pouch) and also features a pair of later M1967 water bottle pouches and a 1963 dated leather 1911 holster.

Unfortunately, this is currently all held up with LC2 suspenders until I can get hold of a pair of long M1956 or '67 suspenders but will do for now. Other stuff I'd like to put on this includes a third rifle magazine pouch and a jungle first aid kit (if I can find the space) and maybe a couple of period carabiners.

This is intended for use with my M14 and also the Stoner, although this renders the magazine pouches redundent as they are too small for a Stoner ammo box. Plans are also brewing for either a G&P CAR-15 or XM-177, not decided yet.






The M14 Warbelt

Another work in progress. This is waiting on another pair of Tactical Tailor M14 pouches to replace the cheap and nasty Pantac quad magazine pouch. I would also like to change the Flyye SAW pouch but this comes in useful for the spare box mag when carrying the Stoner.






The Contemporary M4 Shooter Warbelt

Not much else to say about this fella. It's been used a few times in this configuration and I'm pretty much 100% satisfied with it.