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I got one of these when i ordered my VFC AKS-74. It is amazing, and perfect for my needs.
I hate having heavy, bulky or unessessarily large vests. I get overheated easily, as my tactics involve being mobile. Since the back is open and the top portion folds down to make the rig more compact, it is perfect.
Since it is MOLLE, it is amazing what you can do with it. Seeing as i like to be light and compact, i bought three open-topped DOUBLE M4 mag pouches for it. I then proceeded to remove the elastic straps from the tops of the magazine pouches. (they are unnessessary, the way the pouch is built, you wont lose a magazine.)
I then put the pouches on. If you want to have your pouches really secure, you can weave your straps IN and OUT in and OUT over and over, and finally when you are done, your fingers are sore, and the vest feels stiff. I then just took my pouches (which in case you dont know have four vertical retention straps with a snap at the bottom) and laid them on the vest upside down and face down, i then took the four straps and one (vest) strap at a time, slid them down evenly, until all four snaps were poking out on the bottom i then hinged the pouch down and snapped them shut. If you take the time to re lace the strap through the back of the pouch, SURE they fit tighter to the vest, but they make the insertion and removal of AK mags difficult. Also i find it useful to have the pouches non-laced because i can stick maps, gloves or whatever behind the pouches, for a quick access area.
now the vest has some features that arent visible in the picture. At the top of the vest (visible in the pic) the little tab sticking off the top of the vest is attatched to the front half of the vest, while another one (behind it) is sewn on to the back. pull them apart, you have a very small storage area, good for folded maps, money, small pens or other small items that are flat and or light.
If you follow the top "foldable" panel down 3 MOLLE strips, you find the crease where you fold the top panel. At that crease, you find a much larger cargo area, good for holding compasses, speedloaders, pistol mags or larger maps.
for some reason, on the inside of the vest, there is a mesh cargo pocket, open on the sides, and held in place by elastic material. I just took a seam ripper, and cut mine off, the huge strap that is completely unessessary got in the way, added weight and chafed my stomach when i ran. so just cut it off if you dont like it. (you do it neat with a seam ripper and its very nice, if you literally cut it off with scissors, it will look sloppy.
now the only thing i didnt like about this was the lack of a good area to put a pistol holster. Since the VFC, its battery, mags and ammo drained my wallet, i wanted to use my old UTG tactical holster. I tried it on the back "belt" but it was too far away, and slid freely along the back and was annoying. so for awhile i went without a secondary. Much to my mistake. (playing milsim with 30rd mags and only carrying 6 mags goes pretty quick. and while i was speed loading my mags, i was lit up from the side.)
so i found where the back "belt" runs through the vest. No, it isnt just sewn on the edge of the vest, it runs along the stomach and provides support to the bottom of the vest. I took a razor and cut a slit above the belt (through the material of the vest) and one below. The holster now goes over the belt, but stays locked onto the vest right on my hip where it should be. (though it is kind of high but i dont care. it holds my M9 perfectly and that is a pretty heavy gun.) just be sure to use a match or two and melt the edges of the cuts you make ( if you make them ) so they dont rip larger or fray, then put a couple good stitches at the inside end of the cut so it dosent rip further. (the other edge should be stopped by the hem of the vest itself.
excellent vest overall. lots of customization potential, light, breathable, unique (everybody on my team just buys the UTG Crossdraw vest and it gets old....) it is low profile unless you dump a lot of crap on there, but if you are like me and only have a holster and a few mag pouches they are great.
(open top M4 pouches hold AK74 mags beautifully, they stick out the top enough so you can grab them and put them right into your gun. you can load like its Call of Duty 4.
(note, some mag pouches vary in sizes slightly. i have two double pouches that are fine and one double where the left pouch is slightly tighter, so i soaked it in warm water and put the magazine in a zip-loc bag) and put it in the pouch, and while wet, stretched the material to the mag which was protected from the water by the zip loc bag.
buy this vest, you wont be dissapointed.
Rating:  [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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