there is often requirement for an immediate
turnaround- meaning there isn’t time to pull kit
on hence it stays in place unless you’re sleeping.
Bearing in mind the length of MilSim ops, and
the amount of time it may be necessary to keep
weighty load bearing kit on for, does it really
seem sensible to pile on endless additional
pouches and accessories to an already-bulky
base armour carrier? In case the rhetorical
nature of my question doesn’t quite transfer into
print, the answer is no. A very firm no.
Furthermore, when entering and leaving
vehicles at speed, bulky kit is a liability: at one
MilSim event I attended, an entire Call-sign were
delayed in hitting a building due to a player with
an overly-bulky armour carrier getting caught
on the vehicle he was trying to exit.In fairness, I’m one to talk.
Overloading kit is an easy error to make - one
I have done myself, ironically enough, when
building a ‘MilSim loadout’. Albeit when I was
considerably heavier and even less fit than
I now am; some long-time AI readers may
remember the US Pararescue kit I wrote a
feature on in one of my first articles for the
magazine, all the way back in Volume 12 Issue- As much as I loved that kit- indeed, the
final PJ loadout remains my second-favourite
loadout iteration in almost 5 years of playing.
However, I too succumbed to the rookie desire
to enter the mind set of:
“What if I need one more X? I don’t want
to get caught in the field short of ammo or
without enough grenades! What about when I
get hungry? Thirsty?”
And so, the list went on- and on, and on,
and on. Sooner rather than later, misguided
16-year-old Jacob ended up carrying 9 metal,
Systema mid-cap magazines, 2 utility pouches
full with pyro, 3 boil-in-the-bag ration packs,
endless snacks, 2 litres of water (albeit not
unreasonable in and of itself) on a bulky LBT
6094 plate carrier- not to mention my choice of
radio being the brick-like PRC-152!
That didn’t even include the belt kit... yet
another metal STANAG mid-cap, 3 spare pistol
mag pouches, a fully-packed Tactical Tailor
enhanced admin complete with notepad, pens,
markers, Leatherman multi-tool, folding knife,
hand sanitiser and god only knows what else
crammed in. All in all, I was carrying well over
12kg in kit, plus the weight of a decked-out rifle,
sidearm, both buddy and self-access grenades
and helmet with NVG. I dare say it’s imaginable
that wearing this kit setup to a MilSim op in the
middle of June, therefore, was little short of
painful - as the heatstroke indicated!
I quickly learned my lesson, however, and
the day after getting home from the Operation
I stripped back my kit to the bare minimum.
3 mags, one grenade and one smoke, 1 spare
pistol pouch. 1 litre of water and a couple of
protein balls thrown in a pocket- there’s no
point in carrying a great amount of fluid or
food when it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll
be back at base every 4 hours or so, and if
you’re trying to cook and eat hot meals out on
a tasking because you got peckish then you’re
doing it wrong.
Dang, I do feel better having that rant!
ON A DIFFERENT NOTE, THIS ARTICLE WILL BE
THE LAST PIECE I HAVE PUBLISHED IN AIRSOFT
INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE UNTIL VOLUME
14 ISSUE 5, TO BE RELEASED IN AUGUST THIS
YEAR. AFTER A HECTIC TIME WITH UNIVERSITY
EXAMS, OTHER WORK, AND STRESSES OUT-
OF MY CONTROL, I’M TAKING A COUPLE OF
MONTHS’ ‘SABBATICAL’ TO RECHARGE MY
BATTERIES AND THEN COME BACK WITH
A FRESH MIND AND EVEN MORE DRIVE TO
ADD QUALITY CONTENT TO THE PAGES OF AI
MAGAZINE. UNTIL THEN, JACOB OUT!FACEBOOK.COM/AIRSOFTINT 087JACOB SHOOTS THE BREEZE AND ADDRESSES LOAD BEARING
JACOB PICKS UP THE PEN FOR ANOTHER RANT
01949 728 628
[email protected]AMMODROP.CO.UK
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@AMMODROP086-087 JACOB.indd 87 29/05/2018 12:04