Check out Dr bronners soap. I don’t think I spelled that right. It is a toothpaste, hand wash, body wash, shampoo, and laundry detergent, dish soap all in one.
Happy to see you evolve your setup over time. I am an Army grunt that has watched your videos for some time now and appreciate the explanation for why you have changed what you did. I have had a very similar experience, realizing that the two piece belt system seems like a great idea when you are watching cool guys assault buildings but becomes less than ideal when it comes down to the basic infantry task of walking 30 miles in the woods through the night. You mentioned that the two piece belt system seems incompatible with the packs we are using and that you wear it when going out on mission. When or if you are patrolling do you wear it or leave it in your pack? I am currently running the Pale Horse Concepts two piece belt system which I cannot say enough good things about and am curious about how you run the belt. I love the system I have as I have used both 1 and 2 piece systems and find it to be the best of both worlds. I set up the belt to carry equipment that I will not need if I am reacting to contact but will need if assaulting an objecting deliberately. Thus, the belt is put on in the ORP before assaulting the objective when my ruck is dropped. When it is not worn it goes in the top flap of my ruck sack for easy access. Any critique of this method? I am open to feedback and would love to hear how other branches and individuals skin their respective cat. Apologies if the either of my questions were answered and I didn't notice. Keep up the good work, your videos have inspired me to reassess my setups and double down on field craft!
Hey ik this video was like 10 months ago and you probably won't see this comment but do you think i could get a t shirt and get a field unform and cut the sleeves off like all the way up to my shoulder and like sew it on like that frog uniform basically im asking do you think that will work better since ill be cool but my arms will still be durable since my chest will be having a vest on it
@@TheGruntPerspective alright yeah I'll probably just do that then like I'm only a 16 year old so I have no military advice so it's awesome to ask someone who was in the military but thanks I just wanted to make sure I wasn't gonna mess up a uniform and it doesn't work 😅
Are aftermarket carriers acceptable now for line companies? In 2013 I went on a short deployment with a company out of Horno (Pendleton) and I got goofed on the first week until I outshot them all and they found out I’ve been to Afghanistan which maybe 3 in the company had been.
I'm glad someone is in favor of the full cut helmet. There is a reason why the design has stuck around so long, it covers a very important part of your head. Also, if you are fortunate enough to get an ECH, they can stop some lead core rifle rounds. An Army soldier got shot point blank with a PKM directly into the back of his ECH and was fine outside of a concussion.
SOF carries plenty of shit and has to haul it. Breaching, meds, AT, and batteries mostly. SOCOM should continue to issue it, and guys can pick up an MBAV or whatever lighter option they want for DA or vehicle ops.
@@TheGruntPerspective having the AVS is a Godsend for mortars and weapons teams especially. But imo every infantryman should get one instead of whatever BS they've been coming up with.
Check out the condor terrachete. Pretty much the go to for a budget machete. The overland machete is probably the ultimate in the smaller machete size, but you pay a lot more for not much more performance
Once your socks are dry and you are folding them up, fold a half a dryer sheet into it. Learned in wrestling and boxing that dryer sheets are the W for gloves, shoes, wraps anything that gets sweaty more often than clean. Idk if they will have an identifiable scent in the field, so maybe only use half a sheet in a pair of socks. All my boots have half a sheet in them when theyre sitting in the shoe rack, draws the moisture out and kills the stink
I don't have to carry a lot of weight in my job, but I have the defense mechanisms mepc with agilite warfighter cummerbund, and shaw concepts elastic front placard and shaw shoulder pads. The cummerbund and shoulder pads help give it structure and the placard connects to the cummerbund keeping it tight. It's very comfortable and I've hiked with it. I have an at-home one with more gear and I'm curious about the cost vs comfort compared to an avs.
Does anybody have any good recommendations for admin pouches? I’m the guy who sticks everything in mag pouches or my ruck and I think it’s time to improve my life.
What would your colder weather load out look like? Just curious what Marines are doing now. I was in 2/8 2006-2010. Don’t worry about what these Fudds are saying you are putting out some pretty good content.
@@TheGruntPerspective I guess lowest getting down to 20. I’m not sure think I ever saw temps colder than that while I was in Lejuene, Iraq, or Afghanistan.
@@TheGruntPerspective I never needed anything more than the green and black bag and bivy. Which I think was WAY more than I needed but it was always on the packing list. Sounds like they are way more lenient on what they let y’all bring? I think that’s great I remember packing for the field and having a crazy amount of stuff.
Blackhawk used to make padded inner belts for the Alice kit. Some dudes would just cut up the old iso mat and make their own pad. Also use zip ties instead of gater clips cuz they rub you raw.
@@KitCheck101 it works great with body armor. But the belt on the pack is designed to be worn around you body’s belt line. So if I wearing a belt with this pack I have to strap it to the top when marching
@@TheGruntPerspective thank you mate, been looking into getting one of these tailored recently, love the idea of a smaller pack for longer tabs. ive never really worked with external frames before what is the added benefit is it more comfortable or more stable etc?
@@KitCheck101 external frames are generally better designed to be worn with armor on. Such as the standard issue FILBE frame, Alice, malice, and other frames. They are also much more durable and rigid. As far as the blanket, it’s just a section of a fish net with jute tied on it
Great video man! I'm a medic in the Canadian army and work with a light infantry battalion. I always try and preach to my guys to bring their own boo boo kit for minor cuts/scrapes and bring some common over the counter drugs. There's no way I can carry enough meds or boo boo items for every dude in a platoon and quite frankly I shouldn't have to. Up here we use the foxtrot litter which is a much better litter then the soft one you showcased but if that's all you got then that's all you got. Pro tip with the litter, put an issued laundry bag inside the litter to act as a casualty effects bag. All the clothing and equipment you're taking off the dude can go in the bag and will make it 1000x easier to carry. Great stuff as always.
Love the use of the pelican for the NODs. I have often thought that lightweight but rigid or semi rigid polymer pouches to protect the gear inside is the next evolution of kit.
It amazes me how far the load bearing equipment has become. I was in the military in the 70's to late 80's. I was first issued the cotton "H" harness and matching web belt, mag pouches, butt pack with 2 metal canteens, a K-bar or M-16 bayonet and small pouches for first aid and compass. Also a poncho "L" shaped angle flashlight and steel helmet to top it all off.
I’m just a civilian but I definitely suggest a sidearm. If your main goes down and you’re by yourself you’d definitely want it to help break contact. Or to pop till you bring your main back up. Also I always have to Jerry rig high dollar kit to make it work properly. 🤷🏻♂️
I use a Helicontex fannybag as a IFAK, it goes along me all the time, When im running only platecarrier ( Mounted ) i just smack my war belt on top when i dismount. ( Danish Army ISR Platoon sergeant)
When my man sat there and relayed that he has this flashlight for administration purposes, and to help Lance Corporal Schmukitelli Find something he failed to dummy chord you could hear the pain in his voice.
Love your content. I think military leaders need to put into the mindset of their joes that we're not all doing direct action raids like we're SF, and you're great at emphasizing that. I really do wish the military was better about making equipment suites for different mission sets, because just the infantry itself can be used in so many different ways.
Great video. For a couple of years now I've been packing the Tasty Bite curry and Seeds of Change rice mix pouches as my "main meal of the day". Rice pouch is 8.5oz (240g) and has 400 cal. The curry pouch is 10oz (285g) and has 280 cal. So combined you've got 18.5oz and 680 cal. Combined total 16g of fat, 108g carbs, 16g fiber, 9g sugar, and 19g protein. Pretty salty for my normal taste, with 1510mg combined sodium. But not too much weight, and the flavors are pretty good, if you like Indian foods / curries. I've got Madras Lentils flavor with quinoa & brown/red rice mix. The pouches are pretty handy - you can eat them cold, heat them up with hand warmers, spare MRE heaters, boil the bags (hasn't killed me yet), or you can just eat them cold. For lunch and trail stops I'm doing granola bars, jerky, trail mix, and a couple of tuna pouches with a mustard packet squirted in there, just for some different flavors etc.
Hi, pro tip from piss poor civi back from Poland. To make my belt stick like this t-rex belt I just used thin silicone mat for pizza making and cut it in to straps and pass them through molle webbing around belt. For my fanny pack 1in belt/strap I cut innertube from bike tire. Thx for vid!
Is there any way to use this belt with suspenders (the outer especially since I have a thick kydex belt I already like)? I am using a surplus usmc belt with suspenders because I want to have more sustainment and ammo that it's about 14lbs. But that's too much to not use suspenders with.
Hey I had a few questions in terms of kit set up. I just got back from ITX and noticed that having some sort of extra admin pouch like a tactical fanny pack would be nice, but I don't have the room to run it on my belt, are there any tactical fanny packs small enough that you know of that would work well while wearing a plate carrier and/or belt? I also remember you teaching us the emergency survival gear you usually carry in said pouch, but would you still recommend carrying that in said pouch? My unit SOP dictates that we also have to run our IFAKs somewhere on the left side of our kit, and on my belt I typically have a mag pouch and my dump pouch on the left side of my belt so I feel like I am forced to run my IFAK on my cummerbund, which I agree doesn't always feel the most comfortable while rucking. Do you think something like a BFG Micro Medkit Now would work well at the 6 o'clock position on the belt to split my IFAK supplies between these two would help? Lastly, my unit still has us running the Gen 2 plate carriers, and I have found that with my Haley D3CRX Heavy Chest Rig sticks out too much on the sides of the front plate bag, which gets in the way of my tube cummerbunds, do you have any possible solutions to alleviate this issue, or know of any placards that I could run that would allow me to carry 4 mags on my front plate bag without causing this issue? Thanks very much, cheers from 1-24!
1) a good Fanny pack would be the SACK pouch I’m using here. But there are a lot on the market that are good, just depends how large you want it to be. 2) as far as the ifak, if I were you I’d remove the dump pouch and get that ifak on your belt. That’s a really stupid SOP, considering most people have their magazines on the left side of their body. I haven’t used a dump pouch for years. I primarily re-index, but if I ever need to I shove mags in my cargo pocket. 3) my favorite 4 mag placard is the Shaw concepts arc v3. It can run 3 or 4 mags, and has tubes directly attached to it that you could connect your cumberbund too
Point about US gear not being ideal for belt kit is sad but really true. Crossfire’s DZ Rig integrates with their rucks. Have to take the waist belt off the ruck to utilize the DZ Rig as the waist belt. It sorta addresses the issue directly unlock other belt systems. I’ll also say issued kit is really bulky in the wrong places. That said, this belt seems more utilitarian than the others. Not a lot of bells and whistles but enough to do what it needs to do.
Some cool ideas here, have you had any issues running with all that weight on your hips? I've had to strip my belt wayy back due to back pain from too much on the hips.
A relatively large dangler or fanny pack could be a way to carry 31s practically without needing a belt - but large danglers and fanny packs can be annoying. Hard to say there's a right answer for carrying 31s.
I cant get behind the bayonet lol. I know youre required to have it, but blakewater's solution just makes way more sense. I like the idea of NODs on the body -- simultaneously im confident thats an even faster way to get them broken and i dont have any confidence in the padding.
@@TheGruntPerspective enter a 3+ foot fall off a wall or into a trench, and you & your 40+ pounds of gear fall on your nod box Or who knows, explosive shrapnel gets it. Idk I'd very much want NVGS on my body. At the same time depending on what you're doing or how static things are, lugging them around might not make sense. But I imagine for SHTF they'd be invaluable to lug around. If 50 of your guys all have NODs then maybe it can go in the pack.
You’re never going to be able to account for shrapnel destroying shit. If it happens it happens. Doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try to keep them from getting from broken just because shrapnel COULD hit them.
This style of belt is one of my personal favs. The belts with an inner and outer layer are dope, I'm not disputing that. But if you have ever worn one for more than 24 hours while carrying a pack (even with the back of the belt slick) you'll know that it can become nightmarishly uncomfortable. This style of belt alleviates so much of that. On deployment I rocked a HSGI belt (same concept as the T. Rex) and it never gave me any issues. Both styles of belt have their place but if you want something you can don and doff quickly that can be comfortable for extended periods of time, this style of belt is dope. But seriously, try stuff out and get creative. There is no one size fits all answer.
Does the higher ups ever get displeased when you or others show up with personal equipment such as these things ? When I mean “higher up”. I mean the non-combat levels. The political levels. I would think those individuals would want to see more “issued” items tax dollars go to. I’m all about personalized items.
I was wondering the same thing. Back in my day the amount of aneurisms that Staff NCO's and officers could have..."OMFG Devil Dog!!! Blah, blah f*ckin' blah!!!...Uniformity Teufel. Fix your shit."
Currently running a hybrid system like u mentioned: Defense Mech Belt with their inner padded belt. I go back and forth on using a Velcro inner belt but the pad is pretty comfy and the belt itself is very stiff. Debating on if I wanna add some lo pro suspenders to them if I want to load it down and wear it for a long time.
In what context? In a minuteman larper context? If so a pistol is pretty worthless. For the weight of a pistol and three mags...That's probably 3 rifle mags more you can carry. The Extra Special Delta Ninja Super Seals carry them. But they aren't humping that sh*t all over the place.
That's the cost of buying American. When taking a look at something like the Spiritus Systems JSTA pouch ($75 in 07/2024) vs chinese knock off on amazon ($25). The difference is its made in America with American meterials like Cordura fabric. So you get a known quality of material that is low IR signature. This will meet government Berry Amendment regs. You also get a company with longstanding operation to stand behind the product IF something ever goes bad. When you have to pay 400 times as much for labor and 2-10 times as much for materials it's going to hit the price tag hard. Looking at that pouch and it looks like 11 or so different pieces that need to be cut and sewn together. Time is money. If you can't afford to keep American textile and manufacturing working; I can understand that. It's not cheap today. But, in the future, when global supply chain gets messed up and you are scrambling to get some foreign made items like meds and masks (cough cough c 19) you may appreciate the investment in Americans.
@@MJFacas Congrats . You've been successfully conditioned into thinking this has anything to do with buying ( what you think ) is "American." This thought process is underdeveloped. Conflating "American made " with high quality is 100% the product of marketing. These kinds of statements are easier to take seriously when our entire military doesn't depend on Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Taiwanese technology. " Investing in Americans " lmao 'Tactical' companies can mark stuff up as long as they know they can virtue signal patriotism. That and the fact that American manufacturing is immature. There is no justification for these pouches being 50+. This is no different than marking up green washed environmental initiatives.
Thoughts on suspenders for your belt? I've heard from all types of people that it helps especially with heavier belts (two piece and war style belt) in terms of hot spots and shifting. Thinking about trying it myself, but it seems to me it would work best on a war type belt like yours.
I’ve done it before. I think they are best used with padded belts. I rigged one up on a Velcro belt with some shock cord and it was okay, but not great
@@TheGruntPerspective I'm a reservist pog so take what I say with a grain of salt but I have suspenders that I use with mine. They have an elastic materiel in them so it cushions the impact of the belt moving down on you while you run. The ones I have are similar to CRYE Apex Belt Suspenders and I love them. They still help pull the belt upwards and keep it in place but also cushion the downward movement of the belt as you move making them comfortable. I wear them under my IOTV or plate carrier (if I'm allowed to wear it) and I absolutely love them. They've been with me through NTC and unless I find a deficiency with them I think there worth looking into. I also appreciate you mentioning the canteen for CBRN exercises, lots of people seem to forget how scary that is and I have to remind people to keep that in mind when making their kits. I love what you do man, I've learned a lot and adapted some of your belt setups for my own usage. Not necessarily 1 to 1 because of the difference in job but it helps. Keep it up!
