Spartacus: Thoughts on Load-Bearing Equipment, Part 2

Mike Vanderboegh stole some of my thunder [ and that’s OK :) ] with his commentary upon my LBE Part I article. He made the point that sometimes the rifleman only needs the bare essentials of rifle and ammunition, allowing the rifleman to strip down to just a simple gear for carrying spare magazines.

Gabe Suarez has an excellent set of rifle-fighting instructional DVDs in which he uses a Rifle Fighting Bag from SneakyBags. The Rifle Fighting Bag is simply a hip bag with internal pockets to hold magazines upright and an external pouch to dump expended magazines. In fact, it is basically an improved version of the AK-47 magazine-carrying bag. The concept is intended to shorten the time and the amount of muscle movements required to remove an empty magazine from the rifle, stow it, grab a fresh magazine, and insert it. To prevent the bag from flopping around, it has three straps that go across the opposite shoulder, around the waist, and around the thigh.

I’ve used it at the range to practice with, and will use it at upcoming rifle training sessions. The SneakyBag Rifle Fighting Bag is made of heavy nylon with adjustable straps. It is comfortable to wear (particularly with the wide pad on the shoulder strap). Plus, it has the added benefit of being somewhat nondescript when the top flap is closed and the bottom two straps are stowed.

As Suarez says, to the uninformed it looks like a "tactical diaper bag."

Think about what situations you may face in your area, and make provisions accordingly.

Remember:

1) Stealthy keeps you alive.

2) There's no such thing as "too much ammo."

'Til next time....