MAIN INDEX SALES INDEX BIKES AND ACCESSORIES GUNSMITHING TOOLS AND JIGS  SHOTGUNS AND ACCESSORIES RIFLES, MAGS PARTS, CASES, AND ACCESSORIES  HANDGUNS, PARTS, MAGS CASES, AND ACCESSORIES COMMO GEAR  NIGHT VISION, LASERS AND BINOCULARS SCOPES, SIGHTS, AND WEAPON LIGHTS TACTICAL NYLON, FIELD GEAR, HYDRATION BLADDERS BACKPACKS BUTTPACKS AND STRAPS  MEDIC KITS KNIVES, POCKET TOOLS AND MEDIEVAL WEAPONS VESTS AND LOAD BEARING GEAR BODY ARMOR AND HELMETS

Tac-Force Chest Rig

The much anticipated release of the Tac-Force chest rig has arrived.   This is a heavy duty professional quality versatile chest rig engineered to fit all common assault rifle magazines and the essentials for a day in the field.   Magazine capacity is normally eight mags of just about any type, but the user can stuff three M16 type mags in each of the rifle mag pouches and bring that up to 12 mags total.   That's plenty of firepower for even a particularly rough day in Iraq.   

All of the structural seams on this chest rig have multiple rows of stitching which surpasses US government specifications used on normal GI gear.   The shoulder straps on this chest rig feature two metal D-rings per side for attaching lanyards and quick release buckles on both ends of each shoulder strap.   The back strap also has quick release buckles on both ends so it is reversible.   

The fully reversible straps on these rigs with buckles on both ends also means it is not particularly difficult to adapt this chest rig as a tidy magazine storage organizer.   In addition, if one chest rig gets damaged or breaks a buckle or strap, it is easy to swap the straps from one to the next.   This is, in my opinion, a far better system than what is on most other chest rigs where the shoulder straps are sewn in place at the front and if any buckle or strap breaks, you are SOL.   I found that I can remove all of the external straps from one of these rigs and then put them in one of the two utility pockets and then put magazines and some other items related to a particular rifle in the chest rig and it is a easy package to inventory and toss in a duffel bag or deployment bag.   If it gets tossed in the trunk of a car or back of the Humvee, you run zero risk of having the straps tangle up on stuff and getting torn out when you are pulling your gear from the vehicle.   It also does not take a lot of imagination to figure out some ways to attach the rig's main panel to the inside wall of a vehicle or the back of a seat.  

The seat attachment option may seem obscure and trivial to a lot of people, but it makes a lot of sense in situations where you cannot justify wearing the gear for an extended period of time, it inhibits your ability move within the vehicle, and you want access to the mags while on the move.   Reports I have been getting from security operators in Iraq point to these kinds of situations.   Floor and seat space in a vehicle is usually at a premium and the guys want to keep spare loaded mags up where they can be reached easily from within the vehicle during a rolling ambush or gunfight without depleting the limited personal supply of loaded mags a guy is carrying and would depend on if he bailed out of the vehicle with his rifle.    This apparently came from lessons learned early on when guys simply got in cars and trucks geared up as they would when they were infantrymen deploying from helicopters and APCs.   What seems apparent now with the development of methods and tactics of fighting from light vehicles is that men do better with a more abbreviated personal load and keeping supplies of ammo and water and such within easy reach in the vehicle.    Note, the way I put this rig behind the passenger seat of the car for the photo worked well for being able to access mags from outside the vehicle, but other people might prefer to reverse the mounting so the pouch openings are to the inside and easier to reach by other passengers in the vehicle.  Realize if this is mounted with the pouches facing inward behind the driver seat, all of the other passengers in the vehicle have loaded mags within arms reach if the vehicle has bucket seats.  

This picture shows the padded panel on the back of the chest rig.  The padding adds a little bit of buoyancy for floatation, but in itself would only barely compensate for a full load of most types of loaded magazines and would probably sink on its own when full although it definitely floats when empty.   This helps hold the weight of the panel off the wearer's body so that air can circulate underneath and wick away sweat.  The neoprene will not hold large amounts of water the way other padding materials will.   The back strap adjusts out to fit even pretty huge guys with body armor on, but it is not entirely necessary to use the back strap at all since the rig is fairly stiff and the shoulder straps mount at the corners.   The back strap shown has buckles on both ends and is thus reversible and removable. 

Here you can see how the chest rig holds shape even when placed upright and empty on pavement.    The two utility pouches can be seen from the top.   In addition to those utility pouches, there is an access slot behind the magazine ouches for a large flat pocket between the main panel and the padded back panel.   Be careful with the temptation to overload the center pocket due to its large size.   Overloading it will distort the shape of the magazine pouches and make it difficult to get mags in and out of them.   The rig has no provision for attaching additional pouches and the belt loops on the bottom will only fit fairly narrow belts.  I don't recommend using them since the rig is plenty stable enough due to the foam back panel and sufficient straps.   The shoulder straps also extend out to some huge sizes so we do not think this rig will ever be running into the issues of fit that we get with some other Asian sourced field equipment when it is used by larger people.

The concept behind chest rigs is not to be able to carry a major load of all of the necessary items to survive for extended periods like you would have with a full LBE, but to be the rifle magazine carrying component of a modular "layered" loadout system.   You would normally use this rig with a backpack like the THE pack, Tac-Force combat pack or a more conventional large pack.   In either event, the shape and straps of the chest rig should not interfere much at all with a backpack the way normal web gear harnesses will.    Likewise, a properly adjusted chest rig rides along the abdomen above the belt line so that it will not interfere with items worn on or hanging below the trouser belt.    Water and survival items would be kept in a hydration pack or in the vehicle if you are running light.   If you are moving heavy on foot, then you would use a hydration bladder in your pack and replenish it from a large canteen.   

These chest rigs are currently available in three colors, OD Green as shown in these pictures, Black, and Desert Tan.   The Desert tan used by Tac-Force is a darker tan than that used by most other gear makers and is better described as a "coyote" tan but is not quite into the range of "Coyote brown".    We keep these in stock in every color for immediate shipment and of course have the same rates (included in the price) for APO/FPO orders.   Discounts available on orders of five or more units, ok to mix and match color.   Most shipping is by priority mail.