Plate Carriers offer a ton of setup options. Wondering which one is the ideal? Here’s a quick guide for you!
Choosing a Plate Carrier Setup is an intricate question and is dependent on many factors. What type of game will you be playing, your own personal playstyle and gun system, and finally, the environment you play in.
To make this easier, we will divide this blog into two sections, your “Sunday Game” setup and the Milsim setup, which have the most contrast between them. But before that, here are a few main guidelines for setting up your gear correctly.
5 GENERAL TIPS
- Keep your magazines accessible to your non-dominant hand as it will be necessary for reloads but remember to distribute weight across your carrier.
- The plate carrier is meant to run, climb, and be prone with. Secure your pouches tightly with the MOLLE system, tighten the retention systems and make sure to keep its profile as minimalistic as possible
- Have an organized setup. You might be able to easily manipulate your pouches while in the safe zone, but in the middle of the action, your mind will work on automatic mode, and it will need to know what is situated where. Make sure everything is in an intuitive location.
- Depending on if you wear a battle belt or not will change how much you will need to burden your plate carrier. It is recommended to have a belt on which you can carry more necessities and distribute the weight.
- Make sure you wear the Plate Carrier itself properly. We made a Guide for that as well:
How to Setup your Airsoft Plate Carrier?
Sunday Game Setup
By “Sunday game”, we mean the casual and typical type of quick airsoft game where a round usually lasts less than two hours on a local field that most of us play on our weekends.
The key here is to carry the minimum required to stay lightweight, practical, and comfortable. You don’t need to take too much with you in most cases since you always have access to the safe zone. 2-3 extra primary mags will often be enough unless you intend to deliver intensive suppressive fire. A grenade pouch or secondary mags to the side of your cummerbund, and you’re ready to go.
Carrying unnecessary stuff will only serve to slow you down and make your kit less intuitive.
Sometimes, less is more. Here is our recommended setup for Sunday games, running a rifle such as the SSR4:
Air Plate Carrier
2x AR Pouch
Milsim Setup/A Long Game
Milsim is another step away from your usual weekend game. You will spend hours on the field walking without access to resupply and will have to rely on what you have packed with you.
When packing extra, the plate carrier alone might not always cut it. A battle belt like the Battlebelt Gen3 can help you distribute your way better. This includes your typical MILSIM need to manage communication, ammo, and primary needs all at the same time.
Once you have your front mags sorted, like with the Open AR pouches below, you can optionally add low-profile pouches below your dominant arm so as to carry more ammo and not hinder your gun manipulation.
Here we have an example setup of the plate carrier itself. Remember the general tip here, it’s always a good idea to keep a low profile!
For your communication needs, keep your radio easily accessible to your weak hand; you need to be quick to change the volume and channels. Your PTT should be in a natural position. The cable should not be flying around but tightly bound to the plate carrier through the MOLLE or straps to not hinder your movements.
Extra pouches
An IFAK (Individual First Aid Kit) is important to take with you. You might not take an actual bullet in a MILSIM game, but the odds of getting injuries because of hazards are pretty high. Have it somewhere that is easily accessible not to you but to your teammate, as he is the one that will treat you. Keep your IFAK organized; what to put in it will be for another blog post!
A Hydration pack is a must-have if you’re going to be outside for so long. Dehydration is your first enemy so make sure to drink water often. Having your water bladder on the back with a hose will keep you from having to carry around bottles. You can also add some snack bars to the pack to give you that extra boost.
Finally, you can consider having a universal pouch on the back. You won’t have any easy access to it, but your teammate will. Inside, you can have some consumables like CO2 cartridges or a maintenance kit in case your replica breaks down on you in the middle of the forest.
