Plate Carrier, Chest Rig or Tactical Vest: Which One?

You can play airsoft with magazines in your trouser pockets. That rarely lasts longer than one game day, because pockets are slow, rattle and spill. Load-carrying kit fixes that: it holds your magazines, BBs and radio in the same place every time.

There are three families. A plate carrier wraps your torso, a chest rig hangs a row of pouches on your chest, and a tactical vest or army-style belt kit, known as webbing, comes with its pouches already in place. None of this is a legal matter: unlike a replica, as players call an airsoft gun, load-carrying gear is free to buy and own.

A plate carrier was designed to hold armour plates. In airsoft the plates are foam or plastic dummies that give the carrier its shape, and that is all they need to do. Around them sit two panels, shoulder straps and a cummerbund, the wide band around your sides, most of it covered in MOLLE webbing: rows of straps that pouches attach to.

That gives you the whole torso to work with: magazines on the front, a radio on the side, water on the back. It also spreads the weight well. The price is heat, bulk and the temptation to fill every free row.

A chest rig is a row of pouches on a harness. Your back and sides stay open, so it weighs little, breathes well and goes on over a jacket or under a rucksack in seconds. For a skirmish, an ordinary game day, with three or four magazines it carries everything you need.

The limits are just as clear: less room, nothing on your back, and a rig that is worn loose bounces when you run. Some rigs are simply a placard, a clip-on front panel, on a harness, which you can later move to a plate carrier.

The classic tactical vest is a mesh waistcoat with the pouches sewn on, often with a holster and a belt included. You zip it up and you are ready, which makes it a popular first airsoft vest. You cannot move the pouches, though, and they may not fit the magazines of your replica.

Britain has its own alternative: army surplus. It is tough, it costs little and it gives you a loadout, the whole outfit you play in, that looks like the real thing, because it is.

MOLLE is the system that makes kit modular. The carrier has rows of webbing, the pouch has straps, and you weave the two together. As a rule a MOLLE pouch fits any carrier, rig or belt with MOLLE, whatever the brand.

A placard takes that one step further. It is a complete front panel that clips on with two buckles and a strip of hook-and-loop, so you go from rifle magazines to submachine gun magazines in a minute.

Plate carriers are sized by the plate, not by your shirt size. The cummerbund and the shoulder straps do the rest. A chest rig is usually one size and adjusts with its straps.

One rule covers every setup: carry what you use in a game, and nothing just because the space is there. Magazines go on the front, where both hands find them. Keep the shoulder you shoot from clear, and put anything bulky on your side or back.

A battle belt, a padded belt that carries kit, takes weight off your chest. A holster, pistol magazines and a dump pouch sit better on your hips than on a carrier, and they stay with you when the carrier comes off at lunch.

British budget brands such as Viper and Kombat UK cover the entry level, and makers such as Warrior Assault Systems sit at the top. On a tight budget, spend on fit and on pouches that hold your own magazines before anything else. From our webshop a vest ships to the UK for €19.95, with import VAT and duties charged on delivery, and you have 60 days to return it unused.

Load-carrying kit is also one of the safer things to buy second-hand, because there is little to break. Look for used plate carriers and chest rigs, check the stitching at the shoulder straps and the hook-and-loop on the cummerbund, and ask whether the dummy plates and pouches are included. With premium brands, ask for a photo of the label: copies exist.