Micro Chest Rig - Universal, Designed & Prototyped by SATAS Co

 

Mt. Livingstone, K-Country, Alberta (Photo by V.A. McMillan)

Micro Chest Rig - Universal (Shotgun and AR)

A new Micro Chest Rig designed and prototyped by SATAS Co. This latest version tried to solve an issued discovered from the earlier Micro Shotgun Rig design; namely, eliminating the bowing in the pocket holding the spare shotshell cards. 

In case you missed the earlier Blog posts:

Micro Shotgun Chest Rig - Part One (https://mtnmanblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/micro-shotgun-rig-designed-and-proto.html)

Micro Shotgun Chest Rig - Part Two (https://mtnmanblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/micro-shotgun-rig-part-two-build-process.html)

Micro Chest Rig - GSG MP-40

(https://mtnmanblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/micro-rig-gsg-mp-40-design-and-pics.html)

 Before I get into explaining the fix, let's have a look at the new micro rig...

Micro Chest Rig - Universal (Bare)

This micro rig was designed to hold a set of shotshell cards on the Velcro type panels on the front of the magazine pouches. Further, the magazine pouches can also be used to hold a second set of shotshell cards. 

These magazine pouches were designed to be universal to hold either metal GI style mags or P-Mag type plastic magazines. Originally, I was going to employ elastic cord retainers to hold mags in place and the webbing tabs are there to do that. I found that the mag pouches were quite deep and magazines or shotshell cards would not likely fallout during an average range practice; however, a serious run & gun set of shooting drills would encourage the use of elastic retainers to be used to prevent lost mags.

The next noticeable feature is the front drop flap. The drop flap has a compact document pouch that is closed with Velcro-type closure tape. The back/inside of the drop flap has elastic to hold a TQ and a battle dressing or two. Although, the two 3/4" side-release buckles do a great job of holding the drop flap in place, the drop flap also suffers from bowing out in the centre. This will be resolved on the next prototype. 

Drop Flap Pouch - Open

Drop Flap - Dropped Showing Elastic for TQ & Battle Dressing

Micro Chest Rig - Universal (Full View with Drop Flap Down)

To the right, is the full view of the Micro Chest Rig - Universal with plastic mags and shotshell cards in place and the drop flap open fully. 

I used the Rhodesian style harness, again. It seems to work well, so, no need to fix that at this time. 

Below, is the fix for the first Shotgun Micro Chest Rig. I built a short 3/4" webbing strap to Velcro from the back to the front of the ammo pocket to limit/prevent the pocket from bowing or deforming when under load. It seems to work well, but it now interferes with removal of the shotshell cards. C'est la vie!

The last images are the plans I worked from, maybe others will try to create their own version. If you have followed the development of these prototypes, maybe you will solve some of the challenges I have found.

Until next time...if it doesn't work the way you like, make it better. 

Mountainman.

Shotgun Micro Chest Rig - Improvement to Prevent Bowing

The plans for the Micro Chest Rig - Universal