Hey guys - hoping to benefit from the experience of this sub forum and here to learn.

Despite shooting for over a decade (including 2 gun and pistol competitions), earlier this year I got my first piece of tactical gear - a Haley micro.  

It's loaded with 3 AR mags, 1 g17 mag, some FAK items, and a Surefire.  This is over 8 lbs.  If you add a loaded rifle + pistol it's about another 10 pounds.

I have done plenty of extended HIIT workouts with 20lb weight vests, I can run a mile with a 40 lb slamball in 7 minutes.  I'm in shape but even 20 lbs of weight is noticeable and takes hit on your speed / endurance / heart rate, etc.  Elevated heart rate really degraded shooting also.

I've been considering getting plates but the weight seems like a big deal. Maybe I am over thinking it.

I'd be adding at least another 15+ lbs and be sacrificing a lot of foot speed / mobility.  I also assume you don't want to get caught in the open armor or not ... but use cover, and when shooting from cover my chest isn't exposed (head is).

So, is my logic off here?  
- Are plates always the answer?  
- Is mobility important or am I mistaken?
- What's your perspective on why you chose your gear?

FWIW - live in a semi-rural area 30 min from center city. I got the micro just in case things ever get dicey out here I have something I can quickly throw on even if I don't have a belt on.

Armor has its uses, but not recommended for all situations. As you have discovered, extra weight causes us to fatigue more quickly. So armor plates are better for short duration/limited mobility situations. Defending your home or operating from a vehicle or standing guard are some situations where armor isn't a bad idea. If you were needing to hike long distances or situations where you are moving a lot on foot, then armor may not be the best choice. I have two setups - one based off of a chest rig and another based off of a plate carrier to cover either category. In either case, I place a high priority on keeping the weight down. I'm not as young or strong as I used to be and my days of wearing 60+ lbs of gear are long over. Even if I were younger, I would prioritize light weight and mobility over other considerations. Mobility is a form of protection not to be underestimated. You can build a plate carrier with level IV plates front and back and even on the sides and loaded down 300 rounds of ammunition, but if it takes you longer to move from cover to cover then none of that is going to matter.

I'm actually looking to trim down my loadout even more to save more weight.

There is my take on it, YMMV.

This, 100%. I have both PC & chest rig, mission requirements dictate gear/loadout.

Tomac

I'm in a rural area, I chose mobility over armor.

I live in a populated city. I finally chose armor. If I have to duck out of my apartment to get to my bug out place, I doubt I would get out without a couple shots taken.

Plus esstac stuff is the shiz.

Everyone thinks eye protection is an unnecessary inconvenience until a piece of metal flies off the drill towards their face.

And everyone thinks body armor is an unnecessary inconvenience until they start getting shot at. Then you're suddenly glad you put up with it.

I can see chest rigs being more sensible when you're planning on hiking long distances. But if you don't anticipate doing that, I think it's smart to cover your vitals.

If you really don't want to wear rifle plates, at the very least you can get Level IIIA inserts to put into a plate carrier and still be almost as light as a chest rig. IIIA actually still covers quite a lot of stuff, handguns, PCC's, buckshot, knives, explosion shrapnel, pretty much everything except rifle rounds.

Wife and I have plate carriers and simple gear vests. Both are close but at our ages (67&62) we are by FAR more focused on staying put in a SHTF situation we're staying put.

On that note I wish everyone that's thinking "I'll bug out" would consider their routes sans bridges. It sucks.

Everyone knows weight is bad. What a lot of guys fail to recognize is that flexibility and the ability to work out of civilian vehicles is important as well. Being able to shoulder a rifle. keeping plates at the right ride height, being able to sit in a vehicle without destroying your lower back all are things folks need to consider.

Personally I want kit I can roll with someone in if it comes to that so flexibility is important. Is it so important that I’d go without plates? No, but it drive my pouch placement.

I also want to be able to breath hard without constriction. Some guys don’t appreciate that until they start to do athletic shit in their kit.

Gear up for the situation and don’t create a situation by gearing up. In other words the situation dictates your gear. As I’ve always told people, gear attracts attention and attention can attract bullets. Everyone loves multicam and Tacticool gear but it does attract attention.

One example might be, if you’re someone up to mischief and you see someone bug out of a location. One is in full gear, helmet, plate carrier, rifle, and bags. The other comes out in plain clothes, some random outdoor brand of pack, and a normal colored everyday brand of bag or two. Who is going to draw more attention? What someone may not know is the person in plain clothes has full kit concealed that no one can see.

The stuff you carry and the way you carry it shows allot. You can gleem a fair bit about someone by looking at all their bumper stickers and how they drive. If they don’t have any bumper stickers and drive very well then you can’t determine a ton about that person... vs someone that drives a certain way with bumper stickers all over.

Don’t drive your gear to give attention and don’t let your gear be bumper stickers to your foe.

All the tactical stuff can have a place and can certainly be in bags ready but that stuff is more for when you’re fighting along side similar dressed people in an active fight where the intentions are obvious.  

The other issue is ability with gear. If you can’t even hump yourself somewhere then your gear is not going to do you any favors. Train to gear up for the worst but only gear up to the extent to meet the situation. Don’t be bullet magnets by attracting unwanted attention.

You can get 3.5lb level iii armor fairly cheap from soooo many distributors. There’s very little reasons to not have armor on. I’d say if you plan on shooting at people it’s a good idea to anticipate getting shot at so you should have some kind of armor and an ifak 9/10

The weight is worth it. It doesn’t need to be 9lb level iv plates but you should probably have something

I don't understand your comment about adding "at least 15 lbs".

My III+ SAPIs weigh 4.0lbs each and can stop all likely threats including 6 rounds of green tip

Don't think you're overthinking it.

Mobility is super important. After trying to make nearly 9 pound level IVs work, I went looking for a better option. Not just lighter weight and thinner, but scalable. Plates aren't always the answer, neither is an overt outer vest. So what I ended up going with was the Velocity LPAC, has soft armor and can fit plates but is relatively slick and lower profile than most plate carriers. It can also attach a chest rig or placard for use as an outer vest. It's not the best at any of these roles, but it does all of them at least acceptably and cuts down on bulk and expense.

Soft armor coverage has gone out of favor recently among no-shit professionals for a few reasons, but I'm not sure those reasons carry over to us regular dudes. Covering a small amount of your torso with just a hard plate makes a lot of sense when you're highly trained and motivated, have the initiative most of the time and thus will be squared up to your threats and be more likely to take the rounds where the plate covers, having 7.62x39 as your primary threat, working in a team, and have medical and CASEVAC readily available. Don't know what your situation is like, but none of those assumptions work for me. Realistically, what are we talking about here? Isolated civil unrest which could be prolonged and an elevated "noise floor" of the semi-organized criminality we see every day. If you want to plan to fight a near peer conflict or a COIN quagmire in the forest (on either side of the asymmetry), go nuts. I ain't doing that, I'm trying to have options open to keep my family alive. My big concerns are having to leave the city I work in at 1900 if BLM tries to how do you do it again, or getting a Jennings shoved in my ribs in the Walmart parking lot.

I have two sets of plates to go in my soft carriers, both of which are basically expensive European versions of very expensive American plates. After dealing with those level IVs I went the opposite direction and decided to optimize on weight while conceding a lot of threats, so I got a set of UHMWPE level III plates that can't stop M855 out of 16" barrels or any AP rounds. A lot of people don't see a reason to have plates that can't stop M855. These plates are about 2.1 pounds per, and with my soft armor inside the carrier it comes to right around 9.5 pounds slick for the whole thing. That isn't so light and thin as to let me forget I'm wearing it, but it has a very small impact on my mobility and how I do things. This is how I'd run things if stuff got weird, and I might even leave the plates at home. If you got standalone level III poly plates like the Hesco 3800, you could get even lighter than that in an ultra-minimalist carrier like a First Spear Slick, maybe under 6 pounds for SAPI medium/10x12. My other set of plates are essentially ESAPIs, and are 5.6 pounds per and twice as thick. Doable, but noticeably worse. I would not want to go higher than 6 pounds per plate again. On the mobility note, I'm SAPI large but size down to SAPI medium or 10x12.

The scalable soft armor carrier option still seems the most versatile to me for normal guys. I can take the swiftclips off and the plates out, and wear it under a jacket or sized-up button down and not be made too easily. In the outer vest configuration a plate carrier will be lighter and less constricting, but I can still get going pretty good with this and heat cas hasn't been an issue for me yet. Then again I don't live in the desert or swamp.

Thanks. What soft armor do you recommend

I think a lot of civilians just buy whatever gear the special forces soldiers are wearing, because if its good enough for a Navy Seal it has to be good enough for me, right?! We should all take the time to think about what our mission is and the most likely threat we will be facing.

A navy seal might be hiking 20-30 miles a day for several days, over mountains in extremely hot temperatures. Their threat will likely be AK47s, RPKs, PKMs, and other light to heavy machine guns all firing high velocity armor piercing ammunition. As a result they go with a light weight plate carrier that allow the user to stay cool and move quickly. It sacrifices soft armor, but thats useless against armor piercing rifle rounds.

A civilian's mission is to stay alive and protect their family. Their most likely threat is from home invasion against lightly armed robbers as statically 90% of firearm murders in the US are committed with handguns (See data below). Everyday street thugs tend not to carry around rifles or shotguns as they draws attention, they prefer something they can slip in their waste band and walk down the street without someone calling the cops. The need for mobility will be limited as home defense and the vast majority of SHTF scenarios will involve you defending yourself from a fixed position, likely your home. As a result, an armor carrier with soft armor inserts and plates is IMO a better choice than a plate carrier. Modern armor carriers with soft armor are almost as light and just as easy to put on as most plate carrier. Armor has come a long way since the Interceptor Body Armor System that required someone else to help put it on you.

Murders by Weapon Type (2018 FBI Data)
Handguns: 7,032
Rifles: 403
Shotguns: 264
Other guns: 187

Its all about balance, I want as much protection as I can get without significantly sacrificing mobility or impacting my ability to fight. I'm willing to accept a little weight for the added pistol protection. Why? I am the last and only line of defense between a violent person and my family, if I go down its all over. Sure, my wife has a CCW and basic knowledge of firearms but she is no replacement for a team of armed men next to me ready to lay down cover fire and drag me to safety and start performing first aide.  Also, clearing our home is something we all have to do. Some people will say never clear your own home, find a safe spot, call the cops and let them do it. Thats great if you know for sure someone is in your house. But are going to run into your safe room and call the cops every time the dog barks or you heard a thud? 99.9% of the time its nothing, its the house shifting, its a raccoon getting into the garbage, but you still need to check to make sure everything is clear. And if there is someone in my home lurking in the shadows chances are I wont have the time or be thinking to square up towards the threat to make sure my plates are providing effective coverage.

With that said you can go to an extreme with too much protection or too little. My first armor setup had BALCS soft armor, large lvl 4 plates, 7x8 lvl 4 side plate, 6 mags, hydration bladder, clips, patches, chem lights, granola bars, batteries, etc...it weighed in at 42 lbs full loaded. When I started thinking about what I truly need (not what a solider in Iraq needs) I dropped down to 3 mags, lvl 3 plates, no side plates, and removed all of the other accessories and it weighs in at 23 lbs with soft armor. I could drop another 7 lbs if got rid of the soft armor and went with a super light weight minimalist style carrier but the added protection is worth 7 lbs to me. On the flip side you have chest rigs, which weight ounces and give you full mobility, but there are times where there will be no where to run, no where to hide, and no where to conceal yourself making that added mobility useless. In the real world bullets fly both directions during a gun fight and you will never our run a bullet. All it takes is one shot center mass and it is pretty much game over.

It's a fair point.  

On the other hand, those stats are not from a period of widespread and extended breakdown of social order.  I assume most of those handgun murders are gang and drug-related, taking place in the inner city or other violence-plagued public housing areas destroyed by misguided liberal policies.  Most folks here aren't prepping to live in those neighborhoods.  They are prepping for a breakdown of social order in which the threat comes to them.

I'm not putting on a PC for a bump in the night during normal social conditions.  For me, that level of gear is reserved for the unlikely event that the balloon goes up and 911 is no longer taking calls (or the phone system isn't even working). As we have seen, such a breakdown can be local, as was the case during Katrina or when we had a storm here in VA that took out electricity and many comms for close to a week.   If such a breakdown occurs and extends for some time, Hillary's super predators will no longer need to favor handguns almost exclusively due to the need to conceal.  When the shit is on and the police are overwhelmed, we'll likely see more rifles being used by predators.  And unfortunately, fat guys here with the betus will be helping supply them, with battlefield pickups.

But I do agree that most people here would be better served by concealable soft armor and, in the case of widespread social disorder, staying off the streets.  A PC is like house fire insurance you hope to never use...and that you're not sure how much it would really help if you needed to use it.

$0.02

BALCS used to be more popular, but BALCS is a larger cut than Velocity's. These days, the Velocity carrier and its soft armor are what I go with. Velocity's armor is real good stuff, and not even that expensive from OPT. What it isn't is particular thin, and the LPAC carrier is not a concealment vest. You won't be putting it under a button down shirt without it being obvious. I was willing to accept that trade-off. If you look on eBay you can find some older models of the Velocity carriers in great condition for a pretty good price. In some ways, those older models are superior to the current one if low profile is more important to you than modularity. If you've got money to spend, the Crye LVS is the next level in terms of modularity and scalability, and in the lowest profile configuration is an actual concealment vest.



I did this, too. I had the full battle rattle going with the level IVs (no side plates, though), and it was 35 pounds. Before:


Real cool looking, fun for about 15 minutes. After:



If I need more than this, I need more than myself. I can and have worn this for 10 hour training/competition days, no problem.


That's why I'm so big on these. I can easily add plates and use it as an outer carrier with a SwiftClip chest rig/placard. Buy one thing, get most of the functionality of 2 or 3 things.

I agree that SHTF/Civil unrest will have a lot more rifle threats. Just look at the number of BLM/ANTIFA folks sporting ARs and AKs during the protests riots. As bad as 2020 was, that was just a warm up, imagine if there was wide spread disaster, famine, or true racial tension to the point where law enforcement had no control over the situation. Having gear that is flexible is important, there are times when you may want concealable soft armor to wear under a jacket for that craigslist transaction, add the plates when there is a protests/riot down the street, take the soft armor out and just run plates when you are training at the range so you don't sweat to death. And yes, despite what we all dream up in our head, when SHTF really happens 99% of use will be hunkered down in our homes riding out the storm. Gearing up for WWIII to fighting off elite communist soldiers as they paratrooper into your suburban neighborhood is probably very low on the shit thats actually going to happen in our lives list, its right there with zombies.

Scalable and adaptable as possible.

If you need to toss on soft armor under plates get soft armor and make sure your plate carrier can fit over it (cummerbund and so forth works with it).  Get more than one cummerbund keeping one slick and attaching more to the other.  Get a plate carrier that has the ability to quickly attach front flaps/placards and the more modular the front flap and placard the better. Then get different front flaps and placards to scale appropriately to the amount of gear you want to carry.  Get side plates that are easy to put on and off or a second cummerbund to keep them on that can quickly swap out with your attached cummerbund.

Scale up and scale down as needed.  Keep as light weight as you can.

I'm thinking seriously about concealable Level II soft armor, since I'm not very concerned about magnum rounds and I like how thin the Level II are compared to the Level III soft armor.  Being able to toss that on concealed or wearing it in conjunction with my plate carrier would be great.  Side plates are pretty important too and have their place for sure.

Most of this is what I've been preaching for years. I no longer have concealable soft armor but that will be rectified soon enough. SCALABILITY is the new way to go. There is a time and place for being a tactical turtle. Most of the time that isn't the case. I have a system now that is a 10 point scale of how much kit I will have on. That plus the "plus up" philosophy have never turned me wrong.

What is the carrier you guys recommend to serve as a platform to slap on the D3CRM and either soft panel or hard plate?

There are a lot of good ones out there. I would avoid the newer "slick carriers" though that don't have an ability to accept anything on the back, because that sort of cuts down on scalability/adaptability.  Those slick carriers have their place, but they're not a "one plate carrier" to rule them all option.  

I've got a Ferro Concepts FCPC V5. I like it because it has the ability to take a D3CRM via ITW swift clips or something like the Defense Mechanism placard or Shaw Concepts placard or Ferro Adapt Front flaps with G-Hooks (options are good).  I think we're going to see more and more front flaps/placards with g-hooks or g-hook options coming out, because the g-hooks work well when under load and are very low profile so they sit flatter on the carrier and can be covered more easily (reduce IR reflection).  

There are a lot of good ones out there. Just make sure they have the vertical laser cut slots or vertical MOLLE to accept the ITW female clips and have velcro on the lower front part of the carrier.  If you find something like that with shoulder pads that aren't bulky and have some movement up front and can accept MOLLE and/or Zip on back panels that would be good.  Play around with cummerbunds, don't feel you've got to go with the same brand cummerbund as the plate carrier. A lot of carriers with a velcro attachment to secure the cummerbunds can interchange between different brands of cummerbunds.  

For comfort and good cummerbund placement it's important to have a cummerbund that will pull tight the plates, but allows for flex while you breath heavy or need to bend around.  If you're going to wear side plates or anything of decent weight (more than 2 lbs) on a cummerbund get something that has a rigged skeleton structure to it, but still has some flex at its ends.  Velcro the cummerbund up high on the front velcro attachment and low on the back plate velcro attachment to keep the plates sitting just right.  A lot of guys don't wear their plates tight and seated correctly and it can lead to back issue or your front plate hitting or jamming into the throat.  

Keep in mind no matter what you're going to sweat like crazy in a plate carrier.  They don't ventilate well and I don't care how much mesh or standoff people try to get from pads they aren't going to ventilate well.  Make sure you wash your carrier from time to time without the plates in them of course using dish soap (no bleach or dyes to worry about) and air drying to avoid ring worm or any other sort of skin infection/irritation.  Otherwise you're going to have a nasty carrier after a lot of use.  

Yeah, the post we had recently from the brother here reviewing his level II soft armor sold me on the fact that I need it.  Majority of threats in CONUS are shotgun and pistol and so it makes all kinds of sense to have that on hand to me to toss on under my carrier if needs be or run under a shirt or jacket if I need something covert. Level IIIA would be great as well at some point, but I think Level II will fit my overall adaptable needs until later on I can get a set of Level IIIA.  

I feel like we're just starting to get that scalability now in carriers. It's becoming a real thing.  I give a lot of credit to Spiritus and Haley Strategic for leading the way with their ITW Swift Clip rigs, but now I'm seeing companies take it even a step farther than they have.  

The only thing that kind of irks me is that so many companies are doing proprietary zip on back panels.  I would MUCH prefer it if everyone just stuck to the Crye standard, but I know that might inhibit back panel design.  

IFAKs are about to go to another level too.  Look for some great options coming out in 2021.  Companies are starting to crack the code for how we carry an IFAK without having some bulky as hell pouch.  In fact, I think 2021 could be the year of gear honestly.  Some new companies are making some great innovations.

Man this is a rabbit hole.

What's a good level 2 vest.

For price, availability, and NIJ listing it seems like the best value at the moment is the Midwest level II vest.

Just want to say that I appreciate the people who have taken the time to thoroughly layout their thought process on formulating the mission they are gearing for and why. Very insightful information and helps others like me really think it through more using your experience.

I just got my first PC and literally came here looking for this kind of information to help me decide on armor inserts to choose. Still working out that decision in my head.

ben

Pointy and fast defeats soft armor (all armor, really, but more so soft armor).  IIIA is not rated for knives.

You're right, soft armor is not officially rated for knives, because there's a lot of variation to how hard people can thrust. But it does stop slashes and can usually stop stabs that are done in more of a jabbing motion. Admittedly, soft armor usually fails to stop stabs where the person really puts their weight behind it and pushes through.

But many companies also make rigid polyethylene IIIA panels. Those will definitely stop stabbing thrusts and are about equivalent in weight to IIIA soft kevlar. I think those make an excellent option for people who are inclined against the weight of rifle plates.

A lightweight carrier (such as the LAPG low vis carrier) with 1-pound 10x12 polyethylene IIIA panels is a good compromise between a plate carrier and a chest rig, in my opinion.

One of thing I think helps too with any type of armor or carrier is wearing the right shirt.  No seams on the shoulders, something that wicks away sweat, because in the warmer months (hell even in fall and winter) you're going to sweat if you're being athletic in a vest/carrier.  Like everyone jokes about cosplaying or LARPing with combat shirts, but man do the nice ones make a difference when you're wearing a carrier.  Something with a collar that flips up is a most have to for every carrier I've ever seen or used so your neck doesn't get rubbed raw.

bumping an excellent thread

the more I actually train in my shit the more I value lighter. I had an IOTV and while it provided a lot of coverage and protection, I had a hard time moving in it in a way that I was comfortable. They were designed more for explosions while mounted, so running around the range in Texas as a tactical turtle would wear you out.

I recently replaced it with Lev 4 ceramics and a shitty carrier. They were 8 pounds each. While working out with them I blew out my back. Bad. 2 days in the hospital and shit. Not the plate's fault, I flared up some old college lifting injuries because it turns out I'm not 19 and got heavy somehow. Whoops, working on it.

Now I'm considering either selling my Hesco 4400s or relegating them to trunk duty and getting some light level 3 or even 3a. I am not convinced m855 will be my main threat, but as a suburban civilian if I'm wearing my PC all shit has gone south so pretty sure the handgun/rifle ratio will not remain it's average. I know that better plates will be at least $400 (gets to 10 pounds) or up to $2k if I want to get below 5 pounds for a set. Level 3a hard plates are under a pound and stop anything below a rifle at $150~ a plate. May be worth it.

I'm not going to wear soft armor going to the grocery store and shit. I will have my stuff delivered or not eat before that's a common occurrence. Elite operators use expensive plates that cover vitals only. If they are hit elsewhere they have a group of trained dudes there to provide care, trauma evac waiting, a hospital already waiting for them and set up and closer than you're likely to bleed out from an abdominal or extremity hit. If I take a rifle round to the chest the chances that the world is still open and the hospital is going to get me patched up seems very slim.

Some thoughts on rifle rate plates:
1) hospital will likely remain open until it gets really really bad.
2) they keep you from taking that round to the chest. In most cases you should be able to make it to the hospital if you take a round to your limbs but a round to the chest is pretty much lights out.
3) sometime it’s not about surviving the fight, it’s about staying in it as long as possible to do as much damage as possible and to put down the threat.

@Spartikis answered in the above. If there are decent special threat or level 4 plates that are under like 4 pounds and $600 for a set, I would consider that. Otherwise it doesn't seem worth the price for weight savings.

I'm finding with armor it's Protection, weight, cost. Pick two. You want level IV for cheap they are heavy. You want light that protect worth a damn it's not cheap

Good thoughts.

Since posting this I bought a set of L210. They are 5 pounds each and a half inch thick. Basically 2/3 the weight of my 4400 and thinner. For me that was worth it. I move better with them on and will be more likely to wear them.

I have lost 25 pounds since my back injury so adding 10 back isn’t so bad. My whole load out is less than 25 pounds with rifle so now I’m fighting lighter geared up than I was in September buck naked.

I’m going to be saving and buying even lighter plates and gear. And losing more weight.

Also going to be selling some 4400 plates for a decent price shortly if anyone needs a starter set

Keep it under 15lb's L210/JPC mobility crew master race

My carrier with 3 loaded PMAGs is 11 lbs.

Stay light.  Stay agile.  Stay alive.  

@scuba_steve

Pics and details?

I think scalability is definitely the right way to go. You can have everything from normal EDC gear (pistol, spare mag, flashlight, folding knife) while maintaining concealabilty and mobility, or all the way up to a full war belt and plate carrier setup where you sacrifice mobility and concealabilty in exchange for protection and extra gear (medical, mags, comms, etc), or anywhere in between.  Done right, it's not a all-or-nothing setup. It's steps based on what you anticipate and what you can get away with.

I also have the Mayflower LPAC as shown above, but an older version. Bought it to replace the crappy carrier I was provided at work. Needed to have something that could that soft armor plus plates. But truthfully, I hated wearing both. Limited my mobility, which wasn't that crucial, since I was just a contract helicopter pilot. But the soft armor didn't last long, I decided to take it out in the name of comfort.

One word of caution on the lightweight plates that many seem to be enamored with, be aware of the thickness. We were issued Level 3 poly plates that were considerably thicker than ceramics, but much lighter. But the thickness trashed our backs quickly while we were sitting and flying. I'm sure they suck just as bad when in cars. Many of the other pilots took out their back plates for that reason.

For me, I opted for lvl IV ceramics to keep them thinner (although the trade-off is weight). I also only keep 2 rifle mags, and a IFAK and knife on the carrier. Additional mags can be carried on the belt line.

Yep. I have a set of Hesco P210 multi curve plates, 3 (or 5) mags, 2 TQ's, an IFAK, and a few odds and ends in my sack.

Attached File

Crye JPC 2.0, size Small
Crye AVS flat M4 flap
Hesco U210 SAPI cut, size Small
MOS Tactical Skeletonized Cummerbund with First Spear tubes

That's 8lbs.  The mags are another 3lbs. Could have dropped another pound if I went shooter's cut for front plate.



I also have a GGG SMC zip-on panel with a Source 1L hydration bladder, but that's optional.  It adds about 2lbs if filled.