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Posted: 9/12/2010 4:36:46 PM EDT
[#1]
Worst case scenario? It was designed for use. I use the old US LBE. Nothing wrong with it, it worked as issued gear for decades.
If the piece is functional, I wouldn't worry about appearance. You aren't trying to impress anyone as an reenactor or something similar. |
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Posted: 9/12/2010 5:02:09 PM EDT
[#2]
Everyone has their favorite, but the basic question is what can you, personally, afford to buy?
Anyone can buy mil-issued gear from most any country. it will cost you, and it will be tailored to their weapons and tactical dogma. Maybe not yours. IMHO, the most cost-effective equipment currently available in this country is the very inexpensive milsurp ALICE gear. With some slight, and optional modifications, it will serve you well, and not cost much. It is usually a good value. As far as dyeing your older vietnam gear, it is probably more valuable to a collector as-is, along with your letter of provenance. Sell off all the obsolete cotton gear, and upgrade to, at least, late-isue nylon ALICE stuff. You can go further, if you wish, into ALICE/MOLLE hybrid packs, and into late-issue MOLLE gear, but keep in mind tha t ALICE and MOLLE have a degree of interchangeability, so most ALICe gear you buy can still work if you upgrade to MOLLE. See the ALICE threads, both in survival gear forum, and in tactical gear forum on this site. Those threads will answer a lot of questions. |
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Posted: 9/13/2010 6:28:02 PM EDT
[#3]
Please, please, please don't dye your original webgear. Put it away. Prices for some of the older cotton pieces are already going up as they get scarcer. If you want to sell it, put it on the EE. There are retro hounds looking for the stuff.
Now, on to the newer stuff. One of the reasons they went to nylon (aside from rot issues) was the fact that when it gets wet the cotton gear gets very heavy. Think how heavy a cotton towel can get when its sopping wet. The newer nylon gear does not hold water. It will not get signigicantly heavier when wet. ALICE gear is serviceable in a pinch. If you go that route, make sure you get one of the older nylon "H" harnesses not the "Y" ones. You can balance your load better. Also, you can cut the grenade pockets off the sides of the ammo pouches to get them closer together on your belt. There is a maker that sells new ALICE-ish 30rnd pouches made without the grenade pockets but why buy those when you can just take an Xacto knife to the older models that are much cheaper? |
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Posted: 9/13/2010 10:20:48 PM EDT
[#4]
I have two of the LRAK or ISSAK rifleman kits from blackhawk. They are a great piece of gear only draw back is that they are not modular( which does have a tiny advantage in that you do not have worry about loosing your pouches( you can zip tie them or 550 them) like on alice gear)
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