Okay, here's the deal.   I'm looking to have a bit of everything in a fairly compact chest type rig.  I'm open to suggestions on different setups tho.  

Ideally I'd like to hold about 6 AR mags, a hydration bladder in the rear and an attatchment point so I can hook a single point attatchment to a shoulder strap.    

I dont want a plate carrier.   Low cost would be a huge plus.

I'm taking a carbine class next month and have been trying to figure out how to integrate my current gear and it's just not working out very well.   I have too damned many overlapping straps.  

First off, I advise dropping the idea of attaching the rifle sling to the harness.  If you're wearing a plate carrier then the weight is distributed but on a normal rig it's going to pull everything around funny and be uncomfortable.  A regular sling will fit over a harness easily enough.

Whatever sling you choose, I'd advise wearing a collared shirt under it.  I made that mistake in a class last year and spent the whole class and several days after with a sore neck from the sling rubbing me.  Especially after the exposed skin on my neck got a little sun burnt.

You don't mention what you already have and don't say weather you prefer a belt rig or chest rig.


My rig is a Tactical Tailor 2-piece MAV body with their X-harness shoulder straps and a hydration pouch on the rear.  I have 4 of the tactical tailor single mag pouches on the front with an SOE double mag pouch on either side of that for a total of 8 mags.   Then I've got a small utility pouch on the far right with a couple of GI bandages and a maxpedition rolly polly on the far left as a dump pouch/place to stow gloves and other crap as needed.   Relatively low profile and carried everything I needed.

Tactical Tailor is clearing out their inventory of  woodland camo items so there's some really good prices if you're interested

I currently have a chest rig and it's fine but adding the hydration bladder is a no go with this one.  It also makes using my single point sling somewhat difficult.


At this point I've been seriously considering ditching the whole setup for a drop leg pouch and my current hydration bladder.   It's the only way I can think of to lose the sling interference.  

This is the current chest rig I have.

Similar to Holophile...   I run a TT MAV (2 piece) with the X-harness and 6 x TT single mag pouches (3 per side).  I also mount 4 x TT double pistol mag pouches on the inner most rifle mag pouches (2 per side).    On the sides of the MAV,  I mount a TT knife pouch on each side (one with a surefire flashlight, the other with a folder) and a dump pouch.  On the back of the X-harness, I use an SDS FLC hydration pouch (holds 50 oz - 10 more than advertised).   This setup may sound front heavy, but even with the hydration pouch empty and all mags topped off, the weight shift is not real noticeable.  It is very well balanced with water in the bladder.  I have worn this setup during pistol and carbine classes wearing Level II body armor underneath and had good functionality and no discomfort.  YMMV.  

I use either an HSGI Weesatch (with plates, doesn't hang too well without) or an esstac Boar with an esstac harness.

I hang very little off my rigs since I don't need enough gear to "patrol outside the wire" lol.  This makes for few obstructions for my rifle on a Specter Gear single point.  My pistol and extra mags and light are on my first line.

The Boar is particularly good for that since the front is flat like a MAV but the mags are integrated into the back panel in single cells.