I was looking for a chest rig with ar15 mag pouches and pistol mag pouches for use with a backpack.  Any ideas on what to look for?

TT Mav will work well. assuming you have a waistbelt on your pack, you want something that rides above your belt and doesn't have thick shoulder straps to interfere with your pack straps. i like the 2 piece Mav for easier on off. it will accept any molle compatable mag pouches. if you don't have a waistbelt then your only concern is having 2 sets of shoulder straps, where the chest rig rides on your body is not as important.

I use a Paraclete RACK (with the bib removed) which is VERY comfortable when wearing a pack, even when carrying a full load on the RACK.  Shoulder straps with NO padding is the key if you're gonna wear a ruck over it.  

If I had to do it over again, I'd probably save some money and go with a one-piece MAV from Tactical Tailor.  Lots of guys here prefer the 2-pc MAV, but the thing that I like about chest rigs is that they keep the load from the elbows forward.  With a 2-pc MAV it looks like you loose a lot of that front-load capability.

....YMMV, of course.

Quoted: I use a Paraclete RACK (with the bib removed) which is VERY comfortable when wearing a pack, even when carrying a full load on the RACK.  Shoulder straps with NO padding is the key if you're gonna wear a ruck over it.   If I had to do it over again, I'd probably save some money and go with a one-piece MAV from Tactical Tailor.  Lots of guys here prefer the 2-pc MAV, but the thing that I like about chest rigs is that they keep the load from the elbows forward.  With a 2-pc MAV it looks like you loose a lot of that front-load capability. ....YMMV, of course.

they also make a center adapter thingy for the 2 piece, a good solution for easy on-off with out giving up front realestate.

Why not just hang them off the pack's shoulder straps or the waist belt (or both)?

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Regarding the question about which Tactical Tailor rig I was talking about above - the thing I'm talking about is the one-pc chest rig that has 3 rows of MOLLE webbing and shoulder straps that cross in back.  Check out the Paraclete RACK and imagine it without a bib.  That's what I have and I like it better than anything else I've tried, but it's essentially the same thing as the Tactical Tailor 1-pc MAV, only a lot more money.

Just so you know, I've tried the standard LC-2 gear, Blackhawk "enhanced LBV", Eagle SF-AK chest rig, Tactical Tailor Assault vest, SOE urban assault vest, Blackhawk and Eagle "Recon" and Rhodesian chest rigs, SO Tech Hellcat, and HSGI Wasatch, Weesatch, and both Woosatches ("A" and "E")...  And by far the best thing I've found for carrying ammo, a canteen, and a trauma kit, WITH a ruck and WITHOUT armor is this cut down Paraclete RACK.  Everything else I've tried has serious drawbacks that you don't even notice until you start wearing it and actually using it for hours at a time.

Simple minimalist approach that you can carry as much or as little as you want, without having a set of padded shoulder straps under your ruck's shoulder straps eating holes in your shoulders.

EDITED TO ADD PIC:  You can see what I'm talking about in this photo.  The chest rig or LBV's  shoulder straps really start to dig if you have a ruck on over it.  Best solution I've found is to have as little as possible between your body and the ruck - that seems to be the trick to having some semblance of comfort.

USMC03 and FightForYourRights helped me with this very same dilemma a while back.

They recommended a TT MAV but I secretly ordered a Hellcat as well even though I thanked them for their help and claimed I was following their advice.
The Hellcat didn't work very well.  The MAV is awesome.  Get the 2-piece.  The X-harness is nice too.  It's a great setup and I'm really happy with it.
Works fine with a Camelback Motherload.


ETA: I had the 1-piece MAV and I couldn't get in and out of it very easily when the x-harness was on.

Quoted: USMC03 and FightForYourRights helped me with this very same dilemma a while back. They recommended a TT MAV but I secretly ordered a Hellcat as well even though I thanked them for their help and claimed I was following their advice. The Hellcat didn't work very well.  The MAV is awesome.  Get the 2-piece.  The X-harness is nice too.  It's a great setup and I'm really happy with it. Works fine with a Camelback Motherload.

I'm the opposite, I liked the hellcat better then the mav. So I got the hellcat, well actually the callahan plate carrier. USMC03 mentioned that it can get a little wired feeling when you start pulling mags out of the internal pouches, but it didn't bother me any at all. I plan to get a second one as a permenant trunk rig eventualy. I also picked up the hydration carrier for the hellcat too, it was on sale for $90. That way I can use the hellcat without the plate carier if I want.

Quoted: Quoted: USMC03 and FightForYourRights helped me with this very same dilemma a while back. They recommended a TT MAV but I secretly ordered a Hellcat as well even though I thanked them for their help and claimed I was following their advice. The Hellcat didn't work very well.  The MAV is awesome.  Get the 2-piece.  The X-harness is nice too.  It's a great setup and I'm really happy with it. Works fine with a Camelback Motherload. I'm the opposite, I liked the hellcat better then the mav. So I got the hellcat, well actually the callahan plate carrier. USMC03 mentioned that it can get a little wired feeling when you start pulling mags out of the internal pouches, but it didn't bother me any at all. I plan to get a second one as a permenant trunk rig eventualy. I also picked up the hydration carrier for the hellcat too, it was on sale for $90. That way I can use the hellcat without the plate carier if I want.

That was one of the big things for me with the Hellcat.  It starts to get loose as I take mags out.  Plus, the pulls go in the wrong direction for getting the mags out (for me).  Some of them pull against the straps making opening difficult.  SHEISLEGEND timed me on a series of reloads and the Hellcat was a disaster for me compared to the MAV.
Plus, the Hellcat straps and buckles dig into my back with a pack but the MAV works fine.

I realize it's totally personal preference so I'm by no means knocking your choice.  I really don't like it when someone says one size fits all so I guess I'm just saying the 2-piece MAV works well for me, but others have to decide for themselves.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: USMC03 and FightForYourRights helped me with this very same dilemma a while back. They recommended a TT MAV but I secretly ordered a Hellcat as well even though I thanked them for their help and claimed I was following their advice. The Hellcat didn't work very well.  The MAV is awesome.  Get the 2-piece.  The X-harness is nice too.  It's a great setup and I'm really happy with it. Works fine with a Camelback Motherload. I'm the opposite, I liked the hellcat better then the mav. So I got the hellcat, well actually the callahan plate carrier. USMC03 mentioned that it can get a little wired feeling when you start pulling mags out of the internal pouches, but it didn't bother me any at all. I plan to get a second one as a permenant trunk rig eventualy. I also picked up the hydration carrier for the hellcat too, it was on sale for $90. That way I can use the hellcat without the plate carier if I want. That was one of the big things for me with the Hellcat.  It starts to get loose as I take mags out.  Plus, the pulls go in the wrong direction for getting the mags out (for me).  Some of them pull against the straps making opening difficult.  SHEISLEGEND timed me on a series of reloads and the Hellcat was a disaster for me compared to the MAV. Plus, the Hellcat straps and buckles dig into my back with a pack but the MAV works fine. I realize it's totally personal preference so I'm by no means knocking your choice.  I really don't like it when someone says one size fits all so I guess I'm just saying the 2-piece MAV works well for me, but others have to decide for themselves.

Gear is like handguns, totaly personal as to what works for you. I totaly agree there is no "one size fits all" when it comes to gear. I found similar things with the hellcat that you did when I was playing around with it. I'm going to mod out the mag retention strap/snap part cuz I didn't think that it was as good as it could be. I've got a couple ideas as to what I might want to do, but I'll wait till after running it while doing some training with the Wisconsin crew this weekend to decide fully, luckaly I'll be able to pick BulletcatchR's brain on the mods he has some of the best freaking mods to gear and gear ideas I've ever seen.

I also found I prefer not to use the mags in the internal pouches until absolutly nessesary. Right now though it will be till I get a couple single mag pouches to add to it. Also I rotate my mags in my mag pouches in down time. Take the ones from the right side of my vest and rotate them over to the empty pockets on the left side(where I do my re-loads out of) and then grab the partialy used mags from the dump pouch and move them to the right side pouches. The totaly empty ones go to the farthest right pouches depending on how much time I have, but usually stay in the dump pouch. Most of this take place at classes and such where I have a little time, but not enough to go and reload mags.

You're both wrong!!!  Mine's better!  

sorry, I couldn't resist.

Just so you know, the main things I did not like about the Hellcat was that the flaps on the mag pouches secure with snaps, and they pull toward the body so that you have to sort of suck in your gut and wrench your fist into your abdomen to get the mag pouches open.  If they had velcro'd in flaps where you could replace them with bungees or something, I'd like the single-mag pouches of the Hellcat/Callahan a lot better than the double pouches of the Weesatch/Wasatch.

I didn't keep the Hellcat long enough to try it with a pack, so I have no idea if the buckles dig into you or not.

Quoted: You're both wrong!!!  Mine's better!   sorry, I couldn't resist. Just so you know, the main things I did not like about the Hellcat was that the flaps on the mag pouches secure with snaps, and they pull toward the body so that you have to sort of suck in your gut and wrench your fist into your abdomen to get the mag pouches open.  If they had velcro'd in flaps where you could replace them with bungees or something, I'd like the single-mag pouches of the Hellcat/Callahan a lot better than the double pouches of the Weesatch/Wasatch. I didn't keep the Hellcat long enough to try it with a pack, so I have no idea if the buckles dig into you or not.

I never did get why the heck they did that with the snaps on the mag pouches. It makes no sence at all. I'm sure they had a reason for doing it that way, but whatever that reason is I don't think it was a really good one.

For the $ you can't beat the Eagle chest rig.
$75.

Worked very well with backpack.

Quoted: That Eagle is a sweet and simple rig.  I've been toying with the idea of getting one for myself but when you have piles of gear laying around the office it just isn't as much fun to play with anymore! I think it's just about the ideal grab and go rig.

I agree.  Used a Blackhawk vest for a couple years and it is nice, but the chest rigs are the comfortable way to go.  Easy in and out of a vehicle, as cool(temp) as a gear rig can be, and holds a decent amount of "stuff".  

It is my emergency "grab-n-go" kit, hanging in the closet, ready to go all the time.

I got to play around with my callahan this weekend with plates in it. I didn't run anything with just the hellcat alone but I found something interesting. When I first got to play around with a hellcat one of the things that annoyed me a little was the mag pouch closures. As AShooter pointed out in a previous post, you have to pull the thing tword you to open it up. Well When I tried it out the irst time I used regular USGI mags with just the standard floor plate. This time I was using my mags with ranger plates on them, the whole pulling tword you thing is not an issue at all. The ranger plates make the whole thing a little tighter and a quick  pull up and back opens up the pouch no problem. It also held them secure even when bailing out of a "car" onto the ground so retention of the mags isn't a problem it's not like the snap is going to come undone under crazy movment.

With plates in it I had no issues with anything execpt having the wrong size plate in the front at first. The plate was a little to wide at the top and didn't let me get good placment of the buttstock on the shoulder. But thats the good thing about being able to try out something before you commit to buying it.  Once we switched out the front plate to a diferent one it was great. It also balanced well with both plates the 6 AR mags and a full camelback bladder, even as the camelback got drained the whole rig balanced out well. Once I get it completely set up with all the gear, I'll give it another rundown and post it up. One of the thing will be how the hellcat feels with a pack on and how well the whole system works(plate carrier too) with a pack on.

ETA: running with it a bit today without the plates in it just felt wrong, but not wrong like bad just got used to it with the plates. I have to get a set to make it feel right again

Another minimalist aprroach would be the M-1 MK-2 chest carrier from here.  www.spectergear.com
I also was looking for a chest rig that was well made, snug and sat high on the chest as not to interfear with other BO equipment.  I did not feel I had any need for a military type loadout.
Real happy with mine.

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