Load Carrying Equipment for Airsoft Skirmishing

At some point, you'll eventually find yourself carrying more equipment than you have pockets in your clothing to cope with, probably in the way of batteries for your AEG model, 6mm ammunition bags, magazines, pyrotechnics (smokes and bb grenades), and so on. Believe me, it mounts up, after a while.

At that point, you'll either pare down the stuff you carry, or, like most of us, decide that you can't bear to be parted with any of it (even for a short time, like half an hour - "ANYTHING can happen!"), and decide to invest in some form of carrying harness, or "webbing", as it's more normally known.

There are many forms of webbing on the market, from the usual sources: Army surplus stores, and mail-order catalogues. The trick is to decide what's best for you.

In general, there are four forms: 58, PLCE, ALICE, and French, that are readily available in the UK.

58 webbing

The first of these, called 58 pattern, is the old (now obsolete) British military webbing. Made of canvas, and olive green in colour, the downside is that it gets VERY heavy when wet; the upside is that it's pretty cheap to buy, now. You do, of course, have to be careful when buying it, as there are a lot of components to a complete set (left and right ammo pouches, NBC haversack, water bottle pouch, kidney pouches, NBC/poncho roll, yoke, and belt), all of which need to be in good working order to be of any use to you. My advice is to take someone with you, who knows what to look for in a good set of 58 webbing.

PLCE webbing

Next up is the latest pattern of British Army webbing, PLCE, which stands for Personal Load Carrying Equipment. This is made of either olive green or camouflage coloured ballistic nylon, so it does not get heavy when wet, but it can be expensive to get a compete set (£90 or more for a good set). It comprises left and right ammo pouches, NBC haversack, water bottle pouch, two rear utility pouches, yoke, and belt. there are currently three models of PLCE on the market, so make sure you get a set made up from one version. Again, take someone with you, who knows what to look for.

ALICE webbing

Moving away from British kit, we now look at ALICE webbing. ALICE stands for "ALl purpose Individual Carrying Equipment"

This is American, and there are lots of copies of it, so do try to get the genuine article. It can be cheap, but in my opinion, is less robust than British or French kit. This was recently (in the last few years) replaced with their new LBV, or Load Bearing Vest, a cross between webbing, and an assault vest.

French webbing

Then, of course, there's French webbing. This is available, mainly from the USMC catalogue if you're in the UK.

They also sold, until recently, their own brand of French camouflage pattern webbing, shown in the photo to the left; since it's not in their current catalogue, I'm assuming that they have ceased selling it. Shame. If it had beeen in British DPM, I might have gone for it!

German webbing

Finally, there's German webbing. This originally came in olive drab, but when the Bundeswehr went to their new Flecktarn camouflage, this went to Flecktarn camouflage pattern as well.

Until recently, this was damned difficult to get hold of in the UK, but a new retailer, Flecktarn.co.uk, has started up this year (2002), run by two very enterprising young people that I actually know, Jo and Lenny, and they'll bend over backwards to help you find the german kit that you want!

Other tactical carrying equipment

You do not have to limit yourself to webbing sets, though. You can get 'chest webbing', tactical load bearing vests, or even tailored carrying jackets (such as the SASS Ltd 'Kit Carry Smock'). The choice is yours.

Postscript on other carrying gear...

You might also like to have a look at South African M-83 Assault Vests - they're made in the usual sand and brown, British DPM, German Flecktarn, and, naturally, black, as well - there's a review of it here.

Final advice on load bearing gear

Before you go and set your mind on one type of carrying gear, look around you at a skirmish site, and examine what other players are using. Get their opinions on it, and judge for yourself, if this or that type of gear will suit you, as a mistake could cost you well over a hundred quid, and be about as useful as a chocolate fire grating to you!

Suggested supliers of webbing gear...

Since late last year (2001), supergrade and grade one PLCE webbing appears to have become scarce, for some unknown reason, so it's doubly important that you shop around, and physically inspect what you want to buy.

This does not, however, hold true of Special Air Sea Services, who actually manufacture custom webbing and assault vests. If your budget stretches to it, you might like to order from them - I've ordered from them before, and never had any problems - they even accept electronic bank transfers!

Assembling and packing your newly acquired webbing...

You might also like to consider how you are going to assemble and pack the webbing you purchase. I've written a suggestion based on personal experience here

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