Carrying Pistol Magazines on Outer Carrier for Uniformed Patrol

regdudedrtyjob

Regular Member
I am a Deputy assigned to my department's Training Unit. Yesterday I was told by my boss to come up with a quick training plan to be presented at roll call for people that want to carry their Glock magazines on their vest instead of the gunbelt. I am opposed to the idea, I am not a personal fan of mounting the pistol magazines higher on the body than the beltline, but that is personal preference more than anything.

I have caught/seen multiple people with pouches on the vest above mags or even the pistol in the holster in the LE world, and I am sure this is what was ocurring for the complaint to be brought up.

My reason for posting to this section of the forum is; aside from my personal preference, is there a huge tactical/technical reason I'm not seeing with regard to allowing people to move pistol magazines off of their gunbelts and onto their outer carriers, both from a gun fighting perspective but also a combatives perspective?
 
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ggammell

Does not pass up an opportunity to criticize P&S.
Some times an outer carrier can overhang a belt mounted mag pouch making drawing a spare mag more cumbersome (especially when sitting).

Sometimes taking a little extra weight off of can help a bad back.
 

pointblank4445

Established
Some times an outer carrier can overhang a belt mounted mag pouch making drawing a spare mag more cumbersome (especially when sitting).

Sometimes taking a little extra weight off of can help a bad back.

Hard to say; that's going to be dependent upon:
Officer shape, fit and taper of the vest/carrier, and finally position/orientation/design of the magazine carrier on the belt.

Not sure of the climate in OP's AO, but I would want to consider coats/cover garments occluding spare ammo while most patrol jackets still keep the belt accessible.

I'd be all for getting weight off my waist, but my primary ammo/reload source is going to stay on my belt...IMHO
 

ggammell

Does not pass up an opportunity to criticize P&S.
Hard to say; that's going to be dependent upon:
Officer shape, fit and taper of the vest/carrier, and finally position/orientation/design of the magazine carrier on the belt.

Not sure of the climate in OP's AO, but I would want to consider coats/cover garments occluding spare ammo while most patrol jackets still keep the belt accessible.

I'd be all for getting weight off my waist, but my primary ammo/reload source is going to stay on my belt...IMHO
Not going argue that. I still keep mine there but I use a mount that bumps the pouches out some to make it work other wise they jamming themselves under my carrier getting in and out of the car.

Other solution is issue two more mags and keep 2 on the belt and 2 on the vest.

Generationally, these new guys may never see ammo on belt. It might be on vest from day 0 and so belt would be weird to them where it’s foundational to us.
 

Royroy

Amateur
I wouldn’t be opposed to one on the belt and one on the vest. Idk if you’ve priced out hp ammo lately but issuing out two more mags of duty ammo maybe impossible for some departments. And you would still have guys complaining about the extra weight on their belt. Similar to how a lot of swat guys are running their emergency reload rifle mag on their belt and then replenishing that pouch from the vest as needed.
 
I have 21 years on. I started my career with belt-mounted mag pouches. For the last 9 years or so I have worn my mags on my vest. The only tactical advantage I see is my hand is closer to my mags when reloading in my workspace. My hand has less distance to travel which should result in a faster reload albeit we are talking about 10ths of a second. I wear my mags just below the chest pocket height on my support side. Make sure dry reps are performed to ensure myelination occurs. May I ask why you are against it?
 

regdudedrtyjob

Regular Member
I have 21 years on. I started my career with belt-mounted mag pouches. For the last 9 years or so I have worn my mags on my vest. The only tactical advantage I see is my hand is closer to my mags when reloading in my workspace. My hand has less distance to travel which should result in a faster reload albeit we are talking about 10ths of a second. I wear my mags just below the chest pocket height on my support side. Make sure dry reps are performed to ensure myelination occurs. May I ask why you are against it?
I am against it because all of my belts (Patrol, SWAT, USPSA) are set up the same way more or less with the spare magazines on the weak side hip area. As I said, more of a personal preference thing and I posted this question to try and see it from another angle.
 
Fair point. Many of my coworkers never switched for similar reasons. My department doesn't have mandatory gear placement. You wear pretty much want you want where you want to an extent. It's not for everyone.
 
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