Tactical Tailor Mini Mav Chest Rig Review

[Mr Monkey Nuts]

This is my personal opinion review of the Tactical Tailor Mini Mav.

Growing in popularity and regularly mustered in airsoft circles is the Tactical Tailor Mini Mav.

 

 

 

The Facts
American design and built it’s a small, lightweight MOLLE platform for carrying a limited amount of essential equipment on your chest.
It’s available in 4 colours, Coyote Brown, Olive Drab, Multicam, and Black and It retails for £35 at TacticalKit, sans pouches, at time of publishing.

The Asymmetric shape of the chest rig gives you essentially one large sector of 6x3 MOLLE loops and two sectors of 1x2 MOLLE on each side. The webbing on the top edge of each side is unusable as its sewn completely flat. This is effective for three standard sized 2x3 magazine pouches, and two pistol/utility pouches.
It’s universal MOLLE, so anything and everything will fit, so long as you have the space for it.

The finish is very high quality, the stitching is fairly neat, there are no loose ends and everything seems to be double stitched if not triple stitched in the key areas such as MOLLE and the straps and buckles. , there is no loose MOLLE and they are all evenly spaced and tight.
The buckles are made of a sold plastic, neither brittle nor soft, they shouldn’t flex bend or snap in use.
The shape with the chamfered edges allows it to sit comfortably under the armpits and don’t interfere with shouldering a rifle on either sides in any shooting position including prone.
The Tan colour is pretty standard, I have mine fitted with Warrior Tan pouches and they blend perfectly, and as tan is tan it works well with a range of colours and camos.

 

It utilises three straps. The two shoulder straps cross over in an X shape on your back, approximately between your shoulder blades, They give a comfortable and solid support from sideways movement, and allow you to bear the weight quite high up your shoulders and back. They are approx 40mm wide, however they are not padded. Beware overloading the rig as the straps can become quite uncomfortable.
The waist strap is simply that, it goes around your waist and keeps the lower edge from riding up or flailing in use. All the weight is supported by the shoulder straps.

 

Sizing.... Just because it’s a small rig, doesn’t mean it’s a small rig.
The kit was designed for Adults to wear, and not just adults, ‘Murican sized adults.
If you are 12 or if you have a 38inch or less chest, then this rig will not work for you!
Due to its small size it relies on the straps being adjusted tight enough to hold it securely onto to your body, if the straps are loose it will swing and move when running and when trying to draw a magazine. This is not a suitable rig for a small /young player I’m afraid.
It comes with plenty of strapage so I shouldn’t be too concerned about it fitting the larger player.

Conclusion of the facts:
This is not your standard China made tacticool imitation; it’s a very well made piece of military grade equipment designed with the sole aim of carrying small amounts of equipment.

The Opinion:
I suspect this chest rig was never made with the intention of ever seeing a militarized war zone. Its design, size, simplicity and price point lead me to believe it was designed for the stereotypical American “Range Hero”, “Prepper fantasist” and “Bug Out” / “Home defence” markets.

If you only use a single strap over a shoulder it also works very well as an “out of the way” bandoleer, although it does reduce reload times.

You could loadout with 6 airsoft AEG magazines comfortably, however 6 gas mags became quite heavy and uncomfortable for an all day skirmish, due to the small unpadded straps.

I Personally like to limit it to three on the chest one in the gun.

The mags are held quite high on your chest in comparison to a more traditional belt kit or plate carrier where they would be lower towards your waist, this can cause problems with slings and the more layers of MOLLE you add outwards the more difficult it gets to manoeuvre and transition the rifle.

It’s also worth noting if you are of the Female persuasion, the angles change from a vertical pull to a more horizontal pull, because of boobies. My other half tried to draw a mag with it on and subsequently punched herself in the face.

There are Alternatives, Blue force gear do light chest rig the Minus and the ten speed are both very good, although tree times the price of the mini Mav. HSGI, 5.11, Blackhawk and even Crye all do lightweight chest rigs for <£50.

You will not be able to play a 48hour mill sim with this rig alone, but for a light weight compact chest rig the mini Mav is very effective.

Remember the KISS principle, Keep It Simple Stupid, if you load it out with only what you need on your chest it will serve you well, if you are the player who want to take a spare bottle of gas, a bottle of bbs, a first aid kit, half a dozen magazines and three torches then this is not the rig for you.


[TL:DR]
Final conclusion:
The Tactical Tailor Mini Mav is a very high quality Mil Spec piece of kit that will either liberate you or limit you, but it should stand up to all the Airsoft abuse you can throw at it and then some.
But be mindful of the sizing and avoid if you’re of small frame.

If you want a lightweight simple chest rig to carry no more than 3 magazines, then this should definitely be on your shortlist.

[Yawns]

How odd! Mine arrived today, Along with Mag Pouches.

 

Very nice, Its a shame I don't have a gun/mags to fill out the pouches, But idgaf, It's lovely. Only problem is the straps are too big, The Rest is fine it's just the straps.

 

The top of it sits on my nipples for an example of how high it is, I want it to be higher but I'm not overly fussed, I just need to cut the straps shorter and sow is over to prevend fraying.

 

Overall, 8/10, As my loadout gains in size I can definately picture afew pistol mag pouches fitting in there nicely.

[JamesAirsofterAgent]

Sounds like yer gawt a goodunn there!

[Airsoft_Mr B]

Very nice review. Getting one of these myself.

[TacMaster]

Damn! Was just writing up a Mini MAV review before I saw this!

[Airsoft_Mr B]

Just a couple things to say, I've never seen one in tan (Coyote Brown, yeah) and I think you mean Tactical Kit rather than UK Tactical. Not complaining though! just really minor things that I thought I may as well point out.

Not sure whether to buy the coyote one or the multicam version myself, because the MC looks really nice but CB would go better with other loadouts and everything.

[Hobnob416]

Very useful - trying to decide between TT mini mav and HSGI AO...

Are the TT straps not length adjustable?

[TacMaster]

Very useful - trying to decide between TT mini mav and HSGI AO...

Are the TT straps not length adjustable?

 

They are, just the smallest size you can get the chest rig to might be a bit big for a slim teenager/adult

[Hobnob416]

Bought one. See what you mean. Luckily it fits but might not if I were a bit smaller....