Plate Carriers - What are they actually for in Airsoft?

[AshOnSnow]

5 minutes ago, Tackle said:

Like you, the most invasive thing I had was to "cough", everything else was based on real world fitness, in fact getting my childhood asthma cleared involved pounding Woolwich common with a pti, nowt technical bout that.

As for a lumbar puncture, sounds like bullocks, reckon one or two recruits may have a previous illness, & the LP was recommended as a means to rule out nothing dormant in the system, but then capita, & any involved private medical practitioners cottoned on to the fact that they could quadruple their profit margins by insisting on a completely unnecessary dangerous medical procedure, thereby setting a precedent.

Was in wolf armouries bout 10 years ago, pretty girl comes in with a specific list of kit, pc/pouches etc, when asked where she played she replied "oh no they're not for me, my fiances deployed in Afghanistan & his issued kit is shit, literally rotting off him in the conditions, so I need to post these to him asap"

I was disgusted then, still am tbh, if my son turned round & said he wanted to join up, id slap that shit out of him, irrespective of the fact I served, different times & different agendas.

Also don’t forget, if I refuse the LP but then change my mind later, they get to make their money off doing my medical all over again.

 

My cousin seems to have a right doddle in the army - always here there and everywhere skiing and surfing and skydiving and all sorts. Never been deployed to hostile zones. Most dangerous situation they’ve put him in is a 3 week ski trip in the alps 😂😂

[Druid799]

15 minutes ago, Tackle said:

Was in wolf armouries bout 10 years ago, pretty girl comes in with a specific list of kit, pc/pouches etc, when asked where she played she replied "oh no they're not for me, my fiances deployed in Afghanistan & his issued kit is shit, literally rotting off him in the conditions, so I need to post these to him asap"

Im adamant I lost a mate in Iraq due to kit shortages/crap kit , he was in a FOB had given his armor to one of his lads going out on patrol in a snatch who’s armor was falling apart , FOB got mortared and he was cought in the blast , report said he died instantly but you do have to think mite he have had a chance if he’d had his armor on instead of having to give it to one of his lads to keep him safe ?

[Tackle]

21 minutes ago, AshOnSnow said:

Most dangerous situation they’ve put him in is a 3 week ski trip in the alps 😂😂

You can never underestimate the danger of Brain Freeze as a result of a glass of pimms with too much ice in it 😉.

[Guest pierce09]

On 08/07/2018 at 13:22, Tackle said:

Was in wolf armouries bout 10 years ago, pretty girl comes in with a specific list of kit, pc/pouches etc, when asked where she played she replied "oh no they're not for me, my fiances deployed in Afghanistan & his issued kit is shit, literally rotting off him in the conditions, so I need to post these to him asap"

 

I bought quite a few things on my last tour as the issued stuff wasn't great. most guys bought their own boots and cold weather kit. i bought boots, gloves, day sack and a few smaller items. spent a fortune. 

[AshOnSnow]

30 minutes ago, pierce09 said:

 

I bought quite a few things on my last tour as the issued stuff wasn't great. most guys bought their own boots and cold weather kit. i bought boots, gloves, day sack and a few smaller items. spent a fortune. 

What rank?.

 

would your COs have kicked up a fuss if you’d have ditched the standard issue equipment in favour of privately bought armour and stuff?

[Guest pierce09]

17 minutes ago, AshOnSnow said:

What rank?.

 

would your COs have kicked up a fuss if you’d have ditched the standard issue equipment in favour of privately bought armour and stuff?

 

I was a Cpl on my last tour to Afghan. Most guys bought boots and cold weather gear. My 2007 tour, a few guys bought Kandahar plate carriers if they were on mobility teams. getting in and out of a vehicle in that first iteration of Osprey was fucking horrendous. By 2010, it was claimed that if you weren't wearing Osprey, your PAX life insurance wouldn't cover you if you got injured. Probably some bull to scare young lads into keeping issued kit on. Mk4 Osprey wasn't quite as bad as the earlier stuff but its never been massively popular afaik. i certainly never liked any of it.

[AshOnSnow]

7 minutes ago, pierce09 said:

 

I was a Cpl on my last tour to Afghan. Most guys bought boots and cold weather gear. My 2007 tour, a few guys bought Kandahar plate carriers if they were on mobility teams. getting in and out of a vehicle in that first iteration of Osprey was fucking horrendous. By 2010, it was claimed that if you weren't wearing Osprey, your PAX life insurance wouldn't cover you if you got injured. Probably some bull to scare young lads into keeping issued kit on. Mk4 Osprey wasn't quite as bad as the earlier stuff but its never been massively popular afaik. i certainly never liked any of it.

Well the insurance thing was certainly understandable though. But you did have the option for personal equipment if you so chose (and accepted the risks and lack of insurance)?

[Guest pierce09]

5 minutes ago, AshOnSnow said:

Well the insurance thing was certainly understandable though. But you did have the option for personal equipment if you so chose (and accepted the risks and lack of insurance)?

 

Personally, I was stuck with Osprey and a Mk7 helmet but I was attached to line infantry. Colleagues attached to SF units were issued Paraclete stuff or bought Kandahar shit so as to blend in to the units they worked with. 

 

If I'm honest, it never even entered my mind I could buy a plate carrier at that time. I just put up with the shitty pouches, the horrendous fit and the chaffing everywhere. 

[Duff]

Just came to a wonderful realisation for an alternative plate for my JPC...

 

 

[Druid799]

32 minutes ago, Duff said:

Just came to a wonderful realisation for an alternative plate for my JPC...

 

 

Good thinking Batman ! Then I thought even better one of the flexible ones ? 

 

[Duff]

Yeah but they defrost a lot quicker.

[jcheeseright]

1 hour ago, Duff said:

Just came to a wonderful realisation for an alternative plate for my JPC...

 

 

 

https://www.qoreperformance.com/products/iceplate

[Adolf Hamster]

3 hours ago, Duff said:

Just came to a wonderful realisation for an alternative plate for my JPC...

 

 

 

 

Not all heroes wear capes...

[TheFull9]

Not specifically aimed at the previous post; just my .02

 

I think the best alternative to putting ice in your PC due to excessive heat is to just wear a very compact chest rig/belt with a good, lightweight combat shirt or t-shirt, and this is from someone who owns many excessively priced PCs and has worn them pretty much exclusively for years and years.  Keep seeing people literally fall the fuck down due to wearing their uber-tactical and edgy not-multicam all black loadouts in the 30+ degree baking sun wearing plate carriers.  I cannot personally imagine many things more embarrassing than failing to survive a bloody airsoft game because you chose your kit so utterly poorly and can't manage to drink enough water.  

 

Ice or ice packs help with temperature somewhat as long as you wrap them suitably so you're not getting essentially a shock in one localised area (that can have genuinely bad results), however we have all evolved this brilliant thing called sweat that works a treat when combined with the right clothing choices.  No matter what cooling options you stuff in a PC it stops sweat evaporation from 2 gigantic and absolutely crucial surface areas i.e. your chest and back, where all those organs are and the central point for blood circulation - those are the biggest flat areas you have to facilitate evaporation.

 

I'm not saying don't do it it's entirely personal choice, I've worn PCs out in the summer, but I take them off highly regularly and make sure I have a 1-2L bladder equipped at minimum to drink in the field with 2-3L worth of bottles in my bag to drink during breaks and/or re-plen the bladder.  Last game I played about a week ago I went for the Spiritus systems chest rig and I saw so many people suffering the effects of heat stroke and dehydration is was pretty shocking.  I know some people are more predisposed to it whatever they do, but most people are not in that category and it's just their own lack of self care that causes the problems.

[Tackle]

Amen to everything the man above said, ditch the full pc's & just use something that carries what you need.

If you still need something that has military pretensions, can't recommend a bulls mle platform enough, 6 rows of mole, open back so doesn't hold the heat in but does have small molle platform on the harness so you can mount a hydration pouch on it, super comfy too, I wore one for a 72hr pretty hard core milsim, with a 120l Bergen on my back, didn't even know I had it on, id have killed for one back in the day when my everyday rig was 58pattern.

[TheFull9]

MLE was the 2nd rig I ever owned for airsoft, back around 2007.  First rig was a clone of some marine issued armour carrier (of the time) that didn't even fit me so I only wore that to my first ever game.  Granted the MLE is a knock-off of the Tac Tailor 2-piece MAV, but it's cheaper than the MAV and the quality is borderline really-fucking-close to TT; at least it was a couple of years back last time I owned anything BULLE.

 

Super cheap too for the quality you get, that's why I recommend it so often.  I think if anyone's looking for a smaller rig to swap to in the height of summer it's hard to beat; there's other compact rigs of course that are just as good, some might even be better in some ways but stuff like the the spiritus costs waaaaay more money; the MLE is always good.

[Dentonboy]

Yeah, had an MLE myself up until last year. Was superbly built. Only sold it on as the BFG CR I acquired was getting more use. 

[Adolf Hamster]

Last game day it was brutal heat so i just took the sig out and a pocketful of mags, no belts, no plate carriers, no "rigging" of any kind.

 

And of course as is the way with this game i ended up slaughtering in an outdoor game using only a pistol. Maybe everyone was sweating too much in their black pc's

[Druid799]

This time of yr if it actually is hot and sunny 😉 I go for a cotton bodied UBACS (holds some of the sweat so cools me down nicely) I’ve got a couple of different camo pattern Frog ones lovey bits of kit .

Short length Light weight plate carrier , no side plates pouches , cummerbund or anything just two straps , hydro on the back couple of mag pouches and away to go ! As to keeping your self hydrated one thing that drives me demented on hot days is all the players I see chugging down cans of monster/Red Bull/etc , those poxy things will f**k you up big time on hot days ! Recently I’ve been seeing a definite spike in admissions in work (A&E ) down to those drinks , when your hot and sweaty your pulse rate is already increasing due dehydration , what you need is plain old H2O NOT something that’s full of caffeine and is going to increase your heart rate even more , but will they be told ? Nope not a chance no matter how nicely I try to inform them of the dangers they know best !🤦‍♂️

then the thing that really pisses me off is hr or two late I have marshaling staff come over and asking for help/advise because the very same players have now come back to the safezone feeling like shit and I’m loosing my game time helping the players out who got in to this state because they wouldn’t take telling ! 😡 

so children if it’s hot as hell please leave the ‘energy’ drinks alone and just drink water .👍😁

[Tackle]

Another thing that people don't consider is the day before the gameday, many people, me included, can be borderline dehydrated in their day to day activities, drinking but likely not enough in the summer, especially if workplaces frown upon drinks around expensive machinery/technology, so are restricted to very limited breaks.

I had it happen to me before a BFT (now known as CFT ?),day before had a crap assignment that was literally non stop, so allowed fluid levels to run low, prob lager that night in the naafi too, next days BFT was in mega hot weather, even though I was supremely fit, I keeled over like a sack of shit, dropped back to billet in a landy, staggered inside & promptly passed out on the floor next to my bed, found there hour later by my mates when they got back, literally lying in a puddle of god knows what on the barrack floor, the lads couldn't believe it was me that dropped as I was prob fittest in the squad, just shows what a difference a few pints of pwemium h2o the day before would have made.

 

Many years later had a bad experience with energy drinks, not a fan of them but my usual 5am commute was a struggle one particular week, so rather than doze of at the wheel I chugged a couple accompanied by gratuitous amounts of haribo, by 10am I was shaking & hyperventilating, fixed it with with a 5 mile fast walk followed by a mixed grill, I'm sure the walk fixed it but better safe than sorry 😉, but I could see how someone could panic & head to a&e.

[TheFull9]

It's hi kwaliteh h2o you need, that's where most folks go wrong.

[Tackle]

8 minutes ago, CKinnerley said:

It's hi kwaliteh h2o you need, that's where most folks go wrong.

 

[Rogerborg]

Water prevents dehydration?  You're all getting the jail.

 

Unless...

 

[Tackle]

On ‎14‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 14:36, Duff said:

Just came to a wonderful realisation for an alternative plate for my JPC...

 

 

 

23 hours ago, Druid799 said:

Good thinking Batman ! Then I thought even better one of the flexible ones ? 

 

if your gonna go down that road, aside from the already mentioned risks from "freezing" some of your internal organs, once the packs have defrosted your still carrying the weight of them, for no good reason, surely better to look at fake hard plates that double as hydration bladders, chill or freeze (your choice) them the night before, ice cold water on "tap", & freeze a couple of plastic bottles of pwemium h2o for safezone top ups of the plates ?.

[TheFull9]

I get where you're coming from.. but once the pack warms up you just take it out.  There'll be very few airsoft scenarios where you're not physically able to drop it off somewhere.

 

My personal preferred method is still to just drink plenty of normal water (along with a small packet of salted crisps) and allow yourself to evaporate sweat, because historically over the past few millions of years it's got the most evidence behind it in terms of working, but I wouldn't say there are no other possible methods of cooling that can be made to work.