I’m hoping to get some advice on belts. Not serpentine belts, vacuum belts, or even standard gun belts, but something more along the lines of battle belts, or 3 gun belts.
This is what I want to accomplish… I think…
Sorry in advance for the long post.
I want to be able to… and I hate this term…”run and gun” on my property. I have a small course set up right now, running down a hill, ending up at my pistol range, engaging about 18 targets. Some at short distances like 7 yards using a pistol, and some at distances up to 100 yards with a rifle. The pistol are steel targets, the rifle are paper targets. This course takes a fat, overweight, out of shape, uncoordinated guy like me who falls a lot, about 3 minutes to complete right now. And when I say “right now” I mean “in the summer” because I don’t do much besides watch TV, and stare blankly at the wall, in the winter.
I’ve ran this course using my G17 and my AR, and it’s very fun. It also seems to be very good exercise going up and down that hill, which is another reason I want to do it. The problem is I don’t have a real good way to hold spare mags. I have a few IWB holsters, and a paddle Serpa, for that pistol, along with a dual mag pouch for the pistol mags, but would like to step it up a notch and go with some sort of belt system.
Most of the shooting I do lately is pistol, and would fall under the IDPA style of training, but I told myself I was going to start doing more training this coming summer with the rifle so I guess that would be considered multigun. Now I’m not much of a shotgun lover, but recently acquired a lightly modded Benelli M2, so I’m sure there will be some shotgun stuff added to the course as well. I’m not so concerned about shell carriers yet though.
If I do end up loving the shotgun part of 3 gun style shooting, I’ll end up buying a dedicated 3 gun belt setup with inner and outer belts, shell carriers, etc…
For now… lets say I don’t have a shotgun.
Basically my question is should I get a battle belt or a 3 gun style belt system?
I know that most of the 3 gun belts have an inner belt that loops through your pant belt loops, with Velcro on the outside. Then you attach, by Velcro, the outer belt with all your gear on it, to that. I also realize one advantage of the 3 gun belt is that you can place items directly in front where a belt buckle would go which I like a lot. I also like the fact that the 3 gun belts have the inner belt which already holds up your pants… with a battle belt… You’d need to have another belt to do that right? Since I like to show at least 4 inches of my Tommy Hilfiger boxers at all times like all the cool kids do… I may have a problem there though…
Some advantages of the battle belt that I see are:
1. Wanna go shoot? Grab the belt, one clip and it’s on… boom you’re ready.
2. You don’t have to thread the inner belt on your regular pants, and then attach the outer belt. This can be advantageous for just a quick hour of shooting, not to mention the emergency or SHTF type scenarios.
Speaking of SHTF… I may also want to get some sort of chest rig for that. I’m not a Doomsday Prepper or anything, but:
I like to be prepared…
I secretly enjoy the “mall commando” aspect of it…
and I have a little extra funding right now so I might as well go full out right?
I’ve tried running my course with my IWB holster and it was just no fun doing transitions with an IWB holster and a slung rifle. I’m scared of my Serpa holster, but I do have one of those cheaper tactical vests that I got as a gift. The ones you see at Cheaper than Dirt for like 60 bucks… It has lots of mag pouches, a belt, and a universal thigh holster, but I don’t like how low the holster is, and there’s no retention other than the strap which is a pain to use while moving. I tried the vest once, but I probably won’t be using it again.
It looks cool though…
Also the mag pouches on the vest are difficult to get to. They have Velcro flaps which are slow to access and “tactically” loud which sucks when I’m on a silent but deadly mission to get to the Oreo cookies without my kids noticing. So I’m looking for some type of system that is easy and fast, to access spare mags for my rifle and pistol.
I like the idea of the battle belt because:
1. It’s easy to grab and put on, when I go to the range.
2. Quick to put on if I have 15 minutes to do some reload drills or something down stairs.
3. Will fashion coordinate with a future chest rig.
4. I can attach SHTF stuff like knives, med kits, lollipops, etc..
5. I like to say the phrase “Battle Belt”
But I like the 3 gun belt because:
1. I feel that if I ever do compete in an actual 3 gun match, I think that the 2 belt system is more secure.
2. It will hold my pants up better without the need for another belt.
3. I can put things exactly where I need them, like condoms, right above my wee wee.
I’m assuming I could use a battle belt for 3 gun competitions, and if I really get into it, then I could get a dedicated 3 gun belt system. But do I have to wear a separate belt underneath just to keep my pants up?
Then there’s the holster thing I’m concerned with. I want to get a new OWB holster for this, since I fear for my life whenever I look at the Serpa, but not sure what to go with. Should I go with a standard “friction retention” Kydex holster like I normally see on battle belts, or something like a Safariland or Blade-Tech, thumb break retention style holsters? I don’t want my gun falling out, but I’m not sure If I need to go with a level 2 type retention or anything since the only thing I’m really at war with is mosquito’s. Of course I know that if I ever did compete, and my gun goes AWOL… I’m DQ’d, which will put me SOL and I will be PO’d, but that’s enough of that BS.
So…
Should I go with a battle belt or a 3 gun belt?
Should I get an all kydex friction retention holster or a thumb break style holster?
Or… should I sell all my guns so I don’t have to worry about this and take up knitting?