Plate carrier set up(detailed) HRT RAC (2023)

Introduction

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Video

How's it going everybody hope you're all doing well.

So I want to give you a Rig Rundown, or how do I set up my carrier for my use.

And that is the key word here in this.

This is for my use maybe not yours.

This is to generate ideas on how I run stuff operationally.

This plate carrier has been through a lot in the last two years of actually doing operational things quite a bit and I've dialed in my kit to pretty much fit exactly what I need for my mission.

So let's dive into it like I said, this isn't, a perfect way.

I do not expect you to copy this setup.

So let's dive into it.

Now, we're going to go over the front initially first and go in through the details.

So if you want a little bit of lengthy of a video, this is probably it because we're gonna go dive into all the little nitty-gritty stuff, it's, pretty good.

So this originally, the whole carrier itself is a rack carrier from HRT I've been using this carrier for over two years.

Now, which has been really great same with the placard.

This one is their Maximus placard, which has the two admin pouches, three magazines, four AR type.

And then you also have two pistol magazines, which I've modified here, which we'll discuss.

So moving from the top down, initially I do run padding.

Now, this is padding with the carrier I, prefer it, mainly because of the weight that I have on this.

It is heavier than some of your typical carrier weights, mainly because I do not use a battle belt system like this often I will use one.

But depending on the position I am in within my team.

And the mission that we are doing that day I will kind of swap off.

But typically I run just the carrier.

And and then just a pistol on the side with no battle belt, setup, which I'll go through the battle belt setup in another time.

So like I said, the weight because I have all this stuff as in like running comms dual comms, you know, running the ATAC or the war attack system.

It tends to be taxing on my back, which we'll get into is a pontoon system that's in this really nice.

So initially, as you can see everyone's like, oh, wow, you're running, you know, your cell phone.

Well, this isn't my cell phone.

Actually, this is an issued cell phone.

This is actually a Galaxy Note 3 from way back in the day, because the military is very slow to catch up with things.

It is a very old and slow device.

But for my mission set, it is extremely essential for what I do.

This is nice because it puts a GPS, you know device if you're familiar with ATAC or attack based systems on you.

So anyone who runs that system? You can see everyone's location through an encrypted only net, which is beneficial.

And what I do I like to see everybody where they're at and I do different calls, which is why I have more admin stuff alongside the fighting stuff.

So yes, this is issued to me.

Both these systems, not purchased I don't have that type of money just to shovel out like five grand just to do a video for.

You know, YouTube and then make five dollars off of it for some of you naysayers out there.

Next on the side here I am running the Motorola com.

This typically is on my back left hand side with my left hand, I can access.

It I rotate it around perfectly.

So I can get the volume control, which specifically this one also has a high and a low setting on it.

And then also a different uh program for each year, but I can go high or low if necessary, depending if I'm in a vehicle and we're hitting it really hard.

And the engine RPM is super hard and high and I can't hear anything I will just flip that up.

And then it'll project more sound out or say, I, Dismount from my vehicle and want to go more quiet I can flip that back down and it'll bring down the decibels quite a bit, which is really nice.

So normally I route that underneath two mags and an asp, which is required to ask for the lesson a less than lethal device.

And then it routes in to my Kong moving further down.

This is the H, um, the Maximus placard.

So so it does clip in it's nice because it doesn't interfere with the vortec based system or ATAC, depending on whatever term you guys like but it's, nice.

It hangs fairly low, but not so low it's like banging into my knees or anything like that.

It does have Provisions for three magazines.

It does not have over the top, um, technically Airborne based rated stuff.

But these are very tight reasonably tight, they're, easily accessible, but they are constricted around.

So they actually hold very nicely now moving further down into the carrier itself.

Everybody wants to see.

Why are you running admin pouches up front because this eliminates you from going prone? And then you get your head shot, which particularly I run more admin stuff because I find it more useful in the position that I am in now let's dive into it.

Now these pouches are very nice, I.

Typically, keep both of the keepers Center Line with me.

So normally my left hand is using it.

So I can come over midline of my body.

And if I only need that much then I can open it up.

And then the other side is the same way.

Normally my right hand is taken up by a weapon system or my rifle, which I can sling to the side if I do need access to this.

So some of this is also for pcc's pcis.

For example, this is a barrel cover that I've been using for a while this is during pcc's pcis.

This just stays in here for now.

But when I get my weapon system, this gets thrown on.

So this isn't even a factor in this when I'm actually running it.

Now, interestingly, enough I do carry hand, sanitizer because I am out for long periods of time and I am eating snacks and I'm reasonably trying to stay healthy.

If I need to I can pull that out I also have an optic cleaner.

Normally just because it's nice, if it's raining specifically I use the ACOG when I have my weapon system down to the side I'm out in foul weather, I like to be able to, you know, clean off my optic and other stuff like that and night vision if necessary so it's, really lightweight.

It doesn't take up a lot, but I use it a ton.

So handcuffed key just in case, pretty much.

We always have these on us.

I also have a extension sea burn strap.

Now this is meant for your helmet.

So when you run a helmet or something like that, and you would Don your gas mask, typically the helmet or chin, strap isn't long enough.

And then they just leave their dangling all over the place.

And you look like a [ __ ].

So if you put this on it just extends it two inches.

So now your gas mask and your helmet meshed together extremely well.

Plus when you're running night vision, you have all that weight up top.

It doesn't your helmet, doesn't just flop off your body or off your head.

So this little thing is really nice I, highly recommend it, especially if you're running gas mask, which we are required in a position that I am in for certain applications, because we employ certain gas let's say, legal, of course, don't freak out it's CS to be specific.

Next I have a pencil, which this is a right in the rain one.

This is like a big heavy duty metal one that you can like beat the crap out of it's a little heavy, but I do write like writing in pencils or pencil, a lot for admin purposes because you can erase and it doesn't run.

But also right in the Rain Inc works too.

So blah, blah, blah now I run a Sharpie.

Of course, honestly you should always have a Sharpie on you for marking literally anything also I run, three different Vis markers.

Now the reason I run these two is these are kind of my give outs is if someone's okay? Do you have a viz and then I can hand one out and not be out, but I normally use black and I use red and I have a backup because literally all of you, if my co-workers are watching, this always ask me for things that is why I carry extra stuff be prepared more anyways off of the ramp.

Next this is a faraday bag or a anti-tracking bag.

Now, depending on what I'm doing in it I will have to slip this slip, my cell phone inside of this to knock out all the Bluetooth, all the GPS all that kind of stuff, depending on what I'm doing.

This is pretty much daily used for certain things that I do my cell phone or watch or whatever is necessary will go in this bag.

And it keeps me off the grid.

So I can't be tracked.

This is kind of a requirement if necessary for us so I run it right in here.

And then that typically goes down in a cargo pocket after I'm like it's it's in there run extra batteries, three CR, 120, uh, threes or uh, CR2032, sorry, I'm so used to the other ones, um, just carry some aspirin in there.

And then ear Pro is in the bottom.

Now I also carry an extra set in my cargo pocket, which I always use.

These are just kind of that back up in case, I, forget in my cargo pocket and I go to the range or I'm training, or if someone else loses theirs.

So that is in there as well.

So let's move over to the other side again.

It is Center Line.

So I can easily access depending on whatever height if I just need that I can peer into this and it's good to go or I can go all the way down and I can pull this.

And you see the zipper it'll ride down by itself.

And then I'll show you everything in here.

So starting up top I do have well I'm not going to show you the specifics in the back because they're sensitive material and items like range cards and specific sections that's what's kind of in the back.

And then also I have a gov like a government license and everything that's back behind this.

But I also carry it right in the rain book that is able to take notes and has phone numbers and all kinds of other good information or say, if we're going somewhere and I need to take notes on it before we leave or step off base or whatever we have that available getting further into this I carry right up front for cr123s.

Now, a lot of people say, ah, keep that somewhere else, they're just easily accessible.

They work up there and I have extras because we burn through these quite a bit, whether it be deepek or my light, or you know, Surefire, whatever it is these come in handy and I go through them quite a bit.

So that's, why I've honestly put them up here in a more sustained area.

Now here we have a Streamlight.

And this is a red and white lens light.

Now when this is buttoned up, I typically use this as my admin light red, you can see right here.

And this is anglible.

So I can do whatever I want or put it.

So normally when I'm sitting in my lap in a dark environment, I can click this on it'll illuminate my lap, very easily and I can write notes or take, you know, bearings or see where I'm at or all that kind of stuff.

Now also Vortec tends to light up my face, which is not very fun, but you can just hit that off.

And then not worry about it or dim down the screen immensely.

So you do got to be worried about the white light or the white NDS, even with war attack.

If you're just checking or ATAC, if you're looking that, white light could come back on your face.

Someone night vision, see you probably a mile away.

So just things to think about, but I employ it at that location.

Now, pretty cool because this little thing it is rechargeable, This, Little Light.

So it slips down in there, it's meant to go into Molly as well, and you can just kind of bend it around wherever you want.

And it is rechargeable USB.

This comes out and little you just stick this in and recharge it, which I haven't had to recharge it for a long time and it's all dusty and beat up.

But that rides in there for admin purposes, I have water, purification tabs, just in case, they're so thin, they just get out of the way.

And just in case, if I'm on a longer long long up, you know, it's nice to have water refill capability in a canteen getting further down in I carry a vs.

17 panel, a little tiny one on me, mainly for marking because often deconfliction when we're trying to find if one of our teams or Vehicles go over to this side and go to that side.

And then we have to converge or we have to mark something let's just let's just say, met TC that's.

Why I have it in here? Um, it's nice to be able to deconflict on the go immediately rather than rummaging around in something else, or like, oh, I forgot to bring it with me.

This is always on me and available to be used, um I have rubber gloves in here as well they're zip tied or not zip tied, but uh, ah, what is it? One wrap cable tie, I have rubber gloves.

Just in case, I have to search someone or I pick up something or do do whatever it's nice to have rubber gloves.

I do have a nine volt in here as well, because most of our rangefinders and stuff like that use nine volts, which is really goofy and I don't like it, but I carry an extra one.

And of course, I carry a signaling device, which is a whistle for that verbal or to do commands.

Hey, two, blasts mean, this four blast mean that blah blah, blah, you can hear not going to go into details, but I carry one it's fairly effective.

Now, I do like having these admin pouches, because they can compress that very well, all right so let's dive in even further on the right hand side, I carry a flashlight, which this is a Power Attack like E5, which I've used for years and years.

And years went to Afghanistan with it.

Nice white light available.

You can click it up and down I like having white lights, very easily accessible to my hand.

Not just particularly on my weapon system.

So if I'm running a weapon system, I have my white light, but then sometimes I would also like to have a handheld so I'm, not pointing a rifle in potentially other people non-threatening people's face or feet or something like that moving further down.

Now, this is a feral Concepts, mini dangler.

And this in here has pretty much a full IFA in it.

Not gonna fully divulge I.

Guess I can go into a little bit because it's going to be a very long video, which I guess some of you like that, but I carry two I carry a small four inch compression, Israeli bandage, a six inch combat, gauze, um, shears, nasopharyngeal Airway is right there combat gauze is there I carry a Sharpie in here as well combat or t, Triple C card.

And then also occlusive dressing or, um chest seals is what most people say, um and then a needle D or needle decompression or for tension, pneumothorax if necessary it's in there.

And then at the bottom I carry an easily accessible tourniquet, which as you see there's one over here as well and one here.

So midline of my body, regardless left hand, right? Hand.

I have a left-handed, tourniquet and I have a right-handed tourniquet.

And this one can also be used Ambi.

Just in case, it's there, it's, accessible, I always see, I also carry one in my kind of ankle pocket typically they're down there as well now moving further down, which is this I, don't know, if you can see, this is the HRT hand warmer.

Now we are in a cold climate and I am in the northern United States.

So it gets negative 50 here kind of average.

So this is a hand warmer.

You put hand warmers inside of it it's like a tube.

You put your hands I.

Normally put my cold weather gloves as you can see in here, which is nice they're, just a nice place to be stowed and I typically run.

These gloves, they're ambidextrous or a very dexterity base and not Ambi, of course, they're Ambi because they're both hands, duh, but anyways, they're very warm.

But then they also allow that movement of my hands for also doing admin tasks and stuff like that.

So I also carry on the other side here, Pig gloves, um, the fin.

These are the Deltas over here, but ultimately I carry cold weather and the um warm weather or tactical gloves.

I guess you could say it just depends on what I'm doing if I'm doing fine out deep finite.

Detail, I'll, uh, run with that.

Um before we move on I do route my column systems through these little bungees, mainly just to keep it neat and nice.

And this will split away if necessary so I can take my war attack.

And if I pull this, it comes undone.

So now I can like show people and other stuff like that.

And this normally just Clips right back in disappears.

No issue.

So let's get around to my right side.

So my right side, I typically carry two red, chems immediately, accessible, right here.

Now I do swap these out every couple months because they do degrade over time.

Blah, blah, blah, UV light.

It kind of hits them.

But I'll rotate them out in between is a soft T wide tourniquet, which is fairly handy I like it quite a bit it's easily accessible.

It has, um, not.

It has rubber bands or the ranger bands like inner tubing to put these.

And you can rip this off if necessary behind it, I run a paint can key to pull out, uh, cartridges that are stuck inside, um your chamber, which is interesting I've had one do that in the past and I was like.

Wow.

This is dumb how do I fix this and I've tested it, and it works fairly well.

Paint can key cool.

Now I have one blue, chem stick as well, just mainly because, hey, sop or whatever deconfliction I run, actually two greens on the right hand side as well.

So cool that's.

What I do or how I run it just because it helps out quite a bit moving over to the right hand side over here.

I run two of these Flex cuffs, which these are really nice because they also are bungeed in.

And you can tear these away very easily.

And then these are all folded up very nicely too.

So they only take up one stretch of Molly, which is fairly nice because I hate cuffs being taking up so much and they're heavier.

These things are way lighter weight.

And we honestly have the option to use flex cuffs or handcuffs, depending on what we're doing so I run, Flex, cuffs, I also do have handcuffs in my third line, gear and stuff like that, but that's a whole different discussion.

Third line gear for another time.

And if you guys want to hear about that give me a comment, if you do want to see third line, gear, I, literally have a whole 72 hour pack that goes with me every single day and is required for flight Ops and all that kind of stuff, of course, back here is wave, relay and I can access this button it's like really a bit of a of a chore to go back behind and hit that button.

But I can I can do it alone now going to the back this is going to be controversial for some of you.

So this is actually a water bottle.

And people are gonna think this is nuts and you're like why would you do that there's so much weight and blah, blah, blah typically runs slick.

I do have a back panel that goes on, but I.

Normally don't run.

It unless I'm doing sustained Ops, which I'll get into and kind of that third line gear, video.

But this is nice for a back support.

Honestly, I run in vehicles quite a bit.

My lower back kills me all the time, even if I run a belt, if I don't run a belt, whatever it is it still hurts and I need to have water on me accessible.

Now, this is a roll one trauma kit from Pharaoh Concepts funny enough I tore out the trauma kit portion, which it does.

It comes out and I've replaced it with a smart or a life wire bottle I.

Typically this one's brand new I, just replaced it.

The other day and it's nice because this slips right in here, I have water on me at all times.

Now I could run a water.

Bladder I have in the past like I talked about the back panel.

This can come off.

And if I don't want this anymore, you literally just pull this out, throw it aside.

And this goes 100 slick.

You could run a trauma kit in here.

I do not but that's just me, I know, some people are going to hate on that.

But hey, it works.

Honestly, it helps my back out quite a bit and hydration on me at all times with most people lack most people on their kits, just send it through the door, do whatever they're doing, but they have zero.

Sustainability items on them.

Water is key, especially when I'm pushing 12 hours, I, wouldn't, say, averagely, but about 10 hours per day normally in this kit.

So moving over to the other side, real quick we're getting down.

There, I know, this video is long some of you like that that's cool.

My radio pouch is over here.

And here is a Blue Force Gear, mini dump pouch.

Pretty much.

You can pull this.

Of course it expands out, and you put all kinds of other stuff.

Water can go in there.

If you find Intel or you need to take flashbangs or I need to take CS or stuns or whatever it is it's.

An extra compartment for items that I can Stow very quickly or hand out, you know, maybe Maps or Intel or a dagger device, which is a military GPS.

You know, I can even put a 152 temporarily in there.

Yeah, it's gonna be banging off my side, it's kind of annoying.

But at least it is out of my hands because I hate when things are in my hands.

Because the only thing that should be in my hand.

Realistically is either nav stuff or my weapon system.

The rest has to have a spot that's.

Just my opinion rant over.

Sorry.

This is how I feel about it.

Two magazines, pouches on the side.

And then I also run two green chems over here.

And then my ASP pouch as well.

So I, normally just stick these Green chems in there.

The green ones are typically what we use for rsop.

So they get used very frequently.

I also carry my M18 magazine over here, very nice.

Stowed away.

Also I forgot to mention on the left side, I carry a MAG on the inside, which is really nice.

And then I also have the quick disconnect from spear the spear tubes, which is honestly, really nice.

Let me zip this up real quick.

You can just pull these, and it just expands out.

So normally that works fairly well and I like it because I'm, not using the velcro constantly of tearing this up.

And it degrades the velcro over time, these spear tubes eliminate that.

So the carrier can get way more life out of it.

So that was a quick rundown of what I specifically use I'm, trying to think of anything else on here that is like potential.

People would want to know about, um, I do run medium plates.

And a large carrier I have pontoons in the back they're, little, um, rubber, uh, pontoon type of things that run down.

And it keeps an air channel that goes down behind your back good for hot weather, okay for cold weather, because you still want a moisture Wick and cold weather.

But, um, yeah.

So pretty long video like I said, but I wanted to just talk about.

This is how I use it.

This is my use I have used this.

This isn't, just the airsoft kit because I've never played Airsoft in this, which I would like to try realistically if I ever have the time because I've heard it's pretty good.

But this is an actual operational kit that I have used.

It may not work for you and that's.

Okay, just give you some ideas of how people run stuff that's all this is if you have a better kit run with it I'm, not too concerned, find something that works for you.

And then just Tinker with it just keep modifying it until you find a perfect setup.

And technically this isn't, even a perfect setup, because I always make little tiny adjustments all over the place, trying to find a better better way to do stuff.

So if you guys like this kind of stuff, if you want to see my third line stuff and belt kit and other stuff like that, like, literally I have a belt kit over here that I run and it's fully modular.

It literally comes all apart with tech locks.

This thing can be super slick in an instant.

If you guys want to see that definitely give me a comment down below like subscribe, I, appreciate, it comments help out immensely if you want to see more I'm, probably going to do more of this stuff, definitely, uh, subscribe and I'm gonna move the camera real quick because I have a lot of experience with uh, play carriers, there's, a play carrier there's, a play carrier there's, a really beat up play carrier there's.

Another play carrier.

So don't think this is my only Pele carrier setup.

But honestly, this is the only one I've been using for a very long time.

All these other ones are one.

Two of them are newer that I'm testing.

And then a bunch of them are just old from way back in the day I even have an iotv running around here somewhere from Afghanistan from gy Days man that thing was heavy.

But anyways, aside from the point it's, too long.

You got guys enjoyed this thing like subscribe greatly appreciate it and we'll.

Uh, see you in the next video.