Ammo bearing
Being real old, I am habituated to certain gear and load bearing modes. Mostly stuff I learned in the 60's. Thing is, it works. When I gaze upon Molle gear my shrunken brain gets foggy around the edges and I find myself contemplating "how it was in the day".
My MBRs fall into four ammo categories.
1: 7.62X54r. All Mosin Nagants, Russian and Finn. The stripper clips are a bit clumsy and are best stowed with the cartridges pointed down and snugly packed. I place small pieces of thin card board between the clips.The classic Russian double pouches hold 6 clips with 30 rounds. They are of limited usefulness due to the need to place them on a belt. I have found the nylon 5 pouch M16 bandoleers work quite well, holding 3 clips for a total of 75 rounds per bandoleer.. The bandoleers are very comfortable and easily handled. Two bandoleers and two Russian leather pouches provide a field load.
2: 30-06, All Garands. Each rifle has an assigned load bearing vest of the type that attaches to a web belt, designed for 40mm grenades. Each pouch holds one 8 round clip. The vests have 18 pouches, allowing for 144 rounds. I can jam 7 clips (56 rounds) in an M16 magazine pouch, this giving a full combat load of 200 rounds on the vest and one web belt pouch. As well, one can use the standard Garand cloth bandoleers which hold 6 clips at 48 rounds.
3: 7.62x51 NATO: Have 4 Indian SMLE 2A rifles which have 10 or 12 round detachable magazines. The rifle is equipped with a stripper clip feeding well, so here again, I use the M16 nylon bandoleers and one M16 magazine pouch which will easily hold 30 rounds on five round stripper clips. My preferred clip is for the Swedish 6.5mm Mauser, which will readily support both 7.62x51 and 30-06. Have a couple of M1A's which use 20 round detachable magazines and are equipped with a stripper clip feeding well which allows for recharging the magazine while attached to the rifle. This also allows usage of the 75 round bandoleers and no need for more than 5 magazines. Have recently obtained a FAL which uses the 20 round metric magazines. Like the AK and AR platforms, stripper clip charging of the magazines requires detachment from the rifle and a small metal adapter temporarily attached to the magazine. This I do not regard favorably. Have yet to work out the most competent space and weight sparing load bearing method for the FAL. Any suggestions?
4: 7.62x39 combloc. I have 6 SKS rifles, which, unlike the AK, possess stripper clip feeding wells. I use the 210 round chicom chest bandoleers, 9 pouches holding two 10 round stripper clips each and one pouch holding 3 clips. or maintenance tools. I can carry more ammo with less weight and space usage than the "banana" AK magazines.
It is my contention, that with training and practice, a soldier can reload and fire more rounds per minute with stripper clips through a feeding well than one can with detachable magazines. If you have not tried it after adequate practice, don't knock it. The same goes for the Garand as compared to its son, the M1A/M14. I remember watching a group of WW2 vets in their 80's at a range firing better than 40 aimed rounds a minute with Garands.There are only 3 short steps to reloading a Garand as compared to 5 for the M14. 6 steps if you intend to recover the empty magazine after detaching it from the rifle. Stripper clips are more disposable than magazines, and so light as to easily allow for carrying 100 empty ones.
corpsman
My MBRs fall into four ammo categories.
1: 7.62X54r. All Mosin Nagants, Russian and Finn. The stripper clips are a bit clumsy and are best stowed with the cartridges pointed down and snugly packed. I place small pieces of thin card board between the clips.The classic Russian double pouches hold 6 clips with 30 rounds. They are of limited usefulness due to the need to place them on a belt. I have found the nylon 5 pouch M16 bandoleers work quite well, holding 3 clips for a total of 75 rounds per bandoleer.. The bandoleers are very comfortable and easily handled. Two bandoleers and two Russian leather pouches provide a field load.
2: 30-06, All Garands. Each rifle has an assigned load bearing vest of the type that attaches to a web belt, designed for 40mm grenades. Each pouch holds one 8 round clip. The vests have 18 pouches, allowing for 144 rounds. I can jam 7 clips (56 rounds) in an M16 magazine pouch, this giving a full combat load of 200 rounds on the vest and one web belt pouch. As well, one can use the standard Garand cloth bandoleers which hold 6 clips at 48 rounds.
3: 7.62x51 NATO: Have 4 Indian SMLE 2A rifles which have 10 or 12 round detachable magazines. The rifle is equipped with a stripper clip feeding well, so here again, I use the M16 nylon bandoleers and one M16 magazine pouch which will easily hold 30 rounds on five round stripper clips. My preferred clip is for the Swedish 6.5mm Mauser, which will readily support both 7.62x51 and 30-06. Have a couple of M1A's which use 20 round detachable magazines and are equipped with a stripper clip feeding well which allows for recharging the magazine while attached to the rifle. This also allows usage of the 75 round bandoleers and no need for more than 5 magazines. Have recently obtained a FAL which uses the 20 round metric magazines. Like the AK and AR platforms, stripper clip charging of the magazines requires detachment from the rifle and a small metal adapter temporarily attached to the magazine. This I do not regard favorably. Have yet to work out the most competent space and weight sparing load bearing method for the FAL. Any suggestions?
4: 7.62x39 combloc. I have 6 SKS rifles, which, unlike the AK, possess stripper clip feeding wells. I use the 210 round chicom chest bandoleers, 9 pouches holding two 10 round stripper clips each and one pouch holding 3 clips. or maintenance tools. I can carry more ammo with less weight and space usage than the "banana" AK magazines.
It is my contention, that with training and practice, a soldier can reload and fire more rounds per minute with stripper clips through a feeding well than one can with detachable magazines. If you have not tried it after adequate practice, don't knock it. The same goes for the Garand as compared to its son, the M1A/M14. I remember watching a group of WW2 vets in their 80's at a range firing better than 40 aimed rounds a minute with Garands.There are only 3 short steps to reloading a Garand as compared to 5 for the M14. 6 steps if you intend to recover the empty magazine after detaching it from the rifle. Stripper clips are more disposable than magazines, and so light as to easily allow for carrying 100 empty ones.
corpsman
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