Position Of Mag Pouches?

[rtr]

In yesterdays match I fumbled more reloads than the # of interns Clinton has groped.

Aside from the obvious "practice", I'm thinking the position of my pouches could be improved, I have 3 CR speed pouches, first is right at my bellybutton laid at a pretty flat angle to my belt, second one is more uprgith, last one is basically vertical.

I'm just wondering what kind of positions people find work well (I know it is somewhat subjective and a personal preference).

Edited January 9, 2006 by rtr

[smokshwn]

RTR

I tried going to the belly button position and I found that it just didn't work for me. If you think of you belly button as 12 o'clock I now run my mag holders at about 9, 10, and 10:30 with them canted as needed. I know there are many who advocate the front middle laid down mag and obviously TT can make some loads that rock however largely I think this is one of those areas of personal taste and then doing the work/repetitions to make the loads automatic.

Good luck, Craig

[open17]

I don't think there is any rule on position. It's where YOUR hand naturally falls, and a

LOT of practice. When I started out in L10, I was running a couple of Safarilands,

with a double Uncle Mikes at the rear. I indexed the first pouch at the centerline.

Worked fine in practice, but I found myself grabbing mag #2 instead of #1 most of

the time in matches. Shifted the whole bunch back about 3 inches, and now I hit

them in order. Now when I gear up I index the first mag pouch on the first belt loop

to the left of center.

[al503]

yup. I went with what's on Burkett's videos and went 12 O'clock. Didn't work for me even with practice. Under pressure/during a stage, I would always grab the second one, which was around 10:30. So, right now, I have them at 11, 10, and about 9:30.

I also have them angled (mag/bullet pointing slightly forward at maybe a 30 degree angle instead of parallel to the belt.) This cuts down on how much I have to rotate my hand clockwise to get a good grip on the mag.

[rtr]

Funny you guys mention it, I always grab the second mag too. In walking around my office today I notice that my left arm just kind of naturally goes to about 11 oclock instead of 12 oclock.

[diehli]

yup. I went with what's on Burkett's videos and went 12 O'clock. Didn't work for me even with practice. Under pressure/during a stage, I would always grab the second one, which was around 10:30. So, right now, I have them at 11, 10, and about 9:30.

I also have them angled (mag/bullet pointing slightly forward at maybe a 30 degree angle instead of parallel to the belt.) This cuts down on how much I have to rotate my hand clockwise to get a good grip on the mag.

Ditto. Look at TGO's mag position, that's what I ended up doing.

BTW, there was a post about this a while back, though I can't seem to find it right now.

[Loves2Shoot]

I've done the belly button first mag and IPSC (production style) and haven't noticed much of a difference in time. I think IPSC style (point of hip) is more versatile. If you have some extra girth, this can change where it is best to place your gear.

[MikeFoley]

I have done the 12:00 position from Burkett's video for a long time now, and I have to add that in the beginning I did grab the second mag under pressure, but after forcing it in practice for so long, I now naturally get the 12 mag and never grab the second one. The length of your forearm may dictate how close to 12 you can put it, try moving it back less than one whole position and see how it works. The whole idea is not necessarily to put it at 12, but where you bend your wrist the least pulling it out.

[JFD]

I've got my first mag in the belly button position as well. After months of never grabbing that mag, I decided to use that mag for LAMR. Perfect solution for me. I always know which mag has 21 rounds in it, so I'm good to go.

Mags 2 & 3 are loaded with 20 rounds. Mag 4 is loaded with 10 rounds and used as a barney mag. I also keep my barney mag in a CR Speed pouch, while the rest are in 773s. Once I accidentally grabbed my Barney mag coming out of a godawful, piece-o-crap, makes-no-sense cooper tunnel. Since then it's been rotated & slid backwards quite a bit. Lucky for me I had a long way to run and recognized the mag was too light and dropped it immediately.

I decided the mag pouch rotation by reaching for a mag and making sure the mag in that position matched the hand doing the grabbing. Not very complicated at all, but I did make sure my grabbing hand was in a natural position instead of contorted somehow.

[Jake Di Vita]

My starting mag is right below my belly button as well. I tried it for a very long time having the mag nearly horizontal, but I found that it is hard to get a consistent grip in the magazine without a point of reference (point of reference being the base of your hand hitting the basepad of the mag).

So instead of having my mag inline with my wrist, I put the first mag at a near 45 degree angle and it works perfectly for me.

[MikeFoley]

Last time I shot production, I reached for a ghost mag in the front and had to slide my hand around to the side.

Edited January 10, 2006 by fomeister

[eerw]

when I shot open or limited..my pouches were at 12, 11 and 9

the front mag was angles about 45 degrees like Jake's and the others progressed..basically if I dropped my hand to the pouch with a straight wrist..that was the angle I set..

I also found in stage with a reload while moving to the right...I would grab #2 as that was the pouch under my hand..if moving forward or a standing reload I would grab #1.

now all my reloads are at the point of my hip and behind..(production)

[Front Man]

My set up is like RTR's but the 12 mag isn't completely horizontal; there is some angel.

The only thing that sucks about this set up is if you have to go prone extra hard.

I hate laying on my mag carrier.

But maybe it's GOOD to go prone extra hard?

FM