 Hey everyone, Dylan Schumacher of Citadel Defense and we are back with another edition of American Minuteman Gear where we explore the different kind of gear ideas that would serve you best as an American Minuteman. And so today I wanted to revisit the discussion of webbing versus a chest rig. Now if you've been following this series at all, you understand that in general I'm a big fan of the webbing. I think it does a fantastic job of providing what you need to fight and to sustain in the fight for a period of time. I don't know, I'm going to pick a semi-ram and random number of like 8 to 12 hours. I have enough food, water, ammo, whatever to be able to move and fight for the next 8 to 12 hours on this rig and I really like that setup. In addition, the major advantage of the webbing setup is that when you support it with the suspenders, this carries the weight extremely well. When you are out moving and grooving and you're on a foot patrol and you're walking, because the weight is centered around your hips supported by the suspenders, it is really able to balance that weight very effectively and you just don't feel it as much as if you were just carrying it in a rock where it's all on your shoulders. You get to distribute the weight evenly across your entire hips and then again, backed up with the suspenders. So in that sense, the webbing is a big, big win and I really like it. However, there are still absolutely times when the chest rig works better. So let's talk about some advantages, disadvantages of the webbing versus the chest rig. One of the major advantages of the chest rig is that it is vehicle compatible. So if you are doing anything in and around vehicles, a chest rig is going to be the ticket. The reason for that is because it's not all around your hips like it is with the webbing, your back is slick, you are able to sit in a vehicle. You are able to sit down in the vehicle and not have to worry about that. And let me tell you right now, if the mission is set with something like, hey Dylan, we're going to hop in this car or truck or van or whatever and we're going to move in this vehicle for 10 minutes or 20 minutes or 50 minutes or 5 hours. It really doesn't matter. If we're getting in a vehicle, we're going to do something in and around that and then hey we're going to get there, we're going to patrol, we're going to set this up or we're going to do whatever, I'm putting on the chest rig because the comfort level isn't even comparable. Like they're not even the same league when you're talking about being in a vehicle. So that is one of the nice things about the chest rig. Another thing I really like about the chest rig is that all your tools are up front. As I've been thinking about this, I would say that the chest rig, its purpose is fighting, right? I got my mags, I got my blade, I got my iFax, like everything's here. That's the purpose of the rig. Conversely, with the webbing, I would say that fighting is primary, meaning it's like the first thing you want to do, you want to set it up so you have your mags around, you know, easily accessible. But there's a lot more stuff on there, water, nods, clothes, food, socks, whatever. There's other stuff that you're carrying around that might not be easily accessible to get to, right? So you got to kind of take it off and dig in it kind of like you would have to with a rock. However, its primary is fighting, but its purpose is not fighting. A chest rig is built for one thing, and that's to carry the tools for the fight. There's not going to be sustainment gear on here. One of the things I do want to mention about the chest rig here as an advantage is that because it's a layered system, it allows you to go back to that traditional first, second, and third lines of gear. And I could wear a battle belt and I could carry a pistol. I could carry speed reloads if I want an IFAC and whatever. I could do that with this system. Then if I take the chest rig off, well, then at least I still have my pistol and whatever. And if I was in any kind of urban environment, or again, maybe in and around those vehicles, then I would probably end up carrying a pistol. And this allows me to do that. Whereas with my webbing, I don't have mine set up for a pistol. I don't want a pistol on there. That's a whole different deal. However, I'm not going to be able to do that as effectively. This allows me more versatility and more pieces that I can kind of swap in and out, which could be an advantage or disadvantage depending on how you want to look at it. Last primary benefit of the chest rig is that it interfaces really well with a heavy pack. One of the things I really like about the chest rig when wearing a big pack like this is that I can magically utilize this waist belt. Now, I cannot normally utilize this waist belt when I'm wearing webbing because right here is where my webbing is going to interface. So usually when I'm wearing webbing, I will take the waist belt off the pack. But because I have that ability with the chest rig, I can utilize the waist belt. So I can do the whole weight transfer thing, right, where I'm going to transfer the weight to my hips and take it off my shoulders. And then when that gets tired, I can switch it back, whatever. The point is that I'm able to interface these two very well together. I can utilize that waist belt so that if I'm having to rock for a very long distance, for instance, it's going to help me better distribute that weight between my hips and my shoulders with the heaviest thing that I'm carrying, which is my pack, rather than having the heavy pack sit on my shoulders. And then it will kind of sit as on a, well, here, I'll just, I'll show you. Now, when I'm running a heavy pack with webbing, it will end up sitting on top of your belt kit and you do get some support from that, where it's going to transfer some of the weight to your hips. It's also going to transfer some of the weight into your suspenders. So you still end up carrying the majority of the weight on your shoulders when you're carrying a heavy pack. Now, is this the worst thing in the world? No, but I do not get to utilize this hip belt. If you see, could I probably try to figure this out on how to get this through here? Sure, I could. It's much higher up now, whereas before it's down around my belly button. Now it's really just below my nipples, almost like where a chest rig would go, is where this belt is going to end up hitting right here. So I'd have to give that some more slack to adjust that out a bit. But as you can see, it will sit on top of your belt kit, which in general is nice and there's been a lot of people who fought a lot of wars and killed a lot of bad guys doing that. However, you're not getting the full benefit of how the pack was designed. One of the major advantages here about the webbing is that if I drop the rock, I am now, I still have systemic gear on me. I still have water and ammo and an emergency ration and maybe a poncho, maybe my nods, whatever. I still have stuff on me that I don't need the pack for the next 8 to 12 hours to really survive. In addition to that, I can go prone. Because with the webbing, I'm slick up front, much like with the chest rig, I'm slick in the back. Because I'm slick up front, I can go prone. And crawling itself, I'm not going to get gear hung up versus having a chest rig. Can you go prone to chest rig? Absolutely, lots of people have done it. However, you're still giving yourself a barrier between you and the ground. This allows me to get completely flat because I have nothing in front of me. I can get as close to the earth as possible. And when bullets are flying, that's usually a good thing to do. That leads us to another slight disadvantage with the chest rig. The slight disadvantage to the chest rig is that I become married to the pack. The pack, most importantly, has my water. Now you can get chest rigs right with extra modeling. You could probably put a water bottle on here, something like that. In general, I like to think two water bottles on me, but you could still have a water bottle on you at least. But in general, you become married to the pack because that has your sustainment gear. Even if you're going out for eight hours or six hours, you're still going to need a pack of some sort to carry water. Again, that emergency ration, maybe your NAS, maybe a rain jacket or a poncho, whatever, you're going to need a pack to put all that stuff in. Whereas the webbing is an all-in-one system that I know I can grab, and I'm set to go for the next eight to 12 hours, this becomes at least a two-part system. Because the pack maintains all my sustainment gear that I could normally fit on my webbing. Now the advantage of that, of course, is that when we're out of rest or we're out of break, I can set the pack down for a minute, and I can relieve myself with a lot of that weight. Even if it's just a day pack in my day patrol bag, at least I can set that down and drop that 10, 15 pounds for a minute and rest a little bit. And I still have gear on me to fight. However, I can't lose that pack because that pack is my life because it still has all my sustainment gear and kit that I need, unlike the webbing where I can keep it all on me all the time. So in final synopsis, I don't know that there's necessarily one that's better than the other. I think they both serve slightly different purposes. The webbing is going to be great if you're going to be out in the field, on your feet, and you're going to want the ability to go prone. The webbing also shines in that if it's going to be a shorter patrol, say 12 hours or under, I can just bring the webbing likely and get away with it. Most likely, I don't need a pack. Now, maybe I want to bring some more water or I want to bring an extra this or extra that, in which case you can always throw a pack on over it. The webbing does a great job of being able to interface with just about everything. Be it a light day pack or a big heavy pack or plates and a pack, you can throw that all over the top of the webbing and you're going to be just fine. The place where the chest rig really shines is anytime you're going to be in or around vehicles. Again, even if I was fighting in a car, I can still access my mags because they're right here in front of me and I can load a rifle and do everything right here in a car in the seated position. You're going to have a tougher time doing that with webbing where I have to get down to my belt and access it and try to shove it in there and then get it back down to my belt. It's just going to be a tougher deal to do. Can it be done? Sure. At the end of the day, obviously there's no perfect system. The purpose of this video is really to help you just understand the advantages and disadvantages of each. There is no perfect piece of kit, unfortunately, and we just have to decide what the best piece of kit is for what it is that we are trying to do. For me personally, right now, if it's anything in or around a vehicle, I'm working with the chest rig system. I'll take my pack off when I'm in the car and put it by my feet or in the back or whatever, and when we get out of the car, I'll grab the pack. That's just how I'm going to roll. If I need to put plates on, I can put plates on under this. That's not a problem. They do grow great over webbing if I need to do that. So around the vehicle, the chest rig is the winner. Again, if I'm doing anything with the vehicle, I'm going to wear the chest rig. Now, the other place where I would probably choose a chest rig over webbing right now is any kind of long distance foot patrol. Like, listen, man, it's just you and your guys, and we need you to literally walk for three days over to this thing to do whatever. In that case, I'm probably going to pick the chest rig because I can utilize the hip belt of the pack. And I'm going to need a big, heavy pack for that. So I want to be able to efficiently carry the heaviest thing I have, which is my pack, and I need to do that. In that case, I'm married to the pack anyway, whether I have webbing or the pack or a chest rig, because I'm out there for three days. I still need the pack. If I lose that, I'm in big trouble anyway. The place where I think the webbing really shines is in that short or intermediate distance foot patrolling. Anything up to, I don't know, I'm going to pick a semi-arbitrary number here, 24 hours, I'm probably going to go with the webbing. If we're going to walk out of wherever we're at, and then we're going to do more walking, and then we might maybe stay overnight, maybe not, and we're going to do some more walking, I'm going to pick that webbing because it's going to be much more comfortable. I get to carry much less pieces, even if I have to throw a day pack on over my webbing, or plates over my webbing, that's not going to be as big of a deal there, and it's going to carry, again, the heaviest thing I'm carrying, which is the webbing itself, I'm going to carry that much more efficiently. For me, it breaks down to trying to carry the heaviest thing I have to carry as efficiently as I can. And if that's a very long day or a three-day deal with a big heavy pack, then I want to carry that efficiently. So I'm going to maximize the use of that waist belt. Or, if it's around a vehicle, again, I'm going to maximize comfort because trying to sit in a vehicle with webbing on is horrible. If it's that shorter to intermediate distance thing, and I can get away with wearing the webbing, then I would absolutely do that because, again, that's going to provide me that ability to go prone, that's going to provide me that ability to carry the weight efficiently for what I need to do, being in that 8 to 12 to 8 to 24-hour pocket. So I hope that's helpful. I hope that breaks down some different advantages and disadvantages for you, and some different thoughts about how we choose the gear that we choose. At the end of the day, mission drives the gear train. So therefore, we need to pick the correct equipment based on whatever it is that you think you're going to be doing or likely that you're going to be doing. I hope that's helpful. Do brave deeds and endure.