I am not the tactics/guns/gear police. Nothing I say should be taken as an absolute, nor any implication that I know what’s best for you. I am happy to offer advice, and don’t be afraid to simply take what advice/experience I share and use what you think will work for you. Without being able to talk face to face and with hands-on guidance, there will always be a greater degradation of communication, and I don’t want minutia to interfere with concept.
Anyway…
There is nothing wrong with using a chest rig to carry ammo to and from the line during classes, however, I have no problem with people bringing 5 loose mags to the line, a mag bag full, bandoleers, or full armor systems. I simply want people to train in what they are going to be wearing in their most probable application of whatever firearm is being covered. If that means nothing but an extra magazine in your back pocket, great; I would rather see you learn how to access and protect that mag than learn how to reload from full battle rattle from a thigh panel, as long as that is what you have determined will be the default.
Personally, I am just fine with a single magazine in a clip-on kydex pouch with a spare in my back pocket. In my previous job that was different, but not many people in CONUS need to wear what I did while I was out and about trying to get into gunfights with a bunch of other heavily armed and supported dudes.
When it comes to putting stuff on my body I want it to do 3 things; and they’re all about “holes”.
Making holes
Preventing holes
Plugging holes
Taking the time to put on a plate carrier takes the same amount of time as strapping on a chest rig, but it stops holes (armor), helps me make holes (carries magazines and does not impede my use of the firearm), and plugs holes (simple trauma kit for self-fixes).
A chest rig can do 2 of those things.
This is not always a bad thing, there are times/places where a simple chest rig will have an advantage over plate carriers, but they cannot stop bullets. When and where that trade-off is worth it is for you (and your financial priorities) to decide.
Regardless of how you transport your magazines to the firing line/breach point/line of departure/back yard/whatever, the idea that it is your responsibility to constantly refill the speed reload pouch/happy pouch/emergency reload pouch/whatever the cool thing to call it this week is, is what you should be focusing on. That might mean bumping a magazine from the chest rig to the belt kydex pouch, or from the mag bag to your back pocket, or from the ground to your RediMag. The speed reload pouch should never be empty longer than it takes you to deal with the threat(s) that forced the reload.
There is a great deal of sense in learning to reload from every mag pouch on your body, but only if you are carrying enough ammo to require it. I used to reload from every one of my 7(+) pouches from the prone, from both shoulders, when I carried that much ammo in performance of my duty, in the event that I actually needed to put down 210 rounds of ammo without the opportunity to do anything else. Now I simply focus on reloading from my belt pouch and bumping ammo to that belt pouch when it was used. The primary purpose of reloading from every pouch was to ensure that I intuitively knew the location of every pouch, and that they were accessible from the most constraining position.
I am not going to pretend to know the future, but there are very few instances where anyone that doesn’t have an occupation that expects you to carry a gun while running toward the sound of battle will need to shoot that much ammo. So, to me, when it comes to “what do I want to strap to my body and how much weight/bulk do I want to deal with?”, a shit load of ammunition is a lower priority than armor and bleeder kits.
Final thought: avoid mixing empty/damaged magazines with working ones with ammunition. I rarely put full mags into my cargo pocket. Left leg gets empties/stoppage related mags and non-magazine shaped objects. Partial mags go into the pouch or back pockets, and only into the speed reload pouch if there are no full mags to put there.
