Are you civilian and have “tactical gear,” meaning stuff meant to carry mags etc in combat?
Do you have it, what do you have? (war belt, chest rig, plates, vest etc)
Have you set it up and trained with it?
A normal civilian here that shoots with my gear. I’ve got my ATS, First Spear and TT belt that I use, and my Eagle and TT chest rig that I just finished recently that I’ll start using when I can find the time in the next few weeks.
Civy here with a growing collection of tactical gear that I train with. Mostly in a volunteer opfor setting. I’ll slowly add pieces of gear that work with running 1 to 8 hour opfor scenarios. I haven’t dropped any serious coin as the gear is mostly for fun and has some cross over value if the end ever comes which I’m not really expecting.
As my buddies that kick doors (domestic and foreign) for a living buy new kit I’ll usually supply their habit by buying the gear they were using. It works out great all around. I get a decent setup of usable gear that I’ve seen and tried in action to know why it works and they get to upgrade to the latest and greatest to save their bacon with.
Main gear:
Plate carrier (no plates for training) + hydration carrier, mag pouches for 8 mags and a dump pouch. Also has a booboo med kit on it and space for a serious ifak depending on what we are doing that night/day.
Mich helmet - MSA ballistic
MSA 1000 gas mask + training cart and ballistic shield - fogging issues are terrible most sim masks
Peltor muffs - for ear protection from sim rounds and ear pro during live fire training
Motorola cheapie radios - once I get my Ham certs I’ll replace this with a more serious coms radio. The generic Motorola ones work well enough for most training runs
Older condor “war belt” - usually has a holster for an M&P fs, 4 m&P mags and 4 m4 mag pouches. Also doubles to hold radios, smoke grenades and an occasional monster
I keep other assorted EDC gear around but that is mainly my secret 
I’m a civilian with two jobs; one is a day job that I have been using forever to pay for the process of getting my night job off the ground…my night job indirectly requires shooting, just in the sense that I need to be extremely familiar with a lot of gear all the time.
Anyway I do have some support gear, all of which is fairly tailored to my specific requirements. Living in Canada, I have generally needed the ability to carry a stupid number of mags on the line as our mag capacity laws prevent me from engaging in normal shooting drills with a reasonable number of mags.
That will most likely be changing soon for me and my mag carriage will drop way down.
I definitely do not have any radio pouches or blood type patches on anything I own, because I can’t use any of that stuff. I believe the thing to do is to figure out what activities you’re going to be engaged in exactly, then set up your gear to suit those activities.
Running normal magazines, I find I can pretty much do with a mag on my belt, one in the gun, and a first aid kit in my range bag. At times two mags on the belt is useful.
Obviously shooting 3-gun matches would require something different.
I don’t own any of the popular padded belt rigs because from my perspective they’re not a great analog to anything else that I use. I prefer a cobra belt with an IWB holster for everything, and other accessories as necessary for a given activity. It’s slower…but far more realistic for me and my situation.
Ideally my preference is to use gear that could be concealed fairly effectively simply by putting on a jacket. I’m not a warfighter and running around in a LBT plate carrier with 10 mags and 5 tourniquets just isn’t very applicable to my situation.
Civilian, non shooter occupations (part time FFL and full time non-shooter job), and no/little support gear.
I’ve got a store brand backpack with basics like first aid, fishing stuff, mags, ammo on stripper clips, knives, etc if I have to GTFO for a week or so, but nothing major or setup for urban or rural combat. I’m in a pretty rural area and figure I could get by to the safe place in a matter of 15 minutes. Gearing up for any open combat would just be taken off my enemies as needed. It’s tough for me to manage. Wife, 6yo and 18mo kids makes it difficult to manage mobility with security. I’m more of an offensive guy but my inlaws are more defensive mentality. Hope we never have to find out.
Civilian, I use the gear I have for hunting and going to the range.
I am a civilian (Hopefully soon to be in Law enforcement) and I have a cheap voodoo tactical chest rig with 8 AR mags and 3 G21 Mags that I train with when I go out shooting. I have it simply for a SHTF situation I can just grab and go.
Civilian with a patrol belt? If your that worried, redimag, with some mags on the side of a pack.
sent from mah gun,using my sights
you forgot retired veteran…
I have to agree to a point. I laugh a bit when I see the guy at the range in full battle rattle, camo and all.
There’s nothing wrong with knowing how to implement a weapon and have gear to support it but there’s those guys who make regular guys look stupid.
I have gear I acquired for the purpose of MIL use and CIV use. If I was just civ at the time it would be black but I got coyote to match my issued.
Guys talking about end of the world, SHTF, civil unrest stuff who go out and buy all this war fighting gear impose the wrong impression on outsiders about what the rest of the shooters community is about.
My gear consists of a warbelt with 2 rifle mags and 2 pistol mags, IFAK, dump pouch, and holster. Modified since getting out of the Marines. That sits in my closet and reserved for the range. I also have packs with bugout type gear for disaster situations. Not doomsday prepper type shit.
My immediate go to is my rifle in condition 3 under my bed easily assessable and a Glock in my nightstand condition 3 as well. I know there isn’t time to throw on a plate carrier or warbelt. In my mind I don’t ever foresee a situation where I’d ever use either in a real life scenario. In a post Katrina type thing or something similar I’m not going to make it that obvious that I have firearms…
SHORT RANT…
I’m all for training and civilians knowing how to defend themselves but the “civilian soldier” and my interpretation of the “sheep dog” thing just isn’t for me. I feel like if that’s your path then get into MIL or LEO and do some good. Some people are delusional and most are level headed responsible people. But in the political eye, it only takes a few to shine a bad light on the responsible ones.
Civ - no gear
OPPS! I was surfing on my fone and meant to post that in the belt vs rig thread:jester:
To the topic,I’m getting out Dec 7th and am shedding all my geek gear.I’m going into LE, but have no reason to keep all this tan MOLLE junk:no:
If I need to strap on a bunch of crap(IPSC,3 gun,2gun, range session) I’ve got my CR speed belt that is a standard size, holds a load very well, and dosent envoke the ghost of burt gummer.
(not my gear)
Funny 
I was thinking it was worded weird, but in context I agreed.
Low Speed Civilian running a chest rig (OSOE Micro Rig w/ various pouches)
Civie with an Eagle M4 chest rig.
I have used it at the range and training classes.
I don’t train with it every range outting as I believe I am more apt not to have it or not have time to don it it most realistic scenarios I may be involved in. Therefore, I usually train with a mag in a belt mounted mag pouch, cargo pocket, back pocket, etc usually.
I mainly purchased and use the chest rig for classes when I need more mags on the line than pants pockets are practical for. When running the chest rig I also run a kydex M4 mag pouch on my belt on the support side and use that for reloads and refill the belt mount pouch from the chest rig.
This also allows me to be a little “lighter” at the range and not so scary to the “Fudds” if I only have a belt pouch while still maintaining the same reload sequence.
I’ve thought of going to a “war belt/battle belt” as I was comfortable with it form my LE days, but what I have ain’t broke so I’m not looking to fix it and this leaves more $$$ for range time.
Not everyone wants to be career military, but that doesn’t mean they have to embrace the sheeple lifestyle after they get out. A lot of people have families and want to maintain the skills necessary to protect them. This country was founded by “citizen soldiers” and it is short sighted to discount these people because they choose a career that, in your eyes, may not do as much good as a LEO or MIL career, but provides better for their families.
All this is saying is" but I WANT to buy gi joe gear".
sent from mah gun,using my sights
I want to be awesome like you when I grow up.
Exactly. I got rejected for military and can’t find a LE job here, so I just stay a civy. If unrest comes to the point where I’m needed for my country, I’ll step up, but I’ll need some support gear beyond my weapon support and basic FA.
I think of it this way… I have a car. I own “support gear” for that car. Tools, jumper cables, roadside repair type stuff. It only makes sense to. But I know I’m not some pro NASCAR type guy but I sure as hell should know how to drive that vehicle to the best of my abilities.
I believe every American should own a firearm and know how to use it, and own appropriate support gear that fits your needs.
If I were to go out and buy driving shoes, racing gloves, and a flame retardent suit then I would be foolish.
Just because you are not professional LEO or MIL doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know or own things. It’s just some people I’ve met and some on this site believe someday they will be in some full combat scenario in which they will need more training and gear than your average grunt and look down on the abilities professionals have. Rifle skills are secondary to tactical thinking and other less cool combat skills.
I do love that CiV buy gear and drive the market for the sake of the MIL,LEO community. Without them the market would be much smaller for manufactures and therefore the variety less.
The citizen solider thing just makes me think of the old movie Red Dawn 
America was founded off of civilians picking up arms in defense of thier freedoms but the world has changed and chances are no opposing force can take over the United States and the world still not be radioactive