I had been wanting to setup a first line belt for quite a while after going back and forth on a chest rig or belt setup for a first line rig. I settled on the belt as I will use it FAR more than a chest rig. After reading a thousand threads on various forums about different belts I settled on the US Grunt Gear Warhog belt(more on this later). At about the same time I was researching getting some kydex mag pouches for the belt and I settled on using Atomic Dog(again, more on this decision later). I got all of the stuff a few weeks ago, but was waiting on a few small pieces and wanted to run the stuff a few times before putting a review out there.
US Grunt Gear Warhog Belt
After looking at a ton of various padded molle belts I settled on US Grunt Gear both because their reviews were always 100% and the fact that they had sections of heavy duty 1.75" nylon belt material on each side for mounting a pistol holster to. No other belt had this feature. They include a removable sleeve that covers one side and turns it into molle, but under that is 1.75" wide belt material(you can order a sleeve for the other side as well to create a full molle belt). The bottom of the sleeves have a cutout so that you can mount the top of a drop leg setup to the inner belt section. You may also be able to mount a drop offset holster setup through the cutout as well, but I am not 100% sure on this.
I chose the Warhog version of the belt over the Infidel. They are both almost the same belt, but the Warhog has a slight raised section in the small of your back, I guess to make it more comfortable at the cost of not being able to use the belt with a plate carrier. If you need to use a plate carrier you should get the Infidel as it is straight all the way around. I will 99% never be using a plate carrier so I went for comfort.
They also include a hook and loop inner belt that you thread through your belt loops and then the USGG belt(which has hook and loop on the inside) attaches to that. It makes for a VERY secure belt that isnt going to ride up when you draw your pistol or retrieve mags and isnt going to sag down when you have a load on it. There are also suspender loops on the belt, but I dont think I will ever use them.
I didnt get a picture of the bare belt, but there are lots out there.
Atomic Dog Holsters and Pouches
I picked up some items from Atomic Dog after researching a few different manufacturers. I already owned some Raven stuff, but their lead time and cost had me look elsewhere. I looked at Peters Custom Holsters, but since I wanted Raven I wanted a clone and Peters was not it(not that his stuff is bad at all just wasnt what I personally was looking for). I tried to get in contact with the Kaluban Cloak guy a few times and he never emailed me back or returned my calls so he was out. I then got in contact with Brian at Atomic Dog and here we are. He has been GREAT to work with and his gear is top notch.
I initially ordered an MP9FS holster, MP9C holster, a double M&P pistol mag pouch and two PMAG pouch’s. I saw at some point that they had started offering light bearing holsters so I changed my MP9FS holster to a light bearing model with a TLR-1.
Got everything in and was super happy with the holsters. Kydex was very thick, everything was finished well. Mags and gun’s fit great into everything. The light bearing holster fits the gun and light perfectly. I have run this for 2 or 3 league nights and the draws are smooth as butter and retention is awesome. Retention on everything is stellar.
Then I tried to mount everything to the belt(which Brian knew I was doing). He had made some Molle attachments for me for the pouches and gave me regular OWB belt loops for the two holsters. He also gave me regular OWB belt loops for every pouch as well. Well here is where I ran into some initial problems. The molle stuff he made was in no way shape or form going to work(as you can see from the picture).
Well a quick email to Brian with that picture as well as a picture of the mag pouches sitting on the molle as well as a description of what I wanted made and he was off to the races. He said he used some Molle that was out of spec, but after sending him these pictures he found some stuff that was in spec and was going to re-make what I wanted so that it would work. He didnt even realize what he was using was out of spec since it was all he had and he doesnt work with it very often at all. Took about a week and I got the new pieces today and they are good to go. The pouches shift about 1/4"(maybe less, its barely perceptible) when I retrieve a mag and I let Brian know so I am sure he will tweak them slightly to get the fit 100%, however it may be better to just leave them as is so they fit on more gear and not just the USGG belt. And I think its personal preference for me to have them fit tight with no slop. The tiny shift has not interfered with mag retrieval at all through about 100 practice mag changes this afternoon.
New molle attachment clips
MP9FS and TLR1 holster
Double MP9 pistol mag pouch and one of the PMAG pouches. Disregard the black attachment, it was an idea that didnt work out. The bend was to tight and didnt provide enough standoff for a belt setup. It would probably work on a bag of some kind, but for a belt it didnt work out.
Didnt get a picture of the MP9C holster, but it was prefect as well.
So overall it has been fantastic working with Brian and he has been very receptive to my ideas for the mounting of his pouches to the molle webbing. I will definitely be ordering more stuff from him in the future.
I have a few more things to add to this setup as I get the money, most notable a dump pouch(probably going with an Emdom MM dump pouch) and some type of basic IFAK. USGG is also making me 2 shotgun shell pouchs that I can drop a box of shells right into which will be on a spare sleeve for the left side of the belt.