As Fall approaches I tend to get out and patrol the AO a bit more in the cool weather. I admit it, a fair weather patrolman I be. Summer just becomes too busy and rarely is found the motivation to patrol in 95-110F weather, let alone take the extra time to film such.
My promise to myself is to do better next year no matter how bad it sucks, but for now, perfect weather for patrolling has me out again to test gear and camo as well as work on moving quietly without being seen.
Hunting season will begin in November and I will again be using the nearby woods to test my avoidance skills and observation skills against the local hunters, I consider these early patrols as practice for the deer season testing.
PATROLLING KIT
I’ve recently come full circle after changing and testing my patrol setup for the past 4 years, having started with the Tactical Tailor Split-MAV, then the TAPS rig, then finally the JayJay’s Webbing kit, I am now back to Split-MAV.
Each has their own advantages, but the Split-MAV just feels the best to me.
Unfortunately, it looks like Tactical Tailor is not making half of the gear they use too as I could not find the padded harness that was issued at one point to the Army on their website. A shame really as the padded harness for this setup is what makes it so good. I could not find one on eBay either. I’m glad they built there kit to last now and will not turn loose of this setup ever.
The Split-MAV sits lower than the TAPS but higher than the JayJay’s. The JayJay’s allows more gear for sustainment to be on the Second Line but is easily over loaded (a me issue) for most tasks, in it’s defense, I CAN forego using an assault pack with it in the cooler months because of the extra room for water canteens.
The TAPS runs ~16lbs which is felt much more that the ~25lb JayJay’s rig and tends to affect equilibrium when moving under NODs with all the weight being up high, raising my center of gravity.
Wearing the JayJay’s under NODS feels like it is anchoring you at the hips to the ground and does not affect equilibrium nearly any worse than the NODs themselves do.
Because the Split-MAV is also lower than the TAPS and feels lighter (even though they are the same weight) and wraps the weight around the sides better, combining the best of both worlds. With a small pack being on the back, it feels perfectly balanced and centered to me.
It is the easiest to put on and off of the three setups and just as comfortable to wear in the prone as the JayJay’s rig. It doesn’t run as hot as the TAPS rig, benefiting from its lower riding position which allows more airflow.
CHANGE OF COLOR
One of the things I didn’t like about my Split-MAV setup was the harness I got off eBay was ACU (the worst camo ever made) and my first attempt to Rit Dye it failed to give me the nice OD Green I was looking for.
I did re-dyed it recently along with the Coyote Tan pouches I had on the rig and liked how it turned out. The few Multi-cam pouches I had on it stood out as too bright after dying it though, so I dyed them also later.
To see how close the Rit Dye comes to “factory” OD Green, here is a closeup of it next to my Ankle Med kit. A little darker for sure. Next time I plan to use less Brown in hopes of getting a better match.
Below is the current rig after some lightening up with spray paint and covering the tan hardware with OD Green. I’m pretty happy with the way it looks now even thought the pics never do a paint job justice.
CURRENT PATROL SETUP (Junk on the Bunk)
TOTAL WEIGHT IS 29 LBS:
17lbs on the Split-MAV
11lbs in the pack.
PATROL KIT ITEMS LIST ← click to see the most up-to-date items list
Another change is using the smaller than “assault pack” sized bag (Camelbak MULE) as a patrol bag with the Split-MAV with all mission critical gear. If bringing a larger ruck on an outing, this bag will sit on top of my larger ruck as a “grab bag” should I need to ditch the ruck, I have all the important stuff in one easy to find spot.
I may eventually go with a Crossfire pack hood for this use as they integrate into the larger Crossfire rucks like my DG3AW or the CF2 I’m wanting to get. The downfall of the pack hood is not being made for a water reservoir which might be OK if it fits all the gear and two PLATAC 1L square bottles.
CHAMELEON CAMO TEST
The video above is my patrol setup IF I were to have any inclination to go from patrolling the woods to blending into society. The use of the camo mask leaves no camo paint to clean up and would be used instead blending into the crowd in town was needed.
Granted anyplace I might head into from the woods are very Rural and nobody looks at you even if in full camo during hunting season, and seldomly year round even, but I think with the natural toned cloths I could pull it off any time of the year.
The light base layer can conceal the Sig 365XL easily and normal hiking boots don’t scream combatant!
Notice I’m wearing natural colored pants instead of camo, I also have a brown FROG FR base layer underneath the Multi-cam blouse and a baseball cap worn (instead of the normal boonie) under the Cobra Hood.
After ditching the gear I could easily walk into town without looking out of place with my small CCW rig (Sig 365XL) still on me if the mission was to do so and while I really don’t see that being a thing in SHTF for me, knowing I can pull it off WITHOUT jeopardizing my woods camo is a good thing.
One kit change made was to add makeup removal pads to my kit for camo paint removal, knowing a half ass job of camo removal would not stand scrutiny.
I’ll be doing some “where is Waldo” tests soon as I start patrolling with the same setup in my AO and then again in full camo to see how much effectiveness is lost.
Interesting that I came to the same conclusion about the split mav with harness. It is the most comfortable rig I’ve tired. I even dyed my ACU version with green and added OD green pouches. Such a simple but effective rig.
Nice write-up on this. I like the return to the basics for ya.