For a long time I’ve been looking for a chestrig to replace my old BHI CHCR.
I needed a chestrig for scenarios where my Warrior DCS would be too big and unhandy.
I made a list of things I needed in the chestrig:
It had to be light
I wanted it to have built-in pouches (minimum 4 M4 mag pouches, a utility and a radio pouch)
It had to have a H-harness or the ability to attach one.
It needed to come in Multicam
It had to be low-profile
It had to be light and low-pro because I would be using it as a sniper or when I had to wear a backpack for a longer period of time. I wanted the chestrig too small so that it wouldn’t take up too much space in my bag going to and from games.
The reason I wanted built-in pouches was to keep the weight down. And the H-harness was a preference over crossed straps.
I looked at a lot of different chestrigs before I chose the Mayflower one.
It checked all the boxes, and it had another plus. The ability to attach it to a plate carrier via Swift clips. Nice to have that option, should I need it.
Here’s a picture of the rig.
Some info about the rig:
It has four M4 mag. pouches
Two large GP/utility pouches
Two smaller GP/utility pouches
Four small pouches to hold pistol mags, flashlights and similar sized items.
The H-harness and waist strap can be removed by unclicking six buckles.
There is some elastic straps one the H-harness to route hydration tubes, comms etc.
There is also some elastic on the two large GP’s to hold a TQ/CAT or similar item.
There is also some elastic under the M4 mag. pouches to route comms, hold strips etc.
First impressions of the rig.
This rig is light! Just a tad over 500g without anything in the pouches. The rig uses a mix of 500D and 330D cordura.
The construction is awesome. Although, at first I was afraid I would rip off one of the pouches because I wasn’t used to the light 330D (I’m old-school 1000D! 😀 ).
But, you will not be able to rip anything off this rig. It is built to last! It’s reinforced in all the right places. A lot of thought has gone into the making of this rig.
The rig is built for real world use. The M4 mag. pouches are made for RS magazines. Real magazines are a bit longer than airsoft AEG magazines. Therefore you might run into some problems with grabbing the magazine under reloads. I have ranger plates on my magazines so I don’t have that problem.
The adjustment straps on the rig are quite long. I assume this is to make sure that you can wear the chestrig over armour. So, if you intend to use this rig as a stand-alone you might run into some problems if you’re on the skinny side.
I’ve used the rig several times now. I’ve used it as a stand-alone, with a plate carrier, and with a backpack.
As a stand-alone setup.
Attached to my LBT 6094a slick via QASM buckles.
With my Camelbak backpack
My complete sniper/recce setup.
So far the chestrig has performed great. The only problem I’ve had was with the M4 mag. pouches. Even though I have Ranger plates on my mags I still wished the mags sat higher.
My solution to this problem was to cut and tape up a strip of hard EVA foam and put it in the bottom of the pouches. That was enough to raise the mags up to the level I wanted.
The next step is to get some Haley Strategic MP2 mag inserts. I’ve heard that they work perfectly with the Mayflower chestrig and the help with my issue.
I’ll give an update when I get them.
