Jarnhamar
Army.ca Myth
- Reaction score
- 7,047
- Points
- 1,160
I'm currently using the HSGI Weesatch but am upgrading to the Wasatch.
Requirements for the vest being;
Have a strap on the shoulders for vehicle extraction, a medical pouch and 2 grenade pouches (and obviously room for mags)
When I originally did my research I found many comments suggesting the Wasatch was too big and the Weesatch fit a lot better and was the better choice. (Also read somewhere that it was designed for the U.S. 19th Special Forces Group? sounded good to me)
I should have read the profiles of the people suggesting the weesatch was too big.
Unfortunately in many cases I was taking the advice from paintballers and airsofters both of whom no doubt did not wear body armor and were probably on average 140 pounds.
On web pages selling the vests they said for users with smaller frames the weesatch was the way to go but it doesn't give any reference to or examples of what's a smaller frame.
I dropped in 9 mags in the internal pouches and put on 2 grenade pouches and 2 utility pouches. (One for a TCCC quality medical kit and the other for MNVS) One pouch was the HSGI Mini modular EOD for $50 and the other a Tactical Tailor pouch for $30 basically designed the same. (Go for the EOD pouches, the TT ones have crappier zippers and they don't zip down all the way making them awkward to get at some stuff on the bottom and they hang down too low).
I put the utility pouches on the front beside one another with a small gap between but it made the vest stick out way too much due to being infront of double stacked mags.
When I was shooting in the prone it made it feel like I was humping a football and was very awkward (as anyone who has humped a football will acknowledge). To counter this I placed the pouches as far as I could towards the sides of the vest and it helped a little.
Originally I sold myself on the idea that I didn't want any pouches on the side of me, I hate them there. When I have the tacvest I try and get away with not even using the side utility pouches and take them off.
A platoon mate picked up the Wasatch from One shot tactical (Darren Cole continues to amaze me with the quality of his service). I tired it on and found it infact wasn't too big. I think it was rather perfect. There is room for 12 mags internally (opposed to 10 on the weesatch) and there is a little more room on the sides to attach stuff to the Mollie or palls whatever it's called.
I'm going to order a Wasatch for the sole purpose of being able to push my utility pouches (I ordered another 2 EOD pouches) to the very sides of the vest which should lower my front silhouette and enable me to go into the prone better, plus not look as silly.
Anyone who is considering a Wasatch or Weesatch don't get sold on the reviews of the former being "too large" right away. Like I said many of the reviews I found were from people whom we're probably teenagers or people who don't wear soft body armor under their vests. Read peoples profilesbefore you take their word on something
Here's some bad points I found.
-Adjusting the shoulder straps. Retarded. Or I'm retarded maybe. It took me almost an hour to get the shoulder straps sized. The Velcro on them makes it near impossible to adjust, the Velcro just keeps sticking to itself making sliding it around a pain in the ass. You need 3 hands to adjust them. I managed to find a very tedious solution by putting gun tape on one of the Velcro sides so it wouldn't stick together but it takes a lot of effort.
-It's front heavy. Placing the heavy utility pouches to the side helped with it being front heavy but it still sags down. It's designed as a plate carrier and (at least int he CF as far as I've seen) we usually put our plates directly in the soft body armor. Without the plates on the front and back, the front is really overbalanced and it pulls down. A camel back or something on the back of the rig might counter it. You also need to snug it up very tightly to make it more secure due to the forward weight.
-It doesn't come with any pockets and the pockets are expensive. $14 for a grenade pouch, $50 for the EOD mini modular pouches (which seem to work the best). With 3 EOD pouches that's the price of some chest rigs out there. You can really customize the Wasatch/Weesatch but be ready to pay.
-When you double stack the mags in the front internal pouches they can be hard to get at, buy magpulls and put them on your mags.
Good points
-I haven't had too much time to punish it and test it but I found it still comfortable despite being unbalanced.
-Extremely customizable
-Easy to get on and off/in and out of.
-Seems really well made and tough quality.
Requirements for the vest being;
Have a strap on the shoulders for vehicle extraction, a medical pouch and 2 grenade pouches (and obviously room for mags)
When I originally did my research I found many comments suggesting the Wasatch was too big and the Weesatch fit a lot better and was the better choice. (Also read somewhere that it was designed for the U.S. 19th Special Forces Group? sounded good to me)
I should have read the profiles of the people suggesting the weesatch was too big.
Unfortunately in many cases I was taking the advice from paintballers and airsofters both of whom no doubt did not wear body armor and were probably on average 140 pounds.
On web pages selling the vests they said for users with smaller frames the weesatch was the way to go but it doesn't give any reference to or examples of what's a smaller frame.
I dropped in 9 mags in the internal pouches and put on 2 grenade pouches and 2 utility pouches. (One for a TCCC quality medical kit and the other for MNVS) One pouch was the HSGI Mini modular EOD for $50 and the other a Tactical Tailor pouch for $30 basically designed the same. (Go for the EOD pouches, the TT ones have crappier zippers and they don't zip down all the way making them awkward to get at some stuff on the bottom and they hang down too low).
I put the utility pouches on the front beside one another with a small gap between but it made the vest stick out way too much due to being infront of double stacked mags.
When I was shooting in the prone it made it feel like I was humping a football and was very awkward (as anyone who has humped a football will acknowledge). To counter this I placed the pouches as far as I could towards the sides of the vest and it helped a little.
Originally I sold myself on the idea that I didn't want any pouches on the side of me, I hate them there. When I have the tacvest I try and get away with not even using the side utility pouches and take them off.
A platoon mate picked up the Wasatch from One shot tactical (Darren Cole continues to amaze me with the quality of his service). I tired it on and found it infact wasn't too big. I think it was rather perfect. There is room for 12 mags internally (opposed to 10 on the weesatch) and there is a little more room on the sides to attach stuff to the Mollie or palls whatever it's called.
I'm going to order a Wasatch for the sole purpose of being able to push my utility pouches (I ordered another 2 EOD pouches) to the very sides of the vest which should lower my front silhouette and enable me to go into the prone better, plus not look as silly.
Anyone who is considering a Wasatch or Weesatch don't get sold on the reviews of the former being "too large" right away. Like I said many of the reviews I found were from people whom we're probably teenagers or people who don't wear soft body armor under their vests. Read peoples profilesbefore you take their word on something
Here's some bad points I found.
-Adjusting the shoulder straps. Retarded. Or I'm retarded maybe. It took me almost an hour to get the shoulder straps sized. The Velcro on them makes it near impossible to adjust, the Velcro just keeps sticking to itself making sliding it around a pain in the ass. You need 3 hands to adjust them. I managed to find a very tedious solution by putting gun tape on one of the Velcro sides so it wouldn't stick together but it takes a lot of effort.
-It's front heavy. Placing the heavy utility pouches to the side helped with it being front heavy but it still sags down. It's designed as a plate carrier and (at least int he CF as far as I've seen) we usually put our plates directly in the soft body armor. Without the plates on the front and back, the front is really overbalanced and it pulls down. A camel back or something on the back of the rig might counter it. You also need to snug it up very tightly to make it more secure due to the forward weight.
-It doesn't come with any pockets and the pockets are expensive. $14 for a grenade pouch, $50 for the EOD mini modular pouches (which seem to work the best). With 3 EOD pouches that's the price of some chest rigs out there. You can really customize the Wasatch/Weesatch but be ready to pay.
-When you double stack the mags in the front internal pouches they can be hard to get at, buy magpulls and put them on your mags.
Good points
-I haven't had too much time to punish it and test it but I found it still comfortable despite being unbalanced.
-Extremely customizable
-Easy to get on and off/in and out of.
-Seems really well made and tough quality.
