Plate Carrier Placards Overview: Part 1

In the past 10 years, there has been a tremendous growth in plate carriers, modular plate carrier placards, and chest rigs. It's still possible to recall when special operators had their chest rigs and bandoleers custom-made by their parachutists. There are now a wide variety of plates, plate carriers and chest rigs available that almost guarantee an off-the shelf solution for every use case. There are some downsides to this wide range of options.

A surplus of options

We call it “kit glut”, one of the side effects of the tactical nylon revival. We have so many options that we end up selecting different options for each use case.

It is easy to end up with a bunch of cardboard boxes or plastic tubs in your garage or attic that contain:

A chest rig to use for range days or classes
For low-profile concealment protection, a slick plate carrier is ideal
When more firepower is required, a chest rig can be worn over the slick plates carrier.
A plate carrier to be used in surveillance or recon applications
For direct-action and assault applications, a plate carrier
et cetera…

Professional requirements could drive some of these decisions. You might have two armor carriers if you're a patrol officer and you serve on your department’s SWAT team. You may find yourself in the “recon or assault” dilemma if you're part of a military unit that has different mission sets. If so, you might have one kit for each. A carrier or chest rig may be necessary for civilians who have multiple weapon systems, such as a shotgun or pistol-caliber gunbine for home defense and an AR or AK to use in SHTF situations.

Modular Placards can streamline your kit

Although there are many good reasons to build a few plate carrier and chest rig setups for different tasks and it is possible, it can be costly in time, money and storage space as well as heartache. The modular plate carriers that have interchangeable front panels or placards are so attractive is because they can be used in a variety of tasks.

Above: Our direct-attachment setup was served by this Dynamic Principles Laser-cut MOLLE Placard. You can find a complete list of its components and features in Part 2.

There are many variations, but you will be familiar with the basic layout for a modular plate carrier. It has a smooth front with loop-side Velcro, and a pair quick-release buckles. These buckles are sometimes called SRBs (Side Release Buckles) or QASM buckles (Quick Attach Top Mount). The placards attach to the carrier using both Velcro® and a buckle.

The buckles on the plate carrier are designed to support the placard's weight and keep it from slipping off the Velcro.

As a standard offer, some carriers include a basic MOLLE loop-covered placard. Some companies sell the plate carrier separately, and offer a range of placards a la carte. The beauty of a QASM system-based plate carrier is that you don't have to limit yourself to the manufacturer from which you bought it.

This plate carrier is an Arbor Arms CAS2.0–Communicator Armor System. It's loaded with Prime Armor Level III+ plates. These plates are less than five pounds in weight and can still stop 7.62x39mm Armor-Piercing ammunition from an AK-47 or the new M855A1 military round in 5.56mm.

The Arbor Arms CAS, like many plate carriers of today, is a testament for modularity. Arbor Arms is not the source of any of these front placards. Their carrier is the only one used. Arbor offers their own placard options if you buy your own CAS2.0. We want to show the wide compatibility between brands. Below is a selection of placards from various companies with unique features. This is not a complete list of all the available options on the market. We hope this list will help you to make a plan for a survival armor carrier or to streamline an existing one.

HRT Tactical Maximus Placard: General Purpose Load Carriage

The HRT Tactical Maximus, a great plac-of all-trades (see our previous post?). It offers load carriage that is versatile enough to do a variety jobs, but still has some modularity. Maximus is constructed from a Velcro-lined Kangaroo pocket, which can hold a variety elastic inserts.

A 3-mag AR-15-style mag insert is available, as well as a 2-mag insert that can accept AR-10 or similar mags. There's also a 5-mag insert to hold subgun/PCC sticks. You can also use the full-length zipper-top if you don’t need/want to carry rifle mags. The kangaroo pouch is ideal for carrying everything, from food and maps to medical equipment.

The Maximus's ends have a pistol mag pouch. These pouches can be removed from the cover flaps. They also have S-shaped polymer inserts which provide mag retention. You can also remove the polymer retention inserts. This allows you to store other miscellaneous items such as flashlights, multi-tools and folding knives, small OC spraycans, or a bundle chem lights. Two square general-purpose pouches are hard sewn to the placard's front. To keep an assortment of gear, the square zippered GP pouches are equipped with elastic loops.

One of these pouches was used as a personal trauma kit on Maximus' test sample. The other pouch was used to store pyrotechnics, one Sport Smoke smoke grenade and one IWA International flash bang.

Lean Load: LBX Tactical Variable Assaulter Panel

We recommend looking for more ammo storage if you are looking for maximum ammo. But this is not the purpose of LBX’s Variable Assaulter panel. LBX is an offshoot London Bridge Trading. This company was known for creating custom nylon gear for elite professional athletes long before the public. LBX brings that same creativity and proven design experience to a commercial market. The Variable Assaulter Panel has a single, sewn-on rifle magazine pouch and a double pistol-mag pouch over it. The shock cord holds the rifle magazine, while two pistol mags are secured by a Velcro flap. Two rows of MOLLE webbing are sewn on either side of the hybrid ammo pouch.

Would you be able to use the webbing to make more mag pouches with it? Absolutely. We think this is a bit misleading. There are many front panels that can hold more ammunition. This is an option for anyone who: Do not use a gunbine as their primary weapon and 2. Expects a short gunfight. The Variable Assaulter Panel is a great fit for plainclothes LEOs, who may use plate carriers to provide warrant service or fugitive recover. We adorned the panel with a Sentry Tactical radio pouch and open-top handcuff pouch.

This placard is not intended for cops. An alternate loadout was created with a pair civilian-legal flashbang gadgets from IWA international. It was carried in Longship Design Frag Pouches by Unobtanium Gear. A Quick Open Sled IFAAK from Wilde Custom Gear was also added. It has a removable tray to hold your medical supplies.

The prepared citizen will have 30 rounds of 9.mm and 30 of 5.56mm ammunition. This, plus whatever weapons you have, should be sufficient to handle most problems. We like the Variable Assaulter Panel’s minimalistic design. The panel allows you to keep a small amount of ammunition in the front of your loadout while still allowing for space for radios, med kits, fire-starting tools, and meal replacement bars.

PCC-Specific: Wilde Custom Gear CZ Scorpion/SIG MPX 30rnd Placard

This Wilde Custom Gear placard will maximize your firepower if it is a PCC or submachine gun. However, there is one caveat. There are important differences in the dimensions of magazines depending on the PCC platform. It doesn't matter if you have curved mags such as a Scorpion EVO, MPX or B&T. What you need is dependent on which PCC platform you are using.

Wilde clearly states that this placard is intended for CZ or SIG magazines in this instance. Regardless of what you are running, the Wilde placard can hold four magazines in individual pouches that have shock-cord retention. Each pouch has a column with laser-cut slots that can be used to attach additional pouches. This placard allows you to carry more than bullets.

We also added a Blue Force Gear pouch, pair of chem light, Emdom Multitasker pouch, Emdom Multitasker pouch, and HSGI TACO along with a mini-smoke grenade from FASTOrdnance.

Shotgun-Specific: HRT Tactical Shotgun Placard

The HRT Tactical Shotgun Placard, like the Wilde Custom Gear PCC placard is an easy solution to ammo management and the easiest of all the placards. This is what you get – 21 elastic loops in three columns, with enough space between them for 2-1/2 or 3-inch shotgun shells of 12-gauge (12 gauge) gauge. This is enough to fill a standard Remington 870/Mossberg 500 three-times with a 6-shot tube or a 7-shot tube. You'll need more if you use a shorter pistol grip or breacher model. If you subscribe to the President's home defense philosophy, it's exactly 10.5 reloads with a double-barrel.

The only problem we have is the size of the loops for 20-gauge shells. However, if there was a problem that required almost 30 shots from a shotgun, we would probably bring a 12-gauge. Although the elastic loops covering the entire front of the kit does not prevent you from carrying any other type load, this placard was designed to make it easy to have a lot of shotshells at your disposal in a hurry. This is a great way to fill that gap in your preparedness plan.

Keep reading for Part 2, which will include information about MOLLE Placards with direct attachment, Javlin Concepts' placard-compatible chest equipment, and tips on getting your placard to fit your plate carrier.