New to airsoft and need some help with my first loadout.

[Nielsen]

Alright, so this section seems rather dead, and I wasn't sure if I should post in another thread, or start my own. Obviously I decided on the latter, so you can give me hell if I shouldn't have heh. Lots of the links in here, being years old, are all dead so they didn't help too much. Hopefully a new thread will get this section bumpin again!

Anyways, as I said, I'm new to airsoft, and never really followed anything military/police/etc. Basically, I'm going to post a picture of the loadout I'm shooting for, and any suggestions on the gear I should get would be greatly appreciated. So here we go:





Now, I'm not going to have the EXACT same look (I already ordered Revision Desert Locust goggles, and black Oakley Pilot gloves), but the rest I'm going to try and be accurate with. The vest is probably my most important concern. Looking on Ebay has been my best result so far, with the Pantac vest:





Are these vests worth the $100something? Is there a cheaper, but still quality alternative? Also, in the picture he seems to have some sort of protective sleeves? Should I avoid them? Do they restrict movement too much? Next would probably be the helmet. I was looking around on eHobby and found two different PASGT replicas, one made of steel and one made of "Made of Light & Condense Material". Is there a better option in terms of comfort?

Now the dropleg holster. I didn't really research the specific sidearms SWAT teams use, and I fell in love with the TM MEU, so that's what I got, so, I guess that means I'd need a holster that fits one. I saw a thread on here somewhere about what holsters fit what guns, so I'll do a search for that later, but if anyone has any preferences there, I'm open to them. I'm considering a tac light or laser sight on the pistol later on (if I can ever find a way to mount one on the MEU, there doesn't seem to be a rail, it's just smooth, correct?), so one that fits a laser sight/tac light would be helpful too. I can't really tell whats on the other leg, just some sort of dump pouch I imagine?

The rest is all just minor stuff really. Boots I'm considering maybe some black Hiax's? Knee pads I'll just get whatever the standard are around here I suppose. And does anyone have a sling preference for M4s? I was thinking single point, but again, I know very little, so I'm not sure what would be best.

Anyways, thanks in advance for any help guys, I look forward to getting set up and out playing as soon as I can.

[Disco_Dante]

In the picture that guy is wearing what looks like a safariland 6004/6005 holster, I can't tell which, but they're both pretty similar. Any safariland that holds a 1911 will hold your MEU, check out Huang's thread in the classifieds for a good quality clone, or go to opticsplanet.com for the real deal.

Pantac makes great quality stuff, I highly recommend them. Keep in mind, black will make you stand out if you intend to play woodland games. You'll be an easy target in urban camouflage and black gear.

[HeadlessChicken]

I have that vest, it was my very first, honestly you can't go wrong with Pantac. My only problem with this vest is how proprietary it was. I have little use for 8 pistol mag pouches, I needed more then just 2 M4 mag pouches, had no place to stick my AI Tornado grenades, and I couldn't get any more pouches to customize my loadout. So if you end up being like me who bought up a P90 and a G36, this vest isn't for you. Now I'm a pretty big guy but this thing does fit, didn't have any issues with my arms or neck but the neck protection does sometimes get in the way. The side adjustment straps also didn't hold all that well, no grip.

[Rugger_can]

Just a peice of advice. The Subdued Digital Urban looks alot better and frankly works better then the black/white/gray palette swap woodland. Also the "tactical" balaclava's usually suck and are pretty heavy, goto a local motorcycle store and pick up a lightweight one, they breath a lot better.

As for the drop legs, you can usually get Molle Panel sets for cheap online and just buy the pouches that suit your needs.

Another peice of advice is skip the cuff carrier and get yourself a few dozen large sized double loop zipties (police supply stores carry em) and clip em on your vest. Cheaper then cuffs and more "tacticool"

As for the goggles. Bolle T800's are no longer made, but you can get a pair on ebay (I got some from Tatedefence.com) for 40/45 US shipped. I know you have the desert locus's on order, but it can never hurt to have a second pair right?

As for the vest. Don't bother, there are tonnes of Molle vests in black avaliable that are better qualitiy and have better retention then those. Also it would allow you more options for loadout.


Cheers and hope this helped.

[Nielsen]

Originally Posted by Disco_Dante

In the picture that guy is wearing what looks like a safariland 6004/6005 holster, I can't tell which, but they're both pretty similar. Any safariland that holds a 1911 will hold your MEU, check out Huang's thread in the classifieds for a good quality clone, or go to opticsplanet.com for the real deal.

Pantac makes great quality stuff, I highly recommend them. Keep in mind, black will make you stand out if you intend to play woodland games. You'll be an easy target in urban camouflage and black gear.

Awesome, I'll check out Huang's thread and see what I can find.

As for the black, the field I play at is fairly populated with buildings, not sure if these pictures show it well but:





The last picture was taken earlier this year so it is greener now, but this loadout will be mainly for the first two pictures, which I don't think will be a big issue. I'm thinking of doing some sort of woodland loadout later on though for the woods field.

Originally Posted by HeadlessChicken

I have that vest, it was my very first, honestly you can't go wrong with Pantac. My only problem with this vest is how proprietary it was. I have little use for 8 pistol mag pouches, I needed more then just 2 M4 mag pouches, had no place to stick my AI Tornado grenades, and I couldn't get any more pouches to customize my loadout. So if you end up being like me who bought up a P90 and a G36, this vest isn't for you. Now I'm a pretty big guy but this thing does fit, didn't have any issues with my arms or neck but the neck protection does sometimes get in the way. The side adjustment straps also didn't hold all that well, no grip.

Can you fit 2 M4 mags in the M4 pouches? I'm picking up basically the exact same M4 as in the picture, minus the EoTech...for now. If I can fit 2 mags in each pouch, 5 mags total would be fine for me. And wouldn't it be fairly easy to have a custom pouch made? Go to a seamstress or whatever, or hell, just get the pouch you need and sew some Velcro and put a snap on it and use it. As for size, I'm not a very big guy myself, I'm about 6'1" and 155ish Lbs. The neck protection I could always just trim down if it becomes an issue.

Originally Posted by Rugger_can

Just a peice of advice. The Subdued Digital Urban looks alot better and frankly works better then the black/white/gray palette swap woodland. Also the "tactical" balaclava's usually suck and are pretty heavy, goto a local motorcycle store and pick up a lightweight one, they breath a lot better.

As for the drop legs, you can usually get Molle Panel sets for cheap online and just buy the pouches that suit your needs.

Another peice of advice is skip the cuff carrier and get yourself a few dozen large sized double loop zipties (police supply stores carry em) and clip em on your vest. Cheaper then cuffs and more "tacticool"

As for the goggles. Bolle T800's are no longer made, but you can get a pair on ebay (I got some from Tatedefence.com) for 40/45 US shipped. I know you have the desert locus's on order, but it can never hurt to have a second pair right?

As for the vest. Don't bother, there are tonnes of Molle vests in black avaliable that are better qualitiy and have better retention then those. Also it would allow you more options for loadout.


Cheers and hope this helped.

Is this the Subdued you meant?



It's alright, but I've never really been a huge fan of digital, I've always liked the "palette swapped" camo. Do you think it'd make that big of a difference on the field I posted? As for balaclavas, what about the UnderArmor ones? They have the drop chin as well, and they aren't very expensive surprisingly.

I'll definitely pick up some zip tie cuffs.

I'll consider the Bolles later on down the road, I'm coming from paintball, so I've got 2 or 3 pairs of paintball goggles I can use in a backup situation.

I was thinking about the Molle vests for later on, but I wanted the SWAT "look" for this one, and figured the Pantac would be the best way to go.

I appreciate the responses so far guys, they've helped a lot and I'll be able to do some further research now. Thanks.

[Mordarski J.A.]

That'd be a Safariland 6004 holster, the difference between the 6004 and the 6005 is that the 6005 has a detachable fastex clip that connects the holster to the belt. I have a 6004 for my SIG Sauer P226 with Surefire X300 tactical light, and I love it. It's a very comfortable holster, and the draw is nice and smooth.

As for vests, having spoken with members of Winnipeg's Tactical Support Team, unless you have a vest that is built specifically for your agency, most units use something like a Molle base simply because the individual member can customize their pouches to suit them. Long story short, you don't have to be 100% exact.

[Nielsen]

Originally Posted by Mordarski J.A.

That'd be a Safariland 6004 holster, the difference between the 6004 and the 6005 is that the 6005 has a detachable fastex clip that connects the holster to the belt. I have a 6004 for my SIG Sauer P226 with Surefire X300 tactical light, and I love it. It's a very comfortable holster, and the draw is nice and smooth.

As for vests, having spoken with members of Winnipeg's Tactical Support Team, unless you have a vest that is built specifically for your agency, most units use something like a Molle base simply because the individual member can customize their pouches to suit them. Long story short, you don't have to be 100% exact.

Yea, I ended up ordering the 6004 from huang, should be here on Wednesday at the latest, hurray. Would the extra mag pouch on it just be a standard Molle version? I wouldn't mind grabbing one, just cause lol.

I know I don't have to be exact, but I like that "typical" SWAT look. Aside from 2x the pistol mag pouches I'd most likely ever have/use, the loadout on it is perfect. I'm going to have 5 M4 mags total (1 in the gun of course, and picking up 4 more, which I should be able to double up in the pouches?) and probably 4 or 5 spare pistol mags.