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Instructor Jacob's Loadout
How I chose my Kit Before we breakdown each individual piece let me explain how I chose my gear... Starting off, I though about my purpose for buying these items in general. What would I want my gear to have for scenarios I may find myself in? It needed to fit my Military, Private Security, Civilian and Instructor Career paths and life style. Think of it as reverse engineering and then searching for what is best and what I'm willing to pay. Note: It's a buy once cry once type of situation in most of these cases.
Hard Headed Veterans Ballistic Helmet This specific helmet I picked was a battle between being reliable and meeting an affordable price point for me at the time I purchased it. This was one of the last items I decided to buy for my kit in my process of precedence. I wanted a High cut style helmet and side rails in order to add accessories like. Lights, NVGs, Helmet Comms, Identifiers, Etc. Again meeting my career and life styles. HRT Plate Carrier There are plenty of good plate carriers to choose from. I used to use the Crye JPC and loved it, but I wanted a carrier with MORE fabric on it. In my opinion I wanted 1 to try a new carrier and 2 to get more fabric. From experience let's say there was a small tear in the shoulder strap. Less/thinner fabric has an easier chance of ripping completely rather than more/thicker. Think about your carrier rubbing scraping on your environment when really putting it through the test or operating. Though too much fabric also calls for issues within itself. So it goes to finding your sweet spot of fabric, color, reliability, maneuverability, accessories, etc. Warrior Poet Battle Belt For this I needed to make sure this belt had enough rigidity to withstand all the weight of the accessories I would be putting on my belt i.e.. gun, holster, mags, etc. While also being able to sit in place while conducting high intensity movements. I also wanted the molle webbing to lock down my accessories to ensure they do not slide from their fixed position. This creates consistent access and enables accurate mind muscle connection. This specific belt also has a D-ring attachment which can be used for rappelling and or just to hang some gloves off of. Holster My holster choice changes depending on the situation. I tend to switch between the T-Rex arms Kydex holster and the Safariland level 3 holster. I have one more designed for a speed draw and the other for max weapons retention. Stag Arms 10.5" | 5.56 I have 2 Rifles a 16" in Barrel and the 10.5 in. When owning 2 rifles that are identical there were a few things I thought about. 1.) I want to be able to take long shots with the 16" so I will apply a LPVO to be able to shoot close and far as the 16" was the First AR i purchased and owned for about 4 years before the 10.5". 2.) I wanted a rifle for CQB operations hints the shorter barrel with the 10.5". Yes technically you will lose velocity in its fire power but at shorter distances it's a minor concern as you wont notice a difference in a CQB situation. 3.) I wanted to keep the same caliber to enable easy transfer of magazines and to lighten the load of having to purchase 5 different types of ammo for 5 different guns. (being dramatic). Think doomsday prepper...If you had your spouse or friend who needed to arm themselves would you rather have to sort different mags specific for their loadout or have a universal caliber size to have more of a grab and go type scenario? In my opinion I believe in a panic or rush its 10X easier to be able to grab and go rather than take the time to separate. Not even to mention if in a fire fight if one of you run out of ammo magazine sharing is not even an option if you have 2 different calibers.
EOTECH EXPS 2-3 This optic was the first optic I had ever purchased. I wanted this on because this specific model comes with the 2 dot variant. Allowing for some ballistic compensation if zeroed properly. EOTECH's have a reputation of having little to no Parallax, meaning where you see the dot is where its going to shoot. Rather than most other dots where if your head is not in the same spot you will notice the dot move with your head due to refraction, and reflection.
Jacob Zamora Founder & Lead Firearm Instructor