We all know that Crye’s solutions are creative, but sometimes their products are also incredibly niche. One such item is their Side-Pull Mag Pouch:
It’s not an item with a million imitators. Tyr does something similar, but the design isn’t unashamedly borrowed as often as one of Crye’s core products like the JPC.
Interestingly, the pouch can be deployed at the rear of a PC or at the front. In both cases it attaches to the base of the plate bag, utilising the velcro mating surfaces therein. The pouch’s backer is stiffened, which prevents it moving as the user ambulates. It’s also slightly concave, so that when it’s applied to the curve of a plate, it doesn’t pucker. A clever touch.
Mags are retained using bungees, but the pouch’s mouths also exhibit elastic. Upon first use this makes reindexing difficult, but leave a couple of mags in situ for a while and it loosens up.
One face of the pouch exhibits a PALS daisy chain, upon which items can be piggybacked.
I said at the beginning of the article that the pouch is niche – but so is CAG. Check out this Burkina Faso pic for evidence of the pouch in use in the wild:
And of course, we all know about this pic:
But there’s a lesser-known pic from the same series and look what’s in it:
Big thanks to dichtungshanf for the tip off on the latter pic 🙂
There was a P.S. to this article.
I was showing the CAG pics to a very good friend of mine who has a solid UKSF contact.
My friend also has the Side Pull Mag Pouch. He said this:
When my SBS mate saw mine he told me not to be a tit.
Made me chuckle, anyway.
There is photographic evidence of this pouch in use with the SAS but the photo cannot be reproduced here, sadly. Good to know, though – and the source is impeccable.
Want more Crye reviews? You can find a whole list of them here. The list is updated as more reviews are published.
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