"Tool / Battle Belt Setup"

Tool Belt

Referred to by many in the industry as the “Battle Belt” or “War Belt” what we call the “Tool Belt” is as simple as it sounds. It’s a belt that carries the tools you need for the mission at hand.

A great way to set up your tool belt is to treat it as bare necessity or first line gear. You should have extra magazines, medical gear, utilitarian support, and possibly a sidearm depending on your needs. Ultimately it should support you and your primary weapon system.

Your tool belt most importantly though needs to offer you effective support for whatever mission you may have. For example, law enforcement will have a much different looking tool load-out than an Army Ranger would. As a responsible citizen what should your tool belt consist of?

To us, the Tool Belt is used for direct action or response when you know you may need to fight. It is often perfect when supplementing body armor that has a more expanded load-out mounted to it. Think critically about what you would want on a belt that could support you when things go bad. Don’t get hung up on what is popular or what looks good. Just take a look at your environment, your gear, and your priorities and set your Tool Belt up accordingly.

Medical

Continuing the “Tool Belt” discussion, one of the most important items to carry on your belt is an Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK).

Staying in-line with the the idea of carrying tools to support YOU and your MISSION, being able to render aid (self or otherwise) is paramount.

We believe in having a good well outfitted medical kit that doesn’t cut corners while still being a manageable size offering easy access and deployment. Our current favorite IFAK is the Highspeed Gear ReFlex

The HSGI ReFlex IFAK is made of out very durable material and carries everything you need and should have in an IFAK. Even though this kit has a lot of contents, it still maintains a pretty small footprint and is organized internally.

The ReFlex IFAK deployment is great. The kit can be deployed out of either side horizontally or vertically (depending on how it’s mounted). Once deployed the Kit unrolls and all your medical gear is neatly organized inside the sewn in pouches. The ReFlex IFAK can be mounted to molle or belt worn.

Bottom line, your belt should have life saving equipment on board end of discussion. Make sure whatever kit you choose can carry the medical gear necessary and can be deployed QUICKLY. In most trauma emergencies time is exponentially working against you.

Weapon Support

A fundamental focus of a Tool Belt setup is of course ammunition and being able to quickly and efficiently “feed” your weapon systems.

This part of the setup is where you will see a lot of differences and opinions start to emerge and that’s because preference plays a big role here. We tend to run at least one magazine for each weapon system on our belts and that magazine is treated as an “emergency reload” option.

“Emergency reloads” are reloads that are performed while still actively engaging or being engaged by a threat. It’s a reload where speed is everything and you need to get your weapon back up and operating as soon as possible. This is usually best accomplished from a belt worn mag pouch that positions the magazine in an ideal location to easily and quickly grab and feed into your weapon.

On this specific belt setup you see two pistol magazines located in the front canted at a slight angle towards the users back. This is to assist in ergonomics while reaching for the magazine, but more importantly it helps to keep the magazines out of the way when laying in the prone (always consider prone when setting up a belt!!). The emergency reload is performed out of the front carrier first and then the additional carrier next if needed.

Behind the pistol support you will see the carbine magazines. On this specific belt (this is a user preference setup) the emergency reload magazine is positioned higher and is in a rigid carrier to help keep reloads consistent and crisp. Behind it is an additional magazine to supplement an overall fighting load out.

Ultimately how you run your ammunition is up to you but keep in mind that one of the fastest and most efficient places to reload from is the waistline.

Additional Tools

Some additional tools should be considered and if needed should be added.

Sidearms are not always necessary and if you don’t need one don’t carry one. Pistol calibers are small fish in the world of rifle platforms and there is a reason that they aren’t even issued to the vast majority of soldiers. They do however offer great support in very tight quarters or in / around vehicles. If you feel that you need a pistol then the Tool Belt is a great place to have one. Make sure you have a reliable and quality Holster that offers adequate retention.

Knives are insanely useful, not for offensive reasons but for utilitarian purposes. We recommend having a stout and reliable fixed bladed knife on board. They don’t take up too much weight and they don’t take up much space. You don’t realize how much you use one until you don’t have one.

Multi-tools are another great utilitarian option. Everything from weapon maintenance, light breaching, and admin stuff like cracking open MREs multi-tools are a must have. Again they don’t weigh much and they aren’t too big.

Finally a good admin pouch like a storage or dump pouch can be a great addition to the tool belt. This offers overflow storage and/or expansion on space for things picked up and needed along the way. They also have basic practical reasons like cleaning up empty mags or other items during “battlefield cleanup”

Summary

In summary don’t overcomplicate it, just look at what you need and play around with how you want to carry it. Test your setup, and make changes where necessary. This post is just meant to provide some general information to help get the foundation established but ultimately your tool belt setup needs to be tailored to you.