Hard plates over external carrier?

[Atomic Donut]

[Rogue187]

Good luck on finding that carrier. Not sure there are any plate carriers that can go over the gear vest.

If you do find one please post about it.




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[hey_scooter]

I've never really heard of a solution you're looking for, and I don't think you're going to find something that will cater to your need.

Some alternatives include loading the plates in your current carrier full time (if allowable/practical), going back to your concealed carrier, or moving the gear somewhere else to allow you to slap on the plate carrier without it blocking access to your stuff.

I don't have to wear armor full time, but when I do it's with plates that is usually slick. I keep a placard inside my bag that can clip into the PC to match what I think I'm about to get into.

[Atomic Donut]

Thanks for responses. I’m considering moving my mags to the belt and just putting a PC over the radio, oc, second TQ and second flashlight. I shouldn’t need that stuff when I have my rifle out anyways

[Fiiyablade]

External vest with a plate carrier sounds like a big cluster f*** my dept allows either concealed or external but i also run an external vest and just switch it out with the plate carrier when needed. I run almost everything on my belt, mags, baton, radio, cuffs etc. I have ar15 mags, ifak, radio and a couple of glock mags on my plate carrier

[Atomic Donut]

Yea I could double down on everything except the radio. I might need to run my radio on my belt if I don’t want to have to take it off. Which I really don’t wanna do.

[chsk9]

This is exactly why I haven't gone with a external carrier. I'm not a fan of the look with everyone standing around like Napoleon with their hands in their vests to begin with, so I have my plate carrier set up with mag pouch and IFAK, ready to throw over if needed. YMMV.

[Atomic Donut]

So I think I found my solution. I will run radio on belt, ditch external carrier and run an SKD Firstspear STT with my level 4 plate carrier. I will attach an esstac Kywi m4 3 mag pouch with 2 pistol kangaroo pouches and a set of handcuffs and pepper spray to fulfill the mandatory items policy. SKD makes a soft armor insert which you can attach a separate level 3a soft armor to fulfill the soft armor policy if needed. Will be in all black and will teach a Velcro police/name tag and Velcro Badge for ID as well. This is the best solution I can think of.

https://youtu.be/L1CKW1Rtn6U Go to 8 minutes for example.

https://www.skdtac.com/FirstSpear-STT-Plate-Carrier-SKD-Exclusive-p/fsr.550.htm

[GizmoSD]

[Atomic Donut]

Pretty much. My policy is pretty vague and states department approved armor which is 3a or higher. As long as it’s certified 3a the department usually allows it. The caveat is we get issued USArmor vests which is good stuff and the reason people don’t spend money purchasing their own. In my case, the soft armor attachment would only be purchased if admin stated soft armor must be worn ICW the hard armor on an active shooter/ critical incident plate carrier. And good catch, it was a typo. I meant to say that you can get a 3a soft armor attachment for the front side of the carrier. Changed it). And if it’s under a rifle plate the soft armor doesn’t matter anyways, more for liability. Neither 2 nor 3a make a difference when it comes to rifle rounds. 5.56 and 7.62 will go through both like cheese

[fal_762x51]

That just sounds like a **** show getting to your gear: radio, less lethal, cuffs, etc.

A couple of deputies that went to carriers have the IV plates in for everyday patrol. They say they don't mind it.

[Atomic Donut]

That just sounds like a **** show getting to your gear: radio, less lethal, cuffs, etc.

A couple of deputies that went to carriers have the IV plates in for everyday patrol. They say they don't mind it.

[kel-tec-innovations]

The solution is run a carrier that takes soft armor inside with external pockets for plates. So the vest is normally worn for daily patrol with all the gears you need.

When active shooter event occurs, open the external pockets and drop in plates.

Wearing a vest over a vest is not practical and crushes and inhibits access to anything on the vest under.

If option 1 is not possible, a shield would be good second option.

[Atomic Donut]

Unfortunately we are limited to a specific external carrier and do not have a choice of switching to a personal carrier for day to day use. Some guys are running the vest over the external vest as in an active shooter situation when you have a rifle out there really is no need to access OC, pistol mags, radio etc... radio should already be set to the right channel and mic is only thing that needs to be moved and that’s a simple clip. As for me, the bulkiness and extra 20+ pounds on top of my carrier is what turned me off, which is why I decided to go with the option in post #8.

[GizmoSD]