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10/21/2006 Archived Entry: "SKS pouches for the Garand"

COOL FIND AT THE GUN SHOW Blogispondent Ian here. I have to admit, I like gear. Or rather, I like the Platonic ideal of gear; items that allow me and my rifle to work together more effectively and more efficiently. Alas, I decided to run with a rifle that hasn't seen mainstream use in several decades. There's not much gear out there for the Garand, and even less that is both useful and well thought out. So, I'm always on the lookout for stuff that I can adapt to the M1.

So while I was at a gun show the other day, I noticed a pile of East German pouches on a dealer's table (you can recognive the East German stuff by the raindrop camo pattern). I've got a bunch of East German AK mag pouches, and like them, so I took a closer look to see what these were. Turns out they were pouches for SKS clips. Looking at them, it struck me that they might work well for M1 clips...and for $2 each, I wouldn't exactly be hurt if they didn't.

So I took one home, and tried it out. And it works really well! The pouches are divided into three sections, and each section holds a pair of en bloc clips tight enough to stay in position (cartridges pointing down), but loose enough that it's easy to get a solid grip on them when pulling them out. And, the partitions mean that you can pull out several of the clips, and the remaining few won't be rattling around loose. The clips sit fairly low in the pouch, but that doesn't seem to interfere with getting them out...and it keeps them from falling out when you move around. The pouches have loops for up to 2" belts, so they can be used on either standard dress belts or military web belts.

In addition to being well-suited for holding M1 clips, these pouches are also just the right size, I think. Six clips in a pouch means I've got 56 rounds on me (8 in the rifle, plus 48 spare), which is a good compromise for situations where I want more than just a single extra clip or two, but don't want to drag out the full cartridge belt. And in fact, a pair of these pouches would carry a few clips more than the old military-issue cartridge belt. Given the price, I've been kicking myself for not buying every one that this dealer had.

**Note - I don't have any experience with the site I linked to above - it's just the first place I found with pictures of these particular pouches.

Posted by Ian @ 09:08 PM CST
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