Scalable Low Vis Loadouts

Sometimes your best course of action is to not look like a threat. There is a step between EDC and full on war-kit that often goes overlooked, but can play a crucial role in scenarios more likely than a full blown collapse scenario, think disaster relief after a storm, a partial loss of services event, etc. Even in a full blown collapse, sometimes it would benefit you to not look like you are a member of delta force as you move from location to location.

The purpose of this kit is to have the tools with you to manage a variety of scenarios without outwardly screaming that you are fully loaded out, while maintaining the ability to scale up if the situation calls for it.

I have worn this kit in a variety of scenarios including hiking on public trails and greenways, walking around national parks, training courses, and just out in the woods doing woodsy stuff. No one I have ever come across has looked at me twice, or shown signs of suspicion.

I want to caveat this entire article by saying this is a sample loadout. What you actually carry here is HIGHLY situationally dependent. This example is on the more extreme end from a security standpoint. Carrying a folded sub/supersonic 300blk gun and NODs is probably not needed if you are helping with disaster relief, or going for a hike. This is JUST AN EXAMPLE.

I can already see the comments. NoT GRaY mAn. ToO TaCtiCaL. RaNgEr GrEen aNd MoLle.

I know that dudes in our space on the internet are going to see ranger green, a hill people gear kit bag, and a tenspeed pouch and immediately think “tactical”. But you need to consider what the majority of normal people see. A bird watcher. A hiker. A camper. Molle on your backpack has been adopted by a huge portion of outdoor culture, and is no longer a straight military thing. Chest packs are wildly popular with photographers, bird watchers, fishermen, and hikers. 

If you don't understand this, you need to get out of my comments and get outside more often.  

The Chest Pack

Chest packs are a great way to carry kit on the low down, stay out of your way, and can serve as a great place to conceal a pistol that is off your waist while doing strenuous activity. 

This kit bag gives me the ability to: defend myself, navigate, communicate, purify water, fix things, and unlock doors.

I use the Hill People Gear Recon Kit bag. I chose this model for the laser cut molle, as I wanted to be able to scale on top of it if needed. 

In front is a tenspeed triple shingle. While it may ring a bell with the tactical community, the uninitiated are none the wiser. With a radio and a monocular in them, it very much appears normal. Its secondary purpose is that it can hold magazines if the rifle is deployed.

The middle section is where all of the other tools are stored. This starts with the admin pouch from Boxcutter gear. It holds my notepad, writing tools, Cana Water cards, a Black hills design rangeR card, compass, protractor and protractor.

Blackhills designs also provides the Shove knife that lets me open some kinds of doors. A vortex 8x SoloRT allows me to observe, and range targets using the mil reticle. Radio, spare battery, and earpiece let me communicate or monitor radio channels such as the weather. Cana water Decon kit gives me the ability to pre-filter water, and purify it. 550 cord and a multi tool lets me fix things.

The rear compartment holds a Glock 19, with dot and light. The draw from this kind of bag is not the fastest, but by grabbing the corner of the bag, and ripping it open, it can be done reasonably quickly.

Fanny pack

This serves to provide medical, some additional water purification, signaling, fire starting. Nothing crazy, load it as you will.

Backpack

The Rebel Raiders pack does heavy lifting here with some of its features. The back panel section holds the 300blk JAKL folded up, perfectly. The helmet retention system on the front does an amazing job keeping my helmet secure and tight to the pack. The way the pack opens fully makes organizing, packing, and retrieving items seamless. 

What is in the bag isnt greatly important to this article. Carry what you think you will need. In this particular loadout I carried:

• Helmet, PTT, OTTO ears, wrapped in a dry bag to keep it dry and hide it from view

• 2 Nalgenes of water in the side pockets

• A dry bag with extra socks, contacts, boo boo kit, glasses, etc

• An MRE

• A  poncho

• Daka Case with batteries, battery bank, solar charging.

• Nvgs in a Mission Darkness faraday dry bag

• Suppressor

• 2 magazines of subsonic, and 1 mag of supersonic 300blk.

The Rifle

Since I know folks are going to ask. 

It is a PSA JAKL in 300 BLK. This gun started off rough. It malfunctioned constantly when it was new, failed to feed, failed to eject, just was not a great start. The star chamber had some really rough edges that needed to be worn down. Now that its running, it runs really well, both suppressed, and unsuppressed, with subs and supers. 

The subs I use are 220gr AAC OTMs or 220gr S&B’s. Both run fine, the S&B is very dirty. 

Zeroed for subs at 33 yards.

The supers are 110gr Hornady VMAX. with the subs zeroed at 50

With this zero, both are POA/POI at 50 yards. The max ordinate of the supers is under an inch, and then falls predictably. And the Sig Romeo 4xt Pro reticle can be used as a BDC with supers. Out to 400 yds.