Military Surplus Stores - Great loadouts @ Budget prices

Padre' (Whiskey-03) here of the Airsoft Ikaika Warriors, I just finished, almost, setting up my new "Deliverance" loadout. (Please no "Can ya squeal like a pig" jokes) YES this does include flotation plates that are capable of keeping me buoyant... Yes it has been tested and no I WILL NOT POST THE VIDEO! 

Today, The Warrior Blog is showing off this carrier and other "toys" that can be found at your local military surplus store.....
 
So let's start this out with some name dropping: SOG, Crye,Tactical Tailor, 5.11, TruSpec. Condor, Pantec, Rothco, Gerber, Ka-Bar, Maxpedition Gear, Blue Force, Belleville, Propper, Blackhawk. Mil-Spec Monkey, Oakley, ESS, Massif, CamelBak and more brands can be found with a little looking at the local military surplus stores! 


From the standpoint of gearing up, it doesn't matter whether you're into real steel, airsoft, (or both like me), disaster preparedness, a prepper or just plain like getting the best gear, this is an option that I found out that I can save hundreds on clothing and gear by going with military surplus!

So my goal when I decided to write this post was to see how much of my loadout that I could do from the local surplus store AND our newest sponsor - The Bunker. In order to do this, I had to be able to fill out the uniform requirements of my team for both the Light Camo (Multicam) and the Dark Camo (PMC - Private Military Contractor)

First Task, the Uniform:

So with about 10 minutes of looking I was able to find Rocky desert combat boots, Multicam pants, blouse (shirt), rigger belt, and OD boonie hat. For almost all of it, I had the choice of buying new or used but the used (Issued) clothing was in such good shape I didn't even look at the new.

 

For the PMC uniform, I was again able to to find everything that I needed in about 10 minutes. TruSpec OD pants, Rocky desert combat boots, Black shirt (I will be adding velcro to the sleeves), Black rigger belt, Patrol cap, Shemagh, & Kevlar helmet.

My next challenge was finding gear that would support all this!

While I have a number of other vests and plate carriers, I wanted to put together one that would be able to support ANY of my replicas without resetting the PC each time. I selected the OD Green Condor PC (I can already hear the Condor haters...) and started fitting it with the pouches that would best suit my needs..... 

From the rack of various used pouches, I was able to find a unmarked OD twin double stack (it is a little larger than the standard M4 pouch) that will accept
four M4 magazines, double stacked or two M14 magazines. Being that it has long flaps it will also take four AK-47 magazines, double stacked! Next I picked up a flapped pistol holster and three general purpose pouches that were all in ACU. A quick trip to the dye bucket turned those a mottled green/brown. With a little looking I added a small administration pouch that includes pistol mag pouch built-in. Then to make The PC a little stiffer, I got into my box of "I might use this sometime" and cut plates of closed cell flotation foam. - The vest now has the added ability to keep my head above water even when loaded down with the pistol and mags.

Check out some of the cool stuff that can be found in a trip to a surplus store...

Final thoughts:

Not including the helmet I was able to get all the gear listed and more for under $225.00 I was also able to find things like the SOF tomahawk, the collapsible baton, slings and moral patches. The Bunker as do most surplus store has a mix of both new and used products so it pays to do a little checking around first but in my case here, the prices were spot on! 

Padre' out...