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Viper Special Ops Chest Rig Review
Introduction
I recently picked up the Viper Special Ops Chest Rig as an alternative to the H-Harness setup that I use for my main sniper load out.
While I have used the H-Harness set up for years,it's not without it's drawbacks. Having had a think about my play style and what I wanted from a setup I started looking at alternatives.
With the Operation Oblivion event coming up in France and me running my new Pencott Diversant suit, I wanted something that would compliment the setup and the slightly more mobile gameplay I was after.
The Viper Special Ops Chest Rig caught my eye as it was cheap and very small. I decided on getting one in OD which I would then craft.
Initial Thoughts
Upon getting the Viper Special Ops Chest Rig, i was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the item, the stitching was good, buckles were strong and the elasticated/bungee cords worked well and gave a snug fit.
The chest rig had a wide range of adjustment and only took a few minutes to get set up.
You can easily tell by the design of the chest rig it was design with M4 users in mind as it comes with the below pouches intergrated:
4 x M4 mag holders setup in the rig as a kangaroo style pocket 3 x Pistol Mag Holsters 2x Small pouches for things such as tools, pistol mags, speedloaders
1 x Radio pouch (modded to hold a pistol) 1 x Larger utility pouch, which can fit a variety of things in.
For such a small rig it can hold a lot, but due to the design it uses the space well and still keeps a low profile.
However for me, I wanted to see how I could use it for the sniper role and what I could get of my H-Harness and into this.
Before all of this though, I needed to craft the rig and make an adjustment or two.
Modifications
One of the first things I did to the rig was to simply spray it up a bit with some darker greens and browns in order to mix up the base colour.
Once I have finished with the initial base layer painting and left it to dry, it was time to start the crafting, much the same way as I had the H-Harness and leaf suit.
Step one was to add some good old Jack Pyke Mesh to the rig, this was cut into random shapes/patches and atached using fabric glue, doing this not only helps change the shape, depth colour, it also acts as an anchor point to attach other materials.
With the Jack Pyke English Oak Mesh attached, it was a case of adding dyed raffia (Olive Green and light/dark raffia which was dyed), then adding a few crafted leaves.
Due to the position of the chest rig and the need to go prone, the craftign was very light, it was mainly there to break up the shape from the solid OD colour.
In this pic you can see how well the rig on it's own blends in and this is just in my garden :)
With the rig crafted, I wanted to somehow holster my Mk23 on in, much like I have with the H-harness, to do this I simply made a cut out on the bottom of the far right utility pouch, just making this simple cut allowed my Mk23/Sig P226 to drop comfortably into the pouch, just under my arm. Removing and holstering the pistol is nice and easy, while being very secure.
Having test fit the rig and gone for a wonder in it, laid down, crawled, climbed though stuff etc, I found the shoulder straps to become uncomfortable, but luckily Viper sell some shoulder pads which fit on easily, additionally I added some loops (also from Viper), which allow me to quickly add a hydro pack for longer game days.
The plan is to get an additional pair of this pads which will br crafted, this way when I run t under something like the Diversant suit or a traditional cloak, I can use the standard shoulder pads, but when I run my crafted leaf suit, I can use the crafted shoulder pads to add the depth and break up my shape. Having this modular ability is quite handy as I could have 3 setups:
- Standard shoulder pads for wearing under camo - Summer/Spring crafted pads - Autumn/winter crafted pads
With the rig now crafted I wanted to see how much I could fit into it, here is what I managed to store:
VSR Loadout:
4 x MK23 magazines (plus 1 in Pistol) 3 x P226 Magazines (plus 1 in pistol) Holstered Mk23 2 x Speedloaders Bag of ammo Multitool, additional small tools 4 x VSR Magazines (plus 1 in rifle) Snacks etc
SRS Loadout 4 x MK23 magazines (plus 1 in Pistol)
3 x P226 Magazines (plus 1 in pistol)
Holstered Mk23
2 x SpeedloadersBag of ammo
Multitool, additional small tools
3 x SRS Magazines (plus 1 in rifle)
Snacks etc
Now considering how small the rig is, that is pretty impressive. You can actually store more pistol magazines in the kangaroo M4 pouch section, I currently use 1 pistol mag in each M4 segment, but you can actually squeeze 2 in, however for ease of access I kept to one.
Despite the Viper Special Ops Chest Rig having all the pouches integrated, you have a lot of ways you can store items if you're smart about how.
The other mods that I am looking to do in the near future is to add some foam to the back of the chest rig, where it sits on my chest, this is purely for comfort. I will also look to adding some velcro to the back, so I can use an additional abdominal carry pack (mainly for food/additional ammo on longer game days).
Conclusion
I used this setup in the recent Operation Oblivion 3 event in France with the Diversant suit, I have to say I was extremely happy with the setup.
The rig was secure, allowed me to move around freely without the weight shifting or items moving, which was one of the main issues with my H-Harness setup. You hardly feel the weight on your shoulders, especially when using the additional shoulder pads.
I had no issues quickly drawing my pistol or accessing magazines for fast reloads, I was able to carry enough ammo on me to keep me going for large periods of time.
The rig was secure all weekend, I didn't have to readjust it at any point, there was no risk of any of the items falling out, it was great!
For such a cheap rig and for a very small investment of time, the Viper Special Ops Chest rig works a treat and easily has room enough to carry nearly everything I had on my H-Harness.
The rig gets a thumbs up form me and will be certainly something I continue to use and adapt going forward.
In the pic below from Operation Oblivion, I'm on the far left, you can see the rig shown here. Normally I'd run a camo top underneath, but only took and OD one with me.
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