Battle belts are arguably the oldest piece of tactical equipment still in existence, rivaling the simplicity and utility of even basic implements like a knife. The idea of tethering tools and weapons needed for combat or emergencies to a piece of leather or cloth tied around the waist predates the invention of firearms, steel, or even iron.
In its modern implementation, the battle belt (or tactical belt, or go belt, or whatever other moniker you know it by) serves as the bedrock of tactical preparedness, a first line of equipment for defense against a myriad of possible scenarios. It’s a single piece of gear that can be rapidly donned or removed, but massively enhances the tools and capabilities available to you to respond to an emergency.
Its purposes and configurations are vast and varied. The belt of a soldier will look very different from that of a police officer, which will differ from a security guard’s, which in turn will differ from that of a prepared civilian. Despite this, every good belt is governed by the same guiding principles and bears certain commonalities.
Belts for professional users—police, military, private security, executive protection—are often governed by departmental standards or regulations. They’ll have specific requirements and components, as well as some degree of standardization when it comes to layout. Civilian belts, on the other hand, are unconstrained by these guidelines, allowing for unlimited freedom in their setup and implementation.
For that reason, the wisdom and efficacy of civilian battle belts tend to vary wildly. Below, we’ll walk through every step of building an effective battle belt, from choosing the belt itself, to selecting gear, to putting it all together in a way that makes sense and facilitates quick and easy function under stress.
Why Build a Battle Belt?
Before we get into how, let’s tackle why. Despite the name, civilian battle belts aren’t intended for combat, per se, at least not in the traditional sense. Rather, they are intended for response to emergencies, particularly those in which violence presents an existential threat, but not exclusively.
We live in an uncertain world. While many of us enjoy the hard-earned privilege of a relatively safe and peaceful existence, that doesn’t mean that there is no need to prepare for the alternative. Civil unrest, natural disasters, and violent crime all can and do occur, even in places where they are rare.
A good battle belt is like a home insurance policy. You’ll probably never need it. You hope you’ll never need it. But, if you ever do need it, you will be very, very glad you took the time to set it up in advance because you probably won’t have the opportunity once the need for it arises.
Types of Battle Belts
Battle belts come in many shapes and sizes. They range in complexity from a simple strip of reinforced leather or nylon to multi-belt systems with attachment velcro or belt keepers. Options abound for padding, attachment matrices, and buckle types.
The two largest considerations you’ll have to take into account when selecting a battle belt, though, are single vs double belt systems, and padded vs unpadded designs.
Single vs Double
On its face, this dichotomy seems rather simple. Single belts are simple, reinforced versions of a standard belt, often with a few minor modifications to make them more practical, such as a wider construction to better spread the weight of your gear across your body. They may or may not have additional sections that attach to them, such as padded or webbed sleeves, but they utilize only one main belt as their primary support system.
Double belt systems, as the name would suggest, use two. The first is an inner belt, often low profile and sometimes of reduced width and/or thickness, and an outer belt, which is often larger or heavier. The outer belt may also integrate some form of stiffener, such as a polymer or kydex layer, to improve rigidity and reduce sagging and flexion. The outer belt usually has some form of MOLLE or connective matrix built into it for easy attachment of holsters and pouches.
The two belts are then joined together by a connecting apparatus. In the past, this most commonly took the form of belt keepers, which are simply loops of leather or nylon with snap buttons that wrap around both belts and hold them together. You may still see this style of attachment with older leather double-belt systems.
Modern designs typically use hook-and-loop fasteners to connect the two belts, making them easy to don or doff quickly.
Single belts benefit from their simplicity. They are cheaper and more intuitive to use but offer limited capability compared to double belts. Double belts, for their part, are more expensive and complex but offer a greater range of customization.
One notable benefit of double belts is the ability to stage gear in advance and have it remain in place for rapid gear-ups. Double belts typically use MOLLE or similar webbing as the primary attachment system on the outer belt, whereas a single belt is simply threaded through your belt loops and whatever holsters or pouches you may use.
This means that if you want one belt to both hold your gear and hold up your pants, a single belt will have to be manually threaded through both your belt loops and pouches every time you put it on. Even if you plan to use it separately to hold your gear and not your pants, single belts without attachment webbing allow pouches and holsters to slide freely on the belt, which means you may need to adjust the position of a few things each time you don it.
Double belts—and single belts with MOLLE attachment—allow gear to be attached to the webbing, meaning it will stay exactly where placed. The inner belt can be worn regularly as part of your outfit or uniform or quickly threaded through your belt loops without being encumbered by pouches, and then the outer belt thrown on almost instantly, with your gear pre-staged exactly where you need it.
Padded vs Unpadded
The decision between padded and unpadded belts applies primarily to single belts, as double belts are seldom padded. Padded belts, as the name would suggest, utilize a layer of foam padding around the inside of the belt itself to further spread the weight of its load and increase the comfort of the wearer. The outside of the pad then usually offers a large section of MOLLE webbing or other attachment matrix.
Padded belts are rarely used to hold up one’s pants, but instead used as a standalone system to hold equipment. They are typically worn a bit higher on the waist so that a separate, unconnected belt can be used for your pants. This makes them every bit as quick to put on as a double belt system and frees the user from having to wear an inner belt equipped with hook-and-loop panels. The padding can also be a significant boon to comfort when wearing a heavy load on the belt.
Unfortunately, padded belts are not without drawbacks. The soft padding is comfortable, but not as stable as a more rigid material, which often means more movement or bouncing of your gear, particularly when running. They also tend to be incompatible with most rucking packs and plate carriers.
For these reasons, padded belts have largely fallen out of favor with professional users.
Battle Belt Philosophies
There are a myriad of different ways to set up and employ your battle belt. None is truly more correct than the other; each has its pros and cons and is best suited to address specific tasks.
Below, we’ll take a look at the three most common ways battle belts are utilized as part of an overall loadout.
Standalone
The simplest method of employment for a battle belt is as a standalone support system for a firearm. Here, no secondary equipment is used; no plate carriers, vests, or load-bearing equipment (LBE). The belt exists as the sole method of carrying a backup firearm, spare magazines, emergency medical equipment, and anything else that may be required for the intended use. For this reason, standalone belts tend to be more heavily laden than those used in conjunction with other equipment.
Standalone belts have the benefit of speed and simplicity. You have only a single piece of equipment to put on, which obviously quickens the process of gearing up. Additionally, when in use, there’s never a need to decide whether to reach for the magazine on your belt or the one on your vest; there is only a single location for each item.
Unfortunately, using a belt as a standalone support system significantly limits the total amount of gear you can carry. For some applications, a belt may offer plenty of real estate for all of your necessary equipment, but for others, you may struggle to fit all of your gear onto the available space. Weight can present a similar issue, as too much on your belt can be fatiguing over time and can limit mobility.
Standalone duty belts are common for police and security professionals. These types of roles typically involve only a sidearm, which limits the amount of backup magazines required, and generally don’t involve a large amount of gear. As such, the simplicity and low profile of a standalone belt are valuable and offer few drawbacks.
Complementary
Another common way to utilize a battle belt is as a complement to a plate carrier, or less commonly an unarmored vest, LBE/web gear, or even a backpack. In this system, a battle belt is only one part of a larger contingent of gear intended to be used together.
When used in a complementary fashion, a battle belt supports only or mostly equipment that is not already carried on or in another piece of gear. For example, the user might have all of their rifle magazines located on their plate carrier but have their pistol and its magazine mounted to their belt.
This system maintains the simplicity of decision-making of a standalone belt. When you need a rifle mag, you reach to your plate carrier. For your pistol, you go to your belt. Each implement is located in only one place.
The downside, of course, is that if for any reason you are not able to put on your full “battle rattle,” you may be left without an essential piece of equipment. The remedy to this is obviously to mount redundant iterations of essential gear to each piece of your kit, which leads us to our next battle belt philosophy.
Redundant / First Line
The final way to use a battle belt also involves it as a piece of a larger whole, but rather than separate gear onto individual mounting platforms, each piece of equipment contains redundancies. This allows for greater flexibility in how your gear is deployed, whether in full as a complete system or in part to deal with smaller tasks.
Using a battle belt in a redundant fashion is directly related to the philosophy of dividing gear into separate “lines,” each of which builds upon the last, but does not depend on it. This ensures that mission-critical equipment is always available, but also allows for a fuller, more balanced loadout than would be possible with only a battle belt.
Using the redundant or “first-line” philosophy, a battle belt might host a pistol and spare magazines, as with the previous two styles. However, as a first line, it would also contain essentials such as one or more backup rifle magazines, an individual first-aid kit (IFAK), and any other equipment deemed absolutely necessary.
However, unlike with the complementary style of battle belt usage, a plate carrier would also sport redundant copies of certain gear, often more rifle or pistol magazines and an additional first aid kit, as well as other supplies not essential enough to be included on the first line (battle belt) but still important. Other gear, such as sidearms, are generally not duplicated across lines of gear.
This system may even implement a third line of gear, typically a backpack or ruck with redundant ammunition and sustainment gear.
This system of multiple lines of gear allows users to adapt their loadout to the task at hand on the fly. An example of a multi-line approach would be police officers who utilize their belt as a standalone support system for their sidearm during regular patrol, but maintain a plate carrier and rifle in their cruiser.
Mission Dictates Gear
Regardless of how you choose to employ your battle belt, you’ll need it to be equipped with the right gear. That gear will vary depending on what task or tasks you are preparing for.
In outfitting your battle belt, it is important to be deliberate in what gear you decide to take with you. It’s generally unwise to copy someone else’s belt without taking a critical look at what they carry and why, unless of course their belt is designed for the exact same application as yours; e.g., another officer in the same role and department. Even then, you may find that the tools you prefer to address the same tasks differ significantly.
Each pouch and item on your belt should have a purpose. Redundancies, where they exist, should be deliberate and for an articulable reason. While the “two is one, one is none” approach is not without its merits, in this instance, it’s a quick way to end up with thirty pounds worth of gear digging into your waist.
Below, we’ll look at both common and uncommon equipment for a battle belt, as well as some of the often included but rarely used gear that is best omitted. Bear in mind that this list is intended for civilian users; police, military, and other professionals should refer to their department guidelines.
Common Battle Belt Gear
Certain items are mainstays on battle belts. These items deserve a place on nearly every belt, and should only be overlooked or omitted in special instances where they are strictly not needed.
Handgun/Holster
There’s some debate about the necessity of a handgun for an infantryman; for everyone else, though, a handgun is a foundational piece of a battle belt. In some cases, it may serve as the primary firearm, such as for police and security officers, with the rest of the battle belt dedicated to supporting it.
For others, a pistol functions as a backup in the event of a failure or malfunction of the primary rifle. Since civilian users generally operate alone—you won’t have a team to aid you during a home invasion or other emergency—a backup firearm is essential for any scenario that calls for a battle belt.
To keep your pistol on your belt and accessible, you’ll need a good holster. In this case, that means a holster with active retention.
Battle belts are serious gear used for serious purposes, even when training. You may be running, jumping, crawling, or mantling obstacles; you may be firing from unconventional positions; you may even want to train in a martial art or grappling while wearing your belt. All of these things put a firearm in a friction-retention holster at risk of spontaneous ejection—although in the case of hand-to-hand training or grappling, you should be training with a dummy firearm anyway.
Friction-fit holsters are generally sufficient for concealed carry and competition, but battle belts are subjected to considerably more movement than the prior two applications. Additionally, many situations that call for a battle belt involve or anticipate conflict, which brings with it the risk of an assailant attempting to grab your firearm. In this instance as well, a holster with active retention is essential.
At a minimum, a holster with a thumb snap should be used. While not the strongest form of active retention, leather thumb-strap holsters have been used by police officers for decades with great efficacy, making them a viable option for those who prefer a leather holster.
Stronger retention systems such as Safariland’s Automatic Locking System (ALS) and Self Locking System (SLS) are available in polymer holsters and are generally considered the gold standard for handgun retention. Similar mechanisms are available from numerous other holster manufacturers, though, so you need not limit yourself exclusively to Safariland holsters.
Beyond active retention, your holster should be a strongside, outside-the-waistband design, and should be mounted as high on your belt as is practical for your setup.
Appendix, small-of-back, and IWB holsters (or any combination thereof) are generally inappropriate for a battle belt—although they all have pros and cons for concealed carry, which you can read about in our guide to Choosing the Best Holster. These holsters are all designed to offer various benefits for concealment but at the cost of draw speed, comfort, mobility, or safety. Since concealment is not an objective with a battle belt, these types of holsters end up imposing drawbacks but offering nothing in return.
When it comes to ride height, higher is always going to be better—up to a limit, of course. A holster mounted directly to your belt is going to offer the most security and rigidity, and often the most comfort as well. The direct connection allows your belt to hold the holster firmly in place, without any straps, paddles, or plates introducing flex into the system.
For this reason, drop-leg holsters should be eschewed entirely. First popularized in the 80s and 90s, drop-leg holsters initially provided a necessary solution to a common problem. The armor of the time was bulky and often overladen with pouches and gear, which obstructed the draw stroke from a traditional belt holster. As such, sidearms had to be relocated, either to the vest or plate carrier itself, or lower on the body so that the handgun could clear the holster before impacting the bottom of the body armor or pouches.
Drop-leg holsters were one of the most common solutions. They were first adopted by soldiers, then specialized police units, and eventually, through the influence of Hollywood action flicks, became a common sight on civilian kits. However, while they adequately addressed the issue of clearing bulky side plates or pouches, drop-leg holsters came with massive tradeoffs.
The nylon strap used to attach the holster to the belt and “drop” it several inches down to rest on the thigh offered no rigidity at all, and even with one or more straps binding the holster to the user’s leg, they still had a tendency to bounce, twist, and generally move around quite a lot, even during mild movement such as walking.
Drop-leg holsters also significantly increase leg fatigue compared to traditional belt-mounted holsters. Relocating the pistol’s weight from the torso to the leg is massively less efficient from a biomechanical standpoint, resulting in a lot more muscle fatigue in the user’s legs, particularly in roles that require walking or running.
Modern-day armor is now considerably sleeker than the hybrid soft-armor-and-plate systems of yesteryear, and while side plates can still obstruct standard belt-mounted holsters, we now have better options available to us than drop-leg holsters.
Today, mid-ride and low-ride holster options with or without a leg strap allow users to easily clear most armor options with considerably less movement and loss of rigidity. These holsters use a tough polymer or metal plate to offset the holster below the belt by a few inches.
Mid-ride plates, which shift the pistol only slightly lower than a standard “high-ride” holster, can often be used without any additional supports or straps required. Low-ride holsters and aftermarket plates that lower the pistol even further may require a leg strap for full stability, depending on the rigidity of both the adapter plate and the belt to which it is attached. In such a case, the leg strap should be positioned as high as possible on the thigh to minimize fatigue and maximize stability.
Magazines
If you’re carrying a firearm, a spare magazine is usually a good idea. As the saying goes, no one ever walked away from a firefight wishing they had less ammo.
Beyond just offering additional ammunition, though, spare magazines create flexibility in how you address malfunctions. A large number of malfunctions, particularly in semi-automatic handguns, are related to magazines and ammunition feeding. While there are ways to clear these types of malfunctions while retaining your magazine, it’s often faster to simply drop your mag, rack the slide to clear the misfed round, and slot in a fresh magazine.
The short and long of it, though, is that any situation worthy of a battle belt is worthy of a few spare mags. The whole point of a battle belt is to provide greater capability compared to a standard everyday carry or concealed loadout, which should include some extra ammunition.
As for the magazine carriers themselves, the design and manufacturer are largely a matter of personal preference. Carriers with flaps or retention bungees are available for those who want the additional security, which can be valuable for the same reasons that active retention is preferred for handgun holsters.
However, since spare magazines are generally carried in multiples (making the loss of one less critical) and are not particularly dangerous should they be grabbed by an assailant, friction-retention designs are sufficient for most civilian battle belts.
Taco-style magazine pouches, such as those popularized by HSGI, utilize a section of shock cord to create tension and are highly adaptable to different models of magazines. Their rifle carriers can adapt to most common AR-15, AKM, and AR-10 magazines, making them a strong contender for users who run multiple different weapon platforms with the same belt.
Their pistol mag carriers offer similar versatility, but since pistol magazines are more homogenous in their form factor than rifle magazines, many handgun magazine pouches offer this same capability.
Other mag pouches use a molded Kydex insert to create friction and retain the magazine. This design is utilized in Esstac’s popular Kiwi magazine carrier, as well as chest rig mag carriers from companies like Haley Strategic and Spiritus Systems.
The simplicity of the design lends itself well to fast operation but lacks the flexibility of taco-style carriers; AR-15 and AR-10 magazines require dedicated carriers with this design. Additionally, while AK magazines can usually be used in AR-15 mag carriers of this type, some users find the practice to be cumbersome, on account of the locking lug on AK magazines.
Lastly, competition-style mag carriers molded from Kydex are available. These simple designs offer good retention but don’t often come with flaps or shock cord over the top of the magazine for additional retention, and so are not appropriate for use cases that demand maximum retaining ability. Additionally, this type of carrier is typically customized to one specific magazine, meaning each rifle and handgun would require its own magazine carriers.
For most applications, simple vertical magazine carriers work best, but angled or horizontal carriers have some valid purposes, which we will get into later.
First Aid
If you’re going to carry a firearm, it’s generally advisable to carry first aid as well. At a minimum, this typically means a tourniquet, but in the case of a battle belt, a full individual first-aid kit is standard practice.
The reasoning behind this is simple and self-evident; battle belts, while rarely intended for actual battle in the case of civilian use, are designed to address violent threats. Those threats bring with them an inherent risk of physical harm. A firearm is an important tool for preventing harm to your person, but a first aid kit is equally important for addressing any injury that occurs anyway.
There are a myriad of pre-built first aid kits on the market, ranging from small, minimalist setups to full-on field surgery kits. As a rule, we do not recommend carrying any medical equipment you are not trained and/or certified to use, so the larger, more complex kits should be avoided unless you have extensive medical training.
Any basic kit from a reputable manufacturer should be sufficient (along with a Stop The Bleed course or even more comprehensive training), but if you’d prefer to build your own kit, we recommend checking out our guide on How to Build an IFAK as a starting point.
Regardless of whether you opt to build or buy, your first aid kit needs to be capable of being mounted to your belt via either a direct belt-slide attachment or MOLLE webbing, as appropriate for your belt choice. It also needs to be able to be accessed quickly—ideally, this means a way to rip it free from the belt one-handed and open it fully, even when injured or under significant stress. For these reasons, it’s wise to stick to purpose-built medical pouches to contain your first aid supplies rather than try to make them fit in a general purpose or admin pouch, which is likely not designed with these features in mind.
Lastly, while a quality tourniquet should be part of any good tactical first aid kit, it’s usually wise to have an additional tourniquet mounted in a more accessible location. When it comes to blood loss, even seconds can be crucial; the faster you can apply a tourniquet to a grievous wound, the better.
As such, consider staging a tourniquet on your belt so that you do not have to access and unpack your IFAK to deploy it. Several companies make tourniquet pouches or holders specifically for this purpose.
Knife/Multitool
There are few tools as versatile as a good knife. We won’t try to enumerate all the uses for a knife here; there are simply too many to count, which is why a fixed or folding knife has been a mainstay of daily carry for millennia.
Multitools build on that utility by combining an assortment of simple manual tools with a folding knife to tackle even more tasks.
Fixed and folding knives and multitools are all commonly found on battle belts, as they do an excellent job of tackling a huge variety of tasks at the expense of relatively little weight and space. Sometimes, you may even see all three on a belt, but we would classify that as excessive.
A single large folding knife or multitool is generally sufficient for the vast majority of tasks, but it’s rare that anyone truly needs both. While the knife on a multitool can sometimes leave something to be desired, it’s usually good enough for most applications.
However, if bushcraft or sustainment tasks are part of your use case for your battle belt, a fixed-blade knife may be worth the additional size and weight, as fixed blades can handle tasks such as batoning that folding knives usually can’t.
A fixed blade in addition to a multitool covers a multitude of tasks and is the absolute maximum number of bladed implements that should be found on a battle belt.
For a deeper dive into the minutiae of blade shapes, steel types, and all things cutlery, check out our Guide to Knives & Blades.
Flashlight
The ability to see in the dark is paramount for self-defense—you cannot fight what you cannot see. That’s why we always recommend a weapon-mounted light for any firearm that even might be used in a defensive role. If you took that advice and already have a light on your primary firearm, and possibly even your sidearm as well, it’s easy to dismiss a handheld flashlight as redundant.
However, we would contend that a handheld light is essential for a civilian battle belt. Not every noise in the dark is a threat, and pointing a weapon-mounted light into the darkness to identify a potential danger is neither safe nor legal. A handheld light allows you to light up the darkness in scenarios in which a threat is possible, but not yet fully determined.
They’re also generally useful for basically any low-light or nighttime activity. A flashlight isn’t just for midnight patrols or scouting a dark building, it’s also for inspecting dark nooks and crannies inside your firearm, getting some more light under the hood of your vehicle during maintenance or repairs, and any number of other common uses.
As with a knife or multitool, a small or midsized handheld flashlight offers a great deal of capability for a very modest amount of size and weight.
To carry it on your belt, you can opt for a dedicated Kydex or nylon pouch tailor-made for your light, or, for most midsized lights, you can just shove it in a pistol magazine pouch like an HSGI taco.
Gloves
Last, but certainly not least of our battle belt essentials is a good pair of gloves. As with many items in this category, the utility is self-evident: they protect your hands.
Gloves can be invaluable for keeping your hands intact when dealing with thorny or spiked underbrush, jagged metal, sharp rocks, or even just an overheated handguard after mag-dumping during a break contact drill under the summer sun.
Furthermore, even a tough set of leather gloves weighs no more than a few ounces, and because they are so light and flexible, they take up essentially no space on your belt. They’re commonly carried attached to a carabiner clip at the very front of the belt next to the buckle, where most other attachments would be impractical, so there’s little reason to forgo them.
Special Purpose Gear
Here we diverge into equipment that can often be found on a battle belt but is not appropriate for every user or every application. Sustainment equipment, for example, may be useful for someone preparing for a natural disaster but would have no utility for a home defense belt. Consider each item in this list realistically and carefully in the light of your intended application before dedicating space and weight to it on your belt.
Dump Pouch
The aptly named dump pouch is a simple cloth pouch into which you can dump just about anything. Most models roll up or otherwise condense into a lower profile when not in use.
The most common application for them is as a receptacle for spent magazines. While you can stuff your empty mags back into the pouches from which they came, it’s usually slower and creates the risk of grabbing an empty mag instead of a loaded one during a reload.
Dump pouches have other uses too, though. Survivalists and bushcrafters often use them to collect edible plants or berries, or kindling for a fire. Those who reload commonly use them to collect and store spent brass during training sessions. Essentially, dump pouches give you a catch-all solution for anything you need to carry on your person, but don’t require a dedicated pouch.
Not all applications benefit from a dump pouch. For a home defense-oriented belt, a dump pouch would be superfluous; you’re not likely to find anything you need to carry with you while repelling an intruder, and empty magazines (if you even need to reload, which is exceptionally rare) can just be dropped to the floor and collected after the fact.
Other belts, though, particularly those intended for use in an emergency or survival situation, can significantly benefit from the flexibility offered by these general-purpose pouches.
Comms
For many users, communications equipment is a necessity, not an option. Most civilian applications for a battle belt are solitary activities, though, and so for these users, comms gear is heavily dependent on scenario and training.
Those who operate as part of a team, even as civilians, should of course consider adding radios to their equipment. A radio—and its attendant accessories—allows you to stay in constant communication with your team, even when separated.
Even without team members to communicate with, a radio can have value for certain applications. Those whose belts are intended for use in a natural disaster or emergency, for example, may benefit from a general-purpose shortwave radio to listen to emergency broadcasts or communicate with emergency services. Alternative communications equipment like satellite phones may also be worth consideration for these applications.
A belt intended for personal or home defense, on the other hand, would have no use for a radio or any communication gear beyond a cell phone to call 911.
If a radio or other comms setup does fit your use case, consider utilizing a radio pouch rather than stuffing it in a mag pouch or generic carrier. Radio pouches are typically designed to allow better access to your comms unit’s critical controls and hold it more securely than generic designs.
Admin Pouch/Maps/Navigation
Similarly, maps or navigational gear like a GPS are essential gear for some users, but not others. Many, if not most, applications for a battle belt do not involve navigating through unfamiliar terrain and would not require navigational equipment.
However, for those scenarios that do require a map or GPS, they are generally essential. Not having a map in a remote, unfamiliar location can rapidly become a recipe for disaster if you become lost. As such, having a small admin pouch on your belt may be worthwhile if your use case requires navigation.
Sustainment/Survival Gear
As with navigational equipment, sustainment or survival gear is utterly superfluous for a more defensively-oriented battle belt, but may have a place on belts designed to address natural disasters or emergencies. However, it’s important to resist the urge to add everything and the kitchen sink to your belt.
When we talk about sustainment gear in the context of a battle belt, we are talking about the bare minimum to survive an unexpected but short time in an inhospitable environment. Even something as simple as a water bottle or canteen could fall under this banner, as would basic fire-making supplies like a lighter or storm matches, a small ceramic water filter, or a mylar blanket for shelter-making.
Anything beyond this most basic of supplies should be relegated to a backpack. The simple fact is that a battle belt is unsuited to support the amount of gear needed to survive more than a few days in the wilderness at most. Any sustainment gear located on your belt should be designed and intended as a stop-gap measure to allow you to survive long enough to make it back to civilization or your supplies.
Stuff You Don’t Need
Items in this section should be omitted. While they may or may not be found on some professional users’ belts, they have no utility on a civilian belt and take up both weight and space without offering anything in exchange.
Glowsticks
Glowsticks have in recent years become increasingly common on battle belts and plate carriers in the civilian realm, but lack any real justification for doing so.
Like most trends in the world of tactical gear, the practice originated with the military. Soldiers use both infrared and visible glowsticks to mark objects or locations for a variety of reasons during nighttime operations, from marking rooms as cleared, to denoting collection points, to locating others during nighttime parachute jumps.
Civilians simply don’t need these functions. Even amongst those who both own night vision and train with a team—a vanishingly small number of people—there’s no real reason to need to persistently mark items or locations in the dark, outside of a few training scenarios on a flat range.
For civilians, clearing rooms is not a realistic scenario beyond home defense, in which case glowsticks are neither necessary nor practical. Nor are you likely to jump out of a plane under cover of darkness, much less with a team you need to keep track of in the air. The use cases for glowsticks simply don’t hold water without a large support apparatus to make use of them.
Personal Retention Lanyard
Personal retention lanyards, also sometimes called helicopter lanyards, share a similar story. They serve a legitimate and important function in certain military operations, namely to provide an additional layer of security to prevent servicemen from falling out of a helicopter or other vehicle during operation.
Occasionally, they will crop on civilian battle belts as well, despite a distinct lack of private helicopter ownership. This is largely due to civilians copying military belt configurations, particularly those of special forces, without considering whether such a setup would be useful for them.
Unless you have regular access to a helicopter, you can safely skip the personal retention lanyard.
Grenade Pouches
This entry should be self-evident, but sadly, grenade pouches appear all too commonly on civilian belts or plate carriers. While fragmentation grenades are exceptionally rare in private ownership, owing to the high degree of regulation, these pouches often play host to smoke devices or civilian-grade flashbang grenades.
Both of these items are unnecessary on a civilian belt and extremely unlikely to be used in any kind of practical scenario. While more potent versions of both devices are occasionally used by the military or police, the neutered, online-orderable versions available to civilians lack the same efficacy.
Moreover, the use of devices like disorientation devices (colloquially called flashbang grenades) is heavily overstated by movies and video games, sometimes leading to a belief that these devices are more common and necessary than they really are.
Similarly, obscuring devices like smoke grenades are almost always used as part of a large-scale team operation, whether to obscure a field of fire to allow for movement or to mark a location to make it visible from the air.
In sum, skip the grenade pouches. Nothing you have access to is practical for any realistic scenario for a battle belt.
E-Tools & Tomahawks
Entrenching tools and tomahawks are on occasion seen on battle belts, but never with any purpose for being there.
Unlike the other items on this list, these tools are not commonly employed by military or police personnel. While E-tools were once upon a time part of common military equipment, they disappeared along with wood stocks and en bloc clips. Tomahawks, on the other hand, have never seen any significant use.
While both a small shovel or axe would have some utility for sustainment or bushcraft, neither belongs on a battle belt, as the utility-to-weight ratio simply isn’t in their favor. They are too large and their function too rare to justify a place on a battle belt, but one or the other may be worth including in a rucking backpack.
Even for bushcraft, though, an E-tool or tomahawk is usually a poor choice. In the case of the entrenching tool, a simple, small shovel would perform the same task without the risk of breakage or failure inherent in the E-tool’s folding mechanism. Modern hiking shovels can also be had in lightweight materials and designs, which entrenching tools lack.
Tomahawks similarly can be replaced by more practical hatchets or camp axes, as a hammer poll has much greater utility for bushcraft than a tomahawk spike.
Suspenders
It’s been said that you should never trust a man who wears a belt with suspenders—after all, he doesn’t even trust his belt to hold up his pants.
While we wouldn’t go quite that far in denouncing the combination, there is some truth to the idea. If you need suspenders to keep your belt above your hips, your belt is probably too heavy.
Remember, a battle belt is intended to be a minimum effective loadout. If you’re running a standalone belt, it’s for a reason, and if you truly need such a surplus of gear that it requires a set of suspenders to keep your waistband from hitting your ankles, you should probably opt for a full battle rattle. Plate carriers and other forms of LBE are simply incompatible with suspenders.
Overloading a belt to the point of needing suspenders compromises its purpose and functionally turns it into an inefficient form of load-bearing equipment. It’s sort of like trying to drive in a nail using a really big wrench; you might be able to do it, but you’d be better off just getting a hammer. Similarly, a belt and suspenders can be made to support a large quantity of gear, but a purpose-designed load-bearing system will almost always do so easier and cheaper.
However, if you only want or can only afford a single set of gear and want to be able to squeeze the absolute maximum amount of functionality out of it, a set of suspenders does allow you the flexibility to use your battle belt as rudimentary web gear to support a larger assortment of gear.
Configuring Your Battle Belt
With your belt chosen and your pouches and gear selected, it’s time to start assembling your battle belt. This isn’t as simple as just throwing the pouches on wherever they fit; your belt needs to be set up thoughtfully to ensure that the highest priority items are accessible quickly, the lower priority gear is not encumbering or obstructing more valuable equipment, and that everything is situated in a way that will be comfortable over a long patrol.
From here on, we’ll use clock-face instructions to refer to locations on the belt. For the unfamiliar, put on your belt and look down at it. Imagine an analog clock face where your body is. Clock-face instructions use the position of the hour hand during a specific time to indicate a location on the belt, such as 3 o’clock for the right-hand side, halfway between the front and back.
We’ll also assume users are right-handed. If you’re left-handed, you’ll want to invert these recommendations and instructions around the Y-axis of your belt. Imagine a line running from your belt buckle to your tailbone, and flip the location of each item on the belt around that line to make it left-handed. So, a dump pouch normally located at 7 o’clock would then be located at 5 o’clock.
You’ll want to begin with the most important thing on your belt: your sidearm. The position of your pistol and holster cannot be compromised on; it must go on your right hip, around the 3 o’clock position. Placing it in any other location would hinder your ability to cleanly draw.
Next, you’ll want to place your magazine pouches. The exact location here will vary depending on the type and number of magazines you need to carry. If you plan to mount rifle magazines to your belt, situate those directly at 9 o’clock, opposite your sidearm.
This will help to even out the weight of your pistol. A balanced belt places less axial strain on the body, reducing fatigue over time and in some cases significantly reducing back pain.
If you don’t plan to carry rifle magazines, your backup pistol mags can take the same location. If you plan to carry both rifle and pistol magazines, place your rifle magazines at 9 o’clock, then the pistol mags in front of them, at roughly the 10 o’clock position. If you have so many mags or so small a waist that the space there is insufficient, you may need to consider an angled mag pouch for one or more of your pistol magazines.
Angled magazine pouches shift the orientation of your pistol mags to around 45 degrees. This allows them to be mounted to the front of the belt without poking you in the stomach every time you lean forward. They’re not unlike common appendix magazine carriers, except that they are designed for outside-the-waistband use.
Next, add your gloves. These can often be attached using a simple, small carabiner clip. Because they are small, flexible, and of insignificant weight, you can just clip them at the 12 o’clock position, just to the left of the belt buckle. They’ll flap around when you run, but you usually won’t even notice.
First aid is the next priority. Ideally, you want your IFAK to be accessible with both hands, which means mounting it to either the front or back of the belt. Mounting it in front would make it difficult to access the belt buckle and would be horribly cumbersome when trying to crouch or lay prone, so the back of the belt at the 6 o’clock position is best.
Additionally, the 6 o’clock position is particularly well-suited for an IFAK because you want to avoid mounting any hard, rigid objects there; so that precludes any knives, magazines, or other hard gear. The 6 o’clock position sits directly over your spine, which means that placing a hard object there could present an injury risk if you were to fall backward onto it—which is a primary criticism of small-of-back pistol or scout-style knife carry.
If you’re carrying a separate tourniquet, you’ll likewise want it to be accessible with both hands, but depending on your setup and flexibility, that may not always be possible. Some carriers allow a tourniquet to be carried horizontally, which can make the 1 o’clock position of your belt a viable option. If you’re limited to vertical mounting, the 2:30 position, just in front of your handgun holster, is a good alternative, particularly if you can reach it with both hands while fully geared. Take care to test your draw stroke and be sure that your tourniquet does not obstruct it in any way, though.
The best location for your knife will depend heavily on what type of knife you are using. Small folding knives and multitools can often be mounted in front of the holster in the same 2:30 location previously mentioned for a tourniquet—provided you did not already place your tourniquet there. If you did, you can either move your tourniquet up a few places and stack your knife next to it, or relocate your knife to behind the holster.
Behind the holster, around the 4-4:30 position, is usually the optimal place for larger folding or fixed blade knives. Be sure to situate it far enough behind the holster that it doesn’t impede your grip when reaching for your firearm.
Your flashlight’s position will be dictated by what pouches you have already mounted. If possible, you’ll want to have it in front of your hips for the easiest, fastest access. Ideally, you’ll also want it on your left side so you can deploy it with your non-dominant hand while keeping your right on your firearm.
However, if this area is already filled with magazine pouches, you may have to shift it back slightly, so that it sits behind your mags but ahead of your dump pouch. Alternatively, some pouches include additional MOLLE webbing on the exterior, so you may be able to mount it to the outside of a mag pouch. This should be considered an option of last resort, though, as the extra width can be troublesome when maneuvering through tight areas or climbing in and out of a vehicle.
With your flashlight mounted, you can now move on to any additional gear that is specific to your use case. This gear is too varied for us to cover in full, but try to mount these items in places where they won’t hinder your access to your most essential equipment, such as your handgun and first aid.
Dump pouches, though, tend to have a standard placement, whereas other optional equipment can be placed wherever is most convenient for you. Dump pouches are almost always mounted on the left side of the belt in the 7-8 o’clock area, between your magazine pouches and your first aid kit. This location allows for fast, ergonomic dumping of mags but generally stays out of the way otherwise.
Once you have your gear fully configured on your belt, it is imperative that you test it. Run a training course or a competition if you can; they tend to be the fastest way to find the gaps and pain points in your setup.
If you lack the time, funds, or inclination for either of those activities, you can still put your belt through its paces on a flat range. Be sure to try accessing each piece of gear from a variety of positions, including standing, sitting, kneeling, and prone.
Some items may not be accessible from some positions, such as your gloves from a prone position. That’s okay; inevitably, you won’t be able to access all things at all times, and that’s simply part of the tradeoff for having your highest-priority gear accessible in the largest variety of circumstances. If you can’t draw reach your tourniquet with at least one hand from each position, though, that’s a problem worth addressing.
This sort of testing will also help build your familiarity with your belt and reveal any weak points that can be optimized. Pay attention to any items you’re struggling to remove or replace in their pouches. Jot down a few notes on a pad or on your phone, and consider how you could adjust your setup to address these issues later, if possible.
Conclusion
Battle belts are an essential piece of gear for professional users all over the world—while we wouldn’t quite call them “essential” for civilians in the same way as a home defense gun or a concealed carry firearm, they still have a valid role to serve in preparing for the unexpected.
A good battle belt should always have the basics—a handgun, magazines, first aid, knife, and flashlight—but beyond that, should be tailored to the task it’s intended for. Think carefully about each item you add, and avoid gimmicky or unnecessary gear.
Once your battle belt is setup and you’re ready to move on to a more complete tactical setup, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Tactical Gear for a primer on all types of soft goods and equipment.
And of course, if you have any questions about which gear to buy or how to employ it, feel free to reach out to our team of experts by phone at 713-344-9600 or by email at info@primaryarms.com.
