IBA SAPI Side Plate Carriers

Guys, I need some side plate carriers for my IBA. I don't have enough room for all my crap, haha. The only side plate carriers I've found were made by Tactical Tailor, but they don't have them in CB or Tan. If you can find me some, I'd prefer CB over Tan.

Looks like your options for buying new are Tac. Tailor, HSGI, or E. Industries. I'd suggest trying to buy used from someone. I've seen a lot of Pantac CB stuff for sale on Airsoft Pacific lately. Maybe you can find someone on your local airsoft forum who's willing to part out their rig.

That's the problem though, I'm the only one with an IBA at my field, save an Army National Guard grunt who sometimes wears is OITV. I think I'll just buy the Eagle Industries ones and then I can give them to my cousin when I get rid of my IBA.

Why do you need side plates anyway? The hearsay I've heard is that our guys don't like side plates because they add too much weight and don't offer much more protection.

I don't care about weight or protection, I want them for more MOLLE real estate. I'm running out of room to put mag pouches, which I'll need a few with eight STANAG mags and four Glock mags.

There should be enough room on the front of your IBA for all your mags plus two frags and an admin pouch. Unless you have the authentic style which has a two-loop gap on the flap?

Nope, I have the cheater version, haha. I just have so much crap on it. I'm weird because I like to keep all my mag pouches on the very bottom of my rig, but I won't put them any higher. Right now I've got four STANAGs and a utility on the bottom row then my dead rag pouch in the center above two of the STANAGs. I've got my knife carabiner'd above my utillity pouch and my Sharpie and pen above those, then my wirecutters on my left side. On the back, I have either my CamelBak or a whole lot of empty, depends on the game.

What I would do is move the utility around to the back and put pistol mags in its place. If the rag is the only thing in the rag pouch, stick it in your right shoulder pocket and drop the pouch. I'd stick the knife on my pistol belt. The writing utensils can fit in webbing under a pouch, so they don't need to take up space of their own. Only problem is when you need the utility AND the hydro. Hmmm....

This is the main reason why I decided to get the MTV. More real-estate. But it's about twice as heavy and hot as the IBA.

Well, I use the utility quite a bit in the field for carrying strobes, flares, radios, my phone, spare lights, batts, whatever. The dead rag pouch has velcro on the front that I keep my IFFs on that my team mates use to identify me on the field (because they can't tell who the 240 pound, 6'1" guy that has HOSS written on the back of hydro is). I don't wear a pistol belt on the field, just my uniform belt to keep my trousers on, haha. I may move the knife down a little bit though. Writing utensils noted, will do.