Pantac LBT 1961a Review with pics!

Hey guys, I sold my Eagle Industries RRS-V to a friend (Red) not to long ago. It was a great vest, however I really needed a multifunctional vest. With the RRS-V fully loaded it would need a first line to handle all the stuff I had(and keep the bib folded down as I liked). So I set out to look for another chest rig that fit my needs. While searching through some photo's of Seal's on MP.net I found that allot of them had 1961a's with a crap ton of stuff stuck inside. This intrigued me as it almost totally fit my needs. So without further adieu' here is my review of the Pantac LBT 1961a.



As you can see the vest looks very "busy". It is a static vest with no MOLLE retail, but do not let that fool you into thinking it is of poor design and build quality! It is contructed from 1000D Cordure and double stitched. All of the pouches have quarter inch drain holes on the bottom. Beyond being well thought out it somehow incorporates 4 double magazine pouches in the middle, a double pistol mag pouch and 3 VN sized mag pouches on top of the 4 large size mag pouches. Flanking this badass array of holding cells are two large GP pouches that sit on top of 2 MBITR(radio) pouches. The GP pouches have a Frag pouch sitting on the inner side of the rig. I know this is probably hard to understand, so sorry lol.



Thats a look at what I have dropped in the vest so far. I still have to use up one GP and two frag pouches. Right no I am using one mag for the large mag pouches, and one mag in the shorter VN mag pouches on the front. This way I do not have any "mag stick" while retrieving a mag. The large mag pouches can easily fit 2 M4 style mags though. I plan on picking up 4 Kydex inserts so they retain better.



The vest is flanked by 2 MBITR/Radio pouches, behind the GP's. I use the MBITR on the right as a holster and the one of the left for my radio. The vest did come with comms channels. For those who don't know, these are pictured above, and designed to fit radio or any other small wire that you may need. It just helps with the streamline, and creates less of a hassle for the user.




The Pistol mag pouches fit 9mm mags(M9) with a little extra room(about 2mm), I assume these were made to fit P226 or Mk23 mags. The pouches could fit 2 1911 mags in one pouch. The cover for the pouch covers both pouches so when you open it up you have access to both mags.



The 1911 is in the pouch that sits behind the MBITR, it utilizes both a buckle and elastic to keep the contents in place. However it does not have a flap. I am using the same pouch on the other side to hold my radio, it also fit my M9 with no problems. There is no wiggle with either sidearm in the pouch as long as the buckle and elastic are in place.



The GP pouches come with a button on elastic square covering. This allows extra retention and cover for the more expensive things, such as a GPS unit, or if you wanted to use it as a mini dump pouch the elastic would keep the mags in place. I removed the elastic on the side that I store my BB's in. I have not removed it on the other side, when I find out what I'm putting in that pouch I probably will. Unless its something that could fall out easily.



Here is a pic of the other pouch with my BB's, it does not have the elastic cover, although it still has the main pouch flap to keep the BB's inside.




The top picture shows how the vest can be pull open for the whole length of the vest, what I found interesting is Pantac attaches two strips of velcros in the middle to reinforce the closer and what I assume as a way to segregate the internal vest into 3 large compartments. This is handy because you can now use any of the three compartments as a map pouch/ADMIN pouch without having to look throughout the vest for your stuff.



The vest has a permanent H-Harness that is easily adjustable and a lower back retention strap. It is very similar to my old RRS-V except the H-harness has a 90* angle that attaches it to the back of the rig, whereas most rigs and my old RRS-V had curving straps that likes to ride on one edge against the back. There is no problem like that on this rig and I'm very happy about that.


Overall I would give this vest a 9/10, as it is not modular in any way(however you should know this before buying the vest, so its no big deal). But besides that it is a great vest. I would recommend this to anyone with a STANAG gun or similar mag size. The build quality is awesome as I have come to expect with Pantac, so I'm sure I will have this vest for many years to come.

sticks

Nice looking rig, sticks! Do you mind if I ask how much you paid for it?

Absolutely not! It was $85.39 after tax.

http://www.airsoftsmith.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=31_77&products_id=1966

I took the last one thats why they are out of stock. They also have OD and CB versions, which are both in stock at the moment.

sticks

Hmmmm....... I may need to pick one of those up for my Blackwater loadout, I imagine it would work pretty well

Updated with new info. I'm a retard, the pouches behind the GP's are MBITR pouches. They are just very large and very flat compared to their MOLLE counterparts.

sticks

Very nice! What type of .45 is that?

KJW 1911a1. Its not bad for the money. Its not a TM, but again you can't beat the price($110). Fun little thing that may be getting replaced by a TM P226 soon!

sticks