Helikon-Tex Patrol Line, Guardian Chest Rig

I got this in M81 and the color is spot on. I think it is a good value for the money. You can fit 6 standard GI or pmags in the three pouches in the middle of the rig. The side gp pouches are big enough to hold GI canteens or a nice ifak. I keep a canteen in one pouch and an ifak in the other. There are pouches on the back of the mag and gp pouches. They hold a beofang radio with ease. Overall it is a very functional piece of gear.

Love the chest rig. Only thing that I dislike about it is that it does NOT hold 2 ak47 magazines in the front pouches. It WILL hold 2 AR15 magazines, but it will be a very tight fit. Doesn’t bother me tho because I’ll just carry an extra two magazines on my battle belt instead, to make up for it. Also the canteen pouches fit my canteens. The stitching is good all around. And the color is as expected. Little pricey in my opinion tho.

Simple answer: Yes, worth the purchase but might need mods (subjective opinion)LIKES:Color is exactly what was stated for me (multicam) not that weird off multicam stuff you sometimes see from some knock-off gearOverall quality seems very decent.Good enough to run live.Material is light weight.Stitches on the one I got is very good.Versatile, that you can run as a placard style or as a FLC for training if your unit doesn’t always have you running plates or recon (but if you’re in that line of work you have access to higher tier brands).Fit is fairly comfortable even with the X style harness. Now you could turn this into a H style but that will require some Velcro and creativity or if you know how to stitch. Something I’m gonna mess around with and see if that will work-wouldn’t see why not instead of buying another harness after spending 150$ and some of those are too pricy for my liking.It is cordura and multicam licensed for those who careOriginal Buckles and straps(lightly padded-good) seems very good and will last so long as you take care of your equipmentMolle at the top by the admin pouch and bottom to run a gut pouch and on the pouches as seen on the pictures. Including at the bottom of the sustainment/canteen pouches.Mag pouches I think are very versatile and good over all. The top is removable so if you’re not a Velcro tab guy you can remove it and even add your own shockcord tabs and set it up that way. I’m not, I like my mag protected and not a fan of cord retention for my mags. PMags and GI mags run really smoothDISLIKES:My biggest complaint is the dividers in the double mag pouches. If you have a thread ripper take that out. It makes reinserting very inconsistent. Maybe it's a skill issue however I've doing this for a long time and rarely had issues even with standard equipment.For the canteen/sustainment pouches there is no real good way to secure anything smaller than such in there without the risk of losing it. Yes you do have a buckle and you can tighten it up, however (for myself) shockcord is a good way to keep things from making rattling or spewing out the sides. If you do a version 2.0 I would add a way to be able to cinch the whole pouch like a standard issue canteen pouch.Like or dislike..?Inner side pouches (photos showed a pistol right and mag pouches center & left). Now the pistol one could not fit my full size in there without fighting tooth and nail. I was able to fit a micro compact fine- I probably wouldn't run a dot on it if I were to consider this. To me not worth it however a valid option should one not want to run battle belt I guess. I removed them all and now I have a center admin pouch, and two free bees. I will say even with my medium hands I can't reach all the way to the bottom of them due to how narrow it is without have to work my fingers and raise the rig if that makes sense. A radio like 152's or an embitter would be fine in one of these but anything else not sure. If you add smaller items to these pouches I'm not sure how that will fair out but only one way to find out.Over all rating: Yes, worth the purchase.I still would recommend this rig. it's almost everything you need for a basic/simplistic set up. Even my duty vest Its very simplistic. My biggest recommendation is make the kit work to your advantage and get creative. There is no perfect rig you're always going to find faults and see how you can make it work and that is what I'm going to do for this rig. Some simple modifications and a little time this rig will be even better. Is it worth the price, yes absolutely.

This is a fantastic chest rig. I'm a huge fan of the magazine capacity and large canteen pouches that also function as large general-purpose pouches. It can be paired with a slick front plate carrier or worn stand-alone. Fully loaded this chest rig weighs in for me at 12 lbs.I upgraded the X-harness with an HX Hybrid Harness from Lunar Concepts for improved weight distribution and comfort, while still allowing for a true chest rig ride height so that I can pair it with a battle belt or a large pack with a waist belt.Even with $100 worth of upgrades this chest rig offers great value compared to other options on the market. Would highly recommend it!

These products are of the highest quality, on par with Crye, Tyr,etc…name the brand, it’s just as good. It costs half as much. I’ve been doing violent jobs for 27 years, and have had a lot of kit issued as well as purchased. I can’t say enough good things about Helikon Tex.

This appears to be a great heavy chest rig. Canteen pockets work as advertised. I’m thinking one canteen and one IFAK for now. The holster and pistol mag pouches are crap, so I removed them. I’m still giving this five stars, though, because they’re pointless to have on a rig like this. I suspect I’m going to need to replace the straps with an H harness, but I’ll run it stock for a bit first and see.Helikon Tex is excellent. This is not my first purchase from them and it won’t be my last.

If you are strictly interested in high speed low drag this chest rig might not be your you. It is not clumsy or heavy it is just meant for carrying more magazines and other items then most people utilize when run & gun. It seems to be well built, I can't see stitching being an issue. It is comfortable and extremely suited for long patrols, hikes or tactical camping fun. Note that although I haven't tried 7.62x.39 mags in this rig I could see it being troublesome. I use ak mags in 5.56 and can't imagine a larger mag functioning well with this setup. For what I wanted this chest rig surely delivered. The main factor that attracted me to this item was that its offered in ATACS camouflage, I am a huge fan. Only thing I intend to alter on rig is removing molle webbing on front of pouches it seems useless and degrades the effectiveness of camo pattern. I would suggest this to my friends that run AR's as well as AK74's, would not recommend for an AK47.

It fits good and nice camo pattern