Mountain Partisan Gear

I spent the last 6 days down at the Brushbeater Training Center in North Carolina, serving as cadre for the Scout and Recce Courses. First, let me say that you should seriously consider taking these courses. The content and interactive exercises are amazing, but the sense of community and camaraderie built among the students and cadre is irreplaceable. Get out and train, and these courses are worth every penny. Special guests might even drop by, this time Risky Chrisky came, and I’ve been there when Angry American has popped in.

Having proper gear is essential to good field performance. This includes setting up your gear so that it works for you, is effective, and is quiet. There is even Tactical Wisdom on being properly equipped:

so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:17

I wore exclusively Mountain Partisan gear on this trip because they asked me to evaluate it. I’m going to go over the gear and share my thoughts, and I’ll provide you some links to their gear. The Feds require me to tell you that these are affiliate links and that I may make a small commission at no cost to you. Click any of the photos or hyperlinks. Remember though, that I will NOT recommend gear that I don’t like. I’m not like those YouTube gear slingers who will shill without remorse.

If you’ve done any reading of my stuff, you’ll know that I love Nehemiah. He is the basis of my gear evaluations. If it isn’t comfortable or well built enough to meet the “Nehemiah Standard”, I won’t use it or recommend it.

Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.

Nehemiah 4:23

Keeping this in mind, any gear you use must hold you gear securely and be comfortable for 24/7 wear and easy enough to put on that you could do it silently in the dark.

Partisan Sling

I used the Mountain Partisan sling. I use several slings and it works just like most, with a rapid slide for adjusting from patrolling length to fighting length. I have the kevlar loop attachments for mine, because I don’t really like QD mounts (seen too many rifles slam into the ground from QDs failing). The kevlar attachments are quieter.

There are two standout features on the Partisan Sling that I think make it a better choice. First is a large thumb-loop instead of a pull tab or string for making adjustments. From my experience, this is much easier to get ahold of in the dark while wearing gloves. The thumb loop really makes adjusting the sling very easy to do without looking. There is no struggle in either direction with the thumb loop and in my experience there generally is with pull tabs (resistance in one direction or the other). The second feature is the double nylon sheath on the buttstock end of the sling. This the part of the sling that gets the most friction is therefore most likely to rub through and fail during heavy use. This extra sheath also seemed to make the sling move easier as I changed carries.

Partisan Split Rig

I wore the Partisan Split Rig all week. I prefer split rig designs for light infantry operations, or guerrilla/partisan work, because they allow you to quickly split it open and get lower to the ground than a solid rig. They are also pretty easy to put on; you put it on just like a jacket.

For mine, I ran it with 2-2 mag shingles, a GP small pouch, Kestrel pouch, and a GP large pouch. I put my Vortex monocular in the GP small and it fit securely. I turned the GP large pouch into an admin pouch with noteboooks, range cards, and a folded map, along with my Brushbeater Range-R card. I wanted to test running the Kestrel because I hunt and I love that Mountain Partisan has a Kestrel-Specific pouch. It fit prefectly and never came loose, even when running or low crawling.

The laser cut base accepts all molle-type webbing, but MP uses a very secure system that secure the pouches to the base very tightly with no play or loosening. It’s a very good attachment type.

The only feature I have any reservations about is the expander wing. It’s a great idea that perfectly fits their radio pouch, but I spend a lot of time low crawling, so I was worried about losing the wing low crawling. I didn’t test it this trip, but I will in coming weeks and will report back.

The radio pouch fits a UV 5R radio perfectly and I ran one radio set as a SIGINT platform in it and the radio stayed secure in the pouch. The only issue I have with it is that there is no real room for attaching a K1 plug accessory like an earpiece or headset. Other than that, it’s a very secure open-top pouch.

Bang Bag

I hadn’t planned on running this on this trip, but I’m really glad I did.

The Bang Bag is what a lot of folks call a “bump in the night” bag or “Minuteman” bag. I really like it. Essentially it’s an open bag with velcro for attaching things, molle panels on the ends, a rear pocket, a shoulder strap, and two “water bottle” pockets.

Rather than running it as an extra ammo bag, I decided to run it as an alternative to an assault pack. I put a Swedish M84 Canteen in one water bottle pouch (it fit perfectly) and in the other I put my WOLF-14 Night Vision (from Brushbeater) and my FLIR Scout. I put a sniper veil, a rain poncho, and some food in it. It has a small strap to reduce sway in the bag, but I didn’t need it. Once I cinched down the shoulder strap, it stayed right where it was. Even when prone or running, the bag never moved and never got in my way.

The Bang Bag also has a large thumb loop for adjusting the length of the shoulder strap, which is a game changer for shoulder bags. I can loosen it, put it on, and cinch it down fast. To take it off quick, grab the thumb loop and loosen. It’s a well-built bag with great capacity. Again, the thumb loop is easy to find in the dark and wearing gloves.

I ran a radio pouch on one side and a GP medium pouch on the other with a pair of heavier gloves and my watch cap in it. This bag will be part of my regular kit going forward as an EDC bag.

It could be configured as a patrol bag, EDC bag, First Aid kit, or any other kit. One use I really want to explore is as an HF radio bag. I could toss an HF rig, antenna wire, and solar panel in this bag easily. We’ll do some videos on it over on YT and Locals.

I look forward to reviewing more Mountain Partisan gear. The guys designing it all have real world experience, particularly in mountain environments and have a lot of great projects in the works. Stay tuned.

Check them out.

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Later this weekend, we’ll review all the camping gear I used this week for 6 nights qith lows in the low 20s all week. The TL DR is that I never got cold because of the gear I used.

Myself and Angry American will be at the Kentucky Sustainable Living Festival in Bowling Green, KY March 23-24 and the Self Reliance Festival in Camden, TN April 6-7.