ALICE LBE Reloads

​ALICE is often labeled as old gear that is all but useless today. Perhaps ALICE is old and less convenient than the MOLLE system, but I have not found it to inhibit my ability to fight. Now throw on a plate carrier and a pouch for everything you think you need, and we have a problem. ALICE was not just created in a vacuum where people had no concept of the importance of comfort and speed reloads. In fact, the ALICE mag pouches were made to facilitate speed reloads in all climates and conditions without having to stare at the pouch.

CONSTRUCTION

​The ALICE mag pouches were made almost entirely out of nylon, which is a synthetic material known for being light, versatile in form, highly resistant to wear, fast-drying, and won’t rot. Pound for pound, you won’t get a more versatile and durable fabric. Nylon is used in a lot of outdoor clothing for all of these reasons and is used to make 550 cord, an essential for any grunt, outdoorsman, or sailor since it won’t rot away and will handle incredible loads.

ALICE mag pouches were designed to hold 3 30rd M16/4 STANAG magazines or two 20rd 7.62 magazines. I have found them to be well suited for Magpul and AUG mags. Some of the pouches later on had nylon webbing that would prevent the mags from turning in the pouch if you only had one or two in there. 

​I just cut out these straps so I could also run my 308 mags in the pouch. I do prefer these mags for just using 5.56 mags though, since they do indeed have a tendency to turn in the pouch and slightly slow down your reload and ability to work with the pouch when loose. The inside of the mag pouch has nylon stiffeners to keep the pouches rigid and in form. The cover also had a nylon panel to keep its form and give a tiny bit of weight so it will fall back down after you extract a magazine.

​The closing system on the pouch is a simple set of self-locking prongs that slide into a latch. The body that the prongs protrude down from is huge and hard to miss by feel. The latch is also large, and altogether, it is hard to miss the latch system by feel, even with thick winter mitts, which was the point. After all, the A in ALICE does stand for ALL-PURPOSE. The durability of the latch and prong assembly have been consistently attacked, but I will talk about that later.

​For the sake of this article, I am going to share the names I have for the system used to secure the mag pouch shut.

​The big black polymer part on the cover with the prongs protruding is going to be called the prong assembly. The prongs are just the prongs, and the whole thing is going to be referred to as the latch system. ​The bottom part that the prongs lock into is going to be called the latch. 

THE RELOAD TECHNIQUE

​The technique I use is an intuitive one, but some of you may have to run through the numbers, which is all good if you are new to the tac-tickle realm. You will be using only three fingers for this task, the thumb, index, and middle fingers. First thing you are going to do is find the pouches latch system by feel. This is either with your finger tips or palm, but I guarantee that you can’t miss it. Once you have found the latch system, run your index and middle fingers down to flanks of the prongs. You can guide your fingers down to where they need to be by tracing the sides of the latch system. Once they get to the bottom, your fingers will be right where they need to be, without fail.

​Once you have your fingers in position, simply pinch the prongs inwards with force as if the intent is to clap the prongs together. While you are pinching the prongs inward, push the prongs up through the latch just using your index and middle finger. Notice the position of my thumb being strategically placed on the corner of the pouch.

​Quickly open the pouch with your thumb by running it up the corner until it makes contact with the cover. Then use your thumb to flip the cover up.

​As the cover is being flipped up, run your thumb greedily behind the mags. This will pin the cover up and out of the way and position your hand for an optimal magazine grip. Obviously at this point you can grab a mag and load your rifle.

THE FASTER OPTION?

​After you have loaded, you can either leave the pouch open at the risk of it snagging on stuff and even breaking off a prong. Reloads with an open pouch will be a tad faster, but you increase the noise from the pouch and the mags it contains. Be aware that mags may turn in the pouch if you don’t have a full pouch, and you obviously increase the chance of snagging. I have not seen too many instances where mags fall out, even in the absence of the prongs. But I have seen loose covers catch on things and get people tangled up. But if speed is more important, who am I to tell you otherwise?

CLOSING TECHNIQUE

My recommendation is to secure the mag pouch after using it, or at least make sure it is closed prior to movement. The technique I use is good all the way around, day or night without looking at the pouch. First thing you will do is locate the pouch cover and grab either side of the prongs with your index and pinky. You will place the prongs just behind the first joint of your middle and ring fingers so you can still use your fingertips.

​Use your middle and ring fingertips to locate the latch and guide the prong up the latch until they reach the top. Verify the prongs are in line with the holes by blocking the sides of the latch with both ring and middle fingertips.

​Guide the prongs into the latch and use the middle and ring finger to feel on either side of the latch to double check that the prongs made their way in the hole. 

​From here you simply push the prong assembly down with your palm until it clicks shut.

SILENT CLOSING

​The silent option is for those who don’t want to make noise, like at night on a recce. Perhaps they are using the pouch for admin supplies like a compass and other stuff, or perhaps they just goofed and didn't remember to secure their pouch before setting off. For this, you guide the prongs down slowly with your palm above the prong assembly. Use your middle and ring fingers to pinch the prongs as they protrude out of the bottom of the latch. Continue lowering the prong assembly all the way and then release the prongs while maintaining downward pressure on the prong assembly.

HOW TO USE YOUR MAG POUCH

​This may seem irrelevant to the subject, but this can make or break your reload game. First thing you need to drill into your head is to keep only your fully loaded mags forward in your easiest to reach pouch(es), and put your empty or partial ones in the hardest to reach pouches. The way to store your loaded (full or partial) 5.56 mags is with the bullets facing down and outward. The empties should be stored with the followers facing up and with the front of the mags facing outward. This helps you feel which ones even have ammo and which ones are completely out.

​Your loaded 7.62 mags will have the bullets facing down and back while the empties will have the follower facing up with the front of the mag facing forward.

​When able, move mags from the hardest to reach pouch/position and replenish your primary pouch. This is called bumping your mags forward. When you get the chance, I recommend storing the empties and partials from your dump pouch in the hardest to reach EMPTY pouches. Partially loaded mags should be stored ahead of empty mags but behind full mags. For 7.62 mags, put the empty mag at the back, closest to the body while the full/partial is on the outside, as seen in the above picture.

​There is a saying that you should never put a bad mag in a good pouch. That means that you should never put an empty or partial mag in a mag pouch. That saying may be cool for the flat range with only pistols, but when you have a dozen rifle mags, you need a way to store them, even the empties, when your dump pouch gets a bit full. Storing the mags properly and in the right order will ensure that you only grab your fully loaded mags during an emergency reload. Also, I will note that bumping your mags will also give you a sense on where you stand on ammo, so you know the status of each pouch. There may come a time, as was the case with me at one point, where I had a pouch of full mags, one of partials, and another with a partial and an empty mag. In the real world, no one is going to call “ENDEX”(end of exercise) after a firefight so you can empty your dump pouch and reload. In the real world you only get a minute or two to prep for the next wave of shit, so it is best to maintain an empty/semi-empty dump pouch in preparation.

TIPS AND NOTES

​If you are using STANAG/aluminum 30rd 5.56 or any kind of 20rd 7.62 mags in this pouch, you are going to encounter a bit of jiggle and noise due to vertical and horizontal space. This is not a problem for Magpul and AUG mags since they are a bit bigger than STANAG mags. A trick that people used to rectify this was to not only tape the bottom of the mags with electrical or duct tape, but also put something like a cravat or bandana at the bottom. This raised the mags a bit and not only helped them reach the mags, but helped retention and noise reduction.

​The second thing I want to say is that it is important to actively practice closing the pouch as soon as possible after using it. This ensures that you don’t make the amateur soldier mistake of leaving your prongs hanging in the wind and getting them bent or broken. I can assure you that it wouldn’t matter if the prongs were made of metal. If you are running, and they snag on something more stubborn than you, something is going to give.

EXPECTATIONS

​The last thing I want to talk about is the expectations you can realistically have with a piece of gear like this. The mag pouch for the ALICE LBE system is designed to store multiple magazines securely and to be used in all environments and conditions. One of the requirements in the development was for the latch system to be simple and effective, allowing users to be able to easily open and close it one-handed and without looking at it. I have been able to easily stay under 4 seconds on my retention reloads for the AUG. If I just dump my mag, I am able to easily stay under 3 seconds. The retention system is very simple, but if it does break, the only solution is a whole new pouch or rigging up some kind of contraption that is equally as intuitive. You could always just sew on a piece of Velcro above the latch and have a loud Velcro pouch. But that has its own issues. I would rather just spend $5 and get another pouch from my local surplus store.

CLOSING

​Is ALICE the top-of-the-line gear, hell no. But it sure as hell is easy to use and is easy to setup. It was designed for users to only carry a fighting load, which should be only what you NEED. The system still needs help in the metal suspender hooks and the clips that secure the pouches to the belt. But overall, I am sad that the ALICE system did not continue, and I would love to travel to an alternate dimension to see what advancements the system would have made if we would have stuck with it and the IIFS/LBV88E systems. If I were to see that, I bet the mag pouch latch system would not have changed a bit. It is simple, but incredibly effective, if you know the tricks of the trade.