Do you have mud on your weesatch?

Apologies for the thread-title folks, it's a bit of an in-house joke, but it's also the point of the musing that has lead me to this post.

Often, people post questions on boards (and elsewhere; as boards is hardly the font of all knowledge - please don't smite me DeV) about how they can get the most out of this piece of kit, or the other piece of kit, or their AEG or whatever. All perfectly reasonable questions of course. Despite the drive, desire, and the incurred costs to get the absolute best performance out of a gun or a radio, or some other piece of kit, there is one observation that puzzles me (having spent much time observing it as a marshal) despite my encouraging players to do it to give themselves an advantage - which most then invariably fail to do.

What is it Batman? Some sort of tactical stealth-cloak? A ghilli-suit that folds out of your hood? A new AEG that allows you to be Mark Walhberg in Shooter? No, none of the above. Simply go prone.

Holy weesatch-caked-in-mud Batman!

Yes Robin, go prone.

But how do you figure that Batman?

*ahem* Apologies for that slightly threatrical delivery

Anyway, to what I wanted to say. Whilst this should be prefaced with the caveat that it's more for woodland than urban, and any applicability in CQB is *really* limited, it all comes down to common sense at the end of the day as to whether or not you find yourself in a situation where going prone will give you an edge.

I shouldn't need to spell out why going prone is an obviously useful, and very under-rated/overlooked thing to do. It makes you a smaller target front-on, it removes the tell-tale signature shape of boots, body, etc. and makes you harder to spot because you tend not to be moving, or moving very low to the ground. It also tends to give you a fairly stable "platform" from which to fire. And yes, you may get dirty. Yes you may get dirt on your lovely, clean, weesatch and pouches. Yes you may even get a little damp. But you gain as much of an edge from it as spending a small fortune on upgrading AEG internals, and all for free.

Whilst it's obvious that going prone (or for the rest of you; lying down) makes you a smaller target, it does make you start to think about how you organise & carry your kit.

There are three 'core' types of battle order that you will see at airsoft sites up and down the length of any given country; namely

• Harness/Belt-order
• Plate carriers
• Vests

Of the three above, plate carriers & vests are the most common, but the manner in which most airsofters consider using them means that such battle-order is also more suited to what is termed "upright" fighting, i.e. you don't spend much - if any time - dropping below your knee.

Why?

Such rig setups usually have an impressive array of mag pouches,radio pouches, & even holsters, etc. strapped to the front area meaning that going prone leaves your chest and head sitting wayyyyy, wayyyyy up out there like targets when all you want to do is get low and make out with the dirt to avoid the rather accurate BB hose that's firing in your direction. So what can you do besides dig?

With vests, it's a bit hit or miss as many vests tend to have fitted/stitched pouches so you're a bit out of luck. That said, I still like vests because they allow for better movement than plate-carriers in my opinion. But for those of you with plate carriers, it comes down to considering how you lay out pouches around your carrier. Do you really need two layers of magazine pouches when one plus better use of semi-auto will do? Do you have space elsewhere on your carrier (e.g. sides & back) for that radio pouch, etc.

Before I continue, I need to say this, and it should be kind of obvious, but just because you have loads of molle space available doesn't mean you need to cram every available slot with pouches, clips, admin panels, and tactical haribo holders (although haribo is always welcome). So with that in mind, another possible notion for those users of plate carriers is the use of blast belts in addition to your carrier for mounting pouches, which will naturally end up sat around either side of the hips, thus freeing up the front of your carrier to allow you better ability to go prone and not be left with your head held up like a meerkat. Of course, whilst this might seem like a happy mix of harness/belt & carrier, in the real world this practice is being used more frequently because the plate carriers .. .well .. they carry armour plates. Airsofters don't need plates of course, so your plate carrier starts to become a bit of an expensive accessory if you feel that every square inch of the front of your carrier should otherwise be covered in pouches.

The last option is the harness/yoke + belt combination (or variants there-in). This tends to see most pouches sat around the hips and back allowing the wearer to get very low to the ground. As someone who tends to use support guns a lot, this is very useful, although I know a handful of airsofters who enjoy their sniper-craft and use belts with ghillie-suits to allow for better movement. The only comment I would make about using belts is to bear in mind that if you don't have some sort of harness (there are lightweight, thin ones that can fit under plates/jackets/etc.) and you have that belt absolutely loaded with stuff, you may find yourself getting tripped up by it as it slides down around your ankles

All said and done, it's all down to personal preference, the environment you find yourself in, and your preference for playing airsoft. But hopefully I've given some food for thought on how you lay-out your webbing and that the ability to go prone is really not used enough by airsofters despite ever constant drive to tinker with guns at great cost to gain an edge.

Personally speaking, I use a belt & harness most of the time, although if I am playing exclusive CQB I sometimes switch (if I can be arsed) to a vest or use a belt for faster movement.

Anyway, apologies for the rambling and hopefully it's a starting point for discussion.