Nkomo Posted March 8, 2009 Share #1 Posted March 8, 2009 Picked up this neat tactical vest down at the SoS yesterday. There is no makers tag or manufacturing marks that I can find. The vest has a STABO rig built into it. The plastic buckles are marked BSR-IA ACW NY NY 10018. Oddly enough, the buckles are not dated. The vest holds up to 8 M-16 magazines. The vest itself has ssen better days, but it is what it is. Any information about this rig would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nkomo Posted March 8, 2009 Author Share #2 Posted March 8, 2009 Close up of one of the magazine pouches. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RTS Posted March 9, 2009 Share #3 Posted March 9, 2009 Arch, Any chance at more pictures of the vest? It looks pretty familiar...I think the holster is a Safariland 3004/3005... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mercenary25 Posted March 9, 2009 Share #4 Posted March 9, 2009 Cool finds. It looked like you had a good time. I'm not sure if I've seen this vest before, but it reminded me of ABA vest. I may be wrong, but this vest seems to be modified. I've seen some LBVs modified to have STABO attached. Can you take pictures of back of the vest and inside? I'm very curious. Thanks! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CamoDeafie Posted March 9, 2009 Share #5 Posted March 9, 2009 Reminds me somewhat of the QRV vest, but the QRV vest has different rappeling mounting hardware and different shoulders.... the vest that looks most like it would be the ABA tac vests, which is similar in layout, however none show the stabo type harness... hmm nice finds though! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nkomo Posted March 10, 2009 Author Share #6 Posted March 10, 2009 Some close-ups of the vest. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nkomo Posted March 10, 2009 Author Share #7 Posted March 10, 2009 Close-up of the magazine pouches. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nkomo Posted March 10, 2009 Author Share #8 Posted March 10, 2009 Close-up of one of the buckles. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nkomo Posted March 10, 2009 Author Share #9 Posted March 10, 2009 Close-up of the inside of vest. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nkomo Posted March 10, 2009 Author Share #10 Posted March 10, 2009 Close-up of inside pocket. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nkomo Posted March 10, 2009 Author Share #11 Posted March 10, 2009 Well......this vest is a mystery. No makers tags of any kind that I can find. There are inside pockets on each side that close with a heavy duty YKK zipper. As you can tell from the vest, it has seen better days. It has a few tears and snags. Being the sucker I am for vests, I just couldn't leave it on the mannequin! MattD and I have discussed this vest and we both agree that it is from the mid 1980's to early 1990's time period. He believes it may be a AWS made vest. Thanks for looking! Arch Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mr-X Posted March 10, 2009 Share #12 Posted March 10, 2009 Very nice unusual pick ups Arch Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RTS Posted March 10, 2009 Share #13 Posted March 10, 2009 Arch, I think you and MattD might be to something with the AWS angle. I had thought that the vest might have been a modified SARVIP vest with magazine pouches added, but can't say for sure without getting hands-on. Nice! Might have been a one-off from an ALSE shop or a small gear maker back in the day? The camo material on the ammo pouches looks to be very similar to some early LBV-88s that I have seen as far as color, texture and aging. The quality of work and construction style isn't saying 'mass produced' to me-Just a thought... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nkomo Posted March 10, 2009 Author Share #14 Posted March 10, 2009 Arch, I think you and MattD might be to something with the AWS angle. I had thought that the vest might have been a modified SARVIP vest with magazine pouches added, but can't say for sure without getting hands-on. Nice! Might have been a one-off from an ALSE shop or a small gear maker back in the day? The camo material on the ammo pouches looks to be very similar to some early LBV-88s that I have seen as far as color, texture and aging. The quality of work and construction style isn't saying 'mass produced' to me-Just a thought... RTS, Thanks for the information. Question....by ALSE shop you mean Aviation Life Support Equipment? Do you mean it could have been used by the 160th SOAR? I have several other 160th SOAR vests, but they don't look 100% like this one. This vest has places for 8 M-16 magazines while the other 160th vests do not. They have places for more survival tpe gear. Let me know what you guys think. Arch Quote Link to post Share on other sites
militarykid1234 Posted March 10, 2009 Share #15 Posted March 10, 2009 COOl items arch like that vest Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RTS Posted March 11, 2009 Share #16 Posted March 11, 2009 Arch, From a little bit of digging, it looks like somebody took a SARVIP or similar vest and hacked it up to customize a vest for somebody. The woodlands camo pockets look like they were made out of a lighter weight material than 1000d Cordura that most mainstream aftermarket builders use. The mismatched color webbing attaching the back halves of the vest where the sage type 8 attaches the two halves of the olive drab type 13 looks like a repair or modification to me. The general level of workmanship is what makes me think somebody did this in a rigger's loft or Aviation Life Support Equipment shop, ie: the work is effective but not going to win a beauty pageant. Long story short, I think you have somebody's custom rig, maybe a monkey harness meets combat vest. Given your location I would think that there's a fair chance it was a TF-160 item at one time but can't say for sure. I believe that there was a lot of tolerance at one point for custom vests like this in that unit before standardization happened. Best I can give you is a professional definate maybe. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nkomo Posted March 11, 2009 Author Share #17 Posted March 11, 2009 Actually, this vest came from a dealer out of southern Florida. I really appreciate all the comments people have made on this vest!!!! It is greatly appreciated. Arch Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RTS Posted March 11, 2009 Share #18 Posted March 11, 2009 Arch, Lots of Sneaky stuff happens in Tampa too Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bond007a1 Posted March 12, 2009 Share #19 Posted March 12, 2009 Arch....that is one sweet vest....I would love to take a closer look at it...but I guess I really don't need to since I got to carry it around a bit for ya.... Stevo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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