001 (512) 751-2119
001 (512) 751-2119
I was recently introduced to Doug, the CEO of Gear 4 Grunts, by my buddy DMack who runs the site RangerProof.com. Doug has designed the RAMP which stands for Rapid Access Magazine Pod. The RAMP mounts to any MOLLE/PALS chest rigs or plate carriers as a way to mount AR15 magazines to your gear. Doug was nice enough to send me a couple of the PMAG model RAMPs to mess around with about a month ago and I wanted to give you a good rundown of my initial thoughts.
Anytime I try out a new product I always think of how it could fail. Basically looking for reasons why it isn’t going to be a good fit. For me there were 3 areas of concern. One, I thought it would be too heavy. Two, I figured it would be a pain to remove the PMAG from the RAMP. And Three, I thought most likely if I were to jump or hit the deck, etc the weight of a loaded mag would prove too much for the RAMP and the mag would drop or fall out. When I first received the RAMP I was surprised at how light weight they are yet they are very rigid and not flexible at all. Of course the first thing I did was get out one of my PMAGs and insert it into the RAMP and it fit perfect and snug. I then pulled it out and again no issues. So I figured I would find the flaw and grabbed a fully loaded 30 round PMAG and insert it into the RAMP. I then proceeded to hold onto the RAMP and whip it trying to get the PMAG to go flying and I didn’t budge. All three of my initial reservations were wrong, which was great to see.
Next up was to get a Plate Carrier out and try to mount them to it. This was a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be as the RAMP has, as you can see in the first picture, 4 opposing hooks. Its a lot easier to install when your gear is flexible so take out your Plates or Mags, etc. Once on though the design makes total sense and its not going anywhere. They mount tight with very little wobble and can be positioned with the magazine facing down or facing up.
You might be thinking “Well, I already have mag pouches on my rig” and that’s fine. Here’s where I found that these stood out big time over mag pouches. Because mag pouches are made of flimsy nylon they are a lot taller and typically have a retention strap to hold the mag in place. To do a mag change you have to move the retention strap (if there is one) and the with two fingers grab the bottom of the mag, remove it, re-position the mag in your hand and insert it into the magwell. Because of the way the RAMP was designed you just simple grab the mag in the same way you would hold it to do a mag change and remove it from the RAMP. Its a much quicker design. I also found it much much quicker and easier to re-insert a mag.
So my initial thoughts for you guys. This is a great little piece of equipment. They run $27 for standard colors and $30 for MC so not any more than a typical mag pouch. They do come in different configurations which is actually the only downside to it. I put a USGI mag in my PMAG RAMP and it was super tight so you wouldn’t want to run with any mix of mags on your gear. These are available for purchase at Gear4Grunts.com. Check out the video below to see the RAMP in action.
