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Thanks to Jim Rawles and those who participate in SurvivalBlog–such a great source of material. It has been a real pleasure to review the material on this site and note the obvious amount of knowledge available as resources for others in proper disaster planning. When you see nation changing events happening around the world, it is nice to see a level of common people thinking about such things, preparing for such events, and sharing.
 
I have read other’s ideas on weapons related gear and I agree with many of their thoughts. My personal training comes from the Marine Corps as a Marine and NCO, federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, civilian firearms trainers and others. This includes my own instruction of weapons and tactics training for SWAT and other tactical situations as well as the many decades of use of firearms and their related carry gear.
 
If you have an interest and are reading this material, at some point, you have probably gathered an array of personal protection pistols and long guns. Others have written about recommendations and the advantages of certain types and brands of weapons. Americans, depending where you live, may chose from many fine firearms. For those of us living in hoplophobic states, with legal restrictions on silly things like magazines and semiautomatic weapons, lawful choices become more difficult. I will point out that, even in these places, you can still gather fine weapons to meet an acceptable level of preparation. I have made and live with these choices.
 
Disclaimer: I am not advocating that anyone break the law. You must check your state and local laws regarding how you would utilize firearms and under what circumstances. I offer this information for consideration but the ultimate decision would rest upon the person possessing and using any firearm (and in some states, even the possession of types of semiautomatic weapons and the magazines used).
 
As long as we have law enforcement to respond to emergencies, within reason, we should use them. This material comes under the umbrella of, “what do you do when you call for a cop and there are none coming to your assistance?” In our culture, in almost any event where a citizen must use a firearm (pistol or long gun), ultimately law enforcement will probably review the circumstances regarding that use and come up with a judgment on that use. I am suggesting that we all must put forth thought and consideration as well as proper training now so that we may make better informed decisions on what we should do under the direst circumstances. I have personal experience in dealing with firearm incidents and I know they are frequently life changing events. That experience comes from four years as a Marine and 36 years in law enforcement.  
 
Many law enforcement personnel are trained and immediately think of people with firearms as threats. We need to continue to work on this issue so that covert carry and even open carry may not be seen as an immediate threat but a right of a citizen under the US Constitution. (I admit, we have a ways to go.) I recall a grade school friend bringing a .22 rifle to school for a project. He was not stopped, frisked and arrested either on the street or at the school. This was a better mindset for cops, and maybe, a goal for the future.
 
With such considerations in mind, my discussion is based upon the premise (or, in some cases, recommendation) that before you gather this weapon carry gear and related equipment, you have already decided or obtained the best quality firearms, related equipment, and training you can get or afford. Related to the topic, I hope that you have enough gun for any fight you need to be involved with. I like 7.62 because it is not understated in a fight. Neither is 12 gauge. An M4gery carbine is lighter but the extended effective range is nearer than the 7.62 NATO. (Since time and distance are your friends in a fight) . Iron back-up sights are required equipment on a serious weapon but I believe that a set of red dot type optics are quicker and easier for any grade of shooter. I also prefer handguns in calibers that start with a “point four.” Do not go cheap on weapons, magazines, or optics (“buy cheap twice or quality once”).
 
How will you carry your weapons and meet the necessary feeding requirements for your equipment? If your state requires a maximum of ten rounds in a pistol, you may find that a pistol with such a maximum mag count by design is a good size for your hand or, ultimately, if you cannot handle the situation with ten rounds in a secondary weapon, you need to add more thought to your primary weapon type. For that primary weapon, what kind of sling system will you need? A quiet way to carry a long gun is without a sling but, from experience, I can tell you that most will adapt a sling, piece of rope or something to help carry the weight of the piece.
 
A sling must work for you and it must work with your gear. I really prefer two-point adjustable padded slings, over one-point or three-point slings. Again, this is a personal preference from my experience. Military (“silent” or web) two-loop web slings can be used to carry a weapon over the right or left shoulder to the rear or front, butt up in the Rhodesian or African carry. These work if you practice with them. Try some out that belong to friends before you pick a sling you like and practice with it and with your gear so that you know that they work together. Use good training to assist in these decisions; see what works. For the taller people, if you find a sling you like is a bit short, have your rigger or shoe repair fit in an extension that works for you (this should apply for smaller people as well). Now is the time to pick a good sling.
 
Next, consider and study the circumstances of how you will deploy your weapons (again, training helps). All the equipment in the world may not be what we need in a serious social situation. The best way out of a gunfight is to not get in one in the first place. As you consider carry equipment, can you build up a set of gear that will allow you to carry a “combat minimum”? Can you wear a loose cover jacket or carry a covert “sports bag” that you can modify with the help of a para-rigger or shoe shop sewing machine (maybe adding some MOLLE strips inside to add loops or pouches) to carry loaded mags and not make you look like a GI Joe? If it is not raining, can you wear a serape like Clint Eastwood wore in his westerns so that you can wear or carry gear what will allow you to be seen but maybe not thought of as being an immediate threat? This is a topic for serious thought and consideration. You do not want to be shot on sight by someone a long way off who thinks that you are a bad guy? Can you have both a covert set of equipment to carry the minimal magazines and related gear you need to feed your weapons as well as an overt set of pouches and gear carried in manner we think of as load bearing gear? Why can’t you have both kinds? Remember, we should have a set of carry gear for each weapon available to us. Having a covert weapon and related equipment has merit – even if it is for someone that may be scouting ahead of others.    
 
Besides wearing many of these items, I have read a lot of material about vest’s and other load bearing gear. What is sometime missing is just how you put it together. We have a fresh crop of young military veterans. In the “Sandbox” and other “climbs and place,” they are wearing a lot of high speed gear and I am sure most of you can get some pointers from them about what works and what does not. Even if I am a generation older, I offer this material on things I find that work. 
 
During a certain age, the Marine Corps issued me 782 gear that included the hook type belt attachments. These swung to and fro against your body as you walked and canteens with these attachment points beat you when you ran. After wearing M1 cartridge belts, our individual M14 mag pouches slid onto the pistol type web belt and were more comfortable but four of them took quite a bit of space in front (most of us were pretty slim back then). Later we were issued the M16 and their mag pouches were the GI LC1 and later LC2 generations, both with the metal “ALICE” clips that dug into your midsection where they were attached on the inside of their very stiff web belts. We were not allowed to exchange out these clips like certain Army types using para-cord. After loading mags, in VietNam many of us carried most of our loaded 20-round M16 magazines in the pockets of OD green cotton bandoleers. (So save their safety pins). It is still a great way to grab additional full mags and walk away.
 
I did not like the hook type attachments that started, I believe, in WWI and continued until Vietnam or the ALICE clips (I do not use the word, “hate” but the feelings for those clips is pretty close). After my discharge, again wearing a green and tan uniform (for a Sheriff’s Office), I was again issued web gear as part of a riot unit and later a SWAT unit. With a wink and a nod, I was allowed to gather my own gear and modify it to be more comfortable (maintaining a “uniform” look). I took to using OD paracord in lieu of ALICE clips until I found that black nylon cable binders (zip ties) worked even better for me (put on, adjusted and then the ends are melted so that they did not come off). MOLLIE came later and I quickly learned how to adjust and wear it.
 
Today, drop down holsters are considered “Tact-a-cool”. I still have one that came with, again, ALICE clips. But I never felt encumbered with the GI leather holster for issued Model 1911 pistols. While stationed at a Marine Barracks, I learned to put a couple of stitches on the rear edge of the holster to hold it flat against the leg. I still have one modified this way (the hooks are on a leather slide-on carrier instead of going through a web belt). If this Marine were ever again put place to repel boarders, I might wear that holster (with some molding, you can holster a cocked and locked M1911). It protects the weapon and you can transition from your primary long gun to the pistol quickly. In the late 1960s, I also carried a C4 bag or Claymore Mine bag that I used as a “dump pouch.” More recently, Marines carry issue dump bags on their vest or belts (“adapt, improvise, and overcome”).
 
To carry my gear today, I still use a 2” nylon pistol belt with a plastic buckle or a padded MOLLE pistol belt with an Uncle Mike’s nylon “Universal” holster (this holster allows me to fit a light/laser to the pistol) and I wear it strong side at waist level; a TUFF five mag holder; an old Cold Steel Tanto knife I carried during my SWAT years; a couple of hard plastic AR mag holders; and an “improved” Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK or “blow out”). Depending upon the need, I add a GI canteen and cup that is equipped with a sling or use a CamelBak. I prefer to wear my pistol on a belt rather than a load bearing harness or vest. Maybe I am old fashioned, but I may even wear the pistol holster on the trouser belt and wear the pistol equipment belt with the rest of my gear riding on top (and using nylon belt keepers to hold both belts together). This way, even if I have to drop most of my equipment, I still have some warfighting gear (a light but long cover jacket also covers this belt). Depending upon the situation, I can add a load bearing vest (LBV) with extra mags and other gear. 
 
If you choose to use a carry belt, former military web belts or the newer nylon pistol belts work fine. If you like the para-cord attachment method, after gathering the parts for the belt, I suggest you first position each piece of gear where you want it, then run the cord through the piece of equipment’s ALICE clip slot or MOLLE slots, under the belt, up the back, and over the top. Tie off the cord at the top of the piece of gear so that the knot does not sit inside the belt. Once you are sure of the placement and it is on tight, melt down the knot with a fireplace lighter. I usually use an OD green para-cord. Note: Since you remove the interior cords and use the “tube” for this task, you can heat the end of the “tube” to make it solid, thread the para-cord through the grommets or not and, depending on what the item is, sometimes I use the grommet and sometimes I do not.  
 
The cable binder (zip tie) method is slightly different. Position the gear, run the binder through that piece of gear (ALICE clip slot, etc.), then under the belt and over the top of the belt. Position the locking tab portion of the binder on the gear side so it will not move against the body as you put the running end of the binder through the locking portion. I sometimes use two or three binders for each piece of gear and may even run one diagonally from one corner to the other. As you adjust placement, do not over tighten and crush the belt. A triangular file is handy to make slight groves inside where the binder turns 90 degrees. This helps eliminate some of the tension curve in the tie. Again, once you are sure of your placement, ensuring the locking tab and end are away from the body, melt the running piece in the locking tab with the lighter. Since I do not find OD green ties, I use black.
 
An examination of my gear will show you that I may be using para-cord, cable binders, nylon snap belt keepers, and MOLLE at the same time to secure multi-generational gear items. The idea is to make your gear secure and available – oh, and quiet. By the way, don’t worry about the color of you gear (assuming it is not fire red) as mix-match makes good camo.   
 
The only thing I do not like about some LBVs is that, depending upon the vest and the placement of the gear, it makes me feel too high when I am trying to get flat on the ground (Okay, even the old style military buttons and thread is too thick when someone is shooting at you). When I see pictures of most troops and Marines wearing LBVs now, either they are spending less time on their belly or they are good a digging a deeper fighting positions – or they may be moving fast from an armored vehicle to the target building in built up areas. I adjust the LBV high so they clear the waist belt and I try to position the gear on the vest so that I can get the middle of my chest area down flat on the deck. The vest’s I use are the old 2-buckel woodland pattern that has enough room so that I can wear my gear this way. I also position a dump pouch on the left rear of the vest so I can drop mags in there if I have the time (or to carry a box of loose shotgun ammo). By the way, if you take the bottom belt out of these vests, they make a good MOLLE style gear belt.
 
I am pretty picky about the placement of my gear so I have different harness and vests setups for different weapons. [JWR Adds: It is indeed wise to have one set of web gear for each of your long guns. You never know when an absolute worst-case situation might occur where you suddenly want to hand out spare guns to relatives, neighbors, and friends. Any weapon without a set of web gear and a full complement of magazines won’t be of much help.] There is a lot of new gear out there as well as military surplus and inexpensive enough that you can work up your gear as you want it. Also, it is worth finding a para-rigger or knowledgeable shoe repair person to modify or repair your gear to make it work as you want it to work.
 
Before I had LBVs (for SWAT), I wore a web belt, a nylon four-point shoulder harness (the three-point works almost as well), the Tanto knife, GI leather 1911 holster, a radio, twin pistol mag pouch, two AR mag pouches (six mags), the old USMC jungle first aid kit, and a canteen (before we purchased our first custom LBVs). I had a butt pack ready with food, dry socks, and other needed gear to add if needed. I have always liked this type of rig. You can improve it by adding a poncho and a butt pack (by the way, you can rig up two butt packs with the four-point shoulder harness). With this rig and a protective vest, I had great access and it allowed me to move and maneuver as necessary.
 
Like most cops, I have lots of pistol holsters and I find holsters are still an individual thing (for the person and the weapon). One kind of holster or carry method does not seem to be enough and, before you know it, you have a collection of them. Do not spend good money for a fine pistol and not on a good belt, holster and mag pouch. Check them out and get what you want. The traits you are looking for are; carry, access, and protection (your order may vary). If you want real comfort, you probably should not be carrying a pistol (or long gun). (By the way, start a chart of holsters and, as you get a new one, try all your pistols in the new one to see what else may fit. I have saved a fair amount of money using this chart for a new pistol or mag pouches.)
 
I also have a pretty fair collection of civilian and GI packs and war-bags. Again, depending on the situation you will be attending with this equipment, you may need to add a pack. I have worn most of the recent generations of military packs over the years and I still like a the US military issue ALICE medium ruck pack. But, if at all possible, I do not recommend this pack if you are using a long gun during a fight (drop the pack if you must maneuver). Proper maneuvering requires the ability to move smoothly and as fast or slow as you needed at the time and balance is important. You should be prioritizing as much weight off your body as possible (and still meet mission requirements). Besides your weapons, add one combat unit of fire in ammo (it varies with weapon and caliber), at least one additional unit of ammo loaded in mags or stripper clips in bandoleers (GI or home made), you will probably not have explosive weapons – frags, Claymores, etc. so use this for additional ammo in stripper clips/bandoleers, water, some energy food, IFAK, bug juice, a light, poncho, some kind of tool to improve a firing position, and something to carry all this as comfortably as you can (yes, I know a pack mule would be nice but no).  
 
At some point, you should have your weapons, gear, ammo, and carry equipment all together. Hopefully, you have already put it all on and made sure you have access to everything you need when your weapon’s bolt locks back with an empty chamber or another immediate action need arises. You can also jump up and down without making a lot of noise. Next, you need to try hiking, crawling and climbing over things to see if adjustments should be made. Once you have done this, tape down any loose ends, shiny spots, etc. with black or OD tape. I frequently see people show up at a range to begin long gun training. They are wearing the very minimum gear that they can. But, if you ask them to lay out the gear they think they need for a serious social situation, they have a lot more. Proper practice should be with the gear you need – not some lighter weight version to look “cool.”  
 
By the way, we have not spoken about protective vests yet. To wear a vest is another individual decision that needs to be made (your sling and gear will fit different with or without the vest). Both soft and hard protective vests are hot, somewhat restrictive, and not cheap. Besides deciding if you are going to use one, you need to figure out what level of protection you want to purchase. When in my SO uniform, when vests came along, besides the one issued to me, I bought a quality product and I wore it. The price of soft and plate armor has come down so the cost issues are easier but I suggest that as soon as someone shoots at you, you will ask yourself, “why am I here and why am I not wearing armor?” We should also bring up helmets. I recall that about 33% of all peace officers killed by firearms are shot in the head. Now, if cops are not around and you are in a gunfight, you might consider that the one-third of shooting incidents could include whoever is present.
 
As to the level of a vest protection, assess the potential aggressor. For most cops, a soft vest that will stop high end handgun ammo is the usual compromise. If you suspect your aggressor will have a rifle, hard armor is called for. It is always weight vs. threat. This applies to helmets to a lesser degree.
 
A note on individual first aid gear: 1) they are primarily for the individual carrying the kit; 2) they should have some basics like band aids, aspirin, etc.; 3) a small bottle of water purification tabs and; 4) basic treatment for gunshot wounds to include a tourniquet and gunshot bandages (1 or 2). 
 
We have also not discussed communications or night vision gear. You get to decide what you can use, what you can afford, and what you want to carry (remember the extra batteries). Once you make the decision, work with the equipment to make it work for you.
 
Once you have all your gear, put it in a bag (a bag for each set). I used to use a parachute bag but now I use a civilian style heavy cloth bag so it looks like luggage. Do not leave it out so that a “midnight shopper” sees it and takes it away when you are not present.  
 
Priority of Considerations:
Thought process – when and how can I protect myself and my family?
Training
Weapons and optics
Ammo
Sling
Carry gear
Other equipment
 
With all the parts available as surplus or new products, you get to pick your own rig for each weapon you may use, and high or low profile. You can start with a belt rig and then go heavier by adding or changing to a LBV. I know what works for me and I get to pick from gear going back awhile as well as new stuff.
 
Whatever you get, practice with it. You want to wear and use it enough that muscle memory builds so that when your mag goes dry, you automatically reach for replacements in known locations. Find places where you can wear and practice with your gear where you will not have the cops showing up due a hoplophobic reporting party calling in a “man with a gun” complaint (all part of your operational security mind set).

There are so many moving parts to being prepared. Juggling priorities, money, and time are part of it. I fit in recreation as it applies to firearms so I get to slide in some of these issues into that consideration. YMMV.
 
Keep your musket clean and your powder dry.