AR500 Armor Kangaroo Pouch Use, Part 1

The AR500 Armor® Kangaroo Pouch is designed to accommodate three rifle magazines in a lower administrative “kangaroo” pouch of a plate carrier, allowing for a lower profile way to carry a few magazines and keep limited PALS webbing free for gear like med kits, tourniquets, radio pouches, or even more magazines.

One of the challenges of making internal pouches on plate carriers is that they wind up being small. Depending on the carrier, some might be smaller than others. And all this can limit the use of the Kangaroo pouch in your carrier of choice.

I tested our Kangaroo pouch in our four full-size plate carriers (Testudo, Veritas, Valkyrie, and Invictus), and discovered the kangaroo mag pouch works well in a couple and less than ideal in others. Here’s what I found:

Testudo Gen 2.0

The Kangaroo pouch works great with the Testudo Gen 2.0, and leaves enough room to insert and remove both USGI and aftermarket mags like Lancers. There is enough room to slide a thumb behind the magazine to grip it, then remove. Given the Testudo Lite has  the same dimensions as the Testudo Gen 2.0, it will work the same.

One thing to remember is that, due to the design of the Testudo, the lower admin pouch is built into the cummerbund flap. Because of this, the top of the magazines will hit the top of the carrier when you lift up the flap to undo the cummerbund, making it a little more difficult to remove the carrier, it’s something to keep in mind. 

(Image is of the AR500 Armor Valkyrie, which has a similar design as the Testudo and, thus, the same issue)

Veritas (with and without cummerbund)

In the Veritas without cummerbund (images below), the experience is similar to that of the Testudo. Both UGSI and Lancer magazines go in easily, are held securely, and relatively easy to extract.

 

In the Veritas WITH the cummerbund, however, is a different story. Because the Veritas cummerbund is an add-on, the flap used to secure the cummerbund in the front takes up some room in the lower administrative pouch. 

While the Kangaroo pouch can be inserted into the admin pocket, the slightly added thickness of the flap creates a lot of friction with magazines inserted into the pouch. It was so tight with the Lancer magazines that I couldn’t fit the third magazine into the pocket (see below). USGI magazines weren’t much better. While I could fit them into the pouch, I could not fit my thumb behind any of the magazines, making removal nearly impossible.

If you need fast access to a magazine, you’ll have issues trying to use this pouch with a Veritas and its cummerbund. The easiest thing was removing the center magazine which allows much easier gripping of the remaining magazines, at the obvious expense of 30 rounds of ammunition. We will find this same thing happens with the AR Invictus, which we review later.

Since the Veritas Lite has the same dimensions as the Veritas, it will work the same.

Part 2 will cover use of the kangaroo pouch with the AR500 Armor Valkyrie and AR Invictus plate carriers.