BBC: Somalia beach Guard with Leather AK Mag Pouches

Gun Watch ^ | 24 May, 2015 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

As I watched a BBC news story about how order is being restored to Somalia, I could not help but notice the beach guard with his AK 47 and the very nice,  leather magazine pouches for 30 round magazines.   They seem to be attached to a load bearing system with shoulder straps.  From the uniformity of the pouches, it appears to be at least a local cottage industry.  The top flap seems to protect the magazines from sand, and I expect that in Somalia, a desert country, mold and decay are not huge problems. 

I wonder how the leather is cured.   I caused some finish damage to a rifle that I had, because I left it in a Mexican leather scabbard.  The Mexican leather was cured with a salt solution that promoted corrosion rather easily, I was told.

©2015  by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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[marktwain]

I wonder if those magazine pouches are made in Somalia or imported.

[ClearCase_guy]

I hope the guy has enough ammo. Looks like quite a crowd there.

[ansel12]

This reminds me that during the 1990s I acquired an old Cavalry rifle scabbard.

[JoeProBono]

This is an all-leather, quality reproduction of a classic WWII-design magazine pouch rig for use with the Thompson 1928 sub-machinegun (and its semi-automatic variants), holding five standard 30-round stick magazines. Pouches of this design were issued to Chinese Nationalist (KMT) Army soldiers circa WWII. This pouch should also work well with M3 "Grease Gun" as well as Sten or Uzi magazines