French Foreign Legion Assault Vest

For giggles I bought this vest because it was cheap and I liked how it looked. Bought the large size which fit nice and still had a little room to spare. Very nice surplus gear that had a little smell to it but aired out after a day or so, there looks to have been a repair made on shoulder of the vest which was very well done and probably wouldn't be noticeable if they hadn't used red thread to fix it. Other than that the built in web belt is nice to bring the vest in closer, the 2 magazine pouches do fit 20rd ar15 magazines but they sink down, and with all 3 magazines in the pouch it makes it a little difficult to pull out at least with my pouches they were pretty tight. But you can put 2 Butler Creek 25rd 10/22 magazines in and close the flap but it will be tight and putting a 3rd magazine will not allow the flap to close at that point. All in all this is a nice armor covering, would be cool to get the actual armor filler for these to complete the package.

I ordered this vest for a pair of 11x14 level 2 plates I had lying around. They're hard level two and a little too much weight to lug around all day in a backpack (for me) or in a shoulder bag (for my girlfriend). I wanted to find a way to put the plates to use in a vest but couldn't justify spending a lot on a real plate carrier that would accept non standard size plates. Enter this French foreign legion vest. Got it on sale for about 16.xx shipped. Fits the plates alright with a little extra room. Comes with a few detachable pouches which I may or may not use, as well as a neck gaiter. It's on decent condition - there's a hand sewn repair on the front and there is some fading and wear from use. Overall the condition is acceptable and the rugged canvas material should have a lot of life left in it. I now have a cheap place to stash my el cheapo (read as $60 for the pair) hard plates, and a way to carry some gear during hard times. Satisfied, overall.

This vest has full coverage, including room for groin plate and throat plate. There is space to put extra plates front and back in addition to the normal 10" x 12" plates. There is a pistol belt included with magazine pouches on both sides. There is Velcro on the front for patches and a window for blood type indicator. The size GT fits me at 5' 8", 255lbs, with extra space. It is used, but very lightly.

This vest is the French Gilet pare-balles série 3. I'm 5'10" 180 lbs and the medium size (MT) fits well. The example I received was manufactured in 2001 and is in VG+ shape...a little faded but pretty clean with no tears or missing d-rings, etc.

The modular pouch design of the vest allows for lots of storage for goodies in nylon lined pockets. The two included FAMAS pouches each hold three G.I. issue 20 round AR mags nicely. In the age of ballistic nylon the cotton poly blended construction is a bit "old fashioned", but this is still a really nice rig. Hope the ballistic inserts become available!

Kudos to Keepshooting for sorting these by size. Bottom line, if I don't know what size a vendor is selling...I'm not buying!

A very interesting piece of recent French military gear that I can't seem to find anywhere else! A very unique and cool piece of kit that anyone interested in collecting modern military equipment should look into. Mine was lightly used, with an O+ label on the front and the former owners initials on the back, however this adds to the feel of the vest. Various back and front pouches that aren't seen on new plate carriers and vests. Also came with the two 3-cell magazine pouches for what look to be the older FAMAS F1 25-round magazines pictured. As said, looks much like M81 Woodland, commonly known as BDUs. If Keepshooting ever gets the inserts for this vest, I'd totally buy it!