I've been a fan of "mag bandoleers" as a grab 'n go ammo source for a while now. I think they're a simple and effective way of storing ammo alongside a rifle. I had a nice one from Eagle Industries that incorporated 2 pistol mag pouches, but later sold it to generate funds for other projects.
On the lookout for another bandoleer, I recently came across some inexpensive milsurp pouches that indyjohn was selling ( https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...6-magazine-molle-ii-bandoleer-ammo-pouch.html ). The price was right, and I picked up 4 bandoleers for just $20. Bonus was the fact that he and OkieGirl live just 2 neighborhoods away from me.
On the downside, they were in old school Desert Camo. 
When I got home with the bandoleers my 4-year-old was fascinated by the idea that these used to belong to soldiers. I gave him one of his own, and he immediately began filling the pouches with acorns that he could shoot out of his blow gun.
Fast forward to this morning, and I got the bright idea to spray paint the bandoleers to darken them. I've never camo'd anything, but I figured it would be best to cut my teeth on something inexpensive and relatively straight forward. The Boy and I made a quick trip to Meijer where we picked up 2 cans of spray paint-- one in matte green and the other matte brown. Cost was $3.67/can.
The plan was to camo my 3 bandoleers, but The Boy insisted that he be able to spray his too. It was at this point we also decided to take pictures and turn the afternoon into an INGO report.
We started by gathering a few supplies. We used:
The magazine we used to stuff the pouches with wadded up pages. This gave them some depth so they weren't so flat. The sticks, leaves, cardboard, toy net, and piece of dog crate were found items that we used to vary the camo pattern.
Next we laid out all 4 bandoleers in the back yard grass. Then we put some natural foliage like leaves and sticks on top of the pouches.
From there we started with the painting. We used the dark green first. This helped to darken the base color of the entire bandoleer. We held the spray can slightly further away from the pouches, and made big wide passes. Special attention was given to the sides, as well as the shoulder strap. We used various things to make random patterns. It took The Boy a minute to figure out the process, but he eventually got the hang of it.
After all the bandoleers had a coat of green on the front, we flipped them over and did the same to the back.
Content with the green base color, we moved on to the brown. It was at this point that an idea entered my mind. What if I sprayed over an INGO sticker? So I ran back inside and grabbed an INGO decal. It turned out more difficult than I had originally imagined. The self-adhesive vinyl didn't want to stick to the cloth material at all. I ended up heating the vinyl with a hairdryer and being very careful to position the letters properly. Once the letters were in place, I sprayed brown over it like normal. I think it turned out pretty cool.
I was impressed enough with the INGO logo that I also tried using a decal referencing my SBR project, Iron Widow ( https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/class-iii-nfa/121565-my-ar-sbr-build-progress.html
). Getting the letters to stay in place was much harder, and I wasn't 100% thrilled with the outcome. But it worked.
When applying the brown coat, I decided to try different techniques with each bandoleer. In the photos below you'll see that with #1 I used a piece of old dog crate, #2 I used a branch with small leaves, #3 I used a small toy racquet, and #4 all were used by The Boy for his bandoleer.
And that was it! The finished product turned out even better than I had imagined, especially being my first attempt at such a thing. After letting them dry for about 20 minutes I tossed them in some brush for comparison. Then I hung them all up to dry in our garage. You can see on the bottom photo the leftover overspray on the grass.
Total cost of this project was $28.41. Divided by 4 bandoleers, that's $7.10 per bandoleer. Not too shabby! Total time invested was about 2.5 hours, but I write that off because I got to spend it with The Boy. Future camo projects would move quicker.
After drying a bit longer I loaded one up with a few magazines and tried it out. Initial impressions are quite positive! The snaps are a bit stiff. I found that shortening the shoulder strap helped keep the pouches close to the body and eliminated swinging while moving. The bandoleer body can be positioned more to the front or more to the side if preferred. One could also use one of the three pouches for medical supplies and turn this into a very inexpensive active shooter bandoleer.
So DIY camo wasn't as difficult as I had thought. But I'm glad I didn't start on a $1,500 rifle, because I definitely learned a few things throughout the process.
If you're interested in snagging one (or more) of these bandoleers, I'm pretty sure indyjohn still has a few left.
On the lookout for another bandoleer, I recently came across some inexpensive milsurp pouches that indyjohn was selling ( https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...6-magazine-molle-ii-bandoleer-ammo-pouch.html ). The price was right, and I picked up 4 bandoleers for just $20. Bonus was the fact that he and OkieGirl live just 2 neighborhoods away from me.
On the downside, they were in old school Desert Camo. When I got home with the bandoleers my 4-year-old was fascinated by the idea that these used to belong to soldiers. I gave him one of his own, and he immediately began filling the pouches with acorns that he could shoot out of his blow gun.
Fast forward to this morning, and I got the bright idea to spray paint the bandoleers to darken them. I've never camo'd anything, but I figured it would be best to cut my teeth on something inexpensive and relatively straight forward. The Boy and I made a quick trip to Meijer where we picked up 2 cans of spray paint-- one in matte green and the other matte brown. Cost was $3.67/can.
The plan was to camo my 3 bandoleers, but The Boy insisted that he be able to spray his too. It was at this point we also decided to take pictures and turn the afternoon into an INGO report.
We started by gathering a few supplies. We used:
- matte dark green spray paint
- matte brown spray paint
- old magazine
- large piece of cardboard
- sticks and leaves
- toy net and old piece of dog crate
The magazine we used to stuff the pouches with wadded up pages. This gave them some depth so they weren't so flat. The sticks, leaves, cardboard, toy net, and piece of dog crate were found items that we used to vary the camo pattern.
Next we laid out all 4 bandoleers in the back yard grass. Then we put some natural foliage like leaves and sticks on top of the pouches.
From there we started with the painting. We used the dark green first. This helped to darken the base color of the entire bandoleer. We held the spray can slightly further away from the pouches, and made big wide passes. Special attention was given to the sides, as well as the shoulder strap. We used various things to make random patterns. It took The Boy a minute to figure out the process, but he eventually got the hang of it.
After all the bandoleers had a coat of green on the front, we flipped them over and did the same to the back.
Content with the green base color, we moved on to the brown. It was at this point that an idea entered my mind. What if I sprayed over an INGO sticker? So I ran back inside and grabbed an INGO decal. It turned out more difficult than I had originally imagined. The self-adhesive vinyl didn't want to stick to the cloth material at all. I ended up heating the vinyl with a hairdryer and being very careful to position the letters properly. Once the letters were in place, I sprayed brown over it like normal. I think it turned out pretty cool.
I was impressed enough with the INGO logo that I also tried using a decal referencing my SBR project, Iron Widow ( https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/class-iii-nfa/121565-my-ar-sbr-build-progress.html
). Getting the letters to stay in place was much harder, and I wasn't 100% thrilled with the outcome. But it worked.
When applying the brown coat, I decided to try different techniques with each bandoleer. In the photos below you'll see that with #1 I used a piece of old dog crate, #2 I used a branch with small leaves, #3 I used a small toy racquet, and #4 all were used by The Boy for his bandoleer.
And that was it! The finished product turned out even better than I had imagined, especially being my first attempt at such a thing. After letting them dry for about 20 minutes I tossed them in some brush for comparison. Then I hung them all up to dry in our garage. You can see on the bottom photo the leftover overspray on the grass.
Total cost of this project was $28.41. Divided by 4 bandoleers, that's $7.10 per bandoleer. Not too shabby! Total time invested was about 2.5 hours, but I write that off because I got to spend it with The Boy. Future camo projects would move quicker.
After drying a bit longer I loaded one up with a few magazines and tried it out. Initial impressions are quite positive! The snaps are a bit stiff. I found that shortening the shoulder strap helped keep the pouches close to the body and eliminated swinging while moving. The bandoleer body can be positioned more to the front or more to the side if preferred. One could also use one of the three pouches for medical supplies and turn this into a very inexpensive active shooter bandoleer.
So DIY camo wasn't as difficult as I had thought. But I'm glad I didn't start on a $1,500 rifle, because I definitely learned a few things throughout the process.
If you're interested in snagging one (or more) of these bandoleers, I'm pretty sure indyjohn still has a few left.
I spent a day and a half stripping mine, 
I vowed to never spray paint another! 
