ANC AK Chest Pouch

Just got this interesting chest rig in today. This is was captured in South Africa from an ANC soldier (Umkhonto we Sizwe or Spear of the Nation). This is a very unusual chest rig because it is made in Albania! I have never seen an Albanian AK chest pouch before. Holds 3 AK magazines and 4 grenades. However, I think at least one of the smaller pouches may be for a cleaning kit or an oiler. This will look good displayed with my ANC woodland set I bought off of CollectinSteve!!!!

Very cool! Albania eh? That sure is a strange one! I'm amazed the thing still has the manufaturer tag. Real neat piece. Interesting they used plastic for the toggles instead of wood like most countries used.

mcoleman762 wrote:Very cool! Albania eh? That sure is a strange one! I'm amazed the thing still has the manufaturer tag. Real neat piece. Interesting they used plastic for the toggles instead of wood like most countries used.

Thanks for the positive comments Mike! I have very few pieces from the ANC armed wing. This was a real treat for me to pick up. I have plenty of captured terr items from Angola, South-West Africa, Mozambique, and Rhodesia.....but have only a handful of items from South Africa. That is why I jumped on this piece. Furthermore, I have never seen another Albanian AK chest pouch before.

For the price I paid, I only spent about $5 more than you would for a plain-jane Chinese version. As far as the platic toggles go, they used the same kind on their SKS pouches as well. A few years back, one of the gun companies imported a handful of Albanian SKS's aong with their accessories. The SKS bandoliers used to be somewhat common to find, but have long since dried up and disppeared into private collections. As far as I know, none of the Albanian AK chest pouches were ever imported into the US.
Arch

On a side note, about the toggles, I'm pretty sure the Saddam Iraqis used plastic toggles.
Andrew

Looks like a copy of Chinese chest rig. In a lot of third world areas, militias use this type of vest because it is affordable for them.

Mercenary25 wrote:Looks like a copy of Chinese chest rig. In a lot of third world areas, militias use this type of vest because it is affordable for them.

Very astute observations Merc. The Albanians copied a lot of their equipment and (to a certain degree) their firearms from the Chinese. Not only is it affordable to them, it is also very functional and durable.

In resposne to Drew's comment about some of the Iraqi versions having plastic toggles....he is 100% correct as well. However, most AK chest rigs do have wooden toggles like Mike said.

AndrewA74 wrote:On a side note, about the toggles, I'm pretty sure the Saddam Iraqis used plastic toggles.
Andrew

It is indeed a copy of the chinese Chest pouch.
Note that China had close relation with albania from 1958 till 1978,influencing the uniforms,equipment and weapons (Albania produced its own copies of Chinese SKS and Chinese AK/type 56)

Missed this one . Nice pouch Arch !!!