FuGaZi
Pixel King
Registered: April 2005
Posts: 591
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Review Date: 30/8/05
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: £27.50
| Rating: 5
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Positive aspects of the product (pros):
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cheap, good for starter, lots of pouches and room different camos
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Cons:
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not modular some problems personally with dump pouches and lower right mag ones
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I brought my SAAV shortly after buying a M15A4 some time around June from flecktarn (great shop and great delivery time) in woodland camo trying to go for a American look. Its also available in olive, black, flecktarn, marpat woodland and desert, desert tricolour and DPM I think I have also seen one from viper in auscam.
The vest is adjustable and can be adjusted to fit taller or shorter by adjusting the shoulders straps it can also be adjusted for your… circumference by the straps on the lower back. This has makes it rather comfortable when fitted properly.
The pouches fit M16 mags and would fit famas and g3 ones too. MP5, AK and obviously P90 mags are to long and don’t fit. There is room for 12 mags with 2 double mag pouches on the upper part, room for 4 in the lower pouches taking one in each and then 2 more double mag pouches on the side dump bags. There is as said 2 dump bags on the sides but I have found that these can be a fiddle as they do not have a solid shape and go flat which isn’t a major problem but can be annoying when trying to reload and have to fiddle to put empties into it. There is also a little problem with the lower mag pouches on right (left looking at the in pic) which can be hard to remove as they are closer to the above pouches.
The longer back pouch can be fitted out like a camel back (one shown is using a platypus brought from millets) with the hydration pack fitting through a larger zip pocket and the pipe coming out a smaller veclroed pocket. There is also a pouch bellow this with a zipper which I’m not quiet sure what it could be used for but I’m sure I could find something to bring along for the ride.
I would say for someone starting airsoft this would be a good cheap choice it has plenty of space, comfy and you can fit a low budget camel back. I would though say I personally don’t think its perfect and that it has some things that let it down such as the dump pouches and the slightly awkward right lower pouches.
Update...
After using the saav a bit more I can say that it is still for me holding out but I’m beginning to feel ,looking at newer kit I’ve bought, that a 7 may have been a little bit generous. It hasn’t fallen apart yet and it has taken a fair bit of action but I’m starting to worry about the general strength, again compared to other stuff…I would maintain this is a good start but now feel I should add (1) after only a few games with it I'm starting to think there is better out there admiring other peoples gear and (2) that if you are interested in any form of impression it may be worth forking out a little more to get the real deal not just something similar in the right camo.
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doc_newstead
In the playground is where I spend most of my days
Registered: September 2004
Location: West Philadelphia, born & raised
Posts: 6,704
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Review Date: 31/8/05
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Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: £28.00
| Rating: 4
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Positive aspects of the product (pros):
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Overall good design, good vfm
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Cons:
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Poor materials, needs some modifications
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Ah, my first vest. These were (and are) still the most common choice for the novice airsofter, due to their low price and 'come in any pattern' variety. Sold long ago now, I thought it might as well be worth reviewing, now I've tried out quite a few other load-bearing goodies since then.
First of all, with the SAAV, you'll always have people saying "It's fine for airsoft". I think that given the fact I only wear my gear to play airsoft, and nowhere else, I often puzzle over what this is supposed to mean. When I play airsoft, I run, crawl, dive, get muddy, bang into wall and tree etc. The SAAV didn't seem to like me doing these things when I owned it, so "fine for airsoft" is not something I find myself agreeing with.
The vest is basically a good design, with big pouches round the back, little pouches up the shoulder straps, and ammo on the front. However, the materials used to make the vest are really bargain basement, and feel cheap and plasticky. The thing 'rustles' is an a way that could make some of you cringe 
I modded my vest in several ways. The first was the utility pouches. They come with these absolutely useless feed-through buckles, that take a great deal of fiddling to close again, and you can forget about it if you're wearing gloves. I snipped these off and replaced them with some chunky QR buckles (the type that click together). About £5 and literally 2 minutes work saves a lot of hassle.
Second, the two times I wore the vest, it fell apart on me and needed to be ditched. The first time, the adjustable straps at the side all unhitched at once, and the vest started flapping about on me. Some olive bodge tape went part way to fixing that problem. Next skirmish, the same thing happened with the shoulder straps. Again, bodge tape kept the strap in place. Hardly ideal...
I sold the vest after that, bodge tape and QR buckles included, for £25, so I wasn't too hard done by. In conclusion, if the vest was better made I could have learned to love it. But for £28, I could have bought a PLCE chest rig (and that's in fact exactly what I did) 2nd hand, so I have trouble justifying the purchase of one to anybody. If you enjoy yours, well done; but for me, two failures in two skirmishes isn't the stamp of quality I was looking for!
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"Well I've had a word with Joe, and he says instead of making a cable and sending a signal for my TAT B's, I can do a jump into a DZ from 600-metres with an Epson printer-scanner on my back, and then tab 10 miles over undulating terrain, at night, to unlock an officer's user account after he got the password wrong three times."
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The Bushman
6mm HUNTER
Registered: June 2005
Location: in your shadow
Posts: 2,169
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Review Date: 24/9/05
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: £13.00
| Rating: 8
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Positive aspects of the product (pros):
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Cheap, good layout, comfortable, lightweight, practical, waterproof
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Cons:
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velcro is noisey, buckles on pouches need replacing
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Well saw a FLECKTARN SAAV for sale second hand. There are loads of these about and many have been customised. I got it including P+P for 13 pounds, so figured if it was poor that I would have got what I payed for.
Some of my team mates have woodland and DPM versions of this vest and they gave it a thumbs up. The guy who I bought it from explained that this was not a COPY but the original SAAV which is of higher quality.
When it arrived, I was suprised by it's light weight, compared to my old WYVERN Scout webbing. The materials are lighter and I figure less durable. The originality of the SAAV is authenticated by the military patch on the inside of teh yoke.
The FLECKTARN pattern was fine for UK woodland skirmishing. Some flecktarn copies have yellow dots on them that stand out, this one does not. However, I dislike the black mesh section near the shoulders on the yoke. This can attract your eye in my opinion and I soon added some scrim to break up the 2 areas.
There are many pockets (2 radio, 8 ammo, 2 utility and the rear hydration pouch with lower pocket. Plus map pocket) = 15 pockets enough to lose your kit in! Plus straps on each side of the hydration pack that are one of the BEST features of this vest.
The webbing is fully adjustable and padded far better than my WYVERN set. Much more comfortable and I was pleasantly suprised at how little, the SAAV restricted my movement.
I have not had it out in the rain yet, but suspect the padding will act like a sponge, although the pouches themselves are fully waterproof.
The SAAV came with 1 utility pouch modified to have velcro straps replacing the buckles. These are far better than the buckles on the remaning pouch and an easy mod that is worth while. Yet all the existing velcro makes you cringe when you try to open a pouch in stealth situation. (Arrgh!)
Both sides of the hydration pocket have 3 cargo straps (seen on the above photos rolled up). These are a vastly overlooked by the reviews above. You can use each of these to attach anything from a basha to a set of goretex DPM waterproofs. I even carry my KTW M37 Sawn Off shotgun in this. It allows the gun to be drawn over your shoulder for "I keep this handy for close encounters." (Cheese)
This is only possible as the shotgun has no external magazine unlike the very similar MARUZEN CA870 sawed off.
Lastly I cut away the divider at the bottom of the hydration pouch. This allowed me to fit a larger water carrier. I play for several days at a go so now I can at least fit a 2ltr hydration pack inside, to last a full day and then refill at night. (we use water purifiers from rivers and streams).
So far I have been impressed by my 13 pound investment and think it has a future in my kit choice for long range events. I carry loads of stuff and still don't fill all the pockets....
includes gas cooker, metal cup, gas can, brew kit, radio, magazines, pistol (yeh my GLOCK fits fine in one of the mag pouches), pellets, snacks, can of red bull, 2ltr water, lightweight goretex trousers and jacket, shotgun (optional), torch, binoc's, map, snacks, meal, video camera...... the list goes on.....
Yet with all this stuff, the rigg is still balanced and feels comfortable and not restrictive.
By one, but expect to modify it (like most kit) and be sure to avoid the cheap copies. Good value for money and practical too.
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I hunt therefore I am...
20 years of 24 Hour Gaming!!!
CLICK For our WEBSITE, or HERE for YOUTUBE.
GOOD HUNTING 
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BigD_SealTeamXXL
You got Par'd!
Registered: January 2005
Location: Ice Station Zebra
Posts: 1,855
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Review Date: 24/9/05
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: £20.00
| Rating: 8
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Positive aspects of the product (pros):
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Good "Starter" Vest
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Cons:
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Not Very "Stealth"/ Poor Straps
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Like many people say its a very good "starter" vest to buy but i have had it for 2 years!!
Im not really a "hardcore" airsofter but the places i have skirmished this vest has taken a good beating.
I got this as a gift at a army show just before i purchased my first AEG (ICS MP5SD5) a good 2 years ago and its still working fine.
Positives are that being a "Bigger" airsofter it still fits without me looking like a chubby wannabe and has so many pouches and pockets you will never run out of room. I have a black SAAV and it seems to go well with my MARPAT BDUs because i play in a CQB environment and have not yet purchased a set of black BDUs. Also to note MP5 mags DO fit in the pouches and you can double them into each pouch apart from the 2 pouches on the right side because they are a bit to long (this can be adjusted by laying them sideways in the pouchon the right side).
Negatives are minor and are fixed with a little bit of work. firstly as soon as i got it home i burned the edges of the straps with a lighter to stop them from fraying and taped the side straps to a comrtable size to stop them falling out. also the dump pouches have weird securing straps which makes it hard for youto get into them in a "combat" situation. this can be fixed like many others have by changing the straps to buckles.
to weight it up its a very nice vest but i am considering a upgrade for a "gucci" look. if your on a budget like i was (and still am :P) id recommend the SAAV all the way
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Twitter??
One sig pic or the other, D, please. OMGZ HAXXOR
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Thorbard
Registered: September 2005
Posts: 1,209
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Review Date: 21/1/06
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Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: £34.99
| Rating: 6
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Positive aspects of the product (pros):
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Good starter vest. Cheap.
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Cons:
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Not Modular. Some modification recomended. Pouch arrangement.
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At the time I bought this I needed more space to carry things, but didn't have much money to spend on it.
Its been good to me, and holds a reasonable ammount of stuff, but unfortunately its not all readily acessable.
Modifications:
The first thing I did was to replace the buckles on the side pouches with clips (the ones that click together).
A few games later I removed the top right mag pouch: this is more comfortable when I shoulder my weapon, and allows better access to the pouch below it, so it can now take a pistol/more mags.
Some of the mag pouch flaps needed extending a little so that they would close properly over MP5 mags, which are slightly longer than M16/rifle mags.
I also removed the left hand dump/utilty pouch, as it was just getting in the way, and was normally empty. I'm currently thinking about reattaching the two mag pouches that I've removed there.
People say the construction is poor, but you don't really realise how well put together it is until you try and take it appart.
After recent games I can no longer recommend this vest, because I have found the pouch arrangements to be a real pain and (in part because of my modifications) the storage capacity too low for my new needs. Everything else I've said stands, but there are better vest designs out there than the SAAV I think.
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phaserrifle
Registered: July 2007
Posts: 87
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Review Date: 25/7/07
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Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: £20.00
| Rating: 5
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Positive aspects of the product (pros):
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cheap, relyable, carries loads
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Cons:
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not the best quality, no where to add extras (penknife, torch, ect)
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I like this vest. it can carry plenty of gear and so it allows me to be more prepared than anybody else in the area (Its a scout thing) while it can be a little uncomfortable when the two foam pads that cover the ajustment straps fail to cover the straps, instead giving extra padding to the large utillity pouches on either side. As i have never been airsofting whith this vest, I cannot Judge Its ammo capability, but for carrying heavy gear it is brilliant, I use it to carry assorted survival gear and rations when on hikes and camps and despite this large load it is holding up verry well. apart from heat sealing the ends of straps the only other things i did to change this vest where tying off the ends of the ajustment straps to prevent movement, and transfeing one of the elasticated straps from the right side shoulder strap to the left, in order to better hold my large first field dressing. Apart from this no changes where made and it seems to work verry well for the tasks i give it. My only problem is that it doesnot allow me to attach any extra items to it, such as penknife or torch pouches, or a sheath knife.
ADDED (23rd september 2007) ok maybe its not so good, the front clips broke on me about 2 weeks ago, and it is now impossible to close. (i have gone back to plce) Aparrently the origionals are practicaly indistructable, but are also as rare as rocking horse poo. and they only come in brown.
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92% of teens have moved on to rap.
If you are part of the 8% who still listen to real music, copy and paste this into your signature.
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bombsaway
Registered: July 2007
Posts: 8
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Review Date: 31/10/07
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Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: £2.00
| Rating: 3
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Positive aspects of the product (pros):
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Cheap, good for m16 type magazines, padded
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Cons:
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uncomfortable, cheap materials, velcro, viper
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Real stuff
the south african assault vest is not realy used in the military. the south african light infantry is one of the best in the world but they use belt webbing (big difference)
overview
the saav vest is made by viper so is action man crap invented for the civilian market. it is cheap but is made from crap materials and has a dull shine.
life
i have done lots of patrols with this with th ACF and is very uncomfortble when carrying weight and you cannot carry a bergan while wearing it.
it also has velcro on the straps so you give your position away when opening a pouch.
conclusion
ok for airsoft but crap for anyhing that involves silence or large magazines.
oh and i got it for £2 because it was given to my m8 and he end of a camp by mistake and half the people had left and there was 250 people overall and he owed me money so he gave it to me instead
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Registered: April 2005