The Magazine Dump Pouch is a handy accessory which has an alternative use as a means of temporarily expanding personal kit stowage capacity, writes Bob Morrison.
For those unfamiliar with the Magazine Dump Pouch, its primary role is to give the soldier a means of quickly and easily stowing spent assault rifle magazines during rapid reloads. Normally this open-topped bag is carried rolled or folded on the belt but as it usually features a MOLLE/PALS attachment system it can also be hung off pretty much any item of modern load carriage equipment.

US Marine Corps rifleman changing magazines, March 2017 – note dump pouch at right hip [USMCorps: LCpl Tojyea G. Matally]
So what exactly is a Magazine Dump Pouch? According to the US Department of Defence, the standard pouch specified in 2012 as part of the US Marine Corps FILBE (Family of Improved Load Bearing Equipment) shall: “be able to contain eight (8) empty M16/M4 Magazines and have a closure device. The pouch shall be adjustable by two inches in the vertical direction and compatible with the martial arts belt and PALS webbing.”
Many aftermarket military pouch and accessory manufacturers now produce their own take on the Magazine Dump Pouch concept and as a result both cheap and expensive solutions are quite widely available for private purchase. I have been using one of the more upmarket dump pouches for several years as a simple way of boosting my daysack/camera bag carrying capacity and recently I picked up a much cheaper example to further increase my ability to carry additional kit on my back if and when required.

My Snugpak SJ-6 can stuff inside the Disciple Tactical sack meaning I can still easily access cameras and kit inside the main compartment of my daysack / camera bag [© BM]
My standard dump pouch, which sometimes I attach to the upper PALS tapes on the main outer face of my daysack and sometimes to the side tapes so that it hangs over my right hip – my being right-handed, it is easier to access here – was produced by UK company Intelligent Armour and is very much a high end product. Retailing at £36 and not currently listed as being in stock, though you may be able to pick up one through one of the specialist outlets where equally specialist soldiers shop, this pouch is constructed from full military specification 1000D MultiCam Cordura and genuine MultiCam mesh with a paracord and spring toggle neck closure.
My recently purchased second dump pouch is from the other end of the scale, from the Disciple Tactical range stocked by Drop Zone Supplies outlets, and cost under £14 but does pretty much the same job; by attaching this to the lower left side of my daysack I can double my temporary stowage capacity and as it is slightly deeper than the Intelligent Armour version I can even stuff & stow my Snugpak SJ-6 insulated jacket in it. This compact folding pouch is manufactured from what the supplier describes as MTE-C (Multi Terrain Environment Camouflage) material and they describe the camouflage, which has the word DISCIPLE printed through it, as Multi Terrain Disruptive Pattern.

Intelligent Armour (left) and Disciple Tactical pouches with 30-round 5.56mm magazine for size comparison atop British MTPcamo fabric [© BM]
Hopefully this article, which it must be remembered is only a brief look at two of the many Magazine Dump Pouches on the market, will prompt readers to think about just how useful a low bulk and low weight expanding pouch can be as a secondary stowage resource.