Ghost 360 Universal Magazine Pouch Review

When I first started shooting USPSA, I didn’t have a good set of magazine pouches. I had been an IDPA shooter for a long time, and I would just use an old double mag pouch and a couple singles in front of it. This was a less than ideal solution, so I began looking at some of the options available for USPSA Production legal magazine pouches.

I’d been hearing about the Ghost 360 Universal magazine pouches for a while but the thought of a “universal” magazine pouch didn’t sit well with me. I couldn’t imagine that they would hold different shapes/brands of magazines very well being universal, however the Ghost 360 pouches are somewhat unique, in that they use leaf springs and set screws to hold the magazines into the pouch, and they work very well. I picked up 5 of them from Ben Stoeger Pro Shop and I’ve been using them for a few months, and they’re pretty great.

Leaf Springs:

The leaf springs are a neat feature, because they add enough tension to keep loaded magazines in the mag pouch, but make for a very unique, smooth release when pulling a magazine out of the pouch. The pouches come with two ribbed leaf springs, and two flat leaf springs for adjusting the tension on the magazine.

The leaf springs are installed into the body of the mag pouch by snapping them into one of two holes in the pouch. I’ve been able to snap a couple of them in with just my hands, but the rest required the aid of a tool to get them pressed into place. The up-side of this is that once they springs are pressed into place, they aren’t coming out unless you want them to.

We did find out that the springs can be somewhat fragile at the February 2015 Sir Walter Gun Club USPSA match. Ben was doing a full speed walk-through of a stage, and slipped and fell on the ground. When he got up one of the leaf springs was broken, so I loaned him a spring out of one of my pouches to finish the match with. Later that week while he was dry-firing, a second spring broke in another mag pouch. If you’re using these pouches, it’s probably worth tossing a few extra leaf springs in your range bag, just in case.

Mag Pouch Bodies:

If the Ghost 360 mag pouches weren’t versatile enough in that they work with just about any doublestack 9mm/.40S&W mag pouch out there, they also give you the ability to use them in the traditional bullets forward configuration, or the “bullets out” configuration which is becoming quite popular these days (which I also couldn’t get the hang of…).

The pouches ship with two different magazine bodies, one specifically for bullets forward, and the other for bullets out. To swap them you just remove a leaf spring from the pouch currently on the belt attachment, and pop out a single screw, and attach the new body. Simple enough, and I can swap all of mine from one configuration to the other in about 15 minutes, including changing over all the springs and set screws.

Rotation:

Oh yeah, not only do the Ghost 360 mag pouches accept most any magazine, and allow you to use them bullets forward or bullets out, they also rotate on the belt attachment, so if you’re using them for USPSA Limited or Open, you can get the rotation on them just right if that’s your thing. Once you get them where you want them, you can crank down the screw that holds the mag body to the belt attachment a little and it’ll add tension, essentially locking the pouch in place.

Belt Attachment:

The Ghost 360 mag pouches have an acceptable belt attachment. They are adjustable for different sized belts, but the attachments are best suited for a double belt system like the CR Speed belt I use them with. The adjustment is a little fiddly, having two set-screws that you have to loosen and tighten to get the pouches set up on the belt, but once getting them adjusted I haven’t had to mess with them again.

The inside of the attachment has a cutout to allow the outer belts velcro to adhere to the inner belts velcro so you don’t wind up with the magazine side of your belt sagging when the pouches are full of loaded magazines.

Packaging:

I know, I know, it’s nit-picky to comment on the packaging of a product, but I have to say that I really like how the Ghost pouches were packaged. They come in good quality zip-lock type bags, which make it easy to keep all of the extra parts together. I keep all of the extra parts in the zipped bags, in the box that the mag pouches were shipped in.

After Ben broke a leaf spring on one of his pouches at the SWGC USPSA match, I’ll probably toss together a Ghost 360 pouch repair kit with spare parts in one of the ziplock bags, and toss it in my range bag, just in case.

The mag pouches ship with extra long and short set screws, and ribbed and flat leaf springs to give you lots of options.

Add-Ons:

It’s worth mentioning that the folks at Ben Stoeger Pro Shop are making some add-on products for the Ghost pouches to make them even more versatile.

• Spacer for singlestack magazines. If you want to try shooting Singlestack, but don’t want to throw down the money for a whole new setup with mag pouches and whatnot, you can add spacers to your current pouches to run them in Singlestack.

• Laser cut velcro. If the holes in belt attachment aren’t cutting it, they have some stick on velcro pieces to allow better attachment to your inner belt.

The Final Word:

I really like these mag pouches. They’re cheap, and they work great. I’ve been using them in matches and dry-firing with them for several months now, and I really don’t have any gripes about them. The Ghost 360 pouches give you more options than other mag pouches that cost a whole lot more.

I give the Ghost 360 universal mag pouches a solid A. If they were just a little more durable, and the belt attachment wasn’t as fiddly, they’d get an A+.

If you’re interested, you can buy the Ghost 360 Universal Magazine Pouches on Amazon by clicking here.