Russian Item Spawn Woes

I don't know how many hours I've got into the Russia map now but it's a lot. Been to each location except the dead zones multiple times grinding to get gear but the item spawns are terrible! I've yet to see a military helmet, and have found one accessory thus far, likewise no Alice packs. All I see are clothing items with a very small chance of something else. When I first go to an area it seems if I run right in I can get a decent amount of items spawned, but after that, next to nothing. If someone has a thorough understanding of the game mechanics for item spawning, would you mind explaining to me how it works? I've even waited twenty minutes in an area to get all the items to respawn but that didn't work either. I should mention that this is on a server I'm hosting from my desktop. Thanks!

Edit: added word