How many rounds should your carry gun have loaded in it?

sbwaters said:

How many rounds?

All of ’em.

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Pretty much, regardless what I'm carrying. Always a mag on the off side as well. For more ammo sure, a spare for bad mag definately, but I mostly carry a spare because my borderline OCD demands I have something on the other side of my belt (from the gun) to balance (even if the weight is nothing close to similar).

Doublestacks I'll carry one spare, single stack I'll often carry two as it's not any more work to conceal two so why not.

Lately I've also been tossing a lower profile (8 round 9mm officer 1911 mag currently, but a 7 round full size .45 works too) mag in my offside pocket just because it fits nice.

So, today I have ... carry the one... 39 9mms on me.

Wisco said:

16 in the clip. One in the hole.

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Classic song

JR24 said:

Always a mag on the off side as well.

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I thought that was what the theater ticket pocket on the inside of a suit/sport coat was for.

Clip the belt loop off a neoprene Sticky belt magazine holder and it fits nicely.

Right now 54 rounds. Ya I know. Its mainly because they are pistol and carbine magazines and I don't want to leave them loaded at home.

Colt451871 said:

I've wondered about this myself having heard conflicting information from various sources. If your edc is an autoloader then I have heard a full 17 shot mag with one spare. If the edc is a revolver then, two extra speedloaders. My understanding is that needing more than one or two rounds to resolve a situation is very rare. My source on that is a former military turned youtuber named Paul Harrell.

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Paul is quoting statistics. But he always ends his videos with, you decide.

george burns said:

So you are carrying a gun for 1-90 years, how many rounds should you have in the gun, and at the ready. This would be your EDC, or Every Day Carry weapon. The number of rounds only, and your reason, please.

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X+1

IMHO: In the gun = at least 8, Total = at least 24, more if caliber is less than .380 acp E.G I would load a Keltec p32 with 10 rd mags and still want more).

Kevin Rohrer said:

X+1

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That pretty much sums it up...........

I recently switched from a single-stack 1911 .45 (8+8+1) to a double-stack 1911 9mm. (17+17+1.) It's slightly larger, but I use all the same holsters I used to. (And I have a spare rig.) A few things drove this.

The more I train, the more my mind thinks of new things that can go wrong when you;re fighting. I never heard of anyone who was in a gunfight and complained that they had TOO MUCH ammo.

Also, I got my wife up and running on 9mm, and I like handloading and training all with the same cartridge. I didn't throw my .45 stuff away, but I don't actively collect brass and bulk handload for it anymore either. 9mm reloads for roughly half what .45 does.

And I have also become convinced that the effectiveness of modern bullets has rendered any previously acknowledged size advantage from bigger bullets to be so small as to be negligible. I think, running modern defensive bullets, between any of the service cartridges, you would have to shoot a lot of people a lot of different ways to see is there is any difference at all in real-world effectiveness. If I can carry more, and shoot better with less recoil, and get another hit, that outweighs any advantage a .45 has over a 9mm.

I am currently training alongside DHS guys whose agency just switched from .40 back to 9mm. They are giving away their .40 training ammo.

george burns said:

I am not sure where to post this, so I figured here was my best guess. So you are carrying a gun for 1-90 years, how many rounds should you have in the gun, and at the ready. This would be your EDC, or Every Day Carry weapon. Opinions are welcome , with reasons would be better. Please refrain from saying it depends on where you are going, as you can get in trouble just as easy , in your house as in the worse place in town, if we knew where and when someone was going to put you in that kind of a jeopardy, we could just stay in a bunker that day.
Also , this is not a caliber comparison, a hit is a hit, a miss is a miss. The number of rounds only, and your reason, please.

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All of 'em.

However many the cylinder or mag holds.... If i knew things were going to hell, I want a belt fed machine of some sort.

As many as I can possible fit in whatever I am carry at the moment, and of course always carry extras.

The Evangelist Cowboy said:

However many the cylinder or mag holds.... If i knew things were going to hell, I want a belt fed machine of some sort.

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Stuff going that sideways call for air strikes and artillery barrages.

I carry 8 rounds of .45 ACP in the primary and a Detroit reload of 7 rounds of .32 ACP.

J frame .357 - 5 rounds in the gun, 5 rounds in a speedloader in my weak side front pocket. I practice reloading but I doubt I’ll ever have to use it.

All of em + at least one reload

Not much point having a gun that is defanged by downloading and if its not reliable when loaded to full capacity....its not really reliable enough to trust with your life, is it??

A full mag, no other mags. Guess it depends on where you live and what issues you might face.

My carry pistol is a semiautomatic with a magazine capacity of 12, so I carry 12 rounds.

I started off carrying a large pistol, lot of rounds.extra mags etc. Every year the gun would be
smaller and less ammo and mags. I started keeping abreast of all the shooting in my area etc. The Vast majority were one or two rounds. It would make a good survey or poll to see how many members (non-Police) have had to use all their ammo and change out magazines in real life. I am guessing the number is very small. Most folks I have known for years do not even carry. One fact remains for myself, if I have to carry a large gun again and so much ammo, then martial law has come down or some other reason.
Do not get me wrong, I believe in firearms, have been shooting all my life. Have a full robust home security system and practice self awareness. If you feel like you need a lot of rounds, extra mags, then please go ahead. I know folks that worry more about how many rounds they carry then their own diet and I would bet some of those will die of a massive heart attack well before they die from a firefight and running out of ammo.
Just some things to think about. Again, carry what YOU feel is best. And if you are not training on a consistent basis, then having all the ammo in the world is not going to keep you live. The guy that has the element of surprise and the guy with fastest draw and to center mass will IMO most likely be the deciding factor.

Limit +1.....

george burns said:

I am not sure where to post this, so I figured here was my best guess. So you are carrying a gun for 1-90 years, how many rounds should you have in the gun, and at the ready. This would be your EDC, or Every Day Carry weapon. Opinions are welcome , with reasons would be better. Please refrain from saying it depends on where you are going, as you can get in trouble just as easy , in your house as in the worse place in town, if we knew where and when someone was going to put you in that kind of a jeopardy, we could just stay in a bunker that day.
Also , this is not a caliber comparison, a hit is a hit, a miss is a miss. The number of rounds only, and your reason, please.

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As many as the gun holds. I carry different guns for different reasons. My duty weapon is a full frame gun, and I have 18 total rounds in the gun as I walk around. My CCW gun was picked to be small and compact, and I carry 11 rounds in that gun.

It depends on where I'm going. The further from home, the more spares I bring.