A spare reload if needed

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I carry a reload, speed strip, so - revolver is limited capacity. Don't need it, probably never will, but it is just risk management IMHO. I don't know what risk I might face, so I hide a couple boxes of extra ammo in the back of my auto, just cause - 100 extra rounds available to me seems like something I'd rather have and not need than need and not have.
 
Yeah, cops and military personnel carry reloads. Both professions openly carrying belt rigs and deliberately putting people into conflict. Is that the topic here? Nope.
Dude, I don't care if you never carry a reload. I don't care if you carry one bullet in your shirt pocket. It is not going to have the least bit of effect on my life. I'm not going to bitch if you don't or even necessarily think you're wrong for not doing it my way. I don't care.

Enjoy Memorial Day with your family. If you think about it raise a glass for those who aren't with us anymore
 
Dude, I don't care if you never carry a reload. I don't care if you carry one bullet in your shirt pocket. It is not going to have the least bit of effect on my life. I'm not going to bitch if you don't or even necessarily think you're wrong for not doing it my way. I don't care.
Uh, okay. I don't care if you care what I carry.

You realize this is a discussion forum, where we discuss things, right? As such, the context of this thread is concealed carry by the armed citizen. Not military, law enforcement or armed security. Different jobs and purposes call for different tools. To be more blunt, we don't charge into conflict, we avoid it.
 
Uh, okay. I don't care if you care what I carry.

You realize this is a discussion forum, where we discuss things, right? As such, the context of this thread is concealed carry by the armed citizen. Not military, law enforcement or armed security. Different jobs and purposes call for different tools. To be more blunt, we don't charge into conflict, we avoid it.
A lot of context is lost with written communication.

Your post read to me like you were clapping back and justifying your decision not to carry reload to me.
 
Law enforcement has a different mo than we do. They look for criminals to go hands on, we on other hand try to avoid. I understand their need for extra mags, however we as civilians still inhabit the same neighborhood these criminals are in. For those reasons I carry a spare mag.
 
A lot of context is lost with written communication.

Your post read to me like you were clapping back and justifying your decision not to carry reload to me.
I'm saying LE and military 'need' a reload. They run towards conflict. Their tools and tactics may or may not be applicable. Our purpose is purely defensive. We avoid conflict, or should be. Different tools for different jobs.
 
Just got a mental image of you tapping, racking or dropping mag and inserting a
new one while the bad guy is beating you over the head with a feather duster.

Moral of the story is either your gun works or doesn't work when you need it and
you either survive or you die. Or suffer multiple bruises from the feather duster.

All these gun fight scenarios are just "what ifs" and any outcome in reality is not
predictable.

Oh, by the way, I'm not against carrying spare ammo. Just don't put any great emphasis
that that is going to win the day.
Tap and rack is a lot faster than opening the cylinder and easier under pressure than tightening an ejector rod that's worked loose.
 
So I’ve carried a single stack for the last 20 years, give or take. I initially carried a reload because I’m a retired engineer, and as Murphy’s Law stares “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, at the worst possible moment”. I later came across the data that it takes 2-3 rounds ON AVERAGE to convince an opponent to stop their aggression. Finally I started competing with handguns and realized how easy it is to miss with them while under pressure. Now doing the math, if I’m using a single stack, I’ve got 8 rounds. That’s 2 to 4 opponents, which sounds great if I don’t miss AND if there is nothing wrong with the gun, the mag in the gun or the ammo in the mag. So I still carry at least one reload.
 
This would imply that revolvers are infallible. In my experience, when an auto jams up, it's usually a tap and rack or at worst, drop the mag, clear and insert another mag. When a revolver jams up, and they do, it ain't so easy to fix.
I would argue that both platforms are susceptible to failures due to neglect or mechanical failure (parts breakage). And when those issues take a firearm out of action, either platform "ain't so easy to fix." A revolver just eliminates all those tap, rack, swap the magazine issues.
 
Most auto failures, even some with broken parts (Ive had a couple of those too), dont usually disable the gun. With revolvers, that isn't the case and a simple jumped crimp, or ejector rod that you neglected to Loctite, and it backs out, etc, and the gun isn't being fixed in the moment.

The TRB with the autos "most" of the time, has the gun working again in just a few seconds.

Anything man-made is subject to failure, there's no doubt there, but some things are better than others at dealing with some of the failures.
 
Most auto failures, even some with broken parts (Ive had a couple of those too), dont usually disable the gun. With revolvers, that isn't the case and a simple jumped crimp, or ejector rod that you neglected to Loctite, and it backs out, etc, and the gun isn't being fixed in the moment.

The TRB with the autos "most" of the time, has the gun working again in just a few seconds.

Anything man-made is subject to failure, there's no doubt there, but some things are better than others at dealing with some of the failures.
I've never had a jumped crimp or had an ejector rod shut me down. Not saying it can't happen, but those are not common issues.

Now, at the same time, I have autos that, other than drills, I've never had a TRB issue with. But there are reasons for running those drills with an auto.

I don't like when the failures of an auto are justified with a TRB, or a that's why you carry an extra magazine, then in the next breath someone declares that a failure with a revolver can't be fixed. The reality is that if you could need to swap magazines due to reliability issues during a gunfight, that is not a weapon system I have much faith in.
 
Ive had both the jumped crimp issue and the ejector rod issue. Both things I try my best to address, among a few others. All new (to me) revolvers get Loctite on the ejector rod, so that's generally not an issue going forward because of it, and ammo is watched as closely as possible. Once addressed, they usually arent an issue, but ammo always will be something you need to watch with whatever you choose.

Ive had more chances at doing a TRB than revolver issues, but in both cases, I shoot my reloads in practice almost exclusively, and I shoot the brass to failure, so I get to see all sorts of failures, stoppages, etc, and get to randomly deal with them. And since I shoot the autos a lot more, I see more issues there, random as they are. Even then, in the scheme of things, its not something that happens all that often, especially with guns that are known for reliability.

But, that's why we work on things in practice too, and Ive come to find, that worn out brass is a great aid in doing just that. No need to set things up and you never know when something is going to pop up.


I think the point that's being missed here too is, that everything can fail, and the more you're familiar with things that are fairly well known, and even somewhat common, common enough that you know to address things that need addressed, and deal with things you might run into, the less trouble you're likely to have, and if you do, you know what to do to deal with them when they do.

As Ive said before, revolvers are not immune to problems occurring and when they do, they are more likely to be shut down when they do. You don't want a problem with either of them, but if I had to have a problem with either, Ill take the auto every time.
 
Oh, another: I don't need capacity argument.

Anyway - one reason for an extra mag. Watch police videos and see when they accidentally drop the mag out of their gun. Now we civilians would never do that - yeah - go to a match and you will see that is not an unknown WHOOPS!

The capacity argument is so old. You only go to nice areas because nice area gun fights are so nice.
 
Ive had both the jumped crimp issue and the ejector rod issue. Both things I try my best to address, among a few others. All new (to me) revolvers get Loctite on the ejector rod, so that's generally not an issue going forward because of it, and ammo is watched as closely as possible. Once addressed, they usually arent an issue, but ammo always will be something you need to watch with whatever you choose.

Ive had more chances at doing a TRB than revolver issues, but in both cases, I shoot my reloads in practice almost exclusively, and I shoot the brass to failure, so I get to see all sorts of failures, stoppages, etc, and get to randomly deal with them. And since I shoot the autos a lot more, I see more issues there, random as they are. Even then, in the scheme of things, its not something that happens all that often, especially with guns that are known for reliability.

But, that's why we work on things in practice too, and Ive come to find, that worn out brass is a great aid in doing just that. No need to set things up and you never know when something is going to pop up.

I think the point that's being missed here too is, that everything can fail, and the more you're familiar with things that are fairly well known, and even somewhat common, common enough that you know to address things that need addressed, and deal with things you might run into, the less trouble you're likely to have, and if you do, you know what to do to deal with them when they do.

As Ive said before, revolvers are not immune to problems occurring and when they do, they are more likely to be shut down when they do. You don't want a problem with either of them, but if I had to have a problem with either, Ill take the auto every time.
If your ejector rod is unscrewing in the middle of a gunfight, you've lost before you began. Only about the easiest friggin' thing to avoid.

I've been shooting heavy recoiling big bores since I was 16. Never had a bullet jump crimp and tie up the gun. Had to work fairly hard to reproduce it intentionally. You'd have to be born under a bad sign to have it happen with a .38.



You only go to nice areas because nice area gun fights are so nice.
It doesn't take a mathematician to understand that the likelihood of getting into a running gunfight with a group of gang bangers goes down exponentially the further away you get from the big cities where they live.
 
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If your ejector rod is unscrewing in the middle of a gunfight, you've lost before you began. Only about the easiest friggin' thing to avoid.

I've been shooting heavy recoiling big bores since I was 16. Never had a bullet jump crimp and tie up the gun. Had to work fairly hard to reproduce it intentionally. You'd have to be born under a bad sign to have it happen with a .38.




It doesn't take a mathematician to understand that the likelihood of getting into a running gunfight with a group of gang bangers goes down exponentially the further away you get from the big cities where they live.
My reply was based on malfunctions. I suppose statistics demonstrate that malfunctions and dropping magazines is less likely to occur in nice areas as guns know it is a nice area and choose not to malfunction.

Gang bangers is not my issue - that is a shibboleth of the gun world. OMG - I'm driving into gang bangers. My concern is the rare possibility of a more intense rampage in locales I frequent. Such as markets, places of worship, the mall, etc. Or being accosted by racist or politically driven lunatics - been there by the way. Avoidance worked - might not of. 5 rounds was looking pretty skimpy.
 
“Gang Bangers” are not a major concern. Road Ragers, on the other hand, are a noticeable local problem. Perhaps a worst-case scenario would be a gang member becoming enraged, while on the road? ;)

Political and religious/tribal hate-based violence really is starting to concern me. Sadly, I can feel the temperature starting to rise, in that regard. We live seventh-tenths of a mile south of a significant Jewish house of worship, and less than a mile north of an absolutely huge Jewish house of worship, with a large Jewish school. It is not a matter of being prepared to run to the sound of the guns, at either congregation‘s location, but the violence that might come to our street, our block, while I am doing something as mundane as walking-about the neighborhood on a Saturday morning. (Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath, and many traditional Jews walk to worship services.)
 
For decades I carried a Model 60 S&W .38 Special 5 shot snubby. No extra rounds, or speed loaders. I finally gave the 60 to my oldest son and began carrying my compact 9mm that's 10 +1 and not the extra magazine. I've never worried about some possible big shootout that might mean I'd empty my magazine and need a 2nd mag full. Just don't see the odds of that ever happening.
I concentrate on accurate shooting, so I want every shot to count. Not making sure I have plenty of ammo to cover misses.
 
How many who say its not necessary, or needed, base your thinking on what you've learned in practice and/or training?

Seems like there's always two lines of thinking here, and one is more based on things learned in doing and trying to figure things out, and the other not.
 
Wouldn't or couldn't an attorney for the "victim" that you shot make it look like you went looking for a fight? On the stand a lawyer is almost certainly question the reasoning for you carrying so many rounds. A few rounds could be construed as self defense, but alot of rounds could be interpreted YOU were out to "kill". An attorney can twist your wording to make you look like a bloodthirsty killer.
Can you cite a case where this happened? I’ve never heard of this being an issue.
 
Can you cite a case where this happened? I’ve never heard of this being an issue.
No I cannot, but notice the question mark. I was asking if it were possible.I am still of the notion that a lawyer can possibly twist words and circumstances.
 
No I cannot, but notice the question mark. I was asking if it were possible.I am still of the notion that a lawyer can possibly twist words and circumstances.
If you find yourself in court you can pretty much count on the attorney for the other party doing whatever they can to paint you in the worse light possible. It's your attorney's job to portray your actions in the best light possible for you. Is carrying one or two extra magazines unreasonable? I don't think so as I carry two with the understanding that the possibility of needing one, much less two is incredibly remote. Among the things to worry about if I'm ever in the position of having to use my gun to defend myself or someone else, carrying an extra magazine or two doesn't make the list. As you can see from this thread people's opinions on this vary and if it's a concern for you, carry what you're comfortable with.
 
I mostly face two different threat cases.

On and around my property, the only real threats are critter-caused. A mountain lion, badger or bobcat might threaten me or a grandkid. And porcupines can decimate the gardens and orchard. I carry a 686 loaded with sturdy 158 grain, full-power, .357 mag ammo, in a not really concealed pancake holster for those situations. Plus one speedloader.

But in town, and on the road to/from town, the threats are two-legged. And multiple threats may act in concert. There, its an M&P9 16+1 IWB concealed, often with a spare full-size mag in my off-side front pocket. Loaded with 124 grain HSTs that are designed to pretty much always expand and limit penetration.

And no, I've never had anyone ask me if I'm carrying a spare magazine in my pocket.
 
I am sure this topic has been covered many times before. I've read so many reports by police agencies , by the FBI and so called armchair experts. That the usual gun fight is settled within five feet and the average is three shots fired in 6 seconds.
Am I being over the top paranoid by carrying an extra reload on me? I carry a 9mm with a 15rd mag, and I carry a spare of the same round count. I don't go to any bad areas, am very aware of my surroundings. I just want the extra for that just in case 100,000 to 1 time if needed. Does anyone else plan this way when carrying ccw?
Sometimes I do change from my J-frame 38 to my small EC9s and two spares if I go into Reno/Sparks. When I got the little Ruger I was amazed at how well it performed and how well I shot with it immediately. It's slim and flat, and it's as big as I can carry comfortably now.
 
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