How many extra magazines do you carry for your CCW?

[Geno]

Good thread! I've cut WAY back in recent months.

1. G19C or Colt 1911 .45ACP as primary, and P3AT on ankle or pocket as back-up.

2. 2 spare mags per. Not for extra round, but in case one fails...drop and swap.

3. Rounds held = 17 for 9mm and 10 for .45 ACP

4. Type of magazine holster: Fobus.

5. Where you wear the magazines: waist

 

[M1 Shooter]

Spare mags are a waste unless you are a LEO. You'll never use one as a citizen. Never.

And you know this to be absolutely true how exactly?

It's true you will probably never need the extra ammo, but it's also true that you'll probably never even need your gun in the first place. So by your logic, none of us should even carry a gun, since as civilians, we will more than likely never need it. Only LEO's need to carry guns, is that right?

I carry at least one reload, not just for the extra rounds, but for malfunction clearance. 90% of auto pistol malfunctions can be traced to a faulty magazine. The quickest and easiest fix for a malfunction is to drop the offending mag and insert a new one. This solves most auto pistol malfunctions. Plus, you just never know what you may run into, those extra rounds just may save your life someday.

My two primary CCW pistols are a S&W M60 .38 Spl. and a Colt Commander .45 ACP. With the little .38 I carry a 5 rd. speedloader in the watch pocket of my jeans. With the Colt I have one spare 7 rd. mag. usually carried in my left back pocket, but sometimes on my belt opposite the gun in a nylon/velcro pouch meant for a knife. I'll also keep extra ammo in my car's center console. For the .38 I have an "ammo wallet" that holds an additional 18 rounds, for the .45 I'll have another 1 or 2 7rd. mags. in the center console.

 

[fastpat]

1. Your CCW SIG P239 in summer, SIG P229 in winter.
2. How many extra magazines you carry One spare, for both extra ammo and for malfunction potential.
3. Rounds held in the magazine Seven in P239, twelve in P229.
4. Type of magazine holster Front pocket in summer, weak side belt pouch in winter.
5. Where you wear the magazine on your person See above. The P239 magazine is very slim, so pocket carry is possible. The thicker P229 magazine is carried on the belt.

 

[usp9]

Quote:
Spare mags are a waste unless you are a LEO. You'll never use one as a citizen. Never.

And you know this to be absolutely true how exactly?

Because it doesn't happen. Has not happened, will not happen in your lifetime. If you can find one single documented event involving a defensive use of a handgun and reload...then I'll change my mind.

In real life.., not gun rag fiction, or gun guru preaching, in real life my friend, a reload does not happen...ever. If you need back-up, you're better off carrying another gun.


Now it's my turn. Where does "fact" this come from?

90% of auto pistol malfunctions can be traced to a faulty magazine.

There is no way, repeat, no way you or anyone could know this.

I'd rather live, work and carry in the real world...no fantasy for me, thank you very much. I choose the most reliable guns I know, and rely on that.

 

[fastpat]

Quote:
Spare mags are a waste unless you are a LEO. You'll never use one as a citizen. Never.


Quote:
And you know this to be absolutely true how exactly?
Because it doesn't happen. Has not happened, will not happen in your lifetime. If you can find one single documented event involving a defensive use of a handgun and reload...then I'll change my mind.

In real life.., not gun rag fiction, or gun guru preaching, in real life my friend a reload does not happen...ever. If you need back-up, you're better off carrying another gun.


Now it's my turn. Where does "fact" this come from?
Quote:
90% of auto pistol malfunctions can be traced to a faulty magazine.
There is no way, repeat, no way you or anyone could know this.

I'd rather live, work and carry in the real world...no fantasy for me, thank you very much. I choose the most reliable guns I know, and rely on that.

usp9, your advice is called betting on the come which is your option to pursue, but not good advice to give to others.

There are instances of using the full magazine of those pistols with capacities in excess of 12 rounds to stop an attacker. For those that carry pistols with magazines of 12 and sometimes substantially less capacity, in similar circumstance would be forced to reload at least once.

The truth is, we really don't know how many rounds of ammunition we'll need. In my case, I have 15 rounds with me most of the time, that's two magazines +1. Those that have pistols with 15+1 rounds in them will have to decide whether they want to lug another 15 round magazine around or not, but it's not my place to advise them one way or another because I simply can't know of what their daily routine consists.

 

[comeandtakeit]

Spare mags are a waste unless you are a LEO. You'll never use one as a citizen. Never.

:banghead:

 

[GRIZ22]

I've always been an advocate of carrying at least one reload for whatever gun you're carrying. I also believe in backup guns. It's unlikely that you will need that reload or backup. However, all the gun gurus I know of (Cooper, Cirillo, Ayoob to mention a few) teach the first thing to do after after a gunfight appears over is to reload. That is so if it really isn't over you at least have a full gun. That way you can get yourself out of where you're at.

You may not ever need that reload but I don't want to bet my life on not carrying one. You carry that spare tire with hopes you'll never need it.

 

[fastpat]

That's right. Even if you've only fired a partial magazine (say 4 rounds of 12), if you have an opportunity to reload, take it and put the partial magazine where the full one was.

 

[mljdeckard]

Absolutely. Reload when you CAN, not when you HAVE to.

I consider it disengenuous to say, "We carry because bad things can happen. We carry all the time, because you never know when the bad things will happen." but to also say, "I absolutely know I will never need more than "X" number of bullets to solve the unpredictable problem which may or may not happen."

The Trolley Square shooting that happened in SLC in Februrary was stopped by an off-duty cop carrying a Kimber 1911. He was not carrying a spare magazine. He emptied his pistol. If the BG he put down had had a partner, the hero would be dead today. I bet he NEVER leaves home again without a spare.

I find the claim that no defensive pistol situation has ever been helped by carrying an extra mag to be dubious. Any time a slide has locked open, there is a need to reload, whether or not the reload was fired or not.

 

[fastpat]

The event with which I'm most familiar is one wherein a woman had an abusive, druggie husband from which she had a protective court order since the thug husband had threaten to kill her during their next encounter. The thug gave himself a nice PCP dose and showed up to fulfill his threat. The wife had a 9mm Browning (IIRC) with one magazine in it. She fired it to empty, which fortunately did the job, but just barely. The thug husband collapsed on top of her. Again, if memory serves, she actually put 9 rounds into him, including several that would have been immediately fatal had the thug not been pumped up artificially. This event was pretty well known just after it happened, others may know the names and when it was. Possibly 20 years ago.

I'm sure that there are other examples.

 

[Lonestar49]

Depends

Quote: Depends on the gun. With my 1911 i carry two, 1 horizontal in the front, 1 on my weakside./
----------------
...

Yep, it all depends on the gun.

With my Sig 9mm, or Beretta Px4, 1 spare magazine

With my Colt, 2 spare mags.


LS

 

[WOODROW]

CCW - Springfield Armory 1911 5" or Para 1911 41/2" both .45 Desantis Speed scabbard for both, straight up
# rnds in mags 8 (wilson combat mags)
# of SPARE mags 3, 2 in Desantis leather on left hip, 1 horizontial above left front pants pocket, opening to the rear.

 

[usp9]

fastpat, was a reload involved in the above incident? Where did the 90% figure come from?

mljdeckard, was a reload involved? Was a citizen involved. I exempted LEO from this because they have to confront B.G.s.

comeandtakeit, Can you back up your cute but pointless post. Can you?

Anybody have a documented case of a citzen using a reload? Anyone? I'll change my mind if you can find a reference, however I'm pretty confident it simply doesn't happen. You can read all you want, you can rely on all the gurus you want...I still think most of you approach this from a "Mall Ninja/ Rambo" perspective and not a reality perspective.

Of course theres always the drugged up zombie threat we live in fear of... and seemingly some of you prepare for.

 

[M1 Shooter]

The 90% figure frankly I just made up based on my experiences with over 50 different autopistols in the past 20 years. From my experiences I figured out that most autopistol malfunctions are magazine related. Just think about it, and you will see that is true. If you spend enough time shooting you will eventually have a malfunction. Most of the malfunctions I have experienced were from worn out or defective magazines. YMMV

 

[greenparrot]

"Statistically, being involved in a shooting is such a rarity that if you are going to trust in the chances, you don't even need to have a gun. As for magazine capacity, have you ever had a malfunction, and can you state for certain that you will not?" Please remember to figure old Mr. Murphy into any equation that your life may depend upon. If you have made the comittment to go armed, then carrying an extra magazine isn't that much more bothersome, and, as the Boy Scouts always say, "Be Prepared".

 

[kashton]

Spare mags are a waste unless you are a LEO. You'll never use one as a citizen. Never.

Quote:
And you know this to be absolutely true how exactly?

Because it doesn't happen. Has not happened, will not happen in your lifetime. If you can find one single documented event involving a defensive use of a handgun and reload...then I'll change my mind.

In real life.., not gun rag fiction, or gun guru preaching, in real life my friend, a reload does not happen...ever. If you need back-up, you're better off carrying another gun.

Now it's my turn. Where does "fact" this come from?

Quote:
90% of auto pistol malfunctions can be traced to a faulty magazine.

There is no way, repeat, no way you or anyone could know this.

I'd rather live, work and carry in the real world...no fantasy for me, thank you very much. I choose the most reliable guns I know, and rely on that.

Read The Ayoob Files by Massad F. Ayoob and also The Best Defense by Robert A. Waters, a few cases (mostly in helping downed police officers) involve multiple magazines, 3+, or two+ guns...

 

[Lonestar49]

No such thing as fail-safe

Quote: comeandtakeit, Can you back up your cute but pointless post. Can you?
----------
...

I agree, "no reason to carry a back-up mag" is wrong, whether one ever uses it or not.

Case/thought in point: what would you do if for whatever reason your gun would not continue to load (mag problems can happen) ?

That's when one would dump the magazine and put in the backup, for such an event, rare, but not impossible.

LS

 

[usp9]

Don't get me wrong. If any or all of THR participants want to leave their home with a gun, all the ammo they can carry and a knife between their teeth, that's their perogative. More power to 'em. Just don't try to convince me that it is safer or represents some higher preparedness because that notion is false and misleading.

My main concern is that there may be people that experience routine malfunctions and practice changing mags in the mistaken belief that there is time to do that when under attack. There isn't. These hostilities occur in seconds, at the range of a few feet and are instinct driven.

It may be fun to practice and gun writers get paid by the word, but documented factual history of defensive firearm use shows spare mags and reloads are a fiction.

 

[cslinger]

There was a post I read many years ago on some forum that basically asked what your carry loadout was. Some dude posted something to the effect of....

Glock 19
6 additional magazines
Two knives
Pepper spray
backup gun of some type (Kelt Tec, J frame or something)
Handcuffs
multi tool
Flashlight
and so on in addition to the normal stuff we all carry (wallet, keys etc.)

He ends with something to the effect of "The way I see it I am ready for anything."

The next post summed my thoughts up nicely.

"Oh yeah, what if you gotta swim."

At any rate I usually have an extra speed strip or speed loader on me. If I am carrying an auto I usually have a back up magazine in case of malfunction of primary but not always.

Frankly I feel fine with a Jframe and 5 rounds.

Chris

 

[Lonestar49]

Yep, individual choice, no arguments

...

But, in the event, it's 1 vs 2, 3, 4 or more BG's, I like to know I have an option of using suppressing fire, with a back up, to plan my hopeful exit of Dodge..

LS

PS.. I'm more worried about the non-reported incidents/facts out there within the congrete jungles.

 

[M1 Shooter]

Usp9, been in a lot of gunfights have ya? I guess we should all defer to your infinite wisdom on this matter since you obviously know beyond all shadow of a doubt that all of us who carry a reload are just deluding ourselves. We are all just wasting our time practicing speed reloads, going to cover, shooting on the move, malfunction clearance drills and all that other nonsense that none of us, as civilians, will ever need. And, if we do need it, we won't be able to do it anyway, since as you put it, there won't be enough time.

And I'll say it again, by your reasoning, none of us should even carry a gun in the first place, since the chances of any of us ever needing it are slim to none.

You do what you want, but don't presume to know everything, and don't presume to know exactly what kind of encounter any of us may find ourselves in, because you don't.

Go read the cases in the Ayoob Files. They are not fictional, they are true stories.

 

[SevenMichael]

SIG 229 - 9mm: I use a 17rnd mag w/ 1 in chamber, so I don't carry
any extra mags.



Springfield EMP : Depends on where I'm headed. "Usually" I don't
carry any extra mags; so I have 1 chambered + 9
rnd mag.

However, in some cases I use the 2-mag (9 rnds ea)
holster which came with the EMP.

 

[Lonestar49]

Again, it's a choice of..

...

Just plan for the expected, normal.. or

*Include a back-up plan for the "unexpected, non-normal event.."

*The choices have merit, both in CCW, and in flying, boating, etc.


LS

 

[Clipper]

I agree, usp9, but I usually carry a spare, mostly because I might have the opportunity to shoot a couple rounds (maybe varmints at the stable or somesuch), or let someone curious about my pistol (PF-9) to blow up a few rounds, and will want to top off before continuing with my day.

I agree that if my pistol seizes up for any reason mid-fight, I'm likely, as the man said, FUBAR, big time. There is likely no way I will be able to change mags before the issue is decided one way or the other. This is why I don't practice 'Spray & Pray'. I train to use 2 rounds at a time, then do a quick reassessment of the threat(s). In a perfect world, I will be able to engage 4 threats, but in the real world, I'd bet good money that the first guy in the gang that gets capped will be enough...The rest are likely to be more of a danger to each other than I am as they stampede over each other to get the hell out of Dodge before they're next.

 

[comeandtakeit]

Can you back up your cute but pointless post. Can you?

USP9 thanks for saying my post was cute that means a lot to me. Also you've already answered your own question. You said LEO's are the only one's who need to carry back up mags. So if one ever gets into a gun fight with an LEO he'll probably need some back up mags? Right? Well, I hope that clears things up for you. Be safe out there...