Spare magazine vs. BUG

[tarosean]

delete...

 

[Skribs]

If you are attacked by multiple armed determined assailants, and your faithful 0.00% failure rate primary weapon fails, you'll need to hit "pause" while you and your mind process that and you get your BUG out. Otherwise, the oncoming bad guys are upon you.

If you're going to make fun of gamers, please understand that there is no pause in multiplayer online games. Also, some reasons that were mentioned include an injury to the strong arm, with the BUG on weak side. I'd get the BUG into play faster than I would the primary in that case.

If you're going to make the "before the bad guy gets on you" argument, I'd like to point out the Teuller drill, and the fact that most BGs aren't going to advertise the attack 20 feet away. By this logic, I shouldn't carry, because the BG and his buddies will be on me before I can draw.

 

[Skylerbone]

No offense Skribs but are you looking for advice or confirmation? We've all heard the adage that 1 is none and 2 is 1 but there has to be balance somewhere. By that math 4 is 2 and you're daily routine resembles a workout.

Time and again professionals repeat training and mindset are the keys to success. People agree and confirm and +1 then dissect minutia over Glock or Sig, capacity or caliber, Cold Steel or SOG.

If a firearm is of good quality and kept in good repair the odds are with you. I don't suppose anyone here worries about mixing lots of ammo, staggered and marked of course, in their magazines in case they got a bad batch of primers, powder, brass...

 

[Teachu2]

There is one that I know of. A watch repair man named Lance Thomas, Ayoob wrote about him some years ago and he was portrayed on Justice Files.

'Cept he didn't actually carry even one gun. He seeded his high-risk business with accessible firearms, and learned from each incident.

 

[Warp]

I'd rather have a BUG.

If I carry a revolver I carry a speed strip/loader...but I rarely carry a BUG or a spare magazine.

The speed strip/loader comes along with a revolver not just because of the limited 5-6 round capacity, but because it is so much easier for me to pocket a speed strip/loader than a magazine.

I cannot carry a spare magazine concealed and with reasonable comfort unless I put it on my ankle (I have a holster for that). If I am going to do that I might as well have a BUG down there instead. I have a Galco Ankle Glove for my 642 and it carries nicely. The BUG fixes absolutely any and every mechanical malfunction a primary gun can have, even if that malfunction is the primary gun getting shot, lost, dropped, stolen, whatever wild and crazy scenario you can come up with. Plus I can give a BUG to another person, such as a family member, who doesn't have a gun of their own.


I suspect there are few/no known cases of private citizens using BUGs because of a lack of reporting and because there are so few private citizens who carry BUGs.

When I open carry is basically the only time I carry a spare magazine. I have OWB magazine holsters for that. I do so, then, because I can comfortably carry a magazine on my belt. When concealing I generally cannot do that while keeping it concealed.

 

[Teachu2]

Also, some reasons that were mentioned include an injury to the strong arm, with the BUG on weak side. I'd get the BUG into play faster than I would the primary in that case.

If you're going to make the "before the bad guy gets on you" argument, I'd like to point out the Teuller drill, and the fact that most BGs aren't going to advertise the attack 20 feet away. By this logic, I shouldn't carry, because the BG and his buddies will be on me before I can draw.

If the injury was pre-existing, your weak side was your strong side already and you should have already made that adjustment. If the injury was the result of this same attack, you are already waaaay deep in the weeds. If the injury is severe enough to render your strong side useless, well, good luck and I hope you've trained hard with your weak side drills. I do practice my weak-side draw on my primary weapon, and practice shooting weak side as much as my shoulder can tolerate. Even so, with multiple determined armed attackers and my strong side disabled, the odds are poor.

Most BGs do, in fact, advertise the attack far in advance. Victims simply fail to see the advertisements for what they are - we're back to situational awareness.

For my life, a BUG is not in the picture. For me, the negatives of carrying one outweigh the positives. One gun is all I want to deal with in a defensive shooting scenario. Some BG blind-sides me and disables my strong arm, then continues the attack and I have to fend him off while retaining TWO guns??? How about two attackers just rushing me - I have to fight off two and keep control of both guns??? No, thanks, I'll stick with my training and experience, and not confuse the situation. If your environment, training, and mindset dictate a BUG, by all means carry one (or two, or three, or...).

 

[justice06rr]

For me, I used to carry a full size spare mag to my full size EDC: M&P9 with 17+1rds, plus an additional 17rds in the spare mag for a total of 35rds. If the first 18rds is not enough to stop the threat or get away from it, then I'm in trouble.

I've never carried a BUG, although its a good idea IMO.

 

[tarosean]

If you're going to make fun of gamers, please understand that there is no pause in multiplayer online games.

There is no respawn in real life and unless you find yourself in some parts of the Middle East or Africa your not going to have 12yrs old shooting at you with fully automatic weapons...


Humor aside.

Do whats best for you and your environmental situation.

 

[The_Armed_Therapist]

If your not a sworn LEO, why in the f--king world would you need a back up gun on your person. I think to much X-Box not enough real life.

Says the guy from Chicago, the newly-crowned king of American violent crime. From my standpoint, it makes even more sense for a non-LEO to carry a back-up since we're almost always alone in carrying.

 

[Skribs]

No offense Skribs but are you looking for advice or confirmation?

I was merely arguing that the idea that police officers need more firepower for their daily carry than the average civilian is ludicrous. It seems to me an extension of the idea that civilians are less righteous in carrying than police officers. I don't keep a carbine in the car, because in most situations where I can get to the car I'm going to leave, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't have a BUG because "you're not a cop."

If the injury was the result of this same attack, you are already waaaay deep in the weeds. If the injury is severe enough to render your strong side useless, well, good luck and I hope you've trained hard with your weak side drills. I do practice my weak-side draw on my primary weapon, and practice shooting weak side as much as my shoulder can tolerate. Even so, with multiple determined armed attackers and my strong side disabled, the odds are poor.

I'm not expecting the situation to be perfect if I get attacked - in fact, far from it. But should I not be in the optimal situation, I'm not going to give up. And yes, I do practice weak-hand quite often. I'm RH/LE, and use my LH as my "strong hand" for shooting, so I don't have much problem switching to RH with a handgun.

From my standpoint, it makes even more sense for a non-LEO to carry a back-up since we're almost always alone in carrying.

This is the point I was trying to make with my sarcastic remark earlier.