Those of you who carry a semi auto handgun...

No extra mag. My summer carry piece is a ParaOrdnance P10, winter is a P13, so I have either 11 or 14 rounds of .45 on hand without a reload.
 
I carry extra ammo and a backup firearm primary gun is a SA EMP 40 and backup is a P3AT both filled with speer gold dot. "One is none two is one" always have a backup!!
 
I carry a spare when I'm carrying a single stack which is most of the time. I just can't do it for my glock or other double stacks. I have a comptac iwb mag holder and it disappears and I don't even feel it. I can't do that with my double stacks there too fat so they get tossed in the bag or the car.
 
crackerjax said:
I carry extra ammo and a backup firearm primary gun is a SA EMP 40 and backup is a P3AT both filled with speer gold dot. "One is none two is one" always have a backup!!
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That's your prerogative to carry two guns and it doesn't matter to me in the least, but I hate that saying! One is ONE and two is TWO, it's common sense...
 
I live near large shooting school and some of the instructors and students come into the shop fairly often. Some look like they're ready for WWIII and some just carry a 1911 with no visible accessories.

My attitude is...what are chances of me ever having to draw my handgun? If I draw my handgun and have to fire, what are the chances that I will have to reload? Yeah, I know. Bad attitude. :p

If I was a cop, I would carry as much ammo as I could get on my belt, but I'm not a cop.
 
michaelmcgo said:
That's your prerogative to carry two guns and it doesn't matter to me in the least, but I hate that saying! One is ONE and two is TWO, it's common sense...
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and when that ONE breaks or fails you nave NONE

hate it or not its the truth.
 
I carry a couple of extra Mags in my man purse, but when my Glock is on me, just a clip in the gun. I took a combat handgun course a few years ago, at the late great Mitch Werbell's own SIONICS. One of the most important things I learned, was never take it out of the holster and point it at a person unless you are willing to shoot. If the person figures out your not going to shoot...your done.
 
powernoodle said:
No.

Like everything we do, there is a cost-benefit analysis. I carry so much cr*p already that I have to draw the line somewhere. I try to minimize the size and weight of what I carry, while maximizing utility. Were I to carry another item, it would probably be pepper spray - which I am 9000x more likely to need than a spare mag. I'm satisfied that 8 rounds of spicy 9mm in my Kel-tec PF-9 is sufficient to alter someone's behavior.
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I agree with the noodle. I have 15 rounds of 10mm on call in my Glock, of which I've needed 0 so far. Doesn't mean I won't need more -- doesn't mean I'll ever need any.

I feel that I have a balanced approach to my self-defense needs, because my gun is not my ONLY option. I carry pepper foam as a much more attractive defense tool than my gun, as well as a very bright flashlight for identification and disorientation.

I do have an extra magazine in my pack, for what it's worth. If I was going on a long hike in an area where I thought there might be wild dogs, coyotes, or lately even wolves, I'd probably carry another magazine ready at hand.
 
DPris said:
I HAVE had mags fail. During time spent in an LE career, part of which was as a firearms instructor, I've seen others fail. I've also seen fellow cops miss repeatedly on what I considered easy shots during range sessions, and that was under no more stress than the pressure of qualifying.

I'm aware of shots fired on the street at my old PD that missed.
I'm aware of shootings at the largest PD in my state where multiple rounds were fired by officers that missed.

No intent to knock cops here, just to point out that these misses occur even among those who deal with antagonistic threats daily, to at least some degree, and among people who are trained (to at least some degree) in the expectation of violence and responses to it.

Well-known police firearms author Evan Marshall's story of making a milk run one night & finding himself in the middle of a two-man armed convenience store robbery in an area where such occasions frequently also involved customer robberies, and having to engage with one five-shot revolver with no spare ammunition, is a classic.

The more recent Trolley Square shootings in Salt Lake City by a well-armed delusional individual that were interrupted by an off-duty cop long enough for responding units to contain & neutralize is another great example of the advisability of carrying at least one reload.
The off-duty cop, finding himself in the middle of the situation, engaged the gunman.
During the exchange of gunfire, the cop was overheard saying to a bystander who was urging him to "shoot again!" that "I only have what's in the gun, I have to make 'em count."

The dynamics of a gunfight are highly stressed & highly unpredictable.
Carrying spare ammunition is neither Rambo-esque nor paranoid, it's just good sense.

Make your own decision, but if you think you can guarantee that what's in your defensive tool will be "enough", you're deluding yourself.

No, most defensive shooting scenarios are not the drawn-out Hollywood affairs we see on the screen, but the guy who says "All I'll need is one or two shots" is an idiot.

Denis
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Denis, while I agree whole-heartedly with the bolded part, would you agree that the capacity of your firearm certainly plays into your need for an extra magazine?

I realize the issue of a mag dropping/failing isn't fixed by higher capacity, but a guy carrying a 5-shot snubby certainly isn't as prepared as a guy with 17 rounds of 9mm in his Glock.
 
It's a two-part issue, which is why I included the bit about having personally had & seen magazines fail.

The Illinois State Police adopted the old S&W Model 39 in the late 60s, and did not initially allow troopers to carry a spare mag (as I recall).
That didn't last for long, whoever made that decision shoulda been removed.
Part of the reason for reversing policy was the number of occasions where troopers ran their pistols dry in shooting incidents, and part was because of an occasional malfunction.

I do understand that LE mandates are quite different from citizen carry needs, but there are still factors that translate back & forth.

In my case, I normally carry a Colt 1911 with two spare mags. On occasion, it's a Glock 17 with one spare mag. On still rarer occasions, it's a Glock 26 with one spare mag.
I don't switch around by the mood of the day, only as certain daily activities dictate.

Also in my own case, I still have the Gen I Glock 17 issued to me in 1988. The ONLY time it has ever malfunctioned was with a Glock factory mag that stopped functioning in the middle of a range qualifier one day. It bound up inside, with the top round left too far below the feed lips for the slide to pick it up & feed it.

Mag capacity is only half of the equation.
Even if you carry your Glock with a 33-rounder, capacity won't do you a damn bit of good if the mag dies in the middle of an encounter.

If you want to bet your life on never having to go beyond on-board capacity, odds are in your favor. Just like the odds that you'll never need to have a defensive handgun on your body in the first place.

But, I prefer to hedge my bets by first having the defensive tool, and second by having the backup ammunition to keep it going.

I NEVER sally forth in the assumption that capacity will save the day.
Seen too many malfunctions, and there's a reason why professional shooting schools teach to carry a reload, and to clear a malfunction & use that reload.

Denis
 
The spare mag is in case of malfunction of the primary mag, I am not concerned about the # of rounds I am carrying.

Picture yourself in a SD situation - you accidentally hit the mag release and drop your mag, where it falls into the storm drain. No spare on your person, hope you had 1 in the pipe.
 
crackerjax said:
and when that ONE breaks or fails you nave NONE

hate it or not its the truth.
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I don't hate that fact, and the saying still does not make sense. I'm not arguing weather or not you should carry a backup gun, I'm arguing that the saying is illogical. If you use the logic that "one is none" for very important things then you better get a second heart, brain, and spinal cord installed because they all a whole lot more important than a gun. If you use that logic, then what if both of your guns jam? Is the saying is assuming that the first gun may break, but the second will not ever break? If we apply logic to the saying, it would go:

Fact: Mechanical objects fail.
Fact: Guns are Mechanical Objects.
Opinion: I must be 100% (not 99.999%) sure that my gun will not fail and if it does the only response can be to draw another gun. Repeat.
Result: I must carry an infinite amount of guns

If you disagree with my translation of the saying, then you are saying:
A. You are okay with not being 100% that at least of your carry guns will function.
-or-
B. Your backup gun will not fail if fired an infinite amount of times.

BTW, I am okay with the small but nonetheless existing odds of my single gun failing when I need it. You may disagree, but IMO there are many worse things that could happen then a misfire in a gun fight. If you play those odds and only accept absolute zero failures then you shouldn't leave your house (or enter your house), therefore you exist in limbo. Life is not about only about the successes, it's also about dealing with the failures WHEN they occur. My carry guns are reliable, I know how to use them, and I leave it at that.

This is America, so I could care less if you carried an infinite amount of guns...
 
rookie4real said:
Do you carry spare magazines with it?
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Not when I first started carrying, but now: yes, most of the time. As a new CCWer, you might just get started with getting used to carrying the gun. The spare mag can increase the perceived burden of carrying at first and make you less likely to carry regularly, just as a too-large carry gun can.

rookie4real said:
I understand the advantage of having more ammo, especially for Law Enforcement but how practical it is in a real life situation for the average Joe?
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As you know, every gun-counter expert and forum will quote you some kind of average number of shots fired in an average civilian shooting or gunfight (not the same thing). You hear 3 quoted a lot, and you hear "to slide-lock" quoted a lot. Both sound plausible to me. The FBI collects data related to this, but remember that such numbers can include domestic violence, criminal-on-criminal or criminal-on-cop incidents.

However, while useful for getting reality check, in the extremely unlikely chance that you actually have to defend yourself with your CCW, averages from the internet might not be that comforting in your event.

Instead, perhaps consider:

How fast can you speed reload a mag against a shot timer in your living room? How fast at the range?

Have you (speaking generally to the reader, not singling the OP) done a slide-lock reload in a timed match, or in a pistol class? What about in a simunition event when somebody is bearing down on you and is about to shoot you with a surprisingly painful little paintball?

Can you do a speed reload without looking at the mag? In the dark? While crouching? Try it running sometime too. ;)

Do you even own a spare mag?

Do you call it a "clip"? :D

Honestly considering these questions will perhaps help evaluate exactly how practical an extra mag is for an average Joe.

Frankly, some of my plinking buddies that rarely manipulate their pistol take 45+ seconds of poking, pressing, clicking, unclicking, looking, shaking, racking, dropping, and fumbling to diagnose and effect a fresh "clip" :rolleyes: at the range on Wednesday afternoon. We've all seen casual shooters who need many seconds and manipulations to even differentiate between slide lock and a malfunction, then another 45 seconds to reload. Really, I can't see any benefit to them of carrying an extra mag for a defensive situation short of a real long-term SHTF scenario.

At a match last weekend, I watched a new competitor take more than 30 seconds to reload. He was otherwise a moderately experienced shooter, but was very (and unnecessarily) nervous about his first match and the audience. Presumably, it would be even harder with a hostile audience.

None of us train as much as we could or should, but as with any defensive tool or technique, (or heck, first aid, CPR, or golf for that matter) if you don't train somewhat diligently and regularly with it, it will be very difficult to utilize when it counts. From my own experience on mag changes specifically and defensive skills generally, I very highly recommend attending a few local pistol matches and at least 1 defensive pistol class - not just a familiarization and safety session like a CCW class, but a real defensive class.

OP, if you're in WA then there are a number of outstanding schools and classes near you - LMS Defense, InSights, Firearms Academy of Seattle, Central Cascade Precision out in Yakima, and frequent classes by traveling instructors like Magpul, Larry Vickers, Ken Hackathorn, Gabe Suarez, and others. Lots of options in northern OR as well.
 
paperairplane said:
The spare mag is in case of malfunction of the primary mag, I am not concerned about the # of rounds I am carrying.
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This. Its easier to have a spare magazine for reloads than having to fumble f*ck with one that may have an issue.

Also, is it that big of a deal to carry 1 more? Many people on these forums carry 2-3 knives. 1 pistol, 1 spare magazine, 1 knife, 1 phone, 1 wallet. Not too much if you ask me.
 
"This is America, so I could care less if you carried an infinite amount of guns... " Ideal, but cumbersome :)

+1 on that, crackerjax "and when that ONE breaks or fails you nave NONE "
I carried daily for almost 5 years and have seen some pretty messed up stuff go down rigt in front of me! I LUV my Glock22 and 16 rounds is plenty, BUT I have had a floorplate ripped off while the mag was in battery. (I was going over a fence in pursuit) the spring, follower and ammo all dumped out as I (very gracefully ;) ) rolled over the top of the fence...

If you are going to take on the responsibility of owning and carrying, part of that responsibility is going to be being able to keep your gun from becoming a club.

Fact: Mechanical objects fail, and are much more likely to do so when used hard, put up wet and not properly maintained. Take care of your gear so when/if the time comes your gear will be able to take care of you!
 
grlangr said:
I LUV my Glock22 and 16 rounds is plenty, BUT I have had a floorplate ripped off while the mag was in battery. (I was going over a fence in pursuit) the spring, follower and ammo all dumped out as I (very gracefully ;) ) rolled over the top of the fence...
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:eek: Great story and quite an image. Stuff happens, and a mag is pretty critical for a pistol. Great illustration to carry a spare.
 
I carry a 5 shot snub. I sometimes carry a speedloader. I sometimes carry a NAA mini. I have two speedloaders and extra ammo for the mini in my backpack.

When I'm going to be more than 10-15 yards from my backpack - reload/mini on me.
 
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