Everyday Carry
By Robb Manning
Spare Mags
I’m surprised when I hear how many people that carry, don’t carry spare magazines. Or if they do, they do so haphazardly -- letting one bounce around in their pocket. That’s a big mistake. Maybe even a fatal one.
I have to admit; when I was a new concealed carry licensee, I didn’t give much thought to spare magazines. At the time, I rationalized, “Heck, one magazine full of bullets is better than what I had just a few months ago, which was nothing.” One of my first carry handguns had ten rounds in the mag; I figured if ten rounds wasn’t enough I had other problems. I quickly learned that’s the wrong way of thinking -- for a couple reasons.
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| Side Guard Holster SIngle Mag Carrier, With Kimber Solo | Mernickle Double Mag Carrier, with Glock 20c |
Once I learned the error of my ways, I did start carrying a spare mag, or two. Unfortunately, I was too cheap to spring for a proper mag carrier. So I’d slide a spare mag in my left pant pocket. If I wanted more ammo, I would slide a second mag into my right pocket. Of course, every time I would go to retrieve them at the end of the day, they were sideways or upside down; but never right-side up as I had put them in. This method abruptly came to an end the day I pulled a mag out and a dime was jammed into the mag, between the feed lip and the cartridge. It was sobering to think that if I had needed that mag, and was retrieving it in a hostile situation, it would have caused a jam, and possibly cost me my life.
I mentioned a paragraph back that there are a couple reasons to carry a spare magazine. First, bullet count. While one magazine is good, and obviously better than nothing, more ammunition is always better. For one, bad guys don’t travel alone. For another, bad guys juiced up on drugs aren’t often stopped with one round or two. Along that same line of thinking -- for those that are carrying off the beaten path -- dangerous animals aren’t always stopped with one round, either. You also need to consider that in a high stress situation, you might not hit vitals with your shots, so it always pays to have more chances to hit your target.
The other reason for carrying spare magazines; in case of mag failure or loss. While it’s unlikely you’ll have a magazine break, it is possible. I used to have a huge problem with my 1911 magazines. It wasn’t uncommon for me to be shooting, and have the mag baseplate pop a weld and do a high-speed ammo dump onto the desert ground. That would be catastrophic in a hostile situation. A more likely situation would be that your magazine become inoperable due to sand or debris. Another possibility is magazine loss. In the heat of the moment, the mag release button could get pressed, dropping your mag. Magazines that are loaded don’t like to be dropped onto concrete -- it can cause baseplates to break off -- once again initiating a high-speed ammo dump. Even if the magazine survives the drop, it could fall under a car or just be difficult to see in low-light (most magazines are black; and impossible to see in low light on black asphalt). In both the breakage and loss situation, it’s much faster to grab a fresh mag than try to fix or find the other one.
I have one particular handgun that has a rather soft mag release, and I had -- note: had -- a soft-side fabric holster that on several occasions after being bounced around on my persons, the mag release would get bumped and the mag pop out of position in the mag well. I would never know at that moment that it had happened, but would discover later in the day that my magazine was just sort of sitting in my mag well. It didn’t fall out sitting in my holster, but if I ever had to draw the handgun -- the mag would have fallen to the ground. In this instance, it’s far quicker to grab another mag from the carrier, than it is to grovel around on the ground trying to retrieve the fallen mag.
I’ve recently discovered two magazine carriers that I really like. The first is when I need to carry something small, and have my ultra-compact 9mm on me. It’s a single mag carrier from Side Guard Holsters. I like it because it’s comfortable, and it’s also very small, which goes with the ultra-compact pistol I need in that situation. The second is for when I carry my full size Glock -- it’s a double mag carrier from Mernickle Holsters. It’s not nearly as small, but if I’m in a situation in which I’m carrying a full size Glock, it doesn’t need to be.
As you can see, it is important to not only have extra magazines when carrying a firearm, but to have them in a proper mag carrier as well. Sure you could get by without extras, and you could get by with not carrying them properly, but it’s just not worth the risk.
http://www.mernickleholsters.com
http://www.sideguardholsters.com