Spare Magazines

[Jay Cunningham]

A spare magazine is a very important accessory to your concealed carry weapon. While having a bunch of additional ammunition is certainly reassuring, the main reason to carry a spare magazine is because they are one of the weak links in the semi-automatic pistol system.

Quite often a bad magazine will cause your otherwise perfectly reliable semi-auto handgun to turn into a malfunction machine. Magazines also have an annoying characteristic of popping off the floor plate right when you don’t want them to and vomiting out your rounds all over the ground. If you don’t have a spare, and the mag in your pistol goes TU, you are stuck with an extremely bulky Derringer. I recommend one spare magazine for double stack pistols and two spares for single stack guns.

Next time you hear “Whutcha need that extra clip fer? You think yer gonna take on a SEAL Team??” you can let them know what they don’t know.


The above is not "The Law as Told By Jay"; it is simply an expression of some opinions that I've formed through my training and experience with several very good instructors. Please feel free to discuss and disagree!

[willowofwisp]

Great post. I have been asked several times why I carry an extra clip or two...I normally tell them its for my garand in the trunk haha.

Do you recommend downloading your extra mag a round?

Sent from my Evo

[Jay Cunningham]

Do you recommend downloading your extra mag a round?

If you carry a Glock, yes.

[LittleLebowski]

The weakest point of magazine fed weapons is the magazine.

[MTechnik]

If you carry a Glock, yes.

Is this because they are difficult to jam in on a closed slide when fully loaded? Reliability when fully loaded?

Do you recommending downloading by 1 for other pistols?

Thanks!

[jthhapkido]

If you carry a Glock, yes.

Hm. Why?

[JV_]

Is this because they are difficult to jam in on a closed slide when fully loaded?

That's why I download. It may also increase the life of the spring, but I keep spares on hand, and don't worry about it too much.

[TCinVA]

The general rule of thumb on mags is that you want at least 1/2 a round worth of play when the mag is loaded to capacity. With Glocks often there is almost no movement left when the mag is at capacity. That has the same downsides that loading 30 rounds in a USGI mag has.

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[Force Majeure]

Makes em' easier to insert and also does wonders for spring life not to try and put that last round in. I always download my Glock mags by one round.

Remember, spring compression is like an exponential curve that stacks heavily at the end. That last round makes a tremendous difference.

[JohnN]

Have you ever been to a match and seen someone reload, pull the trigger and the magazine fall out? I would bet some of them reloaded with a fully loaded mag (Glock especially) and failed to seat the mag due to the cartridge column not having much give. Not a huge deal in competition but major in a defensive situation.