Plus 1. Yes or no? Why or why not....

[RevolverRob]

No. Why?

Math.

All my double stack guns are 15 round mag guns. And magazine capacities that divide by 5, divide more evenly into a 50 round box than 11 or 16 does.

If I could find reliable 10-round .45 1911 mags I trusted, I'd use those for nightstand/reloads and relegate the 8-rounders for strictly carry. In those cases, I'd load the gun from a 10-rounder and not bother topping it off. When I inserted an 8-rounder, it would be a default +1. Probably the #1 reason I like 9mm and .38 Super 1911s, is 9 + 1 and reliable 10-round mags, makes my OCD happy.

No, seriously, since chances of me being in a gunfight are lower than my OCD bothering me? I go with OCD. And I always carry a reload.

I also wish .38 Special and .357 came in boxes of 60 instead of 50... Another reason why I love J-Frames is 5 divides evenly into that box of 50.

[Lomshek]

Always top off the mag after chambering a round. No reason to do otherwise. Tested all my mags that way and never had a problem.

[Lefty Gunner]

I decided to shoot my M&P 45 in Stock Service IDPA Matches. Used a 14 round chamber charger and fully loaded 10 rounders for first and second loads (+1).
7 matches in a row with lots of practice and no problems at all! +1 works with that pistol (M&P 1.0 Full Sized).

[Vista461]

I always +1 and all my pistols have been reliable doing so. I’d rather have more ammo than not.

[Cypher]

Carry gun -

Do you plus one or not?

I don’t. Open to critique one way or the other

I don't because it seems to me like it's just too much T&E for one round.

The only exception to that is the last time I changed out my self defense ammunition I ended up with one round left in the Box so I used that one round to top off the magazine for my glock 26.

Maybe I'm not thinking this through correctly but I really believe that if it comes down to one round I brought the wrong gun anyway.

ETA I'm pretty sure it goes without saying around here that I carry a reload. If it's my glock 26 I have 25 rounds if it's my Glock 19 I have 45 rounds (2 reloads) and I'm willing to bet my life that if that's not enough one more round won't be either.

[03RN]

Seems like I'm not alone.

Yes for 1911s and my m9A1 Compact

No for my g19 and m92

No for my m19 and m64

[Johnny Bravo]

I don't top off.

If I have to clear my weapon when I am out, the chambered round goes in the magazine, not my pocket.

[Hambo]

The #1 pistol malfunction (aside from shooting the gun dry) in actual use (not so much on the Range) is an unseated magazine. Regardless of how or why a magazine release might be inadvertently pressed (a misapplied grip, an attempted gun-grab, hurried load/reload, etc) the downward pressure is exponential in a fully loaded magazine vs a downloaded one. Lessening that tension by downloading the magazine mitigates that problem.

A secondary benefit of downloading is spring reliability. A spring that's never been fully compressed will never take a set (shorten) as much one that has been under full compression. Incidents of "last round in the magazine" failures were disproportionate with my officers who didn't download versus those that downloaded as a matter of routine. We all know that spring replacement should be a preventative maintenance issue, but in the real world that fact is fairly irrelevant if happens to you at the wrong time.

It might be #1, but it isn't a problem for me. My practice mags get new springs at least once a year because they get loaded/unloaded repetitively which kills them. When I swapped them out early this year I compared a stock spring from a mag that has been fully loaded for at least a year. No problem, and no problem in function.

So in answer to the original question, I load all pistol magazines to stated capacity.

[rob_s]

Generally, yes.

The only real “rule” I have though is that if a gun is stored in a holster it has one in the chamber, and if it’s stored u holstered then it doesn’t. Which doesn’t mean I don’t still check. And in either case they are locked up.

So whether or not I carry with the +1 or not mostly has to do with the condition the gun was stored in previously.

[revchuck38]

I don't top off.

If I have to clear my weapon when I am out, the chambered round goes in the magazine, not my pocket.

A side benefit of my practice of +1 in the gun but down one in the spare mag is that the chambered round goes on top of the spare mag when I have to clear the pistol. If I'm shooting my carry gun at the range I usually just leave the chambered round in the gun and it's the first one down range.