I’ve been mulling over posting something about this and have until now refrained, but a thread on another forum I frequent and some recent observations watching freshly graduated police academy kids is prompting me to stir the pot. It’s a long post so buckle up.
When I became a police cadet back in the end of the 1990’s, there were still a few officers (all Vietnam vets to give age perspective) who were carrying revolvers on uniformed patrol every day. Typically they carried two extra speed loaders or full moon clips. Their common loadout was
6+6+6= 18 rounds.
By far, the most common loadout in my county (San Francisco East Bay) when I started in the early 2000’s was a single stack 45 ACP handgun (1911, SIG P220, or S&W 4506-1) and the officer carrying two extra mags on the belt. This loadout was
8+8+8+1=25 rounds. This was well over 70% of the city cops around here.
The second most common loadout locally was typically a Beretta 92 or S&W 5906 (our sheriff’s office) in 9mm or a Glock 22 in 40 S&W each which held 15 rounds and the officer would carry two extra mags for
15+15+15+1=46 rounds.
Finally, the third most common was the Beretta 96 (a couple small PD’s and some personally owned guns) or S&W 4006 (CHP) which each carried 11 rounds in the mag and was typically carried with one on the gun and two on the belt for
11+11+11+1=34 rounds.
I’d like to note that no one carrying any of these loadouts, whether 18 rounds, 25, 33 or 46, ever complained of being under-armed or having too little ammo in my recollection.
Over time load outs grew a little. “Quad” mag pouches for single stacks became a big thing around 2010 and as 9mm caught on most standard mags increased to 17 round capacity.
Fast forward to today when I commonly see three 21 or 22 round mags on a belt or external carrier with another in the gun. This is 85 rounds (or more) of 9mm on their person.
My initial thoughts on this have been “that’s a lot of weight I wouldn’t care to carry around,” and “hey, you do you, not needed, but if it makes you feel better cool.” But are there downsides to this much ammo?
This thread, as well as some personal experience, really started me thinking about it:
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....sessment-pause
I made this comment in that thread:
“When someone is trying to kill you (or you think someone is trying to kill you) it is very easy to floor the accelerator and very hard to hit to brakes fast enough.
Hours later, when asked how many rounds you fired, you may think three or four, but more often than not your magazine may tell a much different story.”
I stand by that statement.
This is totally anecdotal, but as I have seen the capacity of the magazine increase, I have seen split times decrease, and I have seen the emphasis on making accurate shots decrease as well, regardless of irons or optics. Correlation? Perhaps.
I have had to fight and argue to keep the six 25 yard shots in our annual 36 round duty qual. There are quite a few in my department that only want 15 yards and in because “speed is what really matters.” My counter argument has been “it only counts if it hits what it needs to.”
I also within the last few years had an argument with another senior firearms instructor during an instructor development day who was pushing everyone to shoot fast and he told me I wasn’t shooting fast enough and wasn’t “pushing it.” My splits were around .25 second and my group was the size of a fist from 7 yards. His argument was my group was too tight and if I wasn’t so nitpicky on accuracy I could be so much faster. Dude…
I recently sent one of our younger “good shooter” officers to the same police firearms instructor school I went through. The first day they make you shoot 25 yard NRA Bullseye on a B-16 (slowfire). I remember me and the other guy with me from my department back then both shooting our 45 ACP 1911’s with irons passed it easy peasy on the first attempt. Our young guy today with his X5 Legion with optic and 21 round mags had a hell of a time. He relayed to me after the course how he thought it was ridiculous to have to shoot that and…you know…speed matters. Houston, we have a problem…
I started carrying a Gen3 Glock 17 for dog-handler reasons back in 2014 and switched to a Gen5 Glock 19 MOS a year ago, but still stay qualified on a 1911 and carry it occasionally. I attended an academy graduation a couple weeks ago wearing the 1911 which led to conversation with a newbie of “how are you comfortable with that” and “aren’t you afraid of running out of ammo?” Comfortable? Very…and no, no I’m not.
Not that I’ve done this (wink-wink), but put two decent shooters on plate racks. One with the old 25 round single stack loadout and one with the “lots of ammo” loadout and don’t give them any rules except for knock the plates down as fast as you can. I guarantee you the single stack guy will always have slower splits, but will have less rounds shot with more hits. Very often, he or she is actually faster (sometimes significantly so) to knock down all the plates than the “faster” shooter.
Now let’s apply this exercise to real life in an OIS. Who would you want in an OIS? Which one is most defensible in court and in the court of public opinion and media scrutiny? The person that fired lots of rounds really fast or the person that fired fewer rounds slightly slower, but made his or her hits count?
The counter argument is always the one-off like the Timothy Gramins OIS (officer with a Glock 21, expends all three mags and almost out of ammo and now carries an excessive amount of 9mm). In most articles/interviews with him he’s quoted as saying,
“Then I told myself, ‘Hey, I need to slow down and aim better.’" Well, there you go.
I’m not sure if it’s because they’re just available or John Wick or what, but more than three of the 20+ round mags is definitely the thing right now, I’ve formed the personal opinion that it isn’t a good thing. Anecdotally, it seems the byproduct is more rounds fired and a degradation of accuracy.
I’m seriously thinking of switching back to the 1911 with the old loadout for myself, because when I’m honest with myself, do I need anything else right now?