Carry Number

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jasonohio

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My current thinking is that if there is any need for an extra clip I have misread the situation and I should not be there. I read a lot here about extra clips/New York reloads and was wondering if I am missing something.
 
I won't get into all the reasons for why a person might want to carry an extra magazine (gotta go to work in less than an hour over here), there's plenty of reasons that have been gone over in previous threads.

But here's one that few people seem to consider: what if the mag in your gun malfunctions? It does happen occasionally; a spring just goes kaput, or a follower cracks, or whatever.

Are you going to try and fix it (obviously not), or would it be easier to just dump that one and ram a new mag into the gun?

Or NY reload (back-up gun), if you carry a spare gun.

Point being, a spare mag is just a little added insurance just in case Murphy's Law goes into effect right before you really need your gun/mag to work.
 
...if there is any need for an extra clip I have misread the situation and I should not be there.
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I'm thinking that if you have any need for a gun then you have misread the situation and should not be there. ;)
 
Quite often these days I'll carry a second handgun instead of just a second magazine.

Today's pocket pistols really are small, light, reliable and effective.
 
Everyone has a carry number which gives them comfort. Some feel that FIVE is sufficient. Others may feel that TWENTY FIVE is needed. It's a personal choice.

For me, I'm ok with 10 rounds of 357 Sig and 5 rounds of 22LR Stingers in my back pocket.
 
I usually think of it this way....10-15 rounds is plenty, but a 2nd mag gives additional options fighting through a jammed gun. That is a nice option to have.
 
My current thinking is that if there is any need for an extra clip I have misread the situation and I should not be there.
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However, you can not be in complete control of all situations regardless of your planning. More, and more "high crime" areas are expanding into formally very safe places. Where the perpetrators from the high crime areas extend their criminal activities into otherwise safe places.
 
I have misread the situation and I should not be there.
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Man, i would LOVE to have that kind of crystal ball. It would have kept me out of a lot of carp over the years.

While i agree some situations can and should be avoided, sometimes things just happen beyond our control.

I EDC a M&P 2.0 compact (15rnds) and a spare 17rnd mag. Not because i think i will need that much ammo, but for malfunctions and potential mag failures.

Ive seen mag base plates get broken off the pistol in the holster. That reaults in the spring and ammo spitting out the well and leaving the body in place. Without a spare mag, you have a single shot pistol. With a spare mag, a speed reload gets you back in the fight.
 
I'm actually on the fence about buying a new IWB holster with a mag "cup". As a daddy of two under the age of three, my pockets are usually full of any number of things, which for all our dignity I won't list here. Suffice to say, tossing a mag in my pocket is not an option- if you're going to do that, there shouldn't be anything else in the pocket, IMHO.

Real defend-your-life scenarios don't go according to plan, we all know that. When I'm out and about with the family, unless we're using a shopping cart, I'm lugging one of our girls- one is a solid 15 pounds including her car seat, and the toddler is pushing 30-35.

I consider an active shooter situation a lot. If I'm alone, my chances of running and safely escaping are not terrible. If I'm with my family, my chances of [all of us] escaping safely are drastically reduced. In that case, you'd bet I'd want the reload.

All that said, if you don't mind the extra weight/bulk, my favorite reasoning is short and sweet and to the point. Police officers carry extra magazines, wooden shoe?
 
Essentially, if you can't get yourself out of a situation with one magazine(or one handgun), regardless of its capacity, you have bitten off more than you can chew. CCW is not about going into combat.
"...Police officers carry extra magazines..." A cop can be in over his head too, but needs to be prepared for said mess in which he finds himself. A cop is not carrying for CCW reasons. A cop is there to defend all those who cannot or will not do so for themselves. Even though most do not have the skills to do so.
 
The main reason I see for carrying a reload is not that you might get in a sustained firefight and need 30 shots, but that something might go wrong with the gun or ammo and you need a fresh magazine to get off the second shot. Or first if you go around in Condition 3.

(One instructor says not to try to diagnose a gun misfunction as to Group IV, Type A, series 3; just RELOAD. Dump the offending magazine, rack and shake out whatever is in the chamber or feedway, and start afresh.)
 
I'll cast one more vote for malfunctions being a sufficient and compelling reason to carry an extra mag. Murphy's Law and all that.
 
Are we doing this again? Jim and TailGator and John have nailed it.

There is also the person who always says the average gun is ...
The average gun fight doesn't always happen, you can face a horror show like the Mumbai incident, Sutherland, etc - where the need for the equipment becomes more extreme.

As Marty Hayes says:

We have a saying: We don’t train for the average, we train for the anomaly
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An anomaly can happen even in the nicest neighborhoods and business locales.

Also, if you promote carrying less and those who do are nuts, you are an advocate for magazine capacity bans. Think about it.
 
Somewhere there is some level of equipment that perfectly suits your ability, situation, lifestyle, and comfort.

The problem is figuring out what that level of equipment is... well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Most people tend towards over equipping themselves because having it and not needing it is much better than needing it and not having it. Even than many reasonable people have a limit. We are not generally, even among those on the forum, advocating carrying an assault rifle, three back-up pistols, and an aggregate of 32 magazines as appropriate. Yes hyperbole helps with the illustration.

As others have noted the most effective training for a gun that does not go bang during a firefight is "drop, tilt, shake, reload"
 
Essentially, if you can't get yourself out of a situation with one magazine(or one handgun), regardless of its capacity, you have bitten off more than you can chew. CCW is not about going into combat.
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I'll make sure to let the people that attack me know that they have to do so in a fair matter. By this logic you could argue you don't need to carry anyway given the odds of being attacked in the first place.

Besides the fact that if I knew I was going to be attacked I wouldn't be there, besides the fact that multiple assailants do happen, besides the fact that I've seen people miss and myself missed assailants at distances I would laugh at in force on force (where we knew it wasn't real), and besides the fact that I don't see how it's a hardship to carry a spare magazine, there is always the possibility of a malfunction where having a new magazine might be easier than fixing the current.
 
I see two schools of thought.
1. Is the extra mag 'the straw that broke the camel's back'?
2. Once you got the gun and ammo and holster another mag is trivial add-on.
For all the reasons in the previous posts I would lean toward carrying a spare mag.
 
Everyone has a carry number which gives them comfort. Some feel that FIVE is sufficient. Others may feel that TWENTY FIVE is needed. It's a personal choice.
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For those who carry because doing so makes them "comfortble", that is true.

But for those who carry for real risk reduction, a much more objective thought process should be employed.
 
My current thinking is that if there is any need for an extra clip I have misread the situation and I should not be there. I read a lot here about extra clips/New York reloads and was wondering if I am missing something.
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You are missing quite a bit, please get some training.

Its not always about ammo, How do you expect to run your gun if your only magazine craps out, get damaged or otherwise fails. Magazines are a critical element to your gun, its good common sense to have a spare.

Armed conflict is chaotic business.. its not all that unusual for a magazine to become dislodged or inadvertently ejected. If that sucker slides across the floor, you may not be able to simply walk over and get it.

We are not talking about someone carrying 300 rounds, we are talking about 1 extra magazine.

Its not about misjudgment.. none of us are in control over the nature or duration of the attack that we hope never comes.
 
Police officers carry extra magazines, wooden shoe?
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BUT LEO go looking for the 'bad guys'...it's kinda, actually their job..so needing more rounds is always a possibility..'civilians, don't so their 'need' to have lotsa firepower much reduced..BUT, at certain times, I carry an extra magazine..mostly when with my 2 grand daughters(age 5 and 7)..
 
:rolleyes: Probably should have mentioned during the course of my tidbit on "well police officers carry extra magazines..." that I carry a single stack 9mm, 6+1. But as many of you have said, the true benefit in carrying an additional mag is redundancy...I am in total agreement with that.

I don't carry a wheelgun, but I know it is fairly common practice to carry a speedloader/reload among those who do.
 
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