For our members that served over seas

K

KnotRight

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When out on patrol and you get engaged for a period of time, do you worry about the magazines that you have gone through?

Also, when you get your ammo overseas, does it come in 500 round cans and how many clips do you usually carry.

I guess I could be asking the same question about your rifle as well as your handgun
 
I have been lucky enough to be in a job that is not out on patrol. However, when I got to Afghanistan, I received 45 9mm rounds and 210 5.56 rounds. Both sets were loose in plastic baggies when I picked them up. But I sit in an office and try to prove that PowerPoint can win the war...
 
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On my first convoy out of Saigon, . . . it was with an M1 Garand, and one bandolier of ammo, . . . which was 8 clips of 8 each.

I had my personal 1911, 3 mags and about 50 rounds with me.

It was a very uneventful convoy :D

Some time later, . . . I wound up also on convoy duty, . . . but I took my M3, all 5 mags, plus my 1911.

If I went on the river, . . . I took my M14 and every mag that wasn't nailed down, tied up, or where I couldn't get to it.

Came home in one piece.

Just remember, . . . no one has ever survived a firefight, . . . and come into the hootch complaining about having to have packed all the unused ammo.

May God bless,
Dwight
 
It's been a while but when I went to the field I'd had 460 rounds of 5.56 M193. Had a lot of the 20 round magazines w/18 rounds each. Some, maybe two thirds was in the cloth bandoleers in stripper clips.

I also carried a 1911a1 but only had two magazines and some loose rounds.

We went to the field for 30-60 days and you never really knew if you were going to be resupplied when you were suppose to. Especially in the monsoon season.

I don't recall seeing the 30 round magazines until I joined the National Guard in '73.

I still like the military 20 rounders better then the 30 rounders.
 
While certainly not "on patrol" my duties as a naval officer in the amphibious forces required me to frequently go ashore in Beirut, Lebanon during the unpleasantness there in the early 80's, and move about the city. My normal procedure was to go to the ship's armory and draw a 1911A1 and ammunition, which was already in magazines, 5 rounds per. You got two magazines, for a total of 10 rounds.

When I asked for two additional magazines, the gunner's mate asked me "Why do you want all of those extra rounds, sir?" Mind you, this was shortly after the Marine barracks bombing.

I would take the weapon and return to my stateroom and top off all of the magazines with my own stash, and insert a loaded, personally owned, commercial Colt magazine into the pistol when I got ashore. I rarely trusted the "built-by-the-lowest-bidder" mags that were issued.

We were not allowed to have loaded weapons at the time, because that sent "the wrong message" to the Lebs. This led to me being constantly corrected by Marines and Seabees. ("You don't have a round up the spout of that thing, do you, sir?". "Gosh, Gunny, I didn't realize...etc."). So I had to play games with the system, as it were. At one point, when I didn't like the moves I was seeing, and the looks we were getting from some locals, I stepped across the street from our vehicle and under an overpass, where I was protected from above and behind and could watch traffic on in the street and in the buildings across from me. I had to take my pistol and load it behind my back, to keep my companions (including my CO) from becoming needlessly troubled.

Anyway, had there been trouble, I don't think I would have been terribly concerned about retrieving spent magazines. After 36 rounds of .45 ACP it would have been over or I would have been scrambling to pick up one of the M-16's (or optimistically AKs) lying on the ground.
 
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Most of our work that we did outside the wire never lasted more than 48-72 hours, so my biggest concern for that duration was water.

I would generally wear eight mags on my IBA, one in my M-4, and have another stashed either in a cargo pocket in my pants, or would sit it within easy grabbing reach on the dash of the Humvee. So, generally ten mags.

Also, two mags for my pistol plus the one in it.

At first, ammo was issued to us on stripper clips that were issued to us in ammo cans and we loaded from that. After a couple of patrols and the subsequence de-charging of magazines, we all just started loading loose ammo by hands into our mags.
 
I did nuclear/presidential security in Germany during the height of the cold war as an Army MP. My basic load was 330 rounds in 30 round mags for the M-16 and 8 mags for the 1911. I was an M-60 gunner so I also carried an M-60 with 300 rounds. ( My assistant gunner carried another 3000). Our ammo was increased by 550 for the m-16 and 200 for the M-60 (luckily I didn't have to carry the 550 more because I already had the 60)when the threat level increased in 81.
 
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Our standard loadout was 6 double-mag pouches plus the magazine in the rifle (about 375 rounds), but if we felt it was needed we would hang mag pouches everywhere accessible that did not have grenades, a canteen or other gear attached.

... And was the guy with a MagLULA or StripLULA everyone's best friend?
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Mag LULA?:rolleyes: Loading M16 mags is fast and easy: strippers of ammo and a mag loading tool, takes about 5-10 seconds per mag. The guy that was everybody's best friend was the Corpsman, you looked out for him.
 
When out on patrol and you get engaged for a period of time, do you worry about the magazines that you have gone through?
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You have a large open pouch like a bag that hangs from either your belt or your flak called a dump pouch, spent mags are supposed to be dropped in there. Situation dictates though, sometimes you just let em fall and come back for them later. We were told not to leave them behind as IED makers have used them as bait, someone sees a free mag and goes to pick it up and it has a pull cord attached to a charge and some 9v batteries. We were also told not to pick up any gear we just saw laying around while on patrol.

Also, when you get your ammo overseas, does it come in 500 round cans and how many clips do you usually carry.

I guess I could be asking the same question about your rifle as well as your handgun
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For me it was less than organized. The ammo came in a 500 rd can but it was all loose rounds of M855 ball, tracer, and Mk262 match ammo that was intended for the DMs (designated marksmen) but we all ended up with some. Combat load is seven magazines, 6 on your chest and one in your weapon for a total of 210 rounds. I personally never carried an M9 so I couldnt tell you.
 
To go along with my esteemed Engineer colleague, after the first few patrols, ammo issue and mag recharging became much less organized and more of a social circle than anything. We never had any match ammo, but a variety of everything else to load.

We also carried a dump bag as well, and I was always paranoid about leaving my mags laying around. I didn't want some little Afghani kid to pick one up and then get killed for it by the Taliban.
 
When I went to Iraq, I brought a several Sig Sauer AR mags and the rest were regular GI issue. For my M9 I brought one personal mag and rest were GI issue.

I tested fired all them on the range and never had an issue with any of the GI mags. But I always figured as a Platoon Leader at the time, if I'm pulling triggers instead of managing the fight, it's gotten pretty bad.
 
Any time we went outside the wire I carried 300rds of 5.56 45rds of 9mm and 7rds of 40mm 5 were HEDP and the other 2 were illumination. Never really worried about running out we were never out more that 24-36hrs and trucks with more supplies were never far away.
 
I usually carried about 420 20mm, 6 500lb iron bombs, 4 cans of napalm, 4 sparrow missiles, 4 sidewinders, one S$W combat masterpiece and 30 rounds of .38 spcl. in an F4. (Sorry guys, I just couldn't resist) :D
 
So you must have flown the F-4E?

To keep this somewhat on topic, with ammo, water, armor, comms, and a few other assorted sundries, I believe I came close to a 90 lb fighting load.

Every time we got in a fight, I ran out of water and never came close to running out of ammo.
 
Submarine sailor here. Armed with torpedoes mostly. Some nuclear tipped. And Posiedon missiles too,big ones, multi tipped.
 
When I was issued an M4, the standard load out was 210 rounds. 6 mags on your IBA or belt, and one in the rifle.

When I got certified as a SDM (squad designated marksman) I carried 6 20 round mags (to used with a bipod) and I carried an extra 4 30 rounders of my accord.

When I was on breaching duty, the 590 stayed loaded with buckshot, except for the round, which I kept loaded with a M1300 (1330? I cant remember the number) breaching slug. Halfway through, they made us switch from buckshot to slugs though.

Always kept 5 mags for my M9 (if I had one) 4 on the belt/IBA, one in the pistol.
 
We had Magpul MAGS, 210 is usually a basic load with at least 45 9mm or .45ACP

My team would usually carry 300rds of 5.56 or 6.8, or 9mm or 45 depending on the mission and weapons we carried.

Normal SOP for us would be to load the first 5 rounds tracer, then 25 ball,
In the middle of a firefight, no matter what the situation it is difficult to count your rounds, loading the first 5 rounds tracer would give us an indication when we needed to change Mags.you dont want to wait till the chamber is empty, it is much faster to drop a mag, load a new mag and immediately start banging away, than having to mess with finding the bolt release...

As far as worrring about your magazine, if you can quickly get it into your cargo pocket, then save it, but underfire, drop it from the magazine well and forget it...

We it comes to recieving ammo, there is alot of SOP involeved with that, but normally wealways recieved rounds in ammo boxes of about 1800 if i remember correctly. Depending on the quantity requested then you might have to break a can open and take from there to fill the total amount requested...
 
40-60 rounds for the bolt rifle-10 or so easily accessible and the rest sealed up in plastic if such could be had.
Depending on the area and terrain, possibly a 9mm submachinegun and 6 mags in the ruck or a holstered Browning High Power and 5-6 mags on a pistol belt.
 
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