How Many Spare Mags?

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I carry as many spare magazines as I can, loaded with the same ammunition. What I wear to the local grocery store is vastly different than what I wear when I'm walking or hiking inside and outside of my small town.
 
I don't worry too much about getting attacked by a tiger
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Dave, long before that tiger jumped out of the cage and ate up those jerks who taunted it, a friend of mine was (is) a comparative psychologist and zoo consultant - expert on big cats. She was examining a zoo pit and it had a moat of X feet. She looked at it and said tigers can leap x + y feat and said out of there!

Thus, tiger attacks happen. She also consulted on a cheetah in a game park that leaped through a partially opened back window grabbed a toddler and zapped off. Remember the gorilla that got out?

So big cat attacks happen!! I would be prepared for such. Of course, having the rifle in the truck - so what. :D

Anyway - The probability/stat game is misunderstood. The naive use of stats indicated that most of us will never needa loaded gun on an 'average' day. So let's fold up our tents.

Most model their actions on the 'single BG/mugger incident'. No shots fired or just a few and the BG is removed as a threat thru fleeing or being hurt. If Kleck is correct (debated in the literature) then there are lots of DGUs - most with no shots fired.

However, there are a few extremes of high intense gun fights where a CCW type might be involved. A "Black Swan" incident so to speak - so do you prepare for them? A mall, a school rampage, etc.

The Tyler courthouse and Tacoma mall didn't go well for the good samaritarians - unfortunately due to them having a gun and not being tactically sensible (so is training more important than the gun capacity?). The Colorado church ended well but the shooter was a trained ex-LEO and the BG actually killed himself when wounded - probably his plan all along.

Thus, this is a never ending argument. Most DGUs can end with the capacity of the gun - the vast majority of property crimes or sexual assaults. If you do hit a rampage (there have been only 14 college rampages) - then you might need more ammo. It's not hard to carry an extra mag - so it is little cost for a rare event.

To opine - if you are worrying about the gun equipment issue and you haven't had a modicum of trainig - then your priorities are a touch off, if you are worried about the rampage. For the single mugger - taking out the gun and waving around seems to work for most.

PS - I forgot to opine about this alternating of FMJ and JHP or carrying a mag of each. I do not know of an incident where a civilian had to worry about failure of penetration by JHP and then would have been saved by FMJ. If the BG had body armor - FMJ doesn't do it. The known risk of overpenetration is more than that of having to shoot the rampager through something that JHP wouldn't work for.
 
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Then you too are missing the whole point of the discussion.
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If the discussion is if there is a real need to carry a spare mag, it seems I'm right on track. Again, it is not a big deal either way. If one wants to carry a spare, fine, it makes you feel good and that is a good thing. If one does not want to carry a spare mag, fine, you're probably not going to need it and that is a good thing.
 
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Thus, tiger attacks happen. She also consulted on a cheetah in a game park that leaped through a partially opened back window grabbed a toddler and zapped off. Remember the gorilla that got out?
So big cat attacks happen!! I would be prepared for such.
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That's my point, Glenn. There are actual things that happen, but we don't even consider them and most people would think it rather unusual if one did worry about and plan for a tiger attack. Yet AFAIK more people have been killed/injured by big cat attacks in the U.S. than have been killed/injured because they did not have a spare magazine with them.
Anyway - The probability/stat game is misunderstood.
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I don't think anyone argues that more than I do!:D
It's not hard to carry an extra mag - so it is little cost for a rare event.
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Agreed. Little cost, but also little benefit. Of course, then there is the issue of who is better equipped, the CCW with a 7-round gun and a spare mag or the CCW with a 17-round gun and no spare mag.:confused:
 
Hey, I didn't know that a gun carrier had to know addition.

To be mildly serious, one argument for the extra mag is that your primary mag can go belly up. Esp. - if you carry the ultimate man stopping 1911! But I did have a Glock 27 mag fail in a match once. :(

And my cheap AR-15 mag has bellied up! Oh, wait - I didn't carry that to the mall.

I think I will go survey my dried food for the meteor strike.
 
"Usually, no spare mags until special circumstances."
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Same here. I've got 6 mags for one, and 4 for another, but for the most part, I carry a revolver for HD. Don't get me wrong, I really like semi-auto pistols, but I'd rather put my faith in revolvers. I'm old-school, I guess.
 
it's not the odds, it's the stakes.
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It's both. We all make provision for smaller and smaller odds as the stakes go higher and higher. You're still playing the odds. Otherwise, you'd be working to meteor proof your house because it's the stakes not the odds.

To borrow a phrase;), I'll say it for the umpteenth time, you have to draw the line somewhere or you'll be driving around in armor cars and wearing kevlar. If you want to draw the line at an extra mag, go ahead. If your line is an extra mag and a bug, fine. My line is a single gun loaded with 10 Gold Dot .357 Sig, no reload. There hasn't been an armed robbery within 30 miles of my house this year. Maybe that's why my line is "lower", although I still think I'd be more than adequately equipped anywhere that a law abiding citizen has need to be.
 
The odds of my needing the first bullet in my CCW are probably .001%, the odds of needing the last one in the magazine are probably .000001%.
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Odds according to who? You?

For ordinary people who get murdered everyday, the odds were very much in favor of it not happening to them.

Clint Smith points out that some times Wolves travel in packs. Not that he needs to.

What ever the odds, it's a 100% certainly that I'll have better piece of mind carrying two spare mags for my P220.
Too bad Reginald Denny didn't have a pistol with a couple spare mags.:cool:
 
I started carrying not only the hi-cap mag in my .40 but also 2 extra mags in a mag holster.I didn't do this till my city went to heck and there were 5 shooting in less than 4 days with 5 blocks of where i live.
Yep i have found a house farther up the river and will be moved in by the middle of feb.Untill then i'm packin all i can,even my wife is packin now.So between the 2 of us we now have 46 rounds of max firepower,34 .40 cal rounds for me and 12 .357 rounds for her.:eek:
 
I never use to carry a spare magazine until I sat through the a briefing on the Von Maur and Trolley Square Mall shootings. Now I carry at least one, two if I'm wearing a jacket.
 
Creature said:
Do you keep a spare tire in your car?
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How many spare tires do you keep in your car?

WildAlaska said:
I will use my civilian piece to fight my way to the M1A in the truck.
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If I can get to my truck, I'm probably just going to leave if the situation is so bad as to require an M1A. Unless I can't get out, in which case the M1A is a good idea. I only don't carry a rifle in my truck at all times because I would constantly worry about theft and concealing it within the truck.

peetzakilla said:
Needing to draw CCW in a lifetime- 1:1000
Needing to fire the weapon- 1:10,000
Needing to fire more than 1 or 2 roounds- 1:100,000
Needing to fire more rounds than are in the smallest of typical weapons (I'll say 5)- 1:1,000,000
Needing to fire more rounds than are afforded by a single reload- 1:10,000,000
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Those numbers are going to be different for every single member of this forum. Therefore, I consider your estimate irrelevant to everyone but yourself.

Back to the OP, when my paperwork finally goes through, I plan to only carry what the gun's magazine will hold. That's because I can't imagine a shootout going down in Evansville, Indiana. Therefore, I don't feel the need to prepare for one. The only scenarios I have ever come across (the ones that almost happened, I mean) where I would have needed a spare mag, I wouldn't have had time to reload, anyway.

In summary, to me, the primary logic in limiting your preparedness for anything is what you are willing to tolerate. "Am I willing to tolerate the extra weight and bulk of those spare mags?" "Do I want to take up all that bed space for four spare tires?" "Should I wear a jacket? It might get cold." Logic applies to all preparations. Logic is leading you to prepare, and the same logic leads you to the limitations on the preparations. Not only does this apply to carrying a concealed weapon, it applies to almost everything you do. The logic for each person is different, and that's fine. What you do and how you rationalize it is your business. Like many people often say about many things, "There is no wrong answer." Every person is different, and you must find what is right for yourself.
 
Just one unless I'll be in the middle of nowhere then I'll add a couple to the belt.
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Why would being "in the middle of nowhere" make you less safe than in a people rich environment? Seems like adding "a couple to the belt" makes good sense either way.

Of course, the definition of "nowhere" can vary a lot from one from one person to the next. I travel alone in the wide open spaces of Nevada, and am well armed. Not sure I'm any safer in town.
 
I just carry my gun loaded with the one mag in the well. Way I see it is that if I cant take out at least 4 guys with 15 rounds of JHP 9mm then I have no business carrying a gun. And the chances that im going to face anything over 1 or 2 is just astronomical. But I keep an extra mag in the glove box, just in case.
 
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