When do you reload?

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JohnH1963

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Lets say you are part of a larger unit that is moving through a hostile area. Every once in a while a threat appears at random intervals and you have to utilize your rifle.

When you start your journey, you are carrying 7 magazines of 30 rounds. On the first encounter, you utilize 6 rounds leaving you with 24 rounds in the magazine. There will be various encounters over the next 12 hours on patrol which will require an unknown number of rounds.

So when do you reload the rifle with a fresh magazine? How would you handle this in general?
 
7 magazines of 30 rounds? So you're carrying a full combat load for an M-4/M-16 I'd assume. The trick I've always used is to load two tracers after you load two ball and then fill up the mag with 24-26 rounds. That way your last two shots are ball and your second to last shots are tracers. Whether youre fire three round burst or controlled pair when you see a tracer fly out your muzzle grab a mag and get ready. The actual process of a mag change should easily be accomplished in under two seconds and especially with a mag in hand. That's when you change mags in my book!
 
Thanks, specoperator, I like the idea, . . . though I never have done it, . . . I think I can see another use for tracers.

May God bless,
Dwight
 
(Never been in combat, so take this for what you will)

Depending on how you set up your gear, I would reload when the opportunity seemed to present itself. However, I would move full mags to the first place I would reach under stress.

When playing airsoft (poor comparison, but I'll go for it), I usually place empty mags at the last place I would reach, and put them in upside down. If a significant number of rounds have been used, I will put them in upside down, at the last place I would go before hitting an empty--I always work left to right when selecting which pouch to take from, so this works for me.
 
whenever there's a break in contact, you do a tactical mag change(basically just put a new mag in and put your old one back in the pouch) because you could have one round in the gat and not even know it after you've been shooting. your mag change should be down to 1.5s so worst, case you could just keep shooting until you have to reload. if i had 24 rds left, you're better off keeping the mag in until you make contact again
 
Gat??? Really??? I had no idea we were all living in a video game...:rolleyes::mad:

That aside, this is a little far out there...

JohnH1963 said:
Lets say you are part of a larger unit that is moving through a hostile area.

emphasis added
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Simple: Don't.

In any sense of normalcy; this would only really happen in a combat zone, for which the "unit" would hopefully be trained. It is possible (however unlikely) that a LEO might might encounter something similar to this. Hopefully, that LEO is also appropriately trained.

But for average John Q. Public with a CCW? If a situation anywhere near this description occurs, the poop has hit the fan and it is likely the beginning of the end of civilized life as we know it today.

IBTL.
 
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27th round is a trace. When it goes, you change mags. However, in your scenario, you change mags immediately.
No PBI troopie goes on patrol with only 7 mags.
 
Agreed that no one goes on patrol with only 7 mags. Depending on the mission, most choices are how much ammo and how much food should I be humping? I can go a whole week on just a little bit of food but can go nowhere without sufficient ammo. Especially moving within a large unit, automatic fire is reserved for the automatic rifleman and even three round bursts can be a waste of precious ammo.

Given the scenario as presented, it is obvious that at the first contact, you will have a full mag. Mags are then changed as they are emptied. Sometimes there is a lull in the action at which time you may want to do a tactical reload, that is put a full mag into the rifle but keep your partially full mag in reserve. If you have a long break with a rest and have several partially full mags, it probably would advantageous to take ammo from the less than full mags and reload them into another until that mag is full.

With only seven mags of ammo, each patrol member should be teamed up with another and ammo used very wisely or it will be a very short duration patrol.
 
if you had any experience whatsoever, you'd know you're not gonna see those last two tracer rounds let alone even know they're yours if you have your sawgunner ripping someone in the face right beside you. don't get wrapped around the axle about this
 
Agreed, if somewhat less than graciously stated.

For what it is worth...back in the golden days of my youth, M16 ammo had tracers interspersed every 5 rounds or thereabouts, may have been every 4. If a guy wanted to load only ball ammo and reserve tracers for the last 2 rounds or something you would have to pull the rounds from the stripper clips, sort out the tracers, and then load mags with individual rounds to get the desired effect. Very time consuming, and not going to happen at all when you are dry or low and you get tossed a bandoleer to top off with. We also did not have Magpul doodads for mag bases to effect faster reloads. What we used to do was to use some 100 mile an hour tape, and essentially make the same thing. A single piece of tape, start about 2 1/2 inches on the flat of the mag, up to the middle of the floor plate, fold over itself to make a tab, and then back down over the other flat. works just fine, and has the added benefit of cushioning and helping to retain the floor plate should you have one impact a hard surface, get run over, etc.

In a SHTF scenario you are just going to run dry and reload. You may have time to insert a fresh mag, but be sure to keep the partials separate. Consolidation of ammo and so forth would need a pretty significant lull.
 
Is it likely this scenario would happen here in America? Its unlikely, but still something to think about. There have been natural disasters in recent history where there were roving gangs of armed men and troublemakers like Hurricane Katrina.

Then there is the gang warfare that takes place all the time in America like in Oakland California. What if you find yourself in one of those places?

Ultimately lengthy shoot-outs do occur in rare highly publicized instances and you have to plan on when to change magazines. Should a partially filled magazine be changed out or even manually re-filled once contact is broken off?
 
It would appear to me that your question has been answered about as well as it is going to get answered. Like most things in life 'it depends', and common sense coupled with a cool head will drive the decision. There is no solid yes or no answer that will be your guide for every situation.
 
i reload when my op-rod locks back indicating i have expended all the rounds in my current magazine.

this isnt a video game where u reolad with every bad guy u kill.
 
JohnH1963 said:
Then there is the gang warfare that takes place all the time in America like in Oakland California. What if you find yourself in one of those places?

emphasis added
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You don't just find yourself in the middle of a natural disaster. With today's technological advances; it is highly unlikely that you'll suddenly "find yourself" in a rainstorm, much less a hurricane.

And if a gang war breaks out in Oakland: Leave. We all know that you're not going to be walking around Oakland with an AR-15 and a bunch of 30rd magazines... Get real. If you have enough time to go home and get your rifle then you'll have plenty of time to get the hell out of there, foregoing said rifle. You can buy another one in Nevada on your way out of the state.
 
It would appear to me that your question has been answered about as well as it is going to get answered.
Click to expand...

Yep. That, and John's getting way too close to SHTF scenarios anyway, and it's well known that we don't do those here.

This "scenario" was outlandish to begin with and it's highly unlikely that any mainstream American citizen is going to find himself in this situation.

Let's concentrate less on the unlikely and more on the likely.

Closed.
 
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