Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Someone, somewhere printed a statistic many years ago that said that the average gunfight was settled in something like 1.7 rounds fired or somesuch. I’m guessing ‘settled’ means that one participant was incapacitated enough that the fight was over. Its an interesting statistic and if it is to be believed then we could all hang up our double-stack magazines and go back to carrying revolvers. (although some of us out there never departed from wheelguns, but thats another post….) But the funny thing about statistics is that they don’t tell the whole story. (Or, as someone said, statistics are like bikinis…what they reveal is interesting but what they conceal is vital.) Those numbers came from somewhere, mostly from a lot of guys who finished the incident with one round fired but there were at least a few who dumped a whole lot more to blow the curve for the rest of the class.
Its generally accepted that, outside of some sort of nineteenth century bandito episode, the most amount of ammo expended by a single citizen in self-defense was 105 rounds expended by the awesomely armed Harry Beckwith, a Florida gun dealer, who responded to the attempted burglary of his store with a shotgun, AR, submachinegun and pistol. The bad guys, naturally, didn’t have a very good time of it and one of them had a terminally bad time. (As an aside, I actually got to visit Mr. Beckwith’s store about ten years ago and the bullet holes to the building from his adventures were plainly visible and unaltered. Sort of a symbolic ‘beware of owner’ sign for those who might not understand the written language.)
So, somewhere between the statistical 1.7 (or whatever it is) and the 105 rounds of Beckwiths Bullet Party is where real world shootings will land.
The first rule of a gunfight, they say, is to bring a gun. Sound advice. The second rule, Im told, is to bring lots of friends with guns. Personally, I think the first rule of a gunfight is to not get into one but I understand the sentiment involved. If there were a third rule it would probably be something like ‘bring enough ammo’.
How much ammo to bring and how to carry it? My Glock and two spare magazines gives me about 50 rounds of ammo…. I think that for just about any event short of the end of the world thats going to be plenty. However, I usually don’t even carry that much. Nine times out ten I just take the 17 rounds that are in the gun and leave it at that. I do keep two extra magazines in my bag, but I don’t always carry that around with me. If I do feel the need to carry a spare magazine I usually just shove one in my jeans pocket. My goal, after all, when the shooting starts isn’t to run towards it…my goal is to get away from it.
I usually just stick a spare magazine in the back pocket on my weak side. I do face the magazine in a particular direction so that when I grab it I don’t have to change its presentation to the gun. I very seldom actually use a spare magazine carrier for my pistols because I don’t find them as convenient as just sticking a spare mag in my pocket. When I leave the house I really don’t feel like having to stop to thread another piece of gunleather onto my belt. On the other hand, there have been days when, for whatever reason, I’ve been extra cautious and carried a couple spare magazines. For everyday type of use I like open top magazine carriers that hold the magazines in by friction. Usually theres a screw to adjust the tension that holds the magazine in the pouch. In shooting competitions the retention of a holster was sometimes tested by having the shooter do a somersault or two while wearing his gun…if the gun fell from the holster then the retention wasn’t up to snuff. If youre limber and feel like rolling around in the dirt, have at it. I usually tighten things up so that the mags don’t fall out if I bend over or run but not so tight that theres any hesitation or hangup when I go to yank them from the pouch. There are plenty of leather and kydex mag pouches out there and its really personal preference. I like leather for purely aesthetic reasons but I acknowledge that the kydex or carbon fiber pouches (and holsters) are probably superior products for abuse and modularity. For leather, I almost always go with Galco or DeSantis, in second place, Bianchi.
It is interesting to note that the local police department (and probably many others) carries their stuff in a similar manner – an open-top magazine pouch with mags held in by an adjustable tension screw. They normally carry two spares so theyre, like me, carrying around 50 rounds of ammo. You might draw the conclusion that the consensus is that 50 rounds is plenty to be carrying around on your person for most times.
For when Im afield hunting or fishing it’s a slightly different story. If you drop a magazine at WalMart youre going to notice and pick it up. Drop a magazine in the boonies and the odds are pretty good you wont even notice until you get home. When out in the sticks I usually go with a cordura or nylon magazine pouch with a flap closure. Just about every manufacturer makes one and the differences between them can be pretty niggling. I usually go with a double magazine pouch when Im tromping around the woods. The only things I have ever used a pistol for while in the sticks has been dispatching wounded deer and shooting targets of opportunity. However, you never know whats going to happen once you’re out where the buses don’t run so why not err on the side of caution?
Rifle magazines are an entirely different story. Obviously, theyre bigger than pistol mags and very seldom is concealing them a consideration. I do have a buttstock magazine pouch on the AR and it’s pretty handy. If Im at the range and just plinking I’ll usually just stuff a spare mag into my back pocket and call it good. For gopher hunting or spending the day afield the GI 3-magazine pouch seems to be only a fair choice. While theyre cheap and ubiquitous I find that they just aren’t terribly convenient. But, lets say it’s the day after some Katrina-esque episode and its time to become mobile, then what? The classic quick-magazine-change trick has been to ‘jungle clip’ a couple magazines together … two magazines taped or otherwise fastened together so that you pull the empty mag, flip it around, and you wind up with a loaded mag in the gun. Only problem is that you wind up with twice as much stress on your magazine release as you would normally have and while this may not make a difference in the short term, it seems like an invitiation to problems later on. Going prone with such a rig is also not without issues…feed lips and cartridges jammed into the ground or concrete are feed problems in the making. I would think one way to examine the options for carrying extra rifle magazines is to see what guys in Afghanistan and Iraq are doing. It appears that most of them are carrying their spare magazines on their vest in MOLLE magazine pouches. Chest rigs and vests seem to be the rage these days and they certainly do give plenty of options for carrying mags and gear…but, for some reason, I prefer the belt mounted magazine carriers. (Although I do have a few ‘tactical’ vests…but if things get to the point where youre running around in a piece of kit like that things must truly have gotten interesting.) Any MOLLE mag pouch will slide onto pretty much any belt. I rather like the pouches that have an eleastic loop to hold the magazines in place. Two or three double-mag pouches seem to be the right amount. Of course, in a worst case scenario you cant really have too many magazines and theres at least one manufacturer who makes a MOLLE bandoleer..you’d look like some sort of ballistic nylon Pancho Villa with a string of magazines running across your torso. I’d go with a couple double mag pouches on the belt (preferably so Im not laying on top of them) and then a shoulder bag or pack with a half dozen (or more) extras.
Shotgun ammo is a major pain in the rear to carry around. It’s bulky, heavy and not the least bit compact. I like the SideSaddle shotgun-mounted ammo carriers for a fast five or six extra shells. If I was running around with a shotgun as my primary longarm in some sort of crisis I’d probably go with a ‘dump pouch’ or similar waist-carried bag carrying loose shells. Bandoleers of shotgun shells look cool but theyre a bit impractical.
For those days when I’m feeling a bit ‘old school’ and am carrying a revolver, I’ll carry a speedloader or two. I like the SafariLand ones but theres nothing wrong with the classic HKS speedloaders. I also like the Bianchi Speedstrips for their convenience and flat profile in the pocket. The only drawback to the Bianchi product is that its only available for .38/.357. However, another company has started making them in other calibers and picked up the slack.
So that’s the ‘how’ but what about the ‘how much’? The amount of ammo you carry is entirely up to your personal preference and what you perceive to be the seriousness of your situation. On the average day-to-day basis I usually just go with the one magazine in the Glock and a couple spares in my bag. When Im tooling around in the sticks I always take two reloads worth of ammo, whether its for the auto or the revolver. If Im carrying something small like my little S&W snubbie, then I’ll go with just an extra five rounds on a speedstrip. However, keep in mind, I live in a fairly low-crime, low-incident environ in western Montana. If I lived in someplace like NYC or Houston I’d probably never leave the house without at least two reloads.
One last thought, it is never a bad idea to stash a couple spare reloads (either mags, speedloaders or even just a box of 50 cartridges) at places where you spend a lot of time…perhaps in the desk drawer at work, and maybe in the glove box of the car. These things have a habit of being something that when you need them you’ll wish you had as many as possible, so having a couple extras stashed away can be pretty handy.
