How many magazines should you own?

rudukai13

rudukai13

Pro Internet User
Hopefully this isn't a topic that was covered elsewhere, I tried looking before creating a new thread - Apologies if I missed it. That said...

I ordered up a couple more 15-round magazines for my P320 today as a backup for the singular 15-round mag I currently have for it. Once they're in my possession that will bring my total to 3x 15-round, 3x 21-round, and 5x 17-round magazines (in reference to stock capacity, they all have extensions on them of various lengths as well).

This got me wondering, how many magazines does everyone think they should have for their primary carry gun? How many do you currently have? Is there a bare minimum? Is there such a thing as "too many"? Do you have magazines of various lengths/capacities and if so what length do you have the most of?

Looking forward to hearing thoughts
 
S

ScottR65

Newbie
rudukai13 said:
Hopefully this isn't a topic that was covered elsewhere, I tried looking before creating a new thread - Apologies if I missed it. That said...

I ordered up a couple more 15-round magazines for my P320 today as a backup for the singular 15-round mag I currently have for it. Once they're in my possession that will bring my total to 3x 15-round, 3x 21-round, and 5x 17-round magazines (in reference to stock capacity, they all have extensions on them of various lengths as well).

This got me wondering, how many magazines does everyone think they should have for their primary carry gun? How many do you currently have? Is there a bare minimum? Is there such a thing as "too many"? Do you have magazines of various lengths/capacities and if so what length do you have the most of?

Looking forward to hearing thoughts
Click to expand...

There will be a ton of opinions. And it depends on your station in life, whether you’re only getting magazines for your carry gun and you don’t compete, if you compete with several guns that you also happen to rotate in your daily carry, if you have competition only guns, factors such as that. There is no correct answer beyond having at least three or four. I carry a Glock 19, which is also what I use in IDPA, frequent training and range trips, I’ve got about 80 mags for that one and about 20 for my P320 X carry. 50 for my ARs.


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Pat Tarrant

Pat Tarrant

Custom testicles
Staff member
Moderator
My rule is to have enough mags go that I can have dedicated serious use and dedicated training mags, hopefully with some spares as I get more disposable money. There's not really too high a number if your budget can support it along with other priorities.
 
Kain

Kain

Member
The rule I have always used when it comes to a handgun that is for carry, home defense, "combat," "Duty, "flavor of the month," ect. is 6. Or double whatever your "load out" would be, whichever is greater. Theory behind it, as it was given to me, is that you have your mags loaded for carry, or whatever, and they you have the same number that can be loaded for training. This is the miniumal that I role with for myself. That said, more is never bad, mags are expendable and consumable.

If you are wanting to work up a good stockpile easy answer, buy one a month, or every other month. Your stockpile will grow very well.
 
G

ggammell

Does not pass up an opportunity to criticize P&S.
6 duty. Test them. Load them. Leave them alone.

Dedicated practice mags. Pistol - Enough to get 150-200 rounds loaded for the range so you’re not wasting lane time jamming mags. Rifle - 20ish. Enough to have 500 rounds preloaded so I can get through a day of most classes without having to jam mags at the break.
 
S

spinmove_

Member
As always, the answer is “it depends”. IMHO here’s what I think makes the most sense.

Concealed Carry? Bare minimum: 6 per pistol. Why? 2 for carry, 2 for practice, 2 for backups to the other 4.

Competition? Bare minimum: 9-18per pistol. Why? If you’re shooting IPSC/USPSA Production, you need more, so 6 for matches, 6 for practice, and 6 for backups. Less if you’re shooting other divisions.

I don’t really have much experience with running anything for duty, so I’ll not speak to that.

The concept is that magazines are disposable and you need some on hand in case the proverbial turd hits the electronic human cooling apparatus. I say minimum because it never hurts to have more on hand, and again, they’re disposable. I say per pistol because you ideally want a complete set per every gun that you have. Sometimes you’ll get one that’s DOA, sometimes stuff breaks or gets gunked up. Don’t be afraid to have more or rebuild/replace them.


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R

Ryan St.Jean

Regular Member
For general use and a buffer against supply chain issues I like 10 pistol mags and 20 rifle mags per gun. That roughly relates to 3x combat loads. I figure one to use, one as a spare and one more as a just in case buffer.

I got a few more to keep the range bag full when I started doing IDPA.
 
Gypsy EDC

Gypsy EDC

Regular Member
Pat Tarrant said:
Those numbers mean nothing without context. How did you come up with those, and why do you think that is "decent?" what is your definition of decent?

Just like the FB groups, drive-by posts are useless.
Click to expand...
Ok, I'll flesh it out
Decent = ok, satisfactory, sufficient, etc.
(Obviously if money/ storage isn't an issue more is better for mags/ ammo)

I have have 5 dedicated pistol mags for training (T1-5) 5 loaded for carry (A1-5) 5 unloaded that are for carry (B1-5) & swap at time changes.
And ?? more unused mags sitting in a tote.

Same deal with rifle mags except in
10s rather than 5s.

This allows me to track and replace as needed from "my store"

The 5/10 is inline with the classes I've taken (met or exceeded the required equipment)
And what I carry.

This is from a non LEO perspective.
 
Jaime Calaf

Jaime Calaf

Newbie
rudukai13 said:
Hopefully this isn't a topic that was covered elsewhere, I tried looking before creating a new thread - Apologies if I missed it. That said...

I ordered up a couple more 15-round magazines for my P320 today as a backup for the singular 15-round mag I currently have for it. Once they're in my possession that will bring my total to 3x 15-round, 3x 21-round, and 5x 17-round magazines (in reference to stock capacity, they all have extensions on them of various lengths as well).

This got me wondering, how many magazines does everyone think they should have for their primary carry gun? How many do you currently have? Is there a bare minimum? Is there such a thing as "too many"? Do you have magazines of various lengths/capacities and if so what length do you have the most of?

Looking forward to hearing thoughts
Click to expand...
I think it depends on what you can afford. Every situation is different. For me, I have a full set of five mags with weighted dummy rounds and spare competition kit ready to go for dry fire. I have an additional 6 mags for live fire practice and 12 mags for competition... everything setup the same way. For carry, I use the same rule of thumb: a complete set of mags with weighted dummy rounds ready to go for dry fire practice, another set for range practice and then a set for carry / rotation. With rifle, same thing. For me dry fire is king, is the one thing I can do the most every day at any available time hence the emphasis of having my equipment setup the same and spare mags are key. Nevertheless, it boils down to what a person can afford.
 
MojoNixon

MojoNixon

Established
I have no theory behind how many I have for what guns other than I buy when the buying is good (on sale). That said I have about 35 for my primary blaster of various capacities, after gifting about a dozen to my youngest son for his blaster. Also have 6 for my bug, all 8 rounders, 30 for my carbine 20's, 30's and a few 40's, and 2 for my bolt gun. Can't have too many mags, too many rounds, too many guns, or too much good Scotch and or Vodka.
 
shoobe01

shoobe01

Established
You know, I have never quite gotten the theory behind dedicated carry/duty vs training mags.

I don't have such a thing, and therefore get to run through all my mags periodically, so I have continual proof that they all work. A stoppage on a mag gets a mark. If it's repeated, it's not a good mag and I investigate if time to respring, replace followers, or it's just a bad mag.

When springs (or much more rarely, followers) start going bad, I replace all of them, for the whole batch. Also try to vaguely keep track of round count, and can do back-of-napkin math to tell how many cycles each mag had, and then guide the next replacement cycle.

Do feel free to tell me why I am horribly wrong.


As of today (I just got some more for the M&P) I have, for the three weapon types I use the most:
AR - 40
M&P - 10
Kahr - 6

Some of the large counts are for classes/matches. Reduced need to load halfway through.
 
Kain

Kain

Member
shoobe01 said:
You know, I have never quite gotten the theory behind dedicated carry/duty vs training mags.

I don't have such a thing, and therefore get to run through all my mags periodically, so I have continual proof that they all work. A stoppage on a mag gets a mark. If it's repeated, it's not a good mag and I investigate if time to respring, replace followers, or it's just a bad mag.

When springs (or much more rarely, followers) start going bad, I replace all of them, for the whole batch. Also try to vaguely keep track of round count, and can do back-of-napkin math to tell how many cycles each mag had, and then guide the next replacement cycle.

Do feel free to tell me why I am horribly wrong.


As of today (I just got some more for the M&P) I have, for the three weapon types I use the most:
AR - 40
M&P - 10
Kahr - 6

Some of the large counts are for classes/matches. Reduced need to load halfway through.
Click to expand...

I would not say you are wrong persay. But context for the training mag thing might be worth noting since I feel there are two primary, and a third maybe reason I would either expect or personally have training mags.

First for ban states with grandfathered mags, training mags make sense for any hard use since I would be hard pressed to want to jack up tge "good" mags when theg are hard to replace and cost primo cash. Agree or disagree with staying, tge laws, ect. The concept is understandable.

Second cheap "second line" mags that are lower quality and malf prone for training. I am personally one to do this. Used to run the, at the time $5 KCI glock mags for training cuz they were shit and malfed regularly. At least in all the glocks I ran them in. Since it was a mixed bag of when they'd malf made for good training in my mind. When the price increased on them it did then become a cost benefit over OEM mags and OEM won out. I do have some magpul glock mags I abuse but that is more due to wanting to play with something new. I also had a friend who had marked thermolds which he had found would doublefeed damn near more than not. Again training mags. There also I think the mindset with mags dedicated for training that you don't feel bad about abusing them. "Why that glock 33rder look like a bananna" "training mag" and I would in no way assume the "good mags" never get shot. Just maybe not violated.

Third. I've seen some departments who are so paranoid bout damaging shit they had ordered officers during training not to drop their mags and instead ordered them to sit them gently on tge ground during reloads during quals. I can again understand getting dedicated training mags in that situation as well.

That all said, if you wish to just rotate all mags through use for training. That does work too. There more than one way to skin the cat.
 
shoobe01

shoobe01

Established
All good answers, and as usual I am legit asking, now know and can give better answers for others who ask in future, with their specific wants, needs, or constraints.
 
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