TheBigDog65
Amateur
I am a long term consumer of Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump as having an aggregated "stuff you should know" is a heck of a lot less time consuming than looking for it hit or miss. Let me start by saying if you aren't following Ellifritz, you really should.
In the most recent issue he linked a video from Tessa Booth on the subject of carrying a spare magazine.
Find the video here.
I'm not always game for the pronouncements of "influencers" but Tessa Booth is way above influencer. She has done, and does the work, and she puts a lot of thought and analysis, in context, into what she says. In short, I give what she has to say a listen. Her content has proven to me generally that she has a good basis in knowledge for her opinions.
She starts the video by disclaiming that it is likely going to rustle jimmies. Given by some of the photos I've seen over the years of the various kit that people say there are carrying every day, I have to think she is probably right. The subject she pokes in the video is whether or not to carry a spare magazine, and she takes the position based on considerable, if not nuanced, analysis, that for her use cases and purposes that a spare magazine is not necessary. In his commentary on his own page, Ellifritz admits to being less dogmatic as a private person than he was as a cop about carrying a spare. He also makes a point about not feeling less than well armed carrying a J frame revolver while somehow feeling less than well armed with a full sized double stack and no spare magazine.
When I was a working cop back in the revolver days I carried four speed loaders on my duty belt where most guys carried two, or even one. After transitioning to semi-autos I carried two extra magazines on the belt for double stack guns, four for single stack. Since that part of my life ended and I pursue the life of a retired gentleman, and not that of a hunter of felons doing felonious things in the dark of night, I have scaled back considerably. But, it is worth noting that back in the day when off duty or working in soft clothes I always had one reload with me when ever I was carrying. that practice has carried forward to today and I still stick with it for reasons noted below. I'll keep doing it, at least for the time being, even though Tessa makes some very cogent points.
The main reason I always carry a spare magazine when I am carrying a semi-auto pistol, is because of Murphy. Anyone who has spent time in gunfights, in high value training or who has studied the subject in any kind of depth understands that Murphy's Laws are always in play and that Murphy himself always lurks. Murphy's first law is, of course, that anything which can go wrong will go wrong. His second law, which has bitten me in the ass a time or two, is that which can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time. And what worse time could there be than in the middle of your gunfight, however unlikely it might be that you find yourself in one.
While it's exceptionally rare that a private person gun fight results in an empty gun reload, so rare that it is beyond statistically significant, it's been my experience that the weakest link, in many cases, of the semi-auto handgun is its magazines. I am pretty anal about care and maintenance of them, always have been, but I've still had them fail on me unexpectedly over the years. That, to be honest, has always been my rationale behind carrying a spare mag. I trust that my gun is going to go bang when I need it, but my brain tells me that a magazine can shit the bed any time, so it makes sense to me to be able to fix that if I have to in some unfortunate moment.
As Pat Rogers famously noted, mission drives the gear train. When I lived in a heavily populated part of Northern Nevada where street crime was a very real risk my every day carry looked like the photo on the left.... a compact single or double stack auto, a spare magazine, a knife, OC, creds and an ankle med kit. If I was going to be out at night a small flashlight got included. Now that I live in a rural corner of Wyoming where the risk of street crime is significantly lower, I am most often carrying a small revolver such as on the right, with at least one extra gun load in either a strip or a speed loader, a knife, a smaller OC and creds. The med kit, more minimalist, goes into a cargo pocket in shorts season, or a coat pocket in the cooler months. A flashlight if time of day warrants and good to go. Having a few extra rounds to top off a revolver when the situation allows, given the more limited amount of ammo on board feels like cheap insurance that is worth the weight and space.
So, to spare or not to spare? And the even better, first, question... have you run your choices through a risk / reward decision tree based on your use cases and contexts? Tessa did, I have, and you should too.
In the most recent issue he linked a video from Tessa Booth on the subject of carrying a spare magazine.
Find the video here.
I'm not always game for the pronouncements of "influencers" but Tessa Booth is way above influencer. She has done, and does the work, and she puts a lot of thought and analysis, in context, into what she says. In short, I give what she has to say a listen. Her content has proven to me generally that she has a good basis in knowledge for her opinions.
She starts the video by disclaiming that it is likely going to rustle jimmies. Given by some of the photos I've seen over the years of the various kit that people say there are carrying every day, I have to think she is probably right. The subject she pokes in the video is whether or not to carry a spare magazine, and she takes the position based on considerable, if not nuanced, analysis, that for her use cases and purposes that a spare magazine is not necessary. In his commentary on his own page, Ellifritz admits to being less dogmatic as a private person than he was as a cop about carrying a spare. He also makes a point about not feeling less than well armed carrying a J frame revolver while somehow feeling less than well armed with a full sized double stack and no spare magazine.
When I was a working cop back in the revolver days I carried four speed loaders on my duty belt where most guys carried two, or even one. After transitioning to semi-autos I carried two extra magazines on the belt for double stack guns, four for single stack. Since that part of my life ended and I pursue the life of a retired gentleman, and not that of a hunter of felons doing felonious things in the dark of night, I have scaled back considerably. But, it is worth noting that back in the day when off duty or working in soft clothes I always had one reload with me when ever I was carrying. that practice has carried forward to today and I still stick with it for reasons noted below. I'll keep doing it, at least for the time being, even though Tessa makes some very cogent points.
The main reason I always carry a spare magazine when I am carrying a semi-auto pistol, is because of Murphy. Anyone who has spent time in gunfights, in high value training or who has studied the subject in any kind of depth understands that Murphy's Laws are always in play and that Murphy himself always lurks. Murphy's first law is, of course, that anything which can go wrong will go wrong. His second law, which has bitten me in the ass a time or two, is that which can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time. And what worse time could there be than in the middle of your gunfight, however unlikely it might be that you find yourself in one.
While it's exceptionally rare that a private person gun fight results in an empty gun reload, so rare that it is beyond statistically significant, it's been my experience that the weakest link, in many cases, of the semi-auto handgun is its magazines. I am pretty anal about care and maintenance of them, always have been, but I've still had them fail on me unexpectedly over the years. That, to be honest, has always been my rationale behind carrying a spare mag. I trust that my gun is going to go bang when I need it, but my brain tells me that a magazine can shit the bed any time, so it makes sense to me to be able to fix that if I have to in some unfortunate moment.
As Pat Rogers famously noted, mission drives the gear train. When I lived in a heavily populated part of Northern Nevada where street crime was a very real risk my every day carry looked like the photo on the left.... a compact single or double stack auto, a spare magazine, a knife, OC, creds and an ankle med kit. If I was going to be out at night a small flashlight got included. Now that I live in a rural corner of Wyoming where the risk of street crime is significantly lower, I am most often carrying a small revolver such as on the right, with at least one extra gun load in either a strip or a speed loader, a knife, a smaller OC and creds. The med kit, more minimalist, goes into a cargo pocket in shorts season, or a coat pocket in the cooler months. A flashlight if time of day warrants and good to go. Having a few extra rounds to top off a revolver when the situation allows, given the more limited amount of ammo on board feels like cheap insurance that is worth the weight and space.
So, to spare or not to spare? And the even better, first, question... have you run your choices through a risk / reward decision tree based on your use cases and contexts? Tessa did, I have, and you should too.
