Until recently, when I'm carrying, I don't carry a reload. However, after talking to a few people about this, I'm probably going to start. Not that I need the extra capacity (the chances of me shooting off two+ full mags is practically nonexistent), but clearing many malfunctions requires dropping the magazine and inserting a new one. So, I was just wondering what the other folks around here do.

Yup, one on my person, one more in the truck.

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On the Oak Savannah

At least one more mag or speed strip, plus a Schrade folding hunter.

...Also a bottle of Grey Poupon.

One in the gun, one in a dedicated back pocket. Magazines can fail. Drop it and grab a new one, don't fumble around trying to retain one while also clearing a malfunction

Generally, no. But if I go where there are crowds (assuming that will occur again in the future!) I carry one extra magazine for my Walther CCP or, sometimes, a speedloader if I carry a J frame.

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Come and take it!!

If I felt the need for more than 5, I’d carry my 9mm with 8, or a Sig 365 with 11. Meanwhile I practice as often as possible to make my 5 count

It depends on the gun. If I'm carrying my main EDC, my M&P 40c .357 SIG, I usually don't carry a spare magazine unless I'm traveling. If I'm carrying my Shield 45, I always take a spare 7-rounder. I like to have double-digit rounds available.

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What, me worry?

Only when I go to church.....now a rough part of town, Third Ward.

I've always carried a reload, since I first carried concealed. It was recommended by my CC class instructor as well as both private instructors I had.
Once I was determined to always leave my home with a CC, adding a reload was such a minor thing it really is a non-issue.
It has nothing to do with thinking I'd need it. I don't knowingly go anyplace where I'd expect to draw my firearm and need even a single round.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

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Slava Ukraini!

I don't feel the need. I just do it anyway.

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"Don't Give Up the Ship"

I carry a speed strip. Weighs nothing, easily concealed, why not?

Don't expect to need it, however.

Usually a reload in my backpack but not on my belt unless I'm going someplace that would compel me otherwise. 9 rounds of .40 should take care of it. I don't hang out in too many sketchy places.

I usually carry my M&P9 FS plus an extra mag on my non dominant side I like having a realod plus I think it balances out the weight distribution on my waist. When I don't carry the FS I usually take the 9c same extra mag I just add the spacer on the mag

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Shot placement is key!!

One extra mag.

Double-speedloader pouch on the belt.

No reload for me. I don't even bother to chamber a round then refill the mag so I'd have 16 instead of 15 rounds on call. I guess I'm just woefully unprepared.

Since I feel the chance that I'll ever need to draw my weapon in a SD situation is really small, I'll take my chances that if it did ever happen the 15 rounds would be enough.

And if that really unlikely scenario did come to pass and my weapon choose that exact moment to malfunction, then I'd say it was simply my time to go. Nobody lives forever.

I think there's a fine line between preparation and paranoia.

The Israeli standard doctrine ...... not my choice ..... so I say to you practice practice practice.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

Carrying a spare mag on my belt on my off side in a Kydex mag carrier is no trouble at all. While I have 17+1 in the gun, the spare has a +4 round extension for 21 additional rounds.

If I only need one round, I’ve got it.
If I only need two rounds, I’ve got them . . .
If I only need 39 rounds, I’ve got them.

There is nothing wrong with having ammo left over at the end of a gunfight. There is a lot wrong with running out of ammo before the end of a gunfight. Simple fix. Carry spare ammo.

Attached Images

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Actually, running out of ammo generally IS the end of a gunfight.

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Formerly Model520Fan

As I said in another thread ...... I've gone from a single stack 3913 (7+1) with a reload (8) to a double stack Beretta Compact....

The Beretta with the "new" Mec-gar 15rd magazine for 15+1 backed up with a 18rd Mec-gar with a Farrar mag collar. Second 18rd mag in the truck.

Taught form a early age to carry at least one reload......in the best of worse cases.....I'll have a full gun after the fact. I also always carry a pocket knife and a singe AAA flashlight............ the flashlight gets the most use.


Paranoid ... I think not........ just an abundance of caution!

As an aside when I first started cc it was while hiking at our cabin...my main concern was ferrel dogs...... I might be a hour or more hike from home.......the idea of running into a pack.... then trying to make it back to the cabin with just a round or two in the gun wasn't an appealing thought.

Early in my career I ran out after emptying my revolver twice during a gunfight. That made quite an impression on me and in retirement I carry one reload, w/more available in the car.

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Old Cop
LEO (Ret.)

What is the minimum number of rounds, stabs or blows with an object one or more assailants need to kill you? One.

What is the minimum number of rounds you need to successfully defend yourself against one or more assailants? You have no idea until it happens. You cannot possibly predict your fight. Someone else is going to do that for you.

Training, preparation and awareness are not paranoia; they constitute wisdom.

The thing I find really interesting about this discussion is that the OP very specifically stated that his rationale for carrying a reload had nothing to do with added capacity. He explicitly said he carries a reload primarily to deal with malfunctions.

Yet out of 20 responses (21 counting mine) TWO people have even mentioned malfunctions as a reason to carry a reload.

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Retired Career Security Guard

I learned early on when carrying a semi you need to have a spare magazine in case something goes wrong with feeding, etc...

Doesn't matter the number of rounds the handgun carries.

When I carry a revolver (most of the time now) I have at least one, most times 2, speedstrips in my pocket. Then it is a matter of capacity and in the unavoidable chance I use the weapon being able to top off the cylinder.

With the revolver it is less about the malfunction because most malfunctions there will take some time to clear.

I don’t. Most of the year I ccw a Glock 19 (15+1) and feel well armed. In the summertime I ccw a 442 Airweight and while it’s a departure from a Glock 19, I don’t feel undergunned with it either.

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Some Might Say.

Two or more of the listed reload methods.



I carry a Smith & Wesson SW40VE, a Ruger LCP as a BUG, a Cold Steel Ti-Lite VI, and a spare magazine.

I used to carry nothing but a Walther PPK/S with no reload, but over the years as violent crimes have become more serious and I've read a number of articles by folks who were involved in self-defense shootings, barely lived to tell the tale, and said they wished that they had a backup gun, I started taking things more seriously.

Will I ever actually need two guns, a knife, and over 30 rounds of ammunition on my person, much less be able to use them all? Doubtfully so and hopefully not, but it makes me feel more secure having it all on my person.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

Statistically you are unlikely to need a reload, but if you actually have to pull and fire the odds have already gone bad for you. Also the chances of a private citizen encountering more than one bad guy are MUCH higher than they used to be.

Always for revolver or semi auto.

That same LCP, based on 10th anniversary model, rides in my pocket whenever I leave the house with an extra 7 round in weakside pocket, and do not feel unarmed with 15 rounds of Fiocchi XTP's on tap.
If out and about and smething feels dicey, the 9mm with 3 mag's in the ConsoleVault will immediately go onto my hip.

Nope. Just whats in the gun.

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“What you got, ain’t new.”

I always have a speed strip on me and 2 additional in my truck as well as another 2 boxes in my floor storage bins.

Same here. I figure if I can't do it with seven rounds I'm probably doing it wrong.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Mine actually is the 10th Anniversary Limited Edition Model, it's laser engraved on the top of the slide. I don't worry about carrying it because Ruger has had several limited edition LCPs and I highly doubt that any of them will ever be worth much. Honestly, I bought mine in Summer of 2019, just under a year after they were originally released, which to me speaks volumes of just how "limited" they are.

Good choice of ammo too, mine is also loaded with 90gr XTPs, but they're Hornady American Gunner brand rather than Fiocchi. XTPs seem to be the best JHPs available in .380 ACP since they tend to fully expand yet penetrate 12" in Ballistics Gel, even out of short-barrel Pocket Pistols like the LCP.

The SW40VE was a dirt-cheap .40cal pistol I found just lying in the display case at my LGS one day late last September for $199 LNIB, and seeing as I was considering getting a newer model SD40VE anyway, buying it was a no-brainer. I didn't even have enough on me to afford it at the time, but I couldn't pass it up, so I put it on layaway then payed it off and picked it up a week later.
I've been carrying it ever since then and I'm very happy that I picked it up when I did considering all that has happened. I feel much safer carrying a double-stack pistol in a duty cartridge, although I have no doubt that a .380 ACP will do the job in a pinch.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

For sure carry 6 spare rounds for my 340/640 both no locks on a bianchi speed strip all the time. Keep J frame speedloaders and a spare box of ammo in my vehicles.

When I carry an auto I carry a spare mag, when I carry a revolver I carry a speed loader. Why? Just in case!

I carry a spare mag for the P938 or a speed strip for the 442

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Time wounds all heels

If I am going to leave the house with a handgun, you can be absolutely sure I will take extra magazine/ammunition with me. I once saw a video of a couple fellows with magazine rifles who shot a Cape Buffalo and both rifles (of different calibers) unloaded their magazines onto the ground after the first round. Very instructive.

Two guns are probably better than one and a spare mag, if you want to get right down to it, but there were two guns and they BOTH failed at not only the same moment, but at the same critical moment.

Stuff can, and often does, go wrong at the worst time. Be ready to run!

When I had to carry an auto, my fix for a malfunction was a backup revolver with 2 speed strip reloads for it. Granted I carried a revolver for 20 years before my dept went to autos. I had lots more capacity with the auto. I saw way too many malfunctions with autos as a firearms instructor to trust them without a more reliable alternative and I never learned to throw a perfectly good knife.

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SWCA 3417 HF 642 NRA-TC

One magazine in my Kahr CW40, a seven round magazine in my pocket, another in the console of my truck.

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LIVE FROM THE DAWGHOUSE

Two Snubs Two or Three Speed Strips.

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Two Handguns every day

Usually carry a speed strip or two. Sometimes I carry two guns. Not often though. Almost exclusively 357/38. Always have a box of shells in the truck. In the woods I carry a bandolier.

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No gold. Only lead. Bobby

No.
I switch between 45 Commander (9 rounds) and my 19 (6 rounds).
Feel OK with that.
If it goes beyond that I doubt an extra Mag or speed loader will matter.
I'll be thinking, dang it, wish I had brought my rifle.

I always carry a reload. I often carry a NY Reload as well.

Speed strip for the Jframe and 1-2 extra mags for the auto, depending on which gun I am carrying.

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Gun Control: POA=POI

The Israeli's don't carry with a round chambered.
He's speaking of topping off his magazine.

One of us is misreading.......

"I don't even bother to chamber a round......."


or his prose is poor.......................

Yes I do, with semi’s both for capacity and malfunctions, and revolvers for capacity. I often carry a small BUG. For me it isn’t the odds so much as the stakes. My vehicle generally contains at least one long gun also.

Spare mag or speed strip (depending on what I'm carrying at the time) pretty much all the time except at home. At home I have ready access to a couple of reloads in my bedroom - which is where I'd be retreating to in a home invasion scenario anyway.
And I am carrying all the time when I'm home.

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

Always at least one reload and often two. Doesn't matter if its a 5 shot revolver or a 15 rd semi-auto. No particular reason. Its just what I've become comfortable with.
I've found that for semi-autos its no more trouble to have a double mag pouch on your off side as it is a single.

I'm glad someone could read what I wrote.

Classic case of taken out of context. Not including the second half of that sentence completely changes it's meaning.

English composition was never my strength but I think what I wrote was pretty clear, if you take the time to read the whole sentence.

I do in fact always have a round chambered, but I only have 15 rounds total on tap not 15+1.