How many mags?

[Marie13]

Title says it all - how many mags should I have for my pistols? How many do you have?

I have an M&P 9 and a 9mm Shield.

Shield - 3 x 7 round & 4 x 8 round

M&P 9 - 4 x 17 round

 

[Big Cholla]

Marie13: IMHO you should have about 6 ea. for each autoloader. You should number every one from 1 to 6 with some sort of id as to which gun it belongs. If a gun fails to function in any manner, note the mag number and look it over very carefully later. Two or three failures to feed on the range means a complete rebuild effort on the workbench for that mag. ............... Big Cholla

 

[roscoepc]

I'd say that depends on how much you want to shoot before reloading the mag's... My wife's Ruger P-95 came with 2 10 round mag's and I wanted a bit more capacity for the gun so I bought 2, 15 round mag's.. For home defense 2, 15's should be sufficient I think!! And for the range there's the 2 extra 10 round mag's....

 

[AR-Getsome]

I have 10 for my fs9, 6 for my 9c because the fs magazines also fit the 9c. 8 for my shield. 12 for the M&P 22. 6 each for me and my wife for her 22. You can never have too many magazines. I shoot IDPA with my fs9, saves time on reloading my magazines. I have 9 for my Beretta M9 too. You don't want to know how many I have for my ar-15 or my M&P 15-22's.....

 

[flat_topp]

... How many do you have?

I have 6 mags for my M&P40FS. They are 15 round capacity, but I usually load them with only 14 rounds.

I have 7 mags for my Ruger SR1911, a mix of 7 and 8 rounders.

 

[Doug M.]

I would stock up a little at a time, every time you see a decent price buy a few. While they are wear items, unless you are training a lot, 15 or so per pistol will likely carry you through your life. I have 6 for my Wilson KZ9; had 10 for my duty 1911; had 6 for my issued G21, and I have a bunch (10-15) for my Glock 19L (cut down 17). I only have 3 for my Glock 33 cuz it is not a gun to shoot a lot - not fun in most ways.

 

[Rpg]

I keep 70 - 80 1911 magazines.

I buy the least expensive I can find ($10 - $12).

I test each in ALL my 1911's and discard those that don't function flawlessly in all of them.

If one stops working, it goes in the trash. If one gets gummed up with sand or mud, it goes in the trash ( life's too short to fuss cleaning up a muddy $10 magazine).

Magazines are fungible and not made to last your lifetime, although many of mine have seen 20 - 30 years of service.

I don't baby them. I drop them from the pistol to the ground, without worrying about what they land on (can you imagine how silly it would be to slow down to protect an ejected magazine in a sd situation?).

For pistols other than 1911's, four or five magazines are plenty for me.

Of course , I don't use those pistols for sd or competition ( other than some of my 22's).

How many magazines you need depends on what you do with your pistol. For those who occasionally shoot a pistol, 4 or 5 magazines will do.

If you're doing serious shooting, you need lots more.

Just my opinion, of course.

 

[Rpg]

I keep 70 - 80 1911 magazines.

I buy the least expensive I can find ($10 - $12).

I test each in ALL my 1911's and discard those that don't function flawlessly in all of them.

If one stops working, it goes in the trash. If one gets gummed up with sand or mud, it goes in the trash ( life's too short to fuss cleaning up a muddy $10 magazine).

Magazines are fungible and not made to last your lifetime, although many of mine have seen 20 - 30 years of service.

I don't baby them. I drop them from the pistol to the ground, without worrying about what they land on (can you imagine how silly it would be to slow down to protect an ejected magazine in a sd situation?).

For pistols other than 1911's, four or five magazines are plenty for me.

Of course , I don't use those pistols for sd or competition ( other than some of my 22's).

How many magazines you need depends on what you do with your pistol. For those who occasionally shoot a pistol, 4 or 5 magazines will do.

If you're doing serious shooting, you need lots more.

Just my opinion, of course.

 

[Bkreutz]

It really depends on what your usage is. I shoot USPSA Open so I have 5 17 round mags, 5 22 round mags, and 2 29 round mags. I could get by with less, but this lets me preload for the stages because I don't have a lot of time during the stage since I'm usually working as a Range Officer as well. When I shoot IDPA, I just take the 17's and down load them to 10, same thing with steel challenge except I load to capacity and shoot 2 strings before reloading.

 

[SoCalDep]

I have 24 or 25 M&P9 mags, but that's spread over several guns...six are designated training/competition mags, two are designated for off-duty carry, six more for on-duty primary use, and the rest are labeled "extra" and held in reserve.

I have 3 mags for my M&P9C

I have 2 mags for my Shield...I want to get one or two more.

 

[Mountain Walker]

Title says it all - how many mags should I have for my pistols? How many do you have?

I have an M&P 9 and a 9mm Shield.

Shield - 3 x 7 round & 4 x 8 round

M&P 9 - 4 x 17 round

Marie, seems to me that you are on the right track! I think 4 spare magazines is enough for a pistol. That is, two functional spares that you can carry and two extra magazines salted back in case of loss or breakage. You are very well stocked on the Shield. During buying panics the supply dries up and price skyrockets. Perhaps a few(2) more of 17 round magazines would be prudent while they are available and fairly low cost. Here is a source, Greg Cote: SMITH & WESSON FACTORY MAGAZINES : Greg Cote, LLC

 

[1hatchet]

I keep 70 - 80 1911 magazines.

I buy the least expensive I can find ($10 - $12).

I test each in ALL my 1911's and discard those that don't function flawlessly in all of them.

If one stops working, it goes in the trash. If one gets gummed up with sand or mud, it goes in the trash ( life's too short to fuss cleaning up a muddy $10 magazine).

Magazines are fungible and not made to last your lifetime, although many of mine have seen 20 - 30 years of service.

I don't baby them. I drop them from the pistol to the ground, without worrying about what they land on (can you imagine how silly it would be to slow down to protect an ejected magazine in a sd situation?).

For pistols other than 1911's, four or five magazines are plenty for me.

Of course , I don't use those pistols for sd or competition ( other than some of my 22's).

How many magazines you need depends on what you do with your pistol. For those who occasionally shoot a pistol, 4 or 5 magazines will do.

If you're doing serious shooting, you need lots more.

Just my opinion, of course.

Wow, so you have spent $700 plus dollars to get working magazines for your 1911's. Think I will stay with my seven Wilson 47D mags. purchased for $30 and work flawlessly, spend my extra money on ammo.

How would one ever keep up with 70-80 magazines, sounds like a logistical nightmare.

 

[Model39]

Minimum OF Five For Each Gun.

My rule was at least 5 per gun, and add more when you can. I figured when we switched from revolvers to automatics in 1991 at work, I had one in the gun, and two in my duty belt mag pouch. I had the other two in my shoulder holster mag pouch, so depending what I was doing, I could simply transfer the gun from my duty belt to my shoulder rig and have the full compliment of rounds without much effort. I later added more magazines when I could. With my Glock Model 23, I carried a 29 round magazine in my briefcase just in case the extra fire power was needed. Now that I'm retired, all my high capacity magazines (49 total) were illegal, and were sold out of state to comply with the NYS SAFE ACT. You can never have enough extra magazines, but the minimum should always be at least 5 per gun.

 

[Rpg]

Wow, so you have spent $700 plus dollars to get working magazines for your 1911's. Think I will stay with my seven Wilson 47D mags. purchased for $30 and work flawlessly, spend my extra money on ammo.

How would one ever keep up with 70-80 magazines, sounds like a logistical nightmare.

Logistics are no problem: most are in a small duffel bag.

I've been buying 5 - 10 a year for many years.

As I said, they don't last for ever and I shoot a lot of 45 acp.

 

[Lycan]

I have 5, 8 rounders and 1, 7 rounder for my Shield 9mm (EDC). I use the 7 rounder for cleaning and dis-assembly, it usually stays empty. I keep one 8 rounder in the gun, one in the vehicle, and 3 in the range bag. Sometimes, I will get one from the range bag and put it in my pocket depending on where I am going. I might get 2 more 8 rounders if I can get a great deal on them. I have two mags for my Taurus PT111 and 2 mags for my Browning Hi-Power clone. The rest of my pistils are .38 revolvers.

 

[Jiman]

For most pistols I normally buy 6 mags for each gun. 3 to carry and 3 more to cycle through the carry rotation. As they wear out, I buy springs and followers to rebuild. I've found that most mag bodies these days don't crack or wear out per se, but the springs, and sometimes followers, do.

The only exception was for my 1911, it came with 6, eight rounders. I bought 6 more 10 rds for range, and 6 more eight rounders when Wilson Combat came out with their ETM HD, with flat spring which are never supposed to wear out (all parts gurarnteed for life). The additional 1911 mags come in handy at the range to limit the amount of time reloading.

For my rifles it varies, but over the course of time, I've accumulated a lot for each rifle. In my state they're harder to come by so I've probably over-bought with the mindset that the restrictions will get worse, but obviously YMMV depending on where you live.

IMO the amount of mags you buy depends on the kind of shooting you do. For some, the owner may never wear out the 2-3 that came with the gun. For others, they may rebuild their mags once a year and the extra mags just make sense.

 

[NoogMan]

Q

Title says it all - how many mags should I have for my pistols? How many do you have?

I have an M&P 9 and a 9mm Shield.

Shield - 3 x 7 round & 4 x 8 round

M&P 9 - 4 x 17 round

I have the same for my Shield, and 5 total for my 9 full size. I think you're set!

 

[Marie13]

Marie, seems to me that you are on the right track! I think 4 spare magazines is enough for a pistol. That is, two functional spares that you can carry and two extra magazines salted back in case of loss or breakage. You are very well stocked on the Shield. During buying panics the supply dries up and price skyrockets. Perhaps a few(2) more of 17 round magazines would be prudent while they are available and fairly low cost. Here is a source, Greg Cote: SMITH & WESSON FACTORY MAGAZINES : Greg Cote, LLC

For the 9FS, I keep two loaded for HD (one in pistol, the other a backup) with two for the range. For my Shield, I spread loaded 8 round mags around - one in my car console, one next to my bedside, one on me in a mag holder or in my purse. I carry my Shield with a 7 rounder as it's easier to conceal (I carry on body almost exclusively). I've been thinking about getting a few more 8 rounders to salt away and a couple more 9FS mags.

At night, my 9FS goes on one side of my bed and my Shield on the other.

ETA: thanks for the link. Just ordered 2 - 17 rounders for my 9FS and 1 more 8 rounder for my Shield.

 

[perrazi]

I hate loading mags at the range. takes up shooting time. I have enough for my different autos to load at least 100rds. per gun without stopping to load mags.

 

[ripcurlksm]

I have 3 mags for my M&P Shield 9mm. Two 8-round and one 7-round w/Pearce grip