I was at my local LGS the other day talking with the owner that I have known for many years.

He is/was a Camp Perry shooter, competition shooter, 1911 aficionado and smith, obviously well experienced, etc.

Just for the hell of it I asked him "how many magazines do you need for your auto pistol"? He surprised me by saying "just one" then he qualified by saying "and one spare"

Now me, I have as little as two and as many as 20 for various autos.

How many do you think you need and why?

MAGA!

More the merrier. If you have a pistol to look at or just a security blanket only a couple but if you like to shoot not sure you can have to many. Reload your mags in downtime not when you want or need to be shooting. Way I see it mb

All of them. All of the mags.

For work? One in the gun and three reloads. For conceal carry? I usually don't carry an extra mag, but I would carry one spare (glock 19).

I have a half dozen 45 mags, bunch of AR mags. I don’t really have a good reason.

I've always looked at mags as being somewhat disposable and maybe even legislated out of existence.

I got a bunch of them for each auto.

Usually only carry one spare though.

Whenever I buy a firearm requiring a mag, the first thing I do is order at least one other mag for it. I figure I may lose one out in the woods. I also figure it is better to buy them now before they go out of production and become rare and expensive. With DM rifles, I usually carry the the spare mag loaded in my pocket.

With semi-auto pistols, I usually buy 2 or 3 mags. If there is an extended version, I'll buy a couple more of those. I'll also buy a speed loader thingy.

With semi-auto rifles, the sky is the limit. I don't know how many AR15 mags I own. Some day they may be worth something.

The one exception to all this is a Mossberg bolt action 20 GA I bought as a Yute gun for #3 son, Angus. It is now doing duty with #1 Granddaughter, the Mooselette. In this case, I bought it off Gunbroker on a deal, missing the mag, and then called Numrich and got the last mag they had for it. The mag cost more than the shotgun. If it ever gets lost, I might toss the gun before buying another. BTW: If you call Numrich for such a mag and they're out, they'll take your name and number. When enough orders come in, they'll fabricate new ones.

For just "having" - lots. At least a dozen because they're cheap enough to add to the cart when ordering stuff to get up to "free shipping" or whatever.

If I was donning a plate carrier/chest rig - I'd probably go with the gun and 2 spares because if I'm down to that I'm f-d anyway. Rest are in reserve - mostly because I may not come back with everything I leave with.

for the long guns, I have multiple - actually couldn't tell you how many but its definitely more than 2

but for whatever reason, on the pistols, I always buy a spare and that's it.

Trying to track down a WWII era spare now for a Spanish made paramount.

6 for pistol
8 for rifle

The need for extra mags is inversely proportional to one’s shooting skill and judgement.

One of my flight school buddies got shot down in ‘Nam and was ejected from the chopper on impact. When he regained consciousness he heard some NVA laughing and felt their bayonets poking him in the butt. His right hand was on the grip of his S&W .38 and he decided he would prefer death to imprisonment. He rolled over and administered death to his three tormentors with three shots. The most difficult aspect of his recovery was getting over the hangover he had the next morning.

magazines? Buy many, stack 'em deep

I like your line of thinking here. Sometimes you essentially get the mags for free.

It's like grabbing that extra brick of 22lr when you're at Cabela's. Never know, may as well get it and they're not expensive. Next thing you know - you're armpits deep in mags/ammo and "shortages" are for "other people".

I have no idea how many mags I have...

...but I need them.

For the centerfires one extra, rimfires 4-6.

however many I want. He is dumb, but thats not my problem.

FWIW we carry no less than 5 30s plus a 20 in the AR in the vehicles. And if carrying full size handgun Glock its gun plus 2 mags. Sneaky tiny guns are carried for a reason and only a couple mags but they are to allow one to get back to a fighting gun IE get out of the area. Or carry at least 2 handguns as needed.

When we buy extra AR mags its 10 at a time. Extra handgun at least 5. Only own one bolt gun with a mag and that was because it was free...

I need one per weapon, cause single loading is a pita. What I have is one drawer of them that I randomly add to for no reason.

You ever hit anything you shoot at or just spray n pray like the rest of your brethren?

Extras are handy to have at the range. Load ‘em up at home.

Doesn’t take much to futz up feed lips, so a couple of spares for your spares is good insurance. Watching review videos has shown me that some “consumer grade” mags, typically ones for cheap carry guns, can explode on contact with a hard surface. Might just come apart, but also might be done for. If a jam makes you do a tactical reload, it’d be nice to be able to recover a usable mag afterwards.

Remember what Clint always says……

Autos, or semi-autos

Do you read anything these days about multiple assailants? How are you under fire? How to you provide suppressive fire if need be. Are you 100 percent and can get all that done with a mag full of 7?

Why do you even care what others choose to prepare with. Its none of your damn business.

And yes I'm of the one shot mindset but I'm not so stupid to not carry extra, more than I expect I might need.

I hope I don't need any but theres one in my EDC and another in the car.

I figure, as a civilian , if theres a fight, win lose or draw, its probably gonna be over by the end of the first mag.

Yes to this.

All I want, because I'm a free man!

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best

That's right shaman and not having enough might only cost you your life, what's that worth?..mb

I will need as many as I have until they kill me.
I am to old to run these days.

How many do I "WANT"?
All I can get my hands on! LOL!
How many do I "NEED"?
My EDC is one mag in place (10), one spare (7).
My hunting AR is one in place (10), one spare (10).

That number is too big to write on this page.......just like ammo, never too much of it.

That number is too big to write on this page.......just like ammo, never too much of it.

Most videos I have seen. When you start shooting those Norwegian's start running.

When I was working, one in my gun and three on my belt.

Now days, different gun; one in my gun and one extra when I'm doing security work at my church.

EDC Glock 19 or Sig 365 one extra, the one extra makes me feel good. Had to teach old dog new tricks.

A spare mag is not only a source for a quick reload, it is also a quick fix for mechanical problems.

Remember Clint Smith’s story about when he was a deputy and caught the baseplate of his mag on his seatbelt when getting out of his car at a call. The baseplate ripped off and his weapon was a single shot until he used one of his spare magazines.

I feel uncomfortable without a loaded spare mag anytime I carry a gun with a detachable mag.

For my edc handgun, a Springfield XDS in 45 ACP…..I carry 2 spares on the opposite side. Offers plenty (I hope) of rounds, and helps balance the weight of the handgun! memtb

I was thinking about this again over breakfast.

One of the chief determinants in figuring how how many mags for me is how I'm going to carry them.

Take my P1/P38. For years, I carried it back and forth to the farm in its original holster. I had one spare mag in the holder in the holster. When it became necessary to carry all the time at the farm due to the influx of feral dogs, I switched to a tanker style chest holster. I ordered a leather two mag pouch to attach to the rig, and an extra mag.

For the winter, here in town, I carry a P95. I've got enough room in the conceal carry vest for 2 mags, and it offsets the weight of the piece nicely.

If someone handed me a 1911 to carry, probably the first thing I'd look at is what is available to handle extra mags. The standard 1911 mag pouch holds two. Okay, two it is.

The other issue that I can see is reloading. If I really ever get into it and need to go to the spare mag, I could eject the empty and fumble-finger the reload. My first reaction would not be to pick the mag off the ground and clean off the mud, but to go to the second mag and be a bit more mindful of how I did it.

Was he speaking to what he carries?

Yeah, reloading a revolver is slow, but compared to trying to stuff rounds in an auto mag it’s downright snappy.

Most of us I expect, could do with some mag-change practice.

EDC, one in the gun, one in my left rear pants pocket. There's also one within reach when I'm driving in my truck. AR, enough to get the job done.

Allot.

Mags are disposable.

Edc one and a spare carried somewhere accessible and comfortable.


-Jake

It is always nice to have extras.

Those are both eight round magazines. I figure if I get into a bad situation, if I can't shoot my way out of it with 17 rounds of .45 ACP Fed. Hydra Shok cartridges, I'd better adhere to that old adage, "Feets, don't fail me now."

L.E.

You know them MTM ammo crates?
You can hold a lot of thirty rounders in one of them.

I need a few more.

That’s when you need a grenade to toss over your shoulder on your way out.

DF

I have several 1911s from a Norinco to a Wilson Combat and a few inbetween, so I have plenty of spares I still buy older 1911 mags if I see them and just change the springs.

I have three each for my 1911,s Except the Colt with a 22 slide. I have not acquired additional Colt 22 mags yet.
Two for the Ruger Mk IV.
Four AICS 308 mags to share between two Rem 700s in 260.

Now Dad, Always hunted with a 760 in 30-06. He carried one mag in the rifle, one in each front pants pocket, and one in each breast pocket of his flannel.. For a total of twenty rounds.

A bunch.

It’s like Christmas all the time, find mags all the time I don’t even remember, found 6 other day still in packaging.

Same here, Barry.

And need more.

Found a box full of 1911 mags a little while back.

1. "How many mags do you need?"
Yes

2. "and why?"
Rhetorical

I want as many magazines as I feel like I might need. When it's time to fight, you sure as he'll don't want to be loading magazines.

Kinda how I see it: if I have to reload, I'm in more trouble than one man with a pistol needs to be in.

By then you should have fought your way back to your car to get your long gun and finish the fight.

I got that concept from my SWAT sniper LEO bud.

DF

For my bolt action hunting rifles, just one, they are pricey at $117 per. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/102437975?pid=912178, if I lost one hunting I could always single load, but lately I've been using a cheap plastic mag in my pack for fast reload (if I ever need it I've messed up)!

For my Glocks, it 15 won't do it, more isn't likely to help at that point.

Magazines are a consumable, and history tells us they can be legislated out of availability. So no less than 10 per rifle/pistol, and well over 100 AR magazines and 9mm Glock magazines of various sizes.

It's all up to what you think you need. I bought my first handgun (G17 Gen2) in 1994 right before the ban, and lived through ten years of BS. I'm not getting caught like that again.

Our combat load to go to Iraq was 7, 30 round magazines for 210 rounds. I don't like the 30 round magazines. I like the 20's. A close equivalent would be 11 twenty round magazines. That's about how many I have in 20 round magazines. Keep in mind, stuffing 20 rounds in the magazines makes the top round difficult to strip out so I drop one round in each magazine to 19 for dependability. (I know for all you nay sayers) I need that 11th magazine. I have some 30 round magazines but I leave 2 out for dependability. A lesson I learned loading 30 round magazines while I was in Afghanistan.

kwg

This 👆nor will I say on the internet.

I think along the same lines for the same reasons. Magazines are a wear item. If you carry and use them a lot and practice reloading at speed, you will drop them and they will get beat up and exposed to mud, dirt, gravel, snow, water and concrete, necessitating periodic replacement. If you keep some loaded in different places like vehicles or day packs, you need extras. If you don’t like to strip out carry ammo from magazines to train with them, you need extras for that. After the federal 10 round mag limit sunset in 2004, for every new carry gun I bought that had more than a 10 round magazine capacity, I settled on 12 magazines as a reasonable minimum. For new model guns with scarce availability of spare mags, I try to have at least 3 total until I can gradually get more depending on my intended use scenario.

For guns that don’t get carried or shot a lot, a few can be good enough.

.
For a pistol, 5 minimum.
For a pistol that I shoot a lot, many more.
I don't like spending much range time loading mags.

If you're in a state that is in danger of going ban (10rd mags), then buy everything you might need now.
Also buy mags for any firearm that you think you might want in the future.

For what, day to day carry or stock-on-hand? For carry use, I like to have at least 15 rounds and I like to have at least 1 loaded spare magazine on me in case of a magazine failure, maybe a [bleep] up where I drop the mag on the ground and bend the feed lips so it won't feed reliably, any sort of issue. So .. it varies a bit with cartridge and capacity. Might be the gun full plus 2 spare magazines if it's a 6 shot like the G43. Might be 2 if they are 15 rounders like the G40MOS. I like to have at least 3-4 spares new still in package in a box at home. The reason for that is .. it's Oregon. November before last our dumb-ass voters passed Measure 114 which, among its other evils, imposed a 10-round magazine capacity but grandfathered in larger magazines .. at least in some settings. It was overturned but the overturn is being appealed. During the brief time it was in force, online sellers .. and local retailers .. could not sell us or ship us magazines with more than 10 rounds. So .. I want a few on hand. If I don't need them they make cool trading stock for someone else who might.

Not if you pay attention to recent events in the last years. One mag may well not even be close unfortunately. Yup, I don't ever want to get there, but sometimes it kind of falls in your lap in a way thats somewhat unavoidable. Usually in the city.

That said I had to reload my 458 win mag on a bear twice in the last few years after the clients hit it. I NEVER expect to reload a rifle much less shoot... Thankfully I have one of those stupid little cartridge carriers on the stock....

Most of the replies are referencing hand guns. If anyone has ever ventured into European long guns they have a long history of discontinuing mag. Steyr SSG, even HK anyone remember the HK4? Or the delightful P7 and P17? Not to blame only the Europeans when is the last time you saw a mag for the detachable mag Rem 700 or the detachable mag M70 Win? The reason for stripper clips and slots on old Mauser and most other military long guns was the governments did not trust the troops not to loose the magazine. Any one remember the lanyard loop on the WWI 1911 mags? Long way of saying if you have something that feed from a mag buy several!

I have 1 spare for guns that use them.

Need has nothing to do with it.

If one wants millions they just have to pay for them.

Others are happy with one or two.

No matter if handgun or rifle if you want them and can find/afford them go for it.

Firearm magazines are like porn magazines - I only need one to get the job done.

+1

boy scout motto applies here ^^^^

As many as it takes. In a gun fight, ammo is a life sustaining commodity!

My 1911’s have close to 20 spare Wilson Combat magazines around. My AR-15’s have probably the same number of Magpul polymer magazines. My Glock has about 7 but I’ll acquire more as I go, I haven’t been using a Glock very long. Having a good supply of backups is just a good idea. I mark or number every mag in case I have a malfunction it will help isolate problem.

I think you should have as many as you want. Because you just want them. Pretty simple really.

Bet there are well equipped shooters in Texas that are wishing for more mags and ammo rfn..mb

They say the best answers come early…

Stack AR mags....

For pistols that I take to the range, I like to have at least enough mags to hold the all of the bullets that I will be shooting that day without reloading magazines.

I need as many as I can get

I want just one more than the Gov. says I can have

EDC or working plain clothes, 1 in the gun and a spare. If all geared up, 3 spare for my handgun and 2 spare for my rifle.

That's the way my best friend, Bob, was with his firearms. He was losing them all the time and then going to look for them and finding others that he couldn't remember. He had them scattered all over the house. One day, late in his life, he called me up. He'd discovered 3 in the bedroom. One of them had gone missing 40 years earlier and he'd changed residences twice in that period. Another one of the 3 he had no idea how it got in the house. From the provenance in the box, he figured it had accidentally gotten thrown in during a multi-gun trade at a gun show. He knew the dealer. He had long since died.

The best story I can muster is losing a deer barrel for my 1100 and having it go missing for over a decade. I had finally given up and bought a new one when I saw one at a ridiculously low price. As we were moving out of our house, it showed up down beside the mattress. It had fallen off the bed and not made it to the floor.