Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How many mags do you need and why?

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?