How many rounds are enough to carry....for YOU?

[Kennydale]

Today I went to an event across the city. Me Wife 16 year old grand daughter, 3 year old grandson and 4 month grandson. I carried my Glock G17 had two spare magazines on belt and one in cargo pocket, also had Ruger LCP in front left pocket. That's how we go out.

[38superhero]

38 super Israeli style carried mex style ....3 mags in left rear pocket...1 mag in each boot ...so 54 rounds...too much?

[tahunua001]

I am fairly flexible but generally I try to shoot at least 150 range rounds and at least 50 hollow points, followed by at least ten rounds of the exact ammo I intend to carry. if the gun makes it through those without problems, the gun gets cleaned and then I order a holster for it. if it does not make it through that battery without a failure I isolate the problem and if it's not correctable I don't carry it, if it is and I make it through at least 200 rounds without an issue I put it through the original trial again. if it fails again I don't waste my time with it anymore and I don't carry it.

as for capacity I have no minimum, although I probably would think twice about packing a muzzle loader for personal protection. my lowest cap CCW is a XDs9 which has 7 round capacity. the others I regularly carry concealed are 9 and 10 rounds respectively. if I'm open carrying I don't bother with a compact and go straight for the full length mags, generally 13-17 rounds with some exceptions.

[Kreyzhorse]

I don't carry a reload any more so I'm typically carrying any where from 6 to 10 rounds.

I'm comfortable no matter what gun is carry and don't worry that I'll run out of ammo before the fight is finished.

[Tactical Jackalope]

I have 63 rounds me.

Glock 19 (15+1) 2 spare 17 round mags.

Glock 43 (6+1) 1 spare 6 round mag.

[Ozzieman]

Depending on what I am carring
5, 44 specials
7, 45 acp
10, 9mm
5, 44 mag

[Deja vu]

I carry an 8 shot revolver in 357 magnum with a back up speed strip so 16 rounds...

occasionally ill carry my NAA mini as a back up so you can add 5 more to that.

[PT-92]

Glock 26 with one extra mag and a Beretta 21A pocket BUG. Thinking about another glock mag in m EDC.

[the357plan]

The capacity of what ever gun I choose to carry plus one reload. So when I carry my Contender, that's 2 rounds.

[FairWarning]

15+1 no spares typical in summer 9mm.

Winter, I have the option for the full size and 18+1 and 2x18 backup 9mm. Any more paranoid than that, and I'd either stay home or have my AR-15 "Assault" rifle in the vehicle with 40+1 and two backup 30+1.

[kilimanjaro]

The Law of Averages says 3 seconds, 3 feet, 3 shots.

[Sharkbite]

The Law of Averages says 3 seconds, 3 feet, 3 shots.

The problem with that "average" is simply this...what if your fight is at the wrong end of that bell curve?

Personal example;
my 1st shooting, i fired all of 1 shot. Badguy fell. Done. Single shot fired from about 6feet

My next shooting (2 years later) 11rounds fired at a MEASURED distance of 43 YARDS.

So, if we avg the number of shots fired (1+11=12 divide by 2) we come up with 6 rounds. So according to the AVG i would have been ok with a 6 shot pistol.

The PROBLEM is in one of those events i NEEDED 11 rounds on tap RIGHT THE HECK NOW!!!

We dont get to pick our fight. So we need to prepare for the WORST case scenario. Not the avg or BEST case. Heck, if you want to use avg and play the odds....dont carry a gun at all. Statistics say you wont need it PERIOD.

But IF you do need it you need it badly. And if your gunfight is outside the "norm" (more rounds fired, more distance, mtpl attackers) you may want to be prepared for that.

Now, my days of intentially putting myself in harms way (hopefully) are behind me. But, ive experenced enough hostile encounters to know a couple things. The big one is YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH TIME OR AMMO in a shooting

Now, obviously, the pistol is an emergency response tool. If we knew there was going to be a fight we would not go..or at least take a longgun. The point is sometimes things clack off right now and we only have the tools at hand to fix the problem. A J frame with no reload MAY not be enough to solve the immediate problem...so whats your plan after those 5shots didnt solve the problem

Someone is going to say "if the 5 shot dont solve the problem, i'll run". Hell, if you could have run you should have done that already. Oh, and i love the "if i can't solve it in 5shots it was my time to go". What HOGWASH. Stay home and bury your head in the sand.

[TimSr]

The firearms instructor at my local range told me there is no documented case of an American civilian involved in a gun fight who reloaded and continued shooting. I have no idea if that's true or not. Anyone have statistics on this?

I don't know if he's right, but I'm pretty sure he is close. I can't even find an anecdote of non-LEO reloading, or for that matter getting killed because they ran out of ammo either.

I carry 5 in my Taurus 85, with one speedloader in the glove box of each vehicle for if I exit the vehicle, and feel like carrying one, which hasn't yet happened.

[Sharkbite]

^^^ again...bell curve theory. Do YOU want to be the FIRST case??

[OldMarksman]

I can't even find an anecdote of non-LEO reloading, ...

I really cannot see how, in a dynamic critical incident such as a violent attack, one would expect to be able to reload. Trainers teach dropping and changing magazines, but that's said to be for the purpose of clearing malfunctions.

I cannot do it quickly enough to rely on it.

...or for that matter getting killed because they ran out of ammo either.

Defenders with guns are rarely killed, but that does not mean that running out of ammunition would not be a terrible thing to happen.

I carry 5 in my Taurus 85, with one speedloader in the glove box of each vehicle for if I exit the vehicle, and feel like carrying one, which hasn't yet happened.

I don't know what would make anyone "feel like" carrying a speed loader, and I don't know what one would expect to do with it anyway.

On the subject of five shot revolvers, they can be great for backup--for pulling in the event of that malfunction. I would not rely on one for primary carry, however, though I once did.

Tom Givens does not recommend carrying a five shot revolver. His advice is to carry a "real gun".

Consider how many shots one would likely need to fire quickly to have a reasonable chance of hitting anything critical within a moving attacker's body. That's why people are trained to fire four or five shots very quickly.

Then consider the risk of the second attacker.

Study the link in Post #31.

[manta49]

I figure if 6 doesn't do it, more will not help.

You figure wrong plenty of people have being hit with 6 rds and more and kept shooting, you are also assuming you woint miss with some shots.

[kilimanjaro]

Sharkbite, with about a million defensive uses of personal firearms in this country every year, including thousands of 'combat' shootings, the bell curve has been proven to be a very reliable indicator of reality when used to predict future events.

No, no one wants to be the 'test case', but allow me to say if I am going to be involving myself in situations or places where the law of averages is unreliable, then I am deliberately pushing the envelope of both the bell curve and my personal longevity. That is stupidity enough in any case, but when a handgun has been chosen as the weapon to carry when pushing that envelope, it is beyond stupidity.

Going beyond a 'meeting encounter' to a 'mutual combat' scenario where multiple well-armed assailants are your foe is not a valid self-defense plan. Putting oneself into such a situation with a handgun is not smart.

In such an instance, I am going to take steps to either avoid the situation entirely or upgrade my firepower in both quantity and quality, as well as the number of combatants on my side of the equation. Such actions are not going to be happening in the society that we live in.

[manta49]

I can't even find an anecdote of non-LEO reloading, or for that matter getting killed because they ran out of ammo either.

I know of one incident here were a guy was attacked, he had two mags and had to reload even then he was down to his last two rounds when the attackers fled. So it does happen in this case if he had only one mag he would be dead.

When one moved position and appeared at the side of the house, Eric took careful aim and pulled the trigger only to find he was out of ammunition.

“The magazine was empty but I had another one in my coat which was in the van.”

Eric would have to place himself in direct line of fire, running back around the open van door to retrieve his spare magazine. “I pulled out the coat, got the full mag and whacked it in to the gun

I had only two or three rounds left at this stage and I remember thinking: ‘If he comes in for me now I’ll just lie here and let him shoot away at me.’ The adrenaline had all left the body and I couldn’t have cared less. I could see all the blood pouring out of my boots

[Rob62]

Sacrilege to some. But I generally only carry one magazine in the gun. Capacity varies by what gun it is I am carrying. No spares on me. I just make sure that magazine works.

Regards,

Rob

[Sharkbite]

No, no one wants to be the 'test case', but allow me to say if I am going to be involving myself in situations or places where the law of averages is unreliable, then I am deliberately pushing the envelope of both the bell curve and my personal longevity. That is stupidity enough in any case, but when a handgun has been chosen as the weapon to carry when pushing that envelope, it is beyond stupidity.

SO many things wrong with this logic, im not sure where to begin.

The point about examples of "averages" is that mathematically, some people fall on either side of that avg. In my examples, the avg rounds fired was 6. If i only had a 6 shot gun, i would have been just fine in the first example..but woefully behind the curve in the other example. For it to BE an AVERAGE, some will be lower and some WILL BE HIGHER. Thats what an avg is.

As for the comments about taking a handgun to the fight....sometimes we dont get to chose weapon systems. Dept policy, speed of the unfolding event, thats all we have at the moment. Of course we would chose a longgun if at all possible (and i have done that when i could). In the 2 examples given, the handgun was right there and ready to go....a long gun was not.

The point is we dont get to chose our fight all the time and are forced to use what we have at hand. A low capacity gun MAY NOT have the ammo onboard to end that fight. Somebody has to provide the high end of the numbers we "average"..you better pray its not you that NEEDS 11 rounds, and all you have is the 5 in your snubby

[CDW4ME]

I've concluded that its a waste of time to try to convince someone satisfied with a snub or pocket pistol and no reload to do any better.

If someone rationalizes their carry based on perceived threat (carry one thing in places perceived as "good" but bigger gun and / or more ammo in "bad" places) their predictive (psychic) ability supporting the choice is typically resolute.
Ignore the fact that all bank robberies occur in the daytime.
Examples of someone that took several rounds to stop, isolated incident; the rationalizer speculates they will not encounter determined, violent, possibly drugged attacker(s).
Examples like San Bernandino, Chattanooga, Sandy Hook, Aroura, Columbine, Heath, Lubys, are not going to matter... rationalized, won't happen.

If someone has to pocket carry (ect...) due to work restricted clothing, that is different, best they can do (not rationalizing).

[MR.G]

Usually a J frame with five rounds of .357. Sometimes a speed loader or two.

[OldMarksman]

....allow me to say if I am going to be involving myself in situations or places where the law of averages is unreliable, then I am...

What on earth does that mean?

[reppans]

J-frame with an extra speed strip for me.

I wish it had more rounds, and faster reload, but I just happen prioritize deep concealment, comfort, [hammer-down] safety, and accuracy over capacity.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

The law of averages worked for the dinosaurs for 64 millions years and 364 days.

How many times have we had this conversation? The modal DGU has no shots fired, so you don't need any ammo.