Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled How Do You Carry Back Up Ammo? and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/how-do-you-carry-back-up-ammo/.
How Do You Carry Back Up Ammo?
- Thread starter Mike H.
- Start date
Depends on the situation and clothing but, when I carry an extra mag I use a neo-mag.
They work great and the magnet is powerful. I never have to worry about the magazine getting lost in my pocket.
They work great and the magnet is powerful. I never have to worry about the magazine getting lost in my pocket.
SA Addict, thanks for sharing a pic of your carry rig. We'd love to see more pics like these. Anybody else have some pics of their carry system they can show?
Azmarlin39a
Elite
A spare magazine in my left front pocket. It sits next to my IPhone, so minimal printing. No lights, knives, or such.
Pistol classes, I'll either exclusively feed from the open with Raven Concealment's open-top Kydex pouches -
^ Magazine #11 on-deck in the single pouch that I keep forward of the hip, there's also a double pouch clocked behind it. This setup has served me since 2009, and has been through hundreds of hours of training classes, rolling on the ground, being crushed by my porky 250-lb. frame.
[ Picture courtesy of Trek, who was at the time with RCS and was acting as a TA/RSO for the class. The tape on the hand was to hold a gauze patch I had on my palm, where I managed to gouge myself during some rather vigorous slide manipulations. ]
For carbine classes, I tend to go all-out with the mall-ninja kit:
^ I try to play it real with handgun, but really, if things ever got messy enough that my AR needs to come out, I figure it's the Zombie Apocalypse anyway, so I'm jocking-up for the fun with all of my cool-guy gear.
Those are ESSTAC Kiwis, in the "short" flavor as I like to grab as much magazine body as possible (the way the AR mag-pouches are setup, the cutoff corresponds well with magwell insertion depth, preventing over-grabbing). With the Kiwis' Kydex inserts, I get the retention I need (no, I don't jump out of planes or need to slide down builidings) without having to worry about overriding flaps, etc.
[ Picture courtesy of Practicall Tactical. ]
I went with a more traditional handgun-in-front-of-the-rifle setup before, but found that with my body-type and how I run the carbine, when I transitioned, the sling would lay over the handgun mags, slowing/interfering with my reload, so I went to a double-decker setup, which worked very well for me. I later changed that back to the more traditional placement after seeing that heroic British SAS soldier running his double-decker, being too embarrassed of myself to think that others might see me as some kind of phony:
After taking yet another class and re-discovering why I didn't like the more traditional setup in the first place, I've moved the handgun pouches back on top of the rifles. I don't care what anyone else may accuse me of - this method just plain works for me, so I'll own it like a man!
For everyday:
Comp-Tac Concealment Magazine Carrier. I've used this EDC since 2011, carrying a spare full-size XDm9 magazine (19 rounds) on the support side.
As I noted here: https://www.thearmorylife.com/forum/threads/xdm-3-8-compact.105/#post-2758 , I not-infrequently attend training classes with this setup, and when I do, it's back-fed by the double RSC pouch that I mentioned in the top portion of this post, which I simply push back farther on my hip to a lower clocking. This allows me to have three mags at-the-ready at my waist for quick cycling during drills, while I carry another two in my back pocket so that I can get through even the most ammo-heavy evolution. The big shortcoming with this pouch is that once the magazine is withdrawn, the mouth of it collapses, making re-inserting a magazine in it somewhat difficult. For me, this is not that big of a concern as I don't anticipate returning back to this holder under stress.
I've found this pouch to be very comfortable, with the leather "sweat-shield" offering complete coverage of the extended base-pad for my gun, and that it offers a very deep level of concealment. Certainly, with this "depth" there is a bit of a compromise in terms of accessibility and reload speed, but given that I don't really carry the reload magazine for its ammo, per-se, my personal belief is that this compromise is acceptable.
^ Magazine #11 on-deck in the single pouch that I keep forward of the hip, there's also a double pouch clocked behind it. This setup has served me since 2009, and has been through hundreds of hours of training classes, rolling on the ground, being crushed by my porky 250-lb. frame.
[ Picture courtesy of Trek, who was at the time with RCS and was acting as a TA/RSO for the class. The tape on the hand was to hold a gauze patch I had on my palm, where I managed to gouge myself during some rather vigorous slide manipulations. ]
For carbine classes, I tend to go all-out with the mall-ninja kit:
^ I try to play it real with handgun, but really, if things ever got messy enough that my AR needs to come out, I figure it's the Zombie Apocalypse anyway, so I'm jocking-up for the fun with all of my cool-guy gear.
Those are ESSTAC Kiwis, in the "short" flavor as I like to grab as much magazine body as possible (the way the AR mag-pouches are setup, the cutoff corresponds well with magwell insertion depth, preventing over-grabbing). With the Kiwis' Kydex inserts, I get the retention I need (no, I don't jump out of planes or need to slide down builidings) without having to worry about overriding flaps, etc.
[ Picture courtesy of Practicall Tactical. ]
I went with a more traditional handgun-in-front-of-the-rifle setup before, but found that with my body-type and how I run the carbine, when I transitioned, the sling would lay over the handgun mags, slowing/interfering with my reload, so I went to a double-decker setup, which worked very well for me. I later changed that back to the more traditional placement after seeing that heroic British SAS soldier running his double-decker, being too embarrassed of myself to think that others might see me as some kind of phony:
After taking yet another class and re-discovering why I didn't like the more traditional setup in the first place, I've moved the handgun pouches back on top of the rifles. I don't care what anyone else may accuse me of - this method just plain works for me, so I'll own it like a man!
For everyday:
Comp-Tac Concealment Magazine Carrier. I've used this EDC since 2011, carrying a spare full-size XDm9 magazine (19 rounds) on the support side.
As I noted here: https://www.thearmorylife.com/forum/threads/xdm-3-8-compact.105/#post-2758 , I not-infrequently attend training classes with this setup, and when I do, it's back-fed by the double RSC pouch that I mentioned in the top portion of this post, which I simply push back farther on my hip to a lower clocking. This allows me to have three mags at-the-ready at my waist for quick cycling during drills, while I carry another two in my back pocket so that I can get through even the most ammo-heavy evolution. The big shortcoming with this pouch is that once the magazine is withdrawn, the mouth of it collapses, making re-inserting a magazine in it somewhat difficult. For me, this is not that big of a concern as I don't anticipate returning back to this holder under stress.
I've found this pouch to be very comfortable, with the leather "sweat-shield" offering complete coverage of the extended base-pad for my gun, and that it offers a very deep level of concealment. Certainly, with this "depth" there is a bit of a compromise in terms of accessibility and reload speed, but given that I don't really carry the reload magazine for its ammo, per-se, my personal belief is that this compromise is acceptable.
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LicensedToPill
Operator
Great article. I don’t carry any extra ammo, though. I either have a 12 round mag or 15 round mag in my CC depending on the clothing I am wearing. I do keep an extra 17 round mag in my car, and two 12 round mags by my bed. But, I also have a 12 gauge next to my bed as well. Statistically, almost all citizen involved self defense shootings involve 2-4 rounds (roughly). The chances you will actually NEED more than that are extremely, extremely rare. Based on statistics and comfort (I’m 5’6” and 150 lbs), it is not worth it to me to carry additional mags on my person. But, no one has ever complained of having too much ammo, so if you can carry extra ammo comfortably and concealed, go for it.Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled How Do You Carry Back Up Ammo? and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/how-do-you-carry-back-up-ammo/.
KillerFord1977
SAINT
I actually carry my spare .380 8 round mag in an old gerber multutool belt holder for concealment so it looks like a normal tool pouch
XDe 45. My shoulder holster has 2 extra mag holders for a total of 21 rounds. My Versacary has 1 mag carrier on the holster for a fatal of 14. Also have a dbl mag OWB carrier. Use the Versa around town. Use the Versa and the OWB if i go to the Big city. Take everything if I go overnight. So, a full load with the Versa is 28. Full load with the shoulder holster is 35. Carry an extra box of ammo in each car, in case things get really weird.
Roadwarrior
Alpha
What if your one mag fails? The old mag saying is 1=0 2=1......
Roadwarrior
Alpha
I carry one spare mag in a belt mag carrier on my person, and 2 more spare mags in my car.....
LaVistaBill
Alpha
How...for a pistol, in a belt mag-pouch, 8 o'clock position; for a revolver, in a Bianchi Speed Strip in the right pocket. Why...not so much for spare ammo, but with an auto-loader you MUST carry a spare mag in case you have to drop your magazine to clear a serious malfunction such as a double-feed.
LicensedToPill
Operator
Definitely a good point, and can’t argue that! There’s always what if questions for every scenario, unfortunately. I’ll hope the one in the chamber works out lol. But, on a serious note, I will strongly consider trying to figure out a way to comfortably carry an extra 12 round mag now, based on the point you made.
Annihilator
Emissary
Same here, just a mag pouch.
I used to carry a spare in my off-hand (left) pocket.
During an Advanced Handgun course locally we did a section on strong-hand and weak-hand only manipulations to simulate injury to a limb. This is when I found out - I couldn't reach the spare with my strong hand. I started carrying my spare at 11:00 in a horizontal pouch that I can access with either hand.
I know - stats say the chance of me getting in a gunfight to begin with is small and needing to reload is smaller, etc, etc. I get that. What about a non-fight injury?
A few years later I ended up with a brace on my wrist for weeks that wouldn't have let me access the pocket mag anyway. Since I had already began carrying in another area it was a non-issue.
Just something to think about.
During an Advanced Handgun course locally we did a section on strong-hand and weak-hand only manipulations to simulate injury to a limb. This is when I found out - I couldn't reach the spare with my strong hand. I started carrying my spare at 11:00 in a horizontal pouch that I can access with either hand.
I know - stats say the chance of me getting in a gunfight to begin with is small and needing to reload is smaller, etc, etc. I get that. What about a non-fight injury?
A few years later I ended up with a brace on my wrist for weeks that wouldn't have let me access the pocket mag anyway. Since I had already began carrying in another area it was a non-issue.
Just something to think about.
That's a cool ideaI actually carry my spare .380 8 round mag in an old gerber multutool belt holder for concealment so it looks like a normal tool pouch