How many magazines?

[Contrast Man]

I read about (and see) people who have countless magazines for most of their pistols. I'm wondering what's the benefit of having so many? I have two magazines for each of mine and that seems to work out fine for me. I've looked at buying more magazines, but for one magazine I could buy at least two boxes of ammo, so I take that route (BTW, I primarily shoot 9mm).

How many magazines do YOU have and why?

 

[Double Naught Spy]

I think most of us with multiple mags are folks who do a goodly amount of whooting when we go to the range. It is nice to be able to preload several magazines and work on a series of drills without having to spot to load mags.

Also, multiple mags allow us to not need to download SD ammo from our carry mags in order to practice. We just use the extra mags.

Some like to have multiples of magazines as part of the defense strategies and may keep loaded spares in multiple locations.

For semi-auto guns, I like to get 10 mags.,

 

[Sparks1957]

I have anywhere from 4-6 mags for my semiautos, for all the same reasons in the post above.

 

[lee n. field]

I read about (and see) people who have countless magazines for most of their pistols. I'm wondering what's the benefit of having so many? I have two magazines for each of mine and that seems to work out fine for me. I've looked at buying more magazines, but for one magazine I could buy at least two boxes of ammo, so I take that route (BTW, I primarily shoot 9mm).

How many magazines do YOU have and why?

Because magazines can fail, wear out, be damaged.

How many, depends on purpose of the gun they're for, and cost. For most, I try to end up with 8.

 

[RUT]

>>Because magazines can fail, wear out, be damaged.<<

And due to intrusive government regulations they can sometimes be hard to get.

 

[Billy Shears]

I got a boxful of those $5 Korean import Glock mags from CDNN solely for range purposes. That way I preserve my real Glock mags and importantly, like Double Naught Spy said above, I can preload all my range mags the night before so I don't spend half of my range time thumbing cartridges into my magazines. More time shooting, less time loading.

 

[jcsturgeon]

I don't think my gun club would like it if I showed up with full mags all ready to go...

Anyway, my dream is to be like Hickok45 and have a shooting table full of fresh magazines ready to go. Especially like in his Glock vids. Sometimes he's got what looks like 10-15 magazines out. I've got an LC9 (3 mags), a Beretta 92 FS (4), a Glock 22 (3), and a Beretta Neos (2). Seems like I have a decent number, but I'm always scanning armslist.com for FTF deals where I can buy more on the cheap!

 

[Walt Sherrill]

If you shoot competitively, as in IDPA or USPSA, having 5-6 mags for the guns you use in those venues makes things easier while competing.

I've got lots of magazines for some of my guns -- and I've come to realize some of those "many" mags are simply redundant and likely won't be used. That said, I feel ill-equipped if I don't have at least 4 mags each for most of my weapons.

 

[GlockedNLoded32]

I have one pistol that I own and I have 2 15 round mags and 3 13 round mags 3 are always loaded with fmj's for the rang and the other 2 are my sd mags loaded with winchester PDX1's i try to shoot twice to three time a week i go through about 1,500 rounds a month

 

[Mrgunsngear]

I just don't like wasting time on the range loading mags. I preload them before I head out. It's not needed but it's convienient for sure.

 

[jrothWA]

Most inexpensive and replaceable item for a semi-pistol.

dedicated three for range use only and other 10 for use and storage.
Also have couple S&W 9mm's that magazine are not readily available.
Whenever I see originals I buy them.

Have couple of Win 88/100 rifles, and those mag are dusted with GOLD$$$$!

Have you forgotten the Klinton mag ban??? NEVER AGAIN!

 

[TunnelRat]

For semi-auto guns, I like to get 10 mags.

Lol. Now I understand the point of this, I really do. However, for some guns that's a bit impractical. I.E. H&K mags often run from $50 to $60. $500 in mags? At that point I could buy a second gun. If you have the cash go for it. Personally I think 5 is reasonable for range plinking, prob more if you're going to compete.

 

[ScotchMan]

My carry gun came with two. I bought two more, so I could have two for range use and two for carry. About once a month I switch them so they wear evenly. I am considering adding one more, because the classes I take usually want you to have one mag in the gun and two on your belt, in which case I need to use one of the SD mags for range use. With five, I could leave two loaded with defense ammo all the time regardless of the situation.

I am trying to find more mags for my HK45 and have been unable to at the price I want to pay (Midway has them for $54.99 but have been out of stock forever, HKparts has them for $65...). So stuck with two mags there.

 

[geetarman]

I only have two magazines for my PPK.

Everything else has a minimum of four and most have more.

For my rifles...well, I have a bunch.

Probably 16 for the M1A and about the same for the LR308 and ARs.

It does take a while to load them...

Geetarman

 

[Hawg]

Five.

 

[Crow Hunter]

I read about (and see) people who have countless magazines for most of their pistols. I'm wondering what's the benefit of having so many?

I would guess that you are probably less than 25 years old? Either that, or you are older and got into handguns well after 2004.

Magazines are an expendable item. They eventually wear out, no matter how well you treat them, unless you just don't use them.

If you need a spare, and you can no longer get one because of some useless shortsight legislation, are you going to be willing to pay $75-150 or more for a replacement when one of yours fails?

I lived through the 1994-2004 "Assault Weapons Ban" and when it expired, I swore I would never again have to deal with semi functional magazines at less than designed capacity.

Last count I think I had around 60 G19 mags....

 

[blackamos]

Depends on the cost.

I have many Glock mags, at least 10 per gun. Glock mags are cheap I get them for less than $20 per. My newer Sig p232 I have 4 but the cost more than $40 per. My Beretta 96 mags where cheap when I bought the gun over 18 years ago so I have 5 11rd's and 5 10rd's for it. I sold an HK P7M13 years ago and now the mags are over $100 per, for that price I would not have owned many.

 

[Eppie]

Contrast Man,
That is a good question and I certainly did not expect some of the answers you got.

I'm like you, most of my guns I have 2 mags. The exception being Glocks since through some trades I ended up with two extra ones.

Since I like to shoot a lot it seemed more logical to me to invest in a Uplula mag loader than additional magazines. It makes loading my mags a snap. At first I had doubts whether it was really worth the $34 I paid for it, but now a few years later seems like one of my smarter purchases.

I have six 9mm and with the exception of ccw each has 17+ round capacity, so taking a short break to reload the mags is actually beneficial to me, and the pistols barrels have a few minutes to cool off.

On one of my rifles (POF 308) I do have four mags for it, but I really only use two.

 

[BleedinPurple]

ive got 4 for my ppq 9mm...i got the 2 15 rounders that came with the gun and i bought 2 17 rounders about a week later...i would like to get at least 2-4 more, but they are going to have to be the cheaper version because my factory walther mags are 50 plus per mag...

my main reason is that it is nice to not have to reload as often on the range and when mags get harder to find and more expensive id like to not have to spend an arm and a leg for them

 

[carguychris]

If you shoot competitively, as in IDPA or USPSA, having 5-6 mags for the guns you use in those venues makes things easier while competing.

I see your point for competition.

OTOH for regular range visits, as I wrote in another recent thread, I've started limiting myself to 3 mags per pistol after I left one at the range and some thieving SOB took it before I was able to go back and look for it.

The less "stuff" I have with me, the easier it is to keep track of it all.