Magazine plus 1?

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Moonglum

New member
Simple question assuming a magazine fed pistol, you load the magazine, insert it into the pistol and chamber a round. Do you go to the hassle of dropping the magazine and loading another round?

I don’t just because it seems like an awful lot of bother for 1 extra round.

Clarification: for the purposes of this thread it is assumed that you are carrying a round in the chamber. What I’m asking is do you top of after chambering that round
 
D

Dred

New member
IRL Carry - yes. Not willing to be the guy that needed one more round.

But, at the range - I don't bother.
 
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reteach

New member
The answer depends on the gun and its capacity. I carry a Glock 42 sometimes. It comes with a 6 round magazine. I added a Pearce one-round extension to the mag, and I add a round to the mag after I chamber a round. So that gives me 8 shots in my carry gun. I think that's definitely worth the trouble. I do carry a spare mag when I carry the 42.

If I carried a pistol with, say, a 15 round capacity, I probably wouldn't bother with topping off.
 
M

Moonglum

New member
reteach said:
The answer depends on the gun and its capacity. I carry a Glock 42 sometimes. It comes with a 6 round magazine. I added a Pearce one-round extension to the mag, and I add a round to the mag after I chamber a round. So that gives me 8 shots in my carry gun. I think that's definitely worth the trouble. I do carry a spare mag when I carry the 42.

If I carried a pistol with, say, a 15 round capacity, I probably wouldn't bother with topping off.
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IDK, if I had to do all that I'd just get a gun with a standard 8 round capacity
 
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10-96

New member
I don't bother. I may have for a short while back when I CC'd a 1911, but not since I've started carrying my CZ P10C or Sig P229. Even when I carry my S&W Model 19 and switch back to an autoloader, 15 really doesn't feel any more special than 6.
 
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ballardw

New member
Once upon a time, think 1960's, I used to read a lot of comic books including some that were set in World War 2.
One of the stories that stuck with me was an American fighter pilot shot down behind German lines after the D-Day invasion trying to get back to friendly lines. Along the way he ended up with a German prisoner. While "escorting" the POW back there were a number of times that the pilot had to use his 1911. Toward the end of the story the POW attacks the pilot in an escape attempt because 7 shots had been fired, the standard magazine load. Then he learned about "and 1 in the chamber".

During most practice and plinking I don't top off unless for a specific reason. But for carry purposes you betcha.
 
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unclenunzie

New member
Never considered it a bother, just part of loading the pistol to standard capacity for carry. I suppose in a double stack it means less, but still.

Edit - Hey, my post here is 100+1 LOL
 
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loic

New member
I always put one in the chamber, close the slide, de-cock then put a full mag in.

Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk
 
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Mike38

New member
I don't top off the mag, but probably should? Seven round mag, then the extra mag I always carry, for a total of 14 rounds. Would 15 rounds help me that much? If I can't get out of trouble with 14 rounds, I got myself into a predicament that I shouldn't have.
 
5

5whiskey

New member
IDK, if I had to do all that I'd just get a gun with a standard 8 round capacity
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It’s really not the hassle it’s being made out to be. Load a mag full, insert into gun, then chamber a round. Holster the pistol. Here’s the extra that it takes... take the mag out (pistol still in holster) and add a round, then reinsert mag while still holstered. It takes likes MAYBE 4 or 5 extra seconds.

Plus it’s all good and well to carry a gun that holds 8 anyway, but for a ccw piece many people like the convenience of smaller pistols with less capacity. Also of note, there are at least a few people who wouldn’t carry ccw if they couldn’t do so conveniently.

And I believe carry concealed is important. My agency responded to an armed robbery last weekend where a citizen carrying ccw intervened and ended it. No shots fired, good judgement was used.
 
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Moonglum

New member
5whiskey said:
Plus it’s all good and well to carry a gun that holds 8 anyway, but for a ccw piece many people like the convenience of smaller pistols with less capacity. Also of note, there are at least a few people who wouldn’t carry ccw if they couldn’t do so conveniently.
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I want to be careful how I say this but just because carrying a smaller gun with less capacity is convenient doesn't mean it's best practices.

I don't know that "capacity" is so much the issue after all an M1911A1 only holds 8 rounds. My issue is if I have to add an extended magazine and load an extra round I'm not sure I've picked the right gun.
 
4

44 AMP

Staff
As previously mentioned, chamber a round then put in another fully loaded magazine and use the dowloaded one as your spare if its too much trouble to top it off.

If you only have one magazine, get more. At LEAST one. If you can, get more. Magazines are the most fragile part, the most prone to failure over time, and also can be damaged, outside the gun or even lost.
 
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JDBerg

New member
https://youtu.be/f7ViI2UWFKg

Above is a TAC TV episode YouTube clip with Larry Vickers and Ken Hackathorn and they talk in general about Glock modifications, and in the course of the conversation, they advocate downloading 9mm Glock OEM magazines by one round, for general use.

Although I disagree with the comment made about aftermarket Glock mags, since I like and use the Magpul GL9 mags, I will defer to their expertise and experience when they state that downloading Glock magazines by one round is a good practice.
 
M

Moonglum

New member
44 AMP said:
As previously mentioned, chamber a round then put in another fully loaded magazine and use the dowloaded one as your spare if its too much trouble to top it off.

If you only have one magazine, get more. At LEAST one. If you can, get more. Magazines are the most fragile part, the most prone to failure over time, and also can be damaged, outside the gun or even lost.
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I always carry at least one reload.
 
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JohnKSa

Administrator
Depends on the gun.

Interestingly enough, Beretta actually sort of half-heartedly recommends against topping off the mag in the 92FS manual I have. They say that not topping off "...is an advantage because the magazine spring is not fully compressed but under about the same tension as a 15-round loaded spare magazine."

Then they tell you how to top off if you still want to. :D
 
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shafter

New member
I'm not sure how topping off a magazine counts as "an awful lot of bother". Especially for something that you're counting on to save your life.

Why would someone purposefully go into a fight with a partially empty gun?
 
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