Should You Carry an Extra Magazine for Your Concealed Carry Weapon?
You’re in the grocery store and suddenly hear the unmistakable report of a firearm nearby. Drawing your concealed firearm, you make your way towards the sound. You acquire the target and begin slinging lead in his direction. He takes cover, and you spend the next few minutes dodging from cover to cover as you let more shots loose. Thank goodness you brought an extra magazine for your concealed carry weapon.
A self-defense shooting plays out in your head, it’s actually extremely rare for a prolonged gunfight to break out like this. In fact, you’re probably not even going to empty your gun in the first place. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t carry an extra magazine for your concealed carry firearm. In this post, we’ll cover why you should carry an extra magazine for your concealed carry gun. We’ll also go over loading a magazine, along with how to add a concealed carry magazine holster to your rig.
Should You Carry an Extra Magazine for a Concealed Firearm?
Although your chances of ending up in an extended firefight at the grocery store are essentially zero, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t carry an extra magazine. Using a magazine holster along with your concealed carry holster rig is definitely something you should consider.
This actually has less to do with having more ammo than you might think. In fact, the vast majority of self-defense shootings involve less than 3 shots. In situations with more shots fired, it seems that the shooter simply emptied their firearm into the target.
That’s particularly true with modern JHP (jacketed hollow point) “self-defense” ammunition. These bullets expand on impact, greatly widening a wound channel. With hollow point rounds, a single hit can be enough to drop an attacker. As a result, you don’t need to worry about scoring multiple hits on an aggressor to neutralize them.
Instead, there’s another extremely important reason to carry an extra magazine: jams. Magazines are one of the biggest causes for your firearm to jam. But if you have an extra magazine, it’s easy to swap out the defective one, insert the fresh one, rack your firearm, and keep firing.
Loading a Magazine
If you want to prevent magazine-related jams, the best way to do so is by properly loading your magazines. If you’re a newer shooter, loading your magazines correctly may not be extremely obvious.
First, make sure you’re getting high-quality ammo. Crappy ammo is another big reason for your gun to misfire. Using the good stuff will keep this from happening. I’m a huge fan of Federal HST for self-defense rounds. Speer Gold Dot is also a great choice.
Loading your magazines isn’t too difficult. Just insert ammo into it, sliding the bullets backwards until the mag is full. There’s one secret step that a lot of newbies forget when it comes to loading a magazine though.
You always want to tap the back of the magazine against a hard surface. This will make sure bullets are properly seated towards the back of the magazine. This will ensure they’re properly seated and minimize your chance of good ammo misfiring on you. While it may sound like an urban legend, tapping your magazine is actually useful and effective.
Using a Concealed Carry Magazine Holder
If you’re going to carry an extra magazine, you don’t want it just bouncing around in your pocket. That’s a great way to make sure you forget it in a stall on your next trip to a public restroom.
Instead, you’re going to want a concealed carry magazine holder. And luckily, we know just the place you can find one. Southern Trapper’s all-leather concealed holster magazine holder is the perfect way to keep an extra mag on deck. To learn more, check out our leather mag holder.
