Does anyone else carry with the magazine one short of full?

[mhs]

I was just reading the thread about if you carry with one in the chamber, which I almost always do. Then I started thinking about my practice of having the magazine one short of full capacity. I normally have mags that hold 12 or more cartridges, and everything just seems to work more smoothly if I don't cram the last round in. I remember in my old USPSA days that I would get occasional jams when I crammed the last round into my glock mags with the extensions.

Does anyone else load the mag down one for their carry gun?

 

[jayhawk]

I've never done this with a carry gun, but I don't use mag extensions on any of my carry guns either. I typically don't load AR mags to capacity though.

Also, slightly different logic, but when shooting casually at the range I often load mags in multiples of 5, since it's just easier to keep track of round count that way.

 

[VERT]

No. But back in my Glock carry days I would insert full mag and chamber round. Then replace that mag with a full one, placing the downloaded magazine in the carrier. That left me with 13+1 in the gun and 12 in the spare magazine. I find the Glock mags to be hard to lock into place on a closed slide.

 

[MCgrease08]

I do, but it's out of laziness. I have been known to load a full mag, insert mag in gun, rack to strip off the top round into the chamber and go about my day. I rarely carry a spare mag so I generally don't drop the downloaded mag and put in a full one.

Do I feel undergunned going with 16+1 instead of 17+1? Not really.

I just don't unload my carry gun very often.

 

[AndreusMaximus]

I do, but it's out of laziness. I have been known to load a full mag, insert mag in gun, rack to strip off the top round into the chamber and go about my day. I rarely carry a spare mag so I generally don't drop the downloaded mag and put in a full one.

Do I feel undergunned going with 16+1 instead of 17+1? Not really.

I just don't unload my carry gun very often.

This is me, too.

 

[skydelta34]

Is this another way of saying "few cards short of a full deck"?

One round short of a full mag.

 

[Slapstick]

I must be the odd man out. I always carry one in the chamber with a full mag and always have a spare mag or 2 on me that are fully loaded as well.

 

[Colt556]

Only mags I don’t load to capacity are 13 round mags, I know I know, or AR mags which I load two rounds shy of capacity. For high capacity pistols over 13 rounds I insert a loaded mag and charmer a round and don’t top the mag off afterwards.

 

[Peacekeeper3073]

I pack them full plus one. I did here recently pick up the Shield Plus. Ran the 13 rounders with only 12 for a few days due to the 13th was a pain to get in. Once they were broke in some added the 13th.

 

[nucular]

Rifle yes, pistol no.

 

[DadSmith]

In my rifles I carry 2 short if 30rd, and in new pistols 1 short until broken in.

 

[indyblue]

I've never had a problem with full mags in any of my guns, so usually capacity +1 chambered.

 

[mhs]

I suppose it would make sense for me to try my carry guns with full mags, at least in practice, and see if they are reliable. I really have no good reason to think they won't be.

 

[bwframe]

I must be the odd man out. I always carry one in the chamber with a full mag and always have a spare mag or 2 on me that are fully loaded as well.

No you are not.

Full mag in a loaded Glock for me. Two mags have always balanced the rig. 52 rounds. 50 if I switch to the G19. Glocks have no problem with being loaded to capacity.

In an active shooter/terrorist/multiple threat/SHTF situation, i may have shortcomings, but a loaded pistol won't be one of them.

It costs essentially nothing to carry the full load. Why ever wonder if you shoulda...?

For me anyway, I try not to let myself get lazy. Once I start compromising, the next thing you know...


.

 

[Dean C.]

All my new pistol magazines (unless designated to keep new for future use) I load to capacity and leave them loaded for a few weeks. I have found this really helps with the newer 1.5 stack mags like the P365.

I also do not modify magazines in any way from the factory configuration for carry guns either, big part of the reason I won't consider a G48 a viable gun (needs aftermarket mags to have proper capacity)

Now game guns are a totally different story, I have a Tactical Sport Orange magazine I can cram 25 rounds into, but the last round always fails to feed. Keep 23-24 in it and no problems at all. I even used the CZ Custom spring and extension kit. The factory 20 round magazines function flawlessly loaded to capacity.

I do however keep my stored and loaded P-Mags with 28 in them.

Edit: always +1 capacity never know when you might need it

 

[Bigtanker]

Nope. When I load my pistol for carry, I take an empty mag and load a single round in it. I then load that mag into the gun, rack the slide, drop the empty mag and insert a full mag.

 

[Amishman44]

I've never done this with a carry gun, but I don't use mag extensions on any of my carry guns either. I typically don't load AR mags to capacity though.
Also, slightly different logic, but when shooting casually at the range I often load mags in multiples of 5, since it's just easier to keep track of round count that way.

Yup...and Ditto this! I don't like magazine extensions (with the exception of the OEM for the +1 or +2 pinky extension on a Glock subcompact pistol) and I load my pistol magazines to the max. I used to do the magazine rotation where every 30 days I was taking one magazine out of circulation and emptying the magazine to allow the spring to 'refresh' but read an article about how that was not necessary with Glock magazines and stopped doing that.

I do the same thing at the range...I shoot in quantities of five (5) so as to better watch my target strike rate and keep track of rounds fired. I started doing this with revolvers, way back in the early to mid-90's and have simply carried it forward with semi-autos! With a rifle, (AR, lever-action, bolt) I'll shoot 5 or 10 (depending on the gun) and watch my round strikes and count from there!

 

[Expat]

I chamber a round, drop the mag and add a round topping off the mag. That way I am also sure that a round was successfully chambered without doing a press check.

 

[ECS686]

Personally I don’t do the plus 1 on my first mag. This was from years ago as an LEO having to download to go into and out of a jail it got to be a pain with keeping track of that loose round.

Then later on and another agency The -1 or 2 was done when running MP 5’s. So I started running my spares 1 or two under full. I continued this practice in my retired years because when we did it agency wise it works.

If you ever tried reloading an MP5 or a lot of other makes with the bolt forward and a full mag you are beating on it to get it seated. We adopted it as other agencies have (this - 1 or 2 actually started in the late 1970’s with British SAS and has trickled down everywhere since) because noting says you will always have a text book bolt/slide to the rear reload. This also happens with most all other designs but the MO 5 was probably one of the worst.

A lot of folks get way too wrapped around the axel on mag capacity and that plus 1 compares to real world self defense uses.

 

[patience0830]

Depends on how sore my thumb is when I'm done practicing and reload.