Self-Defense Tip: Carry Your Spare Magazine in A Pouch

Here’s an email from John Farnham describing a bizarre set of circumstances leading to a magazine failure [not shown]. As John Prine sang, same thing; same thing happened to me. I’m still not entirely convinced I’m going to need three magazines’ worth of bullets to solve a self-defense problem. That said, as the rabbi points out, “Most semi failures are magazine related.” And “no one ever ended a gunfight wishing they hadn’t carried so many bullets.” The more important takeaway: don’t just stand there, do something! Even during training.

My friend and colleague, Frank Sharpe of Fortress Defense pointed this out to me during a Defensive Pistol Course we jointly conducted last weekend in IN . . .

Often, beginning students show up at our Courses with gaps in their equipment repertoire.  Despite our sincerest attempt at specific  instructions, students sometimes fail to bring critical items.  The one most often so-overlooked is a spare-magazine carrier.

Consistently carrying a spare pistol magazine on the same place on the belt (usually on the opposite side from the pistol itself) makes smooth, quick reloading far more likely than when the spare magazine is casually thrown in a pocket.

However, when a student neglects to bring a suitable magazine carrier, we sometimes have no choice but to allow him to use a pants-pocket, even though, as  noted above, that method represents a poor substitute. Last weekend, a student did just that, and, during a tactical drill involving movement, he was unable to complete a reload, despite repeated, enthusiastic attempts!

The new magazine (when he, at long-last, finally  fished it out of his pocket) refused to lock into place within the pistol.

A close examination revealed the issue: A single dime, that had been sharing the same pocket occupied by the spare magazine, had wedged itself between the top round and the feed-lips.  How it found its way into that exact spot is a continuing source of mystery, but it somehow managed, and the anguished result was a magazine that adamantly refused to fully insert!

This phenomenon is surely not common, but, as we unhappily discovered, it will happen on occasion, with potentially fatal results!

The lesson here could hardly be clearer. Don’t carry spare magazines in pockets, rattling around in the bottom of handbags, nor other inappropriate places, where coins, paper-clips, lint, and other objects that may be sharing the same place will find their way into the magazine in such a way as to make a hash of your next attempt at a rapid reload!

Use a dedicated magazine holder. Life sucks already.  Don’t make it any worse!

John