Found a full mag in my seat of my car

I was coming home from teaching a class and all was good. I was hungry on the route back home so I stopped to pick up a bite and a drink. Went and picked up and when I got back to the car when opening the door and there laid a full magazine laying on my seat. I did a gun check and my gun was still at my 3 o’clock but, there was no mag in it. So many things went through my mind at that time. How did this happen? I reinserted the mag and gave it a slap and placed it back in the holster. That is when the thought of, what if? came to me. The one thought is, a good reason to at least keeping a round chambered. I still had my spare mag on my left side but still, sloppy as far as i am concerned.
I tell this story for the fact of teaching others, as well as, me having learned a lesson. So many things could have been different. If the mag did not come out and I needed to draw my gun in self-defense would the mag have hit the floor? Most likely. I could have sat down then have it fall off while everyone hears the clunk and looks over at me, not good! Be safe out there!

26 Likes

Wow, guess that is a another good reason to slam the mag home when loading. Otherwise, carry a revolver. j/k? :upside_down_face: :sunglasses:

7 Likes

I’ve had a hanging mag before. It didn’t drop but I always perform just a subtle check whenever I get up from a seated position. Yours is a great story!

I have found magazines on my range rusted and left behind by students.

6 Likes

So here is the question. Was the mag not seated completely, or did the mag release get bumped somewhere along the way when you were driving down the road, getting in and out of your vehicle, etc. Either way, it is a good example of why it is important to carry a spare mag. Its not that you think you need a hundred rounds of ammo to stop a threat, but things happen, and they do all the time.

Thank you for sharing. Appreciate the story and the lesson.

10 Likes

It happens to me only with every new handgun, too gentle instead of slamming a magazine, thinking I’m damaging the gun.

4 Likes

If its a P938 I know what happened, otherwise I don’t.

3 Likes

I had a hybrid jolster for a Glock and the combat cut was so low the edge of the leather pressed against the mag release. I simply punched a couple new holes to lower the kidex 1/4" and problem solved.

3 Likes

Something similar happen when I was first issued a Glock .40 as a Corrections Deputy. I returned after a Prisoner transport and I was returning the pistol to the Arms room and when I drew the pistol I noticed the mag was out of the mag well by 1/4 inch, there was a round chambered and I know I slapped it so I must have hit the mag release sometime during the day. :roll_eyes: Lesson learned.
In another oops I usually keep an extra mag in my left rear pocket, I went into the store and returned to the vehicle I opened the door and saw the Mag spring and 5 loose rounds on the seat, the base plate was stuck under the crease in the seat. When I slid out of the seat the bottom of the mag must have been far enough in the crease to pull the base off, I reached into my pocket and there was the mag body with two rounds and the follower. Lesson learned.

2 Likes

I have one leather holster in particular, for a 365, that if I’m not careful I hit the mag release just by sitting down.

4 Likes

Some holsters may hit the magazine release, or may not protect the magazine release, and some may not prevent the manual safety from being disengaged, especially if it is ambidextrous safety. You should always check and verify your holster to ensure they do not have a design flaw…

One may work fine for a 1911 with the standard or even an extended safety, but if you use it with a 1911 with ambidextrous safety, the safety may be disengaged while you walk.

Was it simply not seating the magazine properly, or is there a design issue in the holster you were using.

4 Likes

IIRC, Clint Smith has a story where the mag base snagged on the steering wheel as he got out of his vehicle and snapped off. All 15-ish rounds fell to the floor.

4 Likes

Good learning from a real event to show any randomness can happen. When I am getting out of my car, and half my body is still in the car(one foot out), I use this time to do a decent thumb squeeze on the bottom of the magwell because I have experienced improper seated mags as well in training. I don’t always do the check but I do it every so often. Also, don’t play the what if game to much, it doesn’t do anything but cause unnecessary stress from something that already passed. You now know it is a possibility and add a .5 second check to your daily activities and you are golden! good share!

5 Likes

I had the same thing happen awhile back … I have since got kinda buggy and check it often when getting out of my vehicle…Tim

4 Likes

I did y’all one better. A story on myself. This past February I was fishing on a river in north Georgia trying to catch a walleye (never did). I was fighting the brush and topography with the rods and gear so it was not easy fishing.

I left after a couple hours and drove back an hour and a half to the house. After I got home I put up all my fishing gear and I reached back to my hip to get my Ruger LCP… which wasn’t there! OMG where did it go. I did a quick search of the truck. Not there. I did another search of the truck, not there a second time. I was using an inside the belt holster. How did it come out?

It was to late to drive back to the river it would be dark. So, I had to wait for the next day. I drove back up to north Georgia for a second search. Same results as the day before. NADA! The brush was so thick it was next to impossible to even see the ground in places. After going over my route a time or two, I finally gave up.

For the nest 2 months I fussed and mourned over my loss. I even went back a time or 2 more with the excuse of fishing, but still looked for my pistol. Finally in desperation, I did what I have done a time or two in the past. When I have lost something, i buy the same item again, and be dam##d if I won’t find the knife, reel, rod, etc. that I have been missing.

I went over to Bass Pro and was talking with a buddy who works there. This was during a period of time this spring in May when all the hand guns were being bought almost as quick as the dealers got them. There was a BodyGuard in the case and I finally told Jerry to pull it out, I was taking it home. I liked the BG better than the LCP anyway.

So, the story is nearly over. About a week or two after I bought the BG I went out to my truck to get something I had put in the door pocket on the driver’s side of my cab. There was an old S&W .380 Sigma in there that I had been using as a truck gun. I pushed my hand down behind a road map that was kind of stuck in the side of the pocket to get what ever I was looking for and pulled out the Ruger LCP! I swear I had looked in that door pocket at least a dozen times. I must have taken it out out of my holster and put it in the truck because the brush was so thick I was afraid I would loose it.

So, if you ever loose something that you just can’t find, buy another one and you will find where you put the item you thought you had lost forever! It has worked for me. rgs

13 Likes

I shared this with my girlfriend, I just had the same situation with my cable to connect my computer to the T.V.
I bought a new one on-line but before I got the new one I found the old one. I told her, Now I have a spare.

3 Likes

That has a bit of humor to it I have lost stuff like that before we always think it was those damn gremlins…Tim

4 Likes

that was great!

2 Likes

It wasn’t so great until I had decided it was gone. Then it was a little humiliating. But it was a greater relief to also know it was not out lying along a river bank.

6 Likes

It was the Gremlins…

Just don’t get them wet … and NEVER feed them after midnight.

7 Likes

I’ve always had anxiety that I’ll leave my firearm on the toilet paper dispenser in a public bathroom.

2 Likes