If you have more then three magazines, do you keep them all loaded with your carry Ammo?

If you have more then three magazines, do you keep them all loaded with your carry Ammo?

I now have six magazines for my M&P Shield 2.0 just would like your thoughts weather or not I should carry all magazines with carry ammo or just 3 with carry ammo an the other full metal jacket or any other ammo?

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Are you talking for a specific situation or general storage? Back in the day, we were taught to rotate magazines so the springs would last longer. Not sure if that is still the case with modern manufacturing, but since you do have six, why not keep three unloaded for storage, three with ammo and switch them out regularly?

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Good point, I keep 3 loaded. One in the gun and two as backup. I have more magazines than I care to admit, my wife actually fusses about my collection of magazine instead of guns. The new school of thought, and is true with any spring, is constant compression and decompression is what wears the spring, not staying under load or with no load. There a video somewhere, I’ll try to find it, by a guy with way too much time and dedication than I do.

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Here’s the video, way too much time on his hands, but very good info. Do magazine springs lose power when loaded for years? - YouTube

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I have 5 magazines that stay loaded with carry ammo. The rest are range and training magazines

It’s 5 because I keep the security team stuff separate and on a dedicated belt.

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Thanks for the link, I’ll definitely check it out. Interesting that compression/decompression would wear them more than constant compression.

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I, for one, keep all mine - for my Glock 26, FMK C9 2G and the GSG 1911 .22 I use for training - loaded with carry ammo. And yes, I often carry the GSG while hiking, fishing and doing outside work in rural locations. I have FMJ for training, but I unload the carry ammo from the mags I’ll use for training and reload FMJ. Once done I refill the empties with carry ammo. May sound like a process, but not being able for afford extra mags just for training, I do what I have to do. Why not load a cpuple mags with FMJ and leave them that way? Since I’m responsible for where that round goes when it leaves my weapon, I won’t take the chance on pulling the mag with the wrong ammo in for use in my weapon when I carry for personal defense.

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Welcome to the Community, @Clarence_L.R! How often do you shoot the carry ammo that you unload/reload in your magazines?

I try to shoot through those rounds every 6 months or less depending on how often I put them in and take them out of the magazines.

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I’ll say that is true on standard or slightly longer mags, but not on the really long mags. We’ve got some 20, 24, 30 round mags for the Glocks and the ruger p89 and those definitely fail to feed the last couple rounds if you store them loaded.
Before you ask, haven’t looked at the manufacturer so I can’t tell you… storage time, maybe… 4 months or more?

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I have 4 mags for my Sig P320 M17; 2 17s and 2 21s. The 17s are loaded with carry ammo and the 21s with range ammo. All 4 are loaded.

Which begs the next question. Why carry ammo in the 17s and not the 21s? Simple, really. The 17s are easier to conceal.

Mike

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I had some pro mags that did that. I’ve had decent luck so far with the Glock 33 rounders, I’ve got a cheap knockoff 33 rounder that came with my PCC9. It doesn’t seem so great, no manufacturer mark, just says 33 round 9mm on the side.

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Like you, every six months. Sometimes annually. Frankly, it depends on my money situation. This year, for example, things continue to be tight, financially (wife’s medical bills). so I’ll have to save money a little along, to replace what I expend toward the end of the year.

ROY HENRY

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I have three each for each of my semi’s loaded with my carry ammo. I have three more for each of them for practice. As long as my carry ammo stays clean and dry I don’t worry about shooting it up on any particular schedule as usually the hogs and varmints volunteer to help out with relative frequency.

Edit to clarify. I have 7 total for each of my carry guns, one in the well, and three spares. Additionally 3 more for practice for each of them.

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That’s reasonable, @Clarence_L.R. Glad you’re shooting it for a number of reasons - keeps the ammo fresh and you know how the ammo will shoot.

Hope you’re wife is doing well! I’ll keep you both in my prayers!

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I have 3 mags I carry around with me at all times 2 are loaded with my EDC rounds and the 3rd is Concealed Carry Mag!! I need that for reading

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I carry 3 an mine are always loaded

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I watch that video the other day, because I had 6 additional magazines that had been loaded 2 years ago for a gun I want to sell. Glad I did; that guy deserves a letter of appreciation for answering a common magazine question.

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With how many pistols are in the biometric safe most have 2 magazines loaded and some can use the same magazines. I have 150+ rounds of carry ammo loaded between what is loaded and kept in the handgun safe

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My SR9c uses ten round, shorter, magazines and the seventeen round full size that the SR9 uses. I’ve got three of the ten rounder’s and five of the seventeen rounders. I keep one ten round loaded and that’s the magazine I have in the gun when it’s in my pocket. I keep two seventeen round ones loaded. One goes in the console of my car. The other is a holder in my nightstand and when I’m at home I swap it with the 10 rounder that’s in the gun before putting on the holster I have mounted in the drawer of my nightstand.

When I go to the range I rotate them. I bought some black number stickers that they use on mail boxes and numbered each of the magazines so I can keep track. Also if I have an issue with one I can identify it easily.

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I have 6 to 8 mags for my different pistols. I carry an extra mag with my carry gun, I have 2 empty mags in my trauma bag with 20 rnd. box of extra ammo. If I am going out of town I will load these also. I mark my mags 1-2-3-4 and so on, I change out my mags every month. I clean and check the previous 2 mags and rotate them in numerical order. It takes some discipline but this is what works for me.

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