# How Many Mags Per Gun?



## NotTooProudToHide

I just got back from the local pawnshops scrounging for a deal on a used .357 handgun and either a .308 or 30-06 bolt gun with no luck. I was going to post a thread asking a price range on such but then I got home and I read the thread salt n pepper posted http://www.prepperforums.net/forum/...ng-you-i-am-warning-you-i-am-begging-you.html

Right now I'm packing 1x Full Sized M&P .40 with 2 15 round magazines, 1x Ar-15 with 4x 30 round magazines. How many more should I purchase and in what order considering Pmags go for 12-15 and M&P mags go for 40-50.


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## triem

I have 3 per gun. The only reason that I have 3 for the expensive Sig P938 is that i have 3 of those guns. 4, if you count my wife's CCW. The practice mags are our "spares".


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## sideKahr

Two mags per gun on the pistols, 2x30-round and 1x20-round for the .223 rifle. I like the 20-round for prone shooting.

I'm going to buy a couple more mags for the 1911. Four total sounds about right to me.


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## NotTooProudToHide

You know, I'm pretty proud of myself. I was on the check out screen with a shopping cart full of magazines and I stopped myself. I might pick up 1 pistol mag later on but for now I think I'm good with what I have. If there is panicked buying it will calm down and in the meantime I have plenty of ammo for my 12 gauge and my mosin which don't take magazines. 

Have a good day guys n gals


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## csi-tech

because of the perpetual threat against high capacity magazines I buy a lifetime supply for each gun. Usually 30 per rifle and 10 per handgun.


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## rice paddy daddy

I personally would have more magazines for any rifle that would be my main fighting rifle. Believe me, I don't think I'll ever be in a firefight here in America, but I don't want to get caught empty.
I have three main centerfire, magazine fed rifles.
Ruger Mini 14 - three 20 round mags, not really meant to be a fighting rifle
Springfield M1A - three 20 round mags, range queen
M1 Garand - twenty five 8 round clips, good enough for some city boy thinking he's going to knock over the farm
AK - eight 30 round mags, all kept loaded all the time. If I need more than 320 rounds, then I am in deep do-do.

As far as carry handguns, one in the pistol, two on the belt for reload, a spare or two at home.


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## CourtSwagger

I know there are people who say you should have at least 10 mags per weapon. I think that is great if you don't have anything else you need to spend money on. However, if there are other preps you need to purchase, numerous magazines should be pretty low on your list. I have 2 mags per pistol and 6 mags for my AR. I feel that Is more than adequate for my needs currently. There are other areas that I feel need improvement more than my magazine supply.


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## SOCOM42

If you never plan on getting into a firefight, you have enough.
In a battle on your own you will loose mags, if you live and recover them they may be damaged.
For my handguns, I have a min of 10 mags per gun.
S&W mags for most of the S&W's, Wilson combat SS mags for the 1911's.
Glock's and all other makes have matching brand names. 
On rifles, around 25 for each one, that includes the FAL's and M1A's and Galils.
Every time I order from Brownells, I add one gen3 AR mag to the order, have a total of about 250 AR mags.
None of this has come quickly, there is over four decades of collection involved.
I thank GOD that I got most long before the insanity started with slick willie.

In summary, I would think you should make an initial target of TEN mags for long guns and FIVE for hand guns as a start point.
Like ammo, the same with mags, you can NEVER have ENOUGH.
Mags are the first thing to go to hell in a battle.


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## Hemi45

I have about fifty for the AR's and a couple dozen for the 1911's. There's a better than average chance some will never come out of the original packaging in my lifetime but I like knowing they're there.

BTW ... the Magpul pmag you buy for $10 today will easily fetch three times that in the next panic.


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## Disturbed12404

Damn you people and your high capacity friendly states. 
AR
2x 15/30 Hexmags

I don't have a few 30rd Pmags stached away either, so don't ask. 

My glock is coming with 3x 10rd mags...those are going to have to be switched for 15rd's

SideKhar has a good point about the 20 rounders. If only I was allowed to own them...


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## Disturbed12404

Speaking of mags, do you guys/gals keep them loaded? I'm afraid that the springs will set and when I need them they wont feed.


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## SOCOM42

Disturbed12404 said:


> Speaking of mags, do you guys/gals keep them loaded? I'm afraid that the springs will set and when I need them they wont feed.


I keep plenty loaded, today's springs In quality mags will not set, constant usage is the enemy of springs.
Had mags that were loaded for 20 years, nothing wrong with them, fed just right.
Mags that are used for practice are relegated to just that, many, many loadings.


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## Medic33

not really disturbed-but if it makes you feel better you can rotate them.
mags -as many as you think you need. no one can tell you what your comfort zone is, so get what you want to make you happy.


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## Salt-N-Pepper

csi-tech said:


> because of the perpetual threat against high capacity magazines I buy a lifetime supply for each gun. Usually 30 per rifle and 10 per handgun.


Me too (at least for guns I really care about).

The bad side of this is that I bought 10 mags for the piece of #[email protected]% Ruger Mini-30, a gun that I now despise and plan to sell as soon as it is ACTUALLY repaired by the factory under warranty (LONG story). 10 Ruger mags = stupid-expensive.

Suggestion, make sure you LOVE the gun before buying up on mags.

I personally set 6 mags per hand gun and 10 mags per long guns that matter (i.e. I don't really care about having tons of mags for bolt guns, etc) as my MINIMUM. If they are my "main" guns then I go 30 or more mags.


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## Salt-N-Pepper

Disturbed12404 said:


> Speaking of mags, do you guys/gals keep them loaded? I'm afraid that the springs will set and when I need them they wont feed.


I keep a FEW loaded for my home defense weapons. Other than that, not generally.

I have 5 loaded now for my #%^&y Ruger Mini-30 because I can't get the dad-gum thing to shoot more than 5 rounds at a time before breaking, and I am an optimist.


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## Hawaii Volcano Squad

Magazines are a disposable resource. You need to think of them like that. If you are in a running gunfight, you might drop a mag with no time to retrieve it. A mag could break, fail or wear out. So how many mags do you need? A lot more that anybody here has talked about in the event of an emergency. Without mags, many of your weapons will become pricey sticks or rocks. Stock up. If HILLARY win the election, that will be 4 Supreme Court Justices she gets to appoint over the next 8 years. That will be the flipping point.


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## freelancer1

wow ...must be nice in the US to be able to buy like that ....here in Canada we are lucky if we can buy extra cans of .17 pellet rounds .......SUCKS to be me !!:armata_PDT_04:


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## Camel923

Remember if a ban occurs and SHTF most likely you will have to make due with what you have. I agree with csi-tech. 6 to a dozen per pistol (more is better) and 20 to 30 per rifle or rifle type as minimums ( if you have 5 AKs do you for see needing 150 mags? maybe because with 30 that is 6 per ak. depends on your plan and numbers.). You may have a few other types that may not be main arms and you have a few less. Read RPD. It would be great to stock pile like Hemi45. You may want to consider a few drums too. Just my opinion.


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## just mike

Minimum of 3 per handgun except 45acp, 12 45acp mags with 2 8round mags loaded at all times +one in one of my 45's. 8 metal ar mags backed up by 2 30round pmags and 4 20round pmags. 2 20round pmags loaded at all times. 1 5round installed in my CCW (xds 45) with 2 7round on my belt and a spare 5 round in the console of my truck. also Jframe Smith 357 loaded with 2 5round speed loaders as spare.


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## triem

other than as an investment to make 3-4x your money back, I don't see the point. For a fight, your money is far better spent on a suppressor, so that the rapidfirre blasts don't make you flinch ( as they do EVERYBODY) and so enemies don't locate you as easily. it will eliminate flash at night, too (if it's any good, that is). Another better move is to have luminous sight inserts and a 2 stage trigger job. I found that altering the 'normal range" wing of the peep sight into a "v" notch made hitting just as fast as with my buddy's optical sight, so that saved me $500 or so!  and prevented battery dependence, too.

the only reason you might need to swap mags even once is you are missing too often. We aint in the military. We dont have to take or hold ground. The only sensible thing to do if shtf is get into a hole in the ground and stay there during daylight hours. Avoid being detected, much less being in fights. Your "fighting' better be all suppressed elimination of problems, 3 shots at most at a time ,with the enemy never firing a shot. If if gets worse than that, the odds are very, ,very bad, even if it's just one enemy much less 5+. If you can't hit 4 guys with 28 tries,, you've got a problem that having more mags is not likely to help. ie, failure of nerve and/or not enough skill, or too many enemies have been allowed to sneak up on you. Sometimes you're going to lose ,no matter what gun you have or how many rds you have. 

There will be no effective suppressive fire, no area fire, no fire superiority, cause you're not going to have any group that can achieve such. You will have dependents hanging all over you, and you cannot accept ANY casulties! So forget about the firefight "strategies', cause they're stupid in the civilian context.


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## csi-tech

Why buy 10 at $5.00 each when you can buy 100 at $1.67 apiece? Buy 'em cheap and stack 'em deep is what my Pappy always said.


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## Slippy

Treat magazines like other preps and buy them regularly and you'll have enough. I don't have a set amount per gun, I just want to have enough magazines when I need them. I buy 30 round PMags for my ARs fairly often and every now and then pick up another for the handguns. I keep at least a couple of them loaded for my "go to guns". 

If when I die my sons inherit my firearms and a pile of magazines, good for them, we have some of the same guns...remember Slippy's Rule #28, "Repetition Son, Repetition...One is None, Two is One and Three is better". 

As far as springs failing, check out some of the other threads about this subject. I don't worry about mag springs getting over stressed but I do rotate some of them out...keeps me engaged I guess. Good luck.


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## Kauboy

3 for each handgun.
6 for each rifle.


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## Camel923

csi-tech said:


> Why buy 10 at $5.00 each when you can buy 100 at $1.67 apiece? Buy 'em cheap and stack 'em deep is what my Pappy always said.


Care to share where your getting this kind of deal?


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## OctopusPrime

I've got 7 mags for my .40. I've heard that number is good to be around so I went with it. It's a lucky number anyhow


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## dsdmmat

12 unless you have two or more guns that use the same mags then 20-100 should work ( no less than 10 per)


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## Ripon

what ever my financial resources will allow....


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## TacticalCanuck

This is an age old question. Like 'How much ammo should I keep on hand'. The more the better, but with mags, I would limit it to what is actually feasible to carry, given the need for more than say 3-5.


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## Kauboy

TacticalCanuck said:


> Like 'How much ammo should I keep on hand'.


One more than it takes.


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## AquaHull

Kauboy said:


> One more than it takes.


\

How many magazines per firearm?


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## SOCOM42

AquaHull said:


> \
> 
> How many magazines per firearm?


One more than it takes, for each gun.
kauboy has it right, you really can never have enough.
Some here say two, others say six, what happens if there is another ban on mags and ammo???
Some say 3 rifle mags is plenty, I would not go out the door without six spare mags for an AR type rifle, four for 308..
What if we have a SHTF that last for years? 
Look at the battlefields from every war, they are littered with mags, clips, drums, belts and more.
Mags will fail, Murphy will dictate the timing.
I will never have enough mags, drums, clips or belts for my primary long guns.
I buy about two pmags a month, customers pay the cost. Others types I will get if presented right, I am by no means short of any.
20 years ago I picked up a drum of 5k of M1 Garand clips by Dominion Arsenal of Canada. 
More than half are filled with either 30CAL or 308.
There is a military quote from the 1960's, "WHEN THE BALOON GOES UP, YOU GO WITH WHAT YOU GOT".
That really applies to prepper's today. 
If the SHTF, what you have is it, other than battle field pickups, if you win.


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## wesley762

So personally I hate reloading so... 

for my 2 AR's I have about 20 mags currently and would like to double that. 

I don't have as many for my 1911 but 12 total for the 2 of them and would like to double that. (they are 30 bucks a pop)

My daughters M&P 15-22 I have 7 for her. 

The AK I have 16 mags.


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## 6811

for the main carry handguns I got 3 mags at all times, I have about 6 spares for them also. For the handguns that are for plinking or back up guns I have atleast 3 spare mags for them.

For my main rifle both AR and AK I have 10 loaded mags for each and I am slowly getting to my goal of 24 spare mags for each. I think it is important to have spares for them...


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## PaulS

The way to know that you have enough magazines is to figure out, in the worst case, how many you feel you need. Then double it. Keep them loaded, one round shy of a full load, and ready for use.


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## redhawk

I have at least 3 and as many as 12 for my semi autos, 3 speedloaders for my revolvers. The only rilfles I have that have magazines are my Ruger 10-22's and I have 10 or so 10 round mags and a couple of 25 rounders. I will get a few more of each...JM2C


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## csi-tech

Camel923 said:


> Care to share where your getting this kind of deal?


These are Genuine H&K G3/PTR91/CETME/Century C308 magazines. They are available through keepshooting.com at this price. Oops, they went down to 1.50 each if you buy a hundred. Here is a link: HK G3 Mags : H&K G3 20 Round Magazines on sale now! - Keepshooting®


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## csi-tech

I got a little carried away on AK magazines. The HK G3 thing is getting carried away too but I traded half of those pff at the LGS. Even I can't justify 100 mags for one rifle. The AK magazines come in all sorts of varieties though. Egyptian, Romanian, Yugoslavian BHO, slabside, aluminum waffle, fleur de lis, Croatian, Tula Bakelite, Izzy bakelite, tapco, East German, Chinese, ((10)) polymer, American polymer varieties and the list just keeps going on. I have quite a few of those. My favorite are the surplus Yugoslavian Bolt Hold Open. They are rugged, heavy and I like seeing the bolt lock back so I know when to reload.


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## LunaticFringeInc

I don't think I have a gun that has less than 10 magazines. For things like the AK and AR I an sure I have a least 50 of each! A magazine for such weapons is a lot like ammunition...without them, you got a expensive paper weight for all intents and purposes.

With a shooting in PA in addition to the church shooting I would be buying Hi Cap mags first as there are already renewed calls for more gun control and there is liable to be another run on ammunition, reloading components and guns in that order.


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## Gunner's Mate

I have 2 thousand links for this


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## SOCOM42

Gunner's Mate said:


> I have 2 thousand links for this
> View attachment 11705


You need to catch up! lol!
I have over 500 belts! 
About 100 are loaded, I don't know about yours, but my belt gun is full auto.

By the by, I consider the 1919A4 to be the best light machinegun ever built, and the family of the Browning's the best in the world ever.


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## bigwheel

I have three for the Sig .40 at 12 rounds each. Got to nearly think that is plenty.


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## SOCOM42

bigwheel said:


> I have three for the Sig .40 at 12 rounds each. Got to nearly think that is plenty.


Nah, not enough, get at least two more.

I have a sig 228 with I think 15 that are Sig's, six of them are Sig 20 round mags, and 8 others are S&W's converted to fit, total of 23 spares.


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## jimb1972

csi-tech said:


> These are Genuine H&K G3/PTR91/CETME/Century C308 magazines. They are available through keepshooting.com at this price. Oops, they went down to 1.50 each if you buy a hundred. Here is a link: HK G3 Mags : H&K G3 20 Round Magazines on sale now! - Keepshooting®


I have been looking at the PTR91 just because the mags are so cheap.


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## csi-tech

jimb1972 said:


> I have been looking at the PTR91 just because the mags are so cheap.


Jimb1972 is a wise man


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## bigwheel

Well In the summer I normally just carry the mag in the gun. Which 13 shots should be enough for most bad guys seems like. If I carry the two extras in a belt pouch on the far side it pulls my pants down. I may get some suspenders.


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## alterego

Don't forget to buy and store unused new in sealed ammo container. Mags wear out. Ten years is a long time I will probably live 30 to 40 more years. And my children may need them


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## Medic33

well I teach my youngin's how to rebuild a mag from parts they can buy at the local hardware store.
but hey prices are always going up and some mags are like ridiculous in price.


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## 8301

3-4 per handgun, 5-9 per rifle. Bolt action hunting rifles have only 2 mags. 

If I'm in enough firefights to need 100 mags I'd have 2 problems. Not enough ammo to load them all and there is no way I'd survive that many firefights. The number of mags I keep per weapon a realistic balance between cost and preparing for a realistic SHTF situation. I'm not preparing for a shoot 'em up video game.


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## bigwheel

Hey not sure anybody carries a SW 4506 these days..but think I have a mag or two to fit one.


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## SOCOM42

FoolAmI said:


> 3-4 per handgun, 5-9 per rifle. Bolt action hunting rifles have only 2 mags.
> 
> If I'm in enough firefights to need 100 mags I'd have 2 problems. Not enough ammo to load them all and there is no way I'd survive that many firefights. The number of mags I keep per weapon a realistic balance between cost and preparing for a realistic SHTF situation. I'm not preparing for a shoot 'em up video game.


When you have 6-12 of the same rifle, 100 mags gets short.
I have many to give out if needed to those who will be here in a SHTF situation.
At one time you could buy AR mag's for $2.00 each.
When The 110th armor was removed from the state due to an idiot governor, I was quite fortunate to get
over 300 20 and 30 round mags that were destined for the dumpster given to me.
I gave away plenty to friends and kept about 200 for myself.
Before the Devine M14's became available I bought the mags for a dollar a piece. 
Those came in handy, I had converted an M1 Garand to take the box mag in 1964.
When in any business, you tend to accumulate the trailing's of the product or service.
I think I have said, I have been in the gun business for over 50 years, stuff does pile up.
I, nor any of my friends are planning any shoot em ups. Having the resources to survive is the objective.


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## Bulldog39

I like ten magazines per long gun and six per handgun at least. For SHTF long guns we all have AR rifles in 5.56 for each person in the house and for handguns we went with Glocks in 9MM, it makes stocking ammo and magazines easier. Just remember a magazine feed weapon without a magazine is just a single shot weapon at best and at worst will not shot at all.


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## Maine-Marine

rice paddy daddy said:


> I personally would have more magazines for any rifle that would be my main fighting rifle. Believe me, I don't think I'll ever be in a firefight here in America, but I don't want to get caught empty.
> I have three main centerfire, magazine fed rifles.
> Ruger Mini 14 - three 20 round mags, not really meant to be a fighting rifle
> Springfield M1A - three 20 round mags, range queen
> M1 Garand - twenty five 8 round clips, good enough for some city boy thinking he's going to knock over the farm
> AK - eight 30 round mags, all kept loaded all the time. If I need more than 320 rounds, then I am in deep do-do.
> 
> As far as carry handguns, one in the pistol, two on the belt for reload, a spare or two at home.


Yep... I figure if I start going through that many mags...I am out gunned... within the first couple of minutes - they will either have killed me or left.... FPF Final protective fire for me will be buck shot


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## Mr B

Its a good idea to have extra magazines (many extra magazines) for your hand guns and rifles. Yes, they can be expensive, but if you look for sales or wait until the Christmas sales start you can find some smoking deals on magazines, and ammo to fill the magazines.

I have 
23 - AR15 magazines
14 - AK47 magazines
17 - PTR91 magazines

And I still want to get some more in the future. You can never have to many magazines - ever.


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## alterego

toolmanky said:


> I just got back from the local pawnshops scrounging for a deal on a used .357 handgun and either a .308 or 30-06 bolt gun with no luck. I was going to post a thread asking a price range on such but then I got home and I read the thread salt n pepper posted http://www.prepperforums.net/forum/...ng-you-i-am-warning-you-i-am-begging-you.html
> 
> Right now I'm packing 1x Full Sized M&P .40 with 2 15 round magazines, 1x Ar-15 with 4x 30 round magazines. How many more should I purchase and in what order considering Pmags go for 12-15 and M&P mags go for 40-50.


I have been told m&p 40 full size mags can be purchased for 34 plus tax around my parts.

Purchase what ever you can reasonably afford with out feeling silly.

There are certain things I had bought silly amounts of and felt silly. Like silver pre 2009 then the price was 3 times what I paid. I sold it all and built a pole barn with the extra. I don't feel as silly now.


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## Medic33

well I have had a subscription to playboy and popular mechanics for about 15 years now so I would say I have a bunch of magazines to revert to.


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## PaulS

Well said Medic - pass the bandages, will you?


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## recon

Mr B said:


> You can never have to many magazines - ever.


Words to live by! :idea:


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## sparkyprep

A standard military battle pack consists of 300 rounds. So, that means 10 PMags minimum for the AR. I wouldn't go overboard on magazines for your side arm.. Two should be plenty. If you are trying to win a gun fight with a pistol, you have already lost.


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## 8301

sparkyprep said:


> A standard military battle pack consists of 300 rounds. So, that means 10 PMags minimum for the AR. I wouldn't go overboard on magazines for your side arm.. Two should be plenty. If you are trying to win a gun fight with a pistol, you have already lost.


I hope not. If things get bad I'd really prefer to only require a pistol on my hip. Still, I keep extra rifle mags.


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## Jakthesoldier

Military "fighting load" is 7 for the rifle, and usually 3 for the handgun. When real fighting breaks out, we run out, and have to get resupplied.


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## Snake_doctor

for a basic loadout 7 rifle mags and 3 pistol mags is what i would consider the minimum. personally i carry 9 rifle magazines and 3 pistol magazines(glock 19)
Don't overdo it. more mags = more weight you have to haul around. there's a reason why guys take out there back armor plates (if they are steel) when they go on multi day foot patrols.


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## NotTooProudToHide

As soon as the big brown truck gets here I'll be up to 4 for the pistol and 6 for the rifle. I think I'd like to end up with 8 for the pistol and 10 Pmags for the rifle just to be on the safe side


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## SOCOM42

toolmanky said:


> as soon as the big brown truck gets here i'll be up to 4 for the pistol and 6 for the rifle. I think i'd like to end up with 8 for the pistol and 10 pmags for the rifle just to be on the safe side


good for a start.


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## GasholeWillie

I bought my first AR late last year. I bought 5 magazines to start, + the one that came with it, I bought the metal ones with magpul followers. I bought a 6 pack more here recently, $50. My chest rig will hold 6, my belt pouch will hold 3 more, that is 250 rounds + another 28 in the gun.

My Glock 19 I have 4 mags because they are cheap. My CZ P-09 has 2 with plans to buy a third, they are expensive. My .38sp has 2 speed loaders.


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## jimrose

I buy a lot of magazines. But I only use about 3 per weapon. The rest are not opened. A new magazine post SHTF. Will be a valuable trade item. And as much as I prepare I always think of something else I just got to have. So buy extras of the things that you believe will be valuable post SHTF. Because someone else will have something you did not think of. And then you can trade for it.


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