Ammo carry

[USAF]

How much ammo do you carry on your person (not in duty bag)? Right now I only carry two mags on the belt but was thinking about adding 1 or 2 more.

[msp]

At my full time cop job I carry a glock 22 and 2 spare mags on my belt.

At my part time cop job I carry a 1911 w/4 spare 8 round mags on my belt and two spares in my front shirt pocket.

Since the weight of the .45 ammo got to be a bit much, I started to carry 2 spare 10 round mags on my belt, and two spare 8 round mags in my shirt.

Better to have it and not need it! :rambo:

[Kahuna5150]

As MSP pointed out, the amount of ammo you carry on your person will vary depending on your weapon. I would add it would also depend on your assignment as well as if you carry a backup gun or not.

If you carry a single stack .45, then it is not uncommon to see a quad mag pouch. It looks like a standard double mag pouch (almost every cop wears), but instead of carrying two doublestack high cap mags (for Glock, Sig, etc), it carries 4 single stack .45 mags, for the 1911 guns or the Sig P-220 (only single stack "common" .45's I can think of).

As for your assignment. If you're a deputy, ranger, state trooper, or some other officer/agent who works in a remote area with little backup or backup that is an extended distance away. Carrying a few spare mags on your person isn't a bad idea. I've actually seen some park rangers who carried an extra mag or two on their belts, a pouch with some spare shotgun shells, and some that carried a spare AR-15/M-16 mag on them.

I personally carried two mags on my belt. A few mags and a few boxes of ammo on my front seat in my war bag. If I carried my Glock 27 as my backup I might carry a spare full size mag that would fit the Glock 27 in addition to the mags on my belt. If I was carrying a .38 revolver (S&W 642) I would carry a few speed strips on me. So I had the duty gun with 15+1, two 15 round mags on the belt, and either another 9+1 in my Glock 27 with a spare 15 round mag, or 5 shots in the revolver and 10 rounds in the speed strips.

Obviously if you're working as a detective or investigator you probably won't carry more than one or two spare mags on your person. Some still carry a backup while others don't....

Personal preference on how much weight you want to carry and what you feel comfortable with. I agree it's better to have and not need than to need and not have, but at some point you have to make a good decision on what is the max you want/need to carry.

Kahuna