For summer attire I often use Thunderwear. http://thunderwear.com/holsters.asp
For summer attire I often use Thunderwear. http://thunderwear.com/holsters.asp
My bad for assuming the 1911 was a 45. Yes, I know they are made in other calibers, but when the caliber is not stated I tend to revert to 45 because it is by far the most common.
45 is not a bad round and is capable of doing the job when there is direct bullet to target hits. When it comes to defensive capabilities, I play the what if game. What if the threat is around the corner or on the other side of a cabinet and I need to punch through to get to the bad guy? What if I need to go through a car door? I just don't trust a 45 in those situations and rarely do life and death situations present themselves ideally. That is why I choose 9. I actually see 40 being better than 9, but not enough so to justify the price difference in ammo.
Just my opinion.
Per the op, I would load the mags up all the way and not worry. For the once a month cleaning, inspect the mags. If one seems suspect, replace the mag or the spring.
That is my method, anyway.
”There's nothing glorious in dying. Anyone can do it.” ~Johnny Rotten
I grew up with Remington 1911a1 .45. I have never had or heard or spring compression problems. I have no issues with leaving magazines loaded in any of my guns.
I don't rotate self defense rounds once a year like is recommended by some. I do that every couple of years and have never had a hiccup from long term storage in mags.
+1 batch. I keep SD ammo around for five years before rotation, unless the ammo shows signs that warrant concern.
”There's nothing glorious in dying. Anyone can do it.” ~Johnny Rotten
Everyone has to decide what they're comfortable with. For my own part though I usually carry an HK P30S, HK VP9 or HK P2000. Stuff full of 147gr ammo (between 16 and 14 rounds depending on the gun) I've got about two pounds on my belt. A typical sidearm is maybe 9-10" from stem to stern and five or six inches tall (bottom of grips to the top of the rear sight). To me that's the hard part! Why then skimp on a spare mag? It's less than 1/2" x 1"x 3.5" (again, depending on the gun) and weights between a few ounces and half a pound. It's ridiculously easy to carry a spare mag if you're already wearing a heavy gun belt. To me having no spare mag would be like driving around a Chevy Suburban or Tahoe totally unloaded/empty but not wanting to take up space with a spare tire!
In 25 years of having my CCW permit I've never drawn my gun (although a couple of times in my life I feared it might go to guns). Yet I still carry that gun. Probably I'll never draw it. But maybe I'll need it later on tonight. That's just the thing- you never know. If I do need a gun then it's already a "black swan" kind of day statistically. Do I want to further push my luck with the old 3 rounds/three yards "rule"?
Besides, nearly all malfunctions I've ever had with an auto pistol were mag related or shooter induced. The magazine is the most fragile/prone to problems part of most autos, as 1911 guys can attest. So it makes sense to have a second one with me.
While I've thankfully never been in a gunfight my study of those who have reveal that in good percentage of cases on a two-way shooting range, a person will fire until they're out of ammo. I have seen this in a lot of police shootings. It would be embarrassing to finish a gunfight with an empty sidearm only to learn the fight wasn't really finished at all! The dirt bag might have buddies. I do know of one verified case where a guy with a CCW killed an armed robber but expended all his ammo- they guy's partner showed up an killed the now unarmed good Samaritan. Rare I know, but possible.
I sure don't mean to preach that my way is right and everyone else is wrong. Just explaining my rationale for always carrying a reload, whether a mag for an auto or speed strips for my wheelie.
Phaedrus,
Very reasonable logic. Thank you.
I keep my spare mag at 10:30-11:00 on my belt in a horizontal mag pouch. If it's my Nano I have a mag in a SHTF Gear Horizontal Mag Pouch. If it's one of my HKs I have a Safariland 123. Cool thing is that the P30, P2000, USPc, P30L and VP9 can all use the same mag. So I never have to swap out mags unless I'm carrying a wheelgun or the Beretta Nano. The ammo gets carried for a few months then replaced. The stuff I take out gets burned up at the range. If I'm carrying a 9mm it's generally loaded with Federal HST (usually 147gr +P but sometimes 124gr if that's what I can find).
It's a bit beyond the scope of the question but I'll usually have a high powered tactical light on me as well. And as a South Dakotan raised out on a ranch I'd never think of leaving the house w/o a knife!
BTW, I kind of misread the OP a bit. I took it to mean how many round on you more than being specific to 1911 mags. When I carried a 1911 it was a Colt Commander in .38 Super. Most people think ".45ACP" when they think 1911 but in reality the Super goes back to near the beginning of that design. I have had 1911's in .45 ACP but never carried one concealed. In the Super I carried all that would fit in the mag, cocked-and-locked. Back in those days (late 80's/early 90's) I didn't always carry a spare mag.
I wouldn't pay much attention to the old military protocol for carrying the 1911. After all, do you really want to CCW with no round in the chamber? Modern magazines run fine fully loaded. Well, maybe not all mags but I have zero use for any mag that doesn't work. I number all my pistol mags as a rule, and if I have issues with a mag I correct it or bite the bullet and discard that mag. Basically all of my mags for all my guns work at full capacity with one exception- a couple of my very old mags for my Browning Hi-Power will only hold 12 rounds. The SAS carried with just twelve on account of that issue.
Aside from the one incident I mentioned about I've never heard a verified story of a civilian (non-LEO) that died because his mag ran dry. I do know of a woman that shot a home invader in the face with all six rounds from her old .38 with RN lead bullets. All six were solid hits but skidded around the big bones of the face and exited the scalp at the back of the head w/o penetrating the skull. He actually fled and made it to his truck- cops caught him some distance away. She was very lucky as she had no reload on her. The bad guy got the message that he was unwelcome but it could have gone much worse.
I am personally confident in the 9mm. In my life I've carried 9mm, .38 Super, .40 cal and .45 ACP, and sometimes a .357 Mag or .38 Special. Statistically I think all modern handgun rounds are pretty close to the same because they're all engineered to the exact same standard and have been since the ill fated Miami Shootout decades ago. While there does seem to be a slight edge to .45 ACP. Police officer and trainer Greg Ellifritz compiled a pretty good body of police shooting results; based on a large number of shootings it took 2.2 shots on average to stop a suspect with a 9mm vs 2.1 shots for the .45 ACP. An edge but slight, and in my mind offset by the fact that I can stuff twice as many in the gun with the nine.
And the .45 ACP is no death ray. Handguns generally aren't. You may have read about the cop that put three mags of .45 ACP from his full sized Glock into a suspect! IIRC about a dozen rounds that weren't survivable hit the perp but he continued to fight on. Towards the end of the gun battle and down to the last few rounds in his last mag the cop managed to slow down and put two in the suspect's head. Even then he was still alive when they both got to the hospital! Sobering indeed. Also sobering was that the officer had an AR in the trunk but no opportunity to get to it. When a fight begins it will probably be concluded with what you have on your at the time. What did the old civil war general say? The winner was whoever got there the fustest with the mostest.
It's not a likely thing to get in a protracted gun battle, for a regular guy at least. But every round on my person is another option and another second or two I can potentially hang in a fight.
Again, I have no problem if someone else chooses not to carry spare ammo. My choice is just based on what makes me feel comfortable.
Originally Posted by Phaedrus
Now this is just me, mind you, and I'm not one to be breaking into other peoples' homes, but if one round went through my face, skittered around my head bone and came out the back side I would probably be pretty quick to assess my company was no longer required. I'm pretty certain the other five would not be necessary. But, as I said, that's just me.
The shooting literature is filled with these incidents where someone bounced uncounted numbers of each and every caliber off their noggin and kept moving right along.
The stories are as numerous as those one can find where a 450 pound guerilla was stopped by one shot from a .22lr and the true fact that the worlds largest Kodiak Bear was killed with a .22 short!
We had people back in 1900 shooting cattle in the slaughter houses and shooting hanging pig carcasses and measuring the depth of penetration and target reaction and today we have people shooting blocks of jello and advising on minimum standards that seem more ridiculous than one could imagine. And after watching countless videos of that act with a variety of calibers and gauges I am now quite sure one can come to any conclusion they wish to reach and have valid data to back their choices, whatever they are.
I can not speak for any use but my own and I can assure you that on any given day a couple of great big guys, and it would take two, were to turn me upside down and shake me, there might fall to the ground a wide variety of hardware in an equally assorted variety of calibers.
Most of my decisions are not based on caliber as much as they are based on the size of the pistol, which is in turn decided by what my purpose and clothing will be for the given point in time.
I am blessed to live in a time when there are a whole bunch of little bitty .380 autos, and full power 9mm pistols as small as the .380 used to be! And there are beautiful snub nosed revolvers at reasonable prices and so many service pistols in so many calibers. And they are all shooting better bullets than have ever been available.
I do not care what anyone carries as long as they buy lots of them, stack their ammo deep and high and cast their votes in a manner that insures we all get to keep whatever "invalid choice" we make.
Last edited by kyratshooter; 08-01-2015 at 02:52 PM.
If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?
I'm thinking if a Kodiak goes down with a .22 short it's either a real wuss or that's the unluckiest day a Kodiak ever had. Yeah, I know. Shot placement.
Sounds like a Kodiak moment.
https://lockerdome.com/6387814094880...60221516829972
I remember reading the story in one of the old outdoor magazines back when I was a kid. It seems this Indian woman, named Bella Twin, and a friend were hunting a clear cut for birds with a .22 and saw the griz top the hill a couple of hundred yards away. It was walking straight down the cut toward them but there was a cross wind and they thought it might go off track before reaching their position. They got a few yards off the cut and waited.
The bear did not change course an as soon as it smelled their scent it stood on its hind legs to look around. Bella knew that the bear would come after them since the big bears always track down women.
As soon as the bear came into view Bella got it in her sights and as soon as it stood she popped it in the temple with a .22 long cartridge from just a few yards away. It dropped dead n the spot but she put 7 or 8 more shots into its skull just to be sure.
She claimed she was as shocked as anyone else at killing the bear with a .22 and had expected to be killed and eaten anyway, so why not take the shot.
Last edited by kyratshooter; 08-01-2015 at 09:22 PM.
If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?
That was the biggest bear ever taken well into the modern age! That girl got pretty lucky. I first remember reading her story when I was a young boy back in the 70's. Put right into brain pan through the roof of the mouth a humble .22 bullet will kill pretty much any terrestrial predator currently on Earth.
As CCW goes we're in a golden age of sorts. I don't recall when CCW was made legal in my state but I had a permit already in the late 80's. CCW is possible now in every state in the US (theoretically- pretty hard to get one in HI) and there are tons of very good very small sidearms.
That's my take, too. I personally think the .380 ACP is marginal for CCW but I would absolutely take one over harsh language! Marginal doesn't mean ineffective by any means. I'd rather have a .38 Special or 9mm but as you say, any gun on you beats any gun you have at home in the safe. I've been mulling over the purchase of a Ruger LCP for those rare situations where it's a tiny gun or no gun at all. Loaded with the new Federal HST round it would probably be a pretty decent option. Certainly it would be a good backup.
Based on my activities and where I live my P3AT has become as much a pocket companion as my pocket knife, keys and wallet. It has become one of the things I carry 24/7.
It is small enough to fit in the front pocket without drawing notice, still packs a wallop and holds 7 rounds. The last time I forgot to drop it into my pocket when I walked out the door I opened the chicken house door expecting to gather eggs and found a big old 'possum! I was slapping every pocket I had looking for my pistol and finally ran back up the hill feeling like an idiot for not having it.
I do trade it for a heavier caliber in winter, when penetration of heavy coats might be required in my area, but what I trade it for is still comparatively small, and my own coat either has larger pockets or covers the bigger pistol better.
Plus, us old men wear baggy stuff anyway. Plenty of ways to cover a 2" snub nosed revolver in winter. Suspenders are also a big help!
If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?
My regular carry is a Ruger LC380 which is a hair larger than the LCP. Holds eight rounds and fits into cargo pockets and iwb without a problem during warm months. The .380 isn't a great round (no surprise, it is just a scaled down .45) but I can attest it does work. I put down a severely injuried dear with .380. Two shots and she was at peace. I can't imagine a human target would be such a different outcome.
The point of having something on you rather kept at home has alot of merit. If size wasn't a factor, we wouldn't even be talking about pistols! The key is carry what you feel comfortable wearing and confident using. A .22 in the pocket is better than a .45 in the drawer is a common saying for a reason.
”There's nothing glorious in dying. Anyone can do it.” ~Johnny Rotten
(Sigh) Some of us are lucky to get ourselves inside the waistband. On the upside, you can have your tent and pants made at the same place.
I have a co-worker who bought a LCP .380 about a year ago and then saw a Taurus Curve at a gun show and ordered one. His range report said that he had a hard time hitting anything with the LCP. But, the Curve was easy for him to hit the target.
He is about 6'3" and at the higher end of the 200's in weight. He has some big hands and liked the way the Curve felt in his hands.
One thing though, he is retired Coast Guard. He claims to have qualified expert with a shotgun, M-16, and a 1911. But, he crossed his thumbs on that curve and got a case of slide bite! Expert on an auto pistol and you don't know not to cross your thumbs? LOL
Wolff mag springs for the 1911 are $18 for a 3 pack. If you're worried about the springs, change them every year for less than the price of a box of practice ammo. Beats the heck out of being a round or two per mag short when you need it.
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