How Many Magazines Do You Need

How Many Magazines Do You Need

How many magazines do you really need? What is the minimum that you need for a holy cow situation? You know there’s everyday situations but there’s also Oh my God- Holy cow. And if you’re a sensible person then you’re thinking ahead to maybe a situation that is totally different than what you face on an everyday basis.

I can tell you right now there’s no limit to the amount of magazines you need for a really horrible type situation. But let’s be realistic. What is it in a sensible OMG situation that is limited maybe to home defense maybe just for self-defense or a home invasion? How many magazines do you really need. You know really the round count in a real self-defense situation is about three rounds in three seconds at three feet so why do we need a bazillion magazines?

If you’re shooting an AR 15 and not knowing whatever pouches you’re using to hold your magazines. I’ll tell you what guys, I would rather have extra. In a really grid down tough situation you could really run out of ammo and magazines fast and to be honest with you having a gun without extra magazines is a really poor excuse. Now as far as minimums what I would say that you need as a minimum to start out is for each pistol have at least six magazines put back where there is a 1911 that only holds seven or eight rounds or you have a SS 75 that holds 16 rounds. Having 6 magazines for each of those handguns is really important. For your main rifle I would suggest you have at least ten magazines for each rifle and whether it’s an AR 15 or an AK 47. And again it doesn’t really matter if you get G.I. mags or Magpul you can mix and match. They all work very well in your rifle. Well make sure you have your stripper clips ready. Tampico 20 round magazines work really well and I would suggest having at least 10 of these set aside.

A great example of a magazine and a rifle that I have is an AK 47 that shoots 5.56 and the magazine holds 30 rounds. Unfortunately, this is the only magazine that came with the gun and it wasn’t long after I had it that the magazines became very scarce. They were 40 bucks apiece already which kept me from going ahead and buying a number of them immediately. But now they’re almost impossible to find. So I have an AK 47 that shoots 5.56/.223 and it has one magazine. So after 30 rounds I’m done. And to be honest with you that is pretty sad. On the other hand I have many AR 15 magazines in 5.56/.223. I have a number of different brands. I love Magpul and I love just the standard G.I. mags that I’ve been using them for years. And then you have your MWD, which are Bulgarian made good high quality waffle pattern magazines, and these are the 40 rounders compared to the 30 rounder Magpul mags.  And you know there’s a lot of different variations out there and sometimes you might just want to use different ones.

These all feed very well in my AR 15 platform. But sometimes I want to go a little extravagant. One of the things that the M G.W. does produce is a 90 round drum. But I’ll tell you these have been around for a number of years. And while you do not necessarily want to lug around a bunch of these drums, having one if you really need a lot of ammunition is a great option. But one of the reasons why I really like the AR 15 platform is because the magazines are very reasonable. The AK 47 you can get magazines pretty reasonable too, but the AR 15 magazines are definitely cheaper. Many of your MIL surplus aluminum USGA Mags are available from 8 to 10 bucks if you get them used in the surplus market. You can get good p mags for 10 to about 15 dollars apiece. In fact, at Palmetto State Armory they’ve been selling P mags for $9.99. That is a fantastic price for a great quality magazine. So that should be one of the things that you look at when purchasing a new firearm is the price of the magazines. That’s one of the big things about the Glock mags. Glock mags run about 28 bucks apiece and they’re good high quality mags. They last a long time and that’s one of the reasons why I really like them. The other thing I like about Glock is the capability to go very easily to a 33 round magazine and these magazines are Glock factory. Another thing that I definitely want to recommend is sticking with factory magazines if possible. Many of your high dollar pistols with some real quality are your HK, your Walthers, your Sigs, etc. which are excellent quality pistols, but their magazines run quite a bit more and you need to consider that in the total price of the gun and with your magazines. One of the reasons why I love the Beretta 92 is that you can get surplus mags very cheap. In fact, I get these between eight and 10 bucks apiece. They’re good quality. Typically, at gun shows you can find them in a band, and you can buy them in groups of five to 10 really reasonably priced. And the big thing about your magazines is you may not need them now, but I know when we just had the assault weapons ban scare in magazines and we just sold out like crazy. You could hardly get Glock mags and a lot of other magazines. Buy your magazines now because I’m telling you there will be another incident. There will be another rise in the assault weapons fervor.

The drums will start beating again and people will get scared and they’ll go out and they’ll hoard magazines. You say well your hoarding these magazines now my goodness look how many you have. I’ve bought my magazines over a long period of time to acquire a boatload of them. Typically I’ll go to a gun show I’ll pick up a couple of mags while I’m there and then before long before you know it you have a whole collection of magazines. And that way it’s not a huge outlay of cash. But I’ll tell you guys if you do it now once the scare happens all of these will go way up in value. I just bought three of the Glock 33 round magazines this past weekend and I’ve got them for a great deal. During the Sandy Hook scare and all the assault weapons ban I bought these two for a hundred dollars apiece and some of you say well that was crazy. Well you know what I’m going to wager that I would rather have the magazines than to not have them at all or never have a chance to buy them. So go ahead and buy a boatload of magazines at a reasonable price.

Do I regret paying a hundred dollars a piece for these? No, I don’t because I have them and I want to be smart about it. But that’s why you do it now. Now one of the great things about buying your magazines now and guys there’s so many states that have changed their magazine capacity laws and what happens is those that have magazines prior to the law change have been able typically to keep those magazines. So if you have some 30 round magazines that are pre-banned you’re able to retain them they’re grandfathered in and that is one thing that once you buy the magazines they’re yours for good. Now there are some states that have changed that that are going in and making you register your magazines. But as far as your magazine capacity going forward and getting your magazines now instead of waiting. There’s not really any scare but that can change in one second. In fact, the news can come on you can go check the news right now and if there’s been a massive shooting that really stirs up the public all of these magazines are in danger of being banned. And I have them now and they’re mine to keep.

But those guys that are in these other states whether you’re in Connecticut Massachusetts you’re in New Jersey or wherever you are that has very strict gun laws you really would be glad and they’ll tell you that you need to buy your magazines now before something changes because it can change in a moment. Now in a grid down situation where you can’t replenish your magazines maybe the laws are still the same. These magazines are going to be key and critical because magazines get lost. They break, the springs wear out, there’s a lot of different things that can go wrong. So having extra magazines can really save you. A few years ago in Somalia there was a group of soldiers that were being chased through Mogadishu and as they were going they were just dropping their standard A.R. magazines. They were just dropping into the side. They finally got to a place where they could stop. And they called in ammunition stores and the ammunition was dropped right in their area. But the problem was is they had gotten rid of all their magazines. So they were having to hand load each magazine. And so, keeping a good stock of ammunition even for the U.S. government and the U.S. military it’s really important to keep and retain your magazines.

A big piece of advice for if you’re a prep or a survivalist or you’re concerned about security is not only having just enough magazines for you to store your ammunition but also to have extra magazines and to have a backlog in case there’s ever a long term issue where you’re going to need your weapons for security and self-defense. And then of course one last element especially with your rifle magazines like AR, AK magazines you know you may have friends and family that come by and they have one or two magazines and you’re going to have the extras to be able to loan out to them to defend yourself and your family. So having some extra magazines is also important. If you need to know the minimum it is 12 magazines for your pistol, and 15 for your rifle. These are minimums. Typically I would have more than that as I can afford to buy them and just put them back because again in a long term situation or the political climate changes you’re going to be well stocked and you’re not going to be in panic mode paying exorbitant prices. You can get all this stuff right now at a reasonable price that’s right with the market. Once something happens it not only goes up in price it becomes very difficult to find. So go ahead and make it a priority to buy your magazines because it’s not a matter of if it’s going to happen it’s just a matter of when. Keep in mind, your factory magazines are gonna give you the best bang for the buck.

Now that you are stocked up on mags, it’s time to not only organize and index them but also to organize how they’re loaded. For your 1911 .45 you could have 230 grain hardball, 185 grain JHP, or 190 grain wadcutters. For you AR15 you could have 55 grain GP, 62 grain green tip, 75 grain target, etc. You want to pull the right mag/ammo for the mission at hand. Hyskore www.hyskore.com has developed an AR/AK organizer, the 30317 https://hyskore.com/products/30317-modular-magazine-storage/, a 1911 Single Stack Organizer, the 30318 https://hyskore.com/products/30318-modular-single-stack-magazine-storage/ , and a Glock, Beretta Double Stack Organizer 30316 https://hyskore.com/products/30316-double-stack-modular-magazine-storage/. All of these offer compact organizations, storage, and indexing for rifle and pistol magazines.