Recently, I was remembering an old lawman that I used to know who spent years keeping the peace down on the border. He carried a Colt single-action revolver in .38/40, loaded with five cartridges and the hammer down on the empty cylinder for safety. When I asked him about having only five cartridges in a handgun that was slow to reload, he said that if you put five 180-grain slugs where they needed to go, you could reload at your leisure. He also pointed out that he had the mate to this Colt and would also stuff it in his belt if he thought the situation might warrant it.
On social media, if you bring up the question of how much ammo a person ought to carry, the floodgates open. Everyone has an opinion, and that opinion generally involves quite a bit of ammunition. I remember one armed citizen who informed us that he carried four extra magazines in addition to the one that was in the gun. And then, of course, you have the comedian who allows that the only time you have too much ammunition is if you are on fire.
Okay, so with all this extra ammunition, what do you do when your handgun craters on you? And I’m not talking about clearing malfunctions. I’m talking about when it breaks. And don’t tell me that won’t happen because I’ve seen it with my own two eyes. I even had one prototype come completely apart, with the slide and barrel going in separate directions. If that had happened in the middle of a gunfight, carrying that second gun might have seemed like a really good idea.
It might be that, instead of spending so much time talking about all the spare ammo we carry, it would be a better idea to focus on improving our ability to hit a target quickly and accurately with that first shot. Extra ammo is only important if you plan to miss a lot; center hits are what stop fights.
Developing good tactics and the use of available cover are also pretty important. And, for the armed citizen, getting away from the fight is always a good idea, especially when confronted by multiple attackers. These may be more important, or just as important, as carrying a lot of extra ammunition.
So what do I carry? Generally, it is one reload, though on occasion I’ve carried more. And, yes, there have been times when I carried two guns. But, I have always tried to keep my focus on being a better shot and a better fighter. That’s what wins gunfights in the real world.
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