How many rounds are you comfortable with in a carry pistol?

[Hmac]

Weird shit tends to happen though.

No, it really doesn’t. It can happen. I see wierd shit occasionally in the ED...but it’s rare and it doesn’t tend to happen. It tends not to happen. Car accidents tend to happen. Falls tend to happen.

Unless you live in, say, Kandahar province or downtown Chicago, you are in far more danger of dying from a head injury sustained in a car accident than having to defend your life from some miscreant with evil intent. Car accidents don’t fall into the category of “weird shit”, they are an every day occurrence. Do you wear a helmet when you drive your car? I’m just wondering about the total commitment to risk mitigation.


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[Furbyballer]

I have only ever had to pull my gun once. It happened in a downtown atl underground parking garage at night during dragon con weekend. Got boxed in by 4 military aged males while I was approaching my car. I was carrying a kahr k9. Fortunately, as I drew and gave verbal commands, they backed off. Had that gone kinnetic I dont like those odds at all. I swapped to a glock 19 the next week and have always carried the largest gun I can conceal from that event onward.

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[Furbyballer]

I just cannot get a G19 to conceal well, and I'm very fit. I carry a G43 with extended magazines, but I secretly do not feel comfortable with the low round capacity.

Look into the seraph holster from v development group and their mother of all wedges kit. Amazing combo.

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[WickedWillis]

No, it really doesn’t. It can happen. I see wierd shit occasionally in the ED...but it’s rare and it doesn’t tend to happen. It tends not to happen. Car accidents tend to happen. Falls tend to happen.

Unless you live in , say, Kandahar province or downtown Chicago, you are in far more danger of dying from a head injury sustained in a car accident than having to defend your life from some miscreant with evil intent. Car accidents don’t fall into the category of “wierd shit”, they are an every day occurrence. Do you wear a helmet when you drive your car? I’m just wondering about the total commitment to risk mitigation.


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I wasn't implying you were wrong in your choice, because everyone is different and so is their needs, or perceived needs. I just personally would not feel confident carrying only 5 rounds. Mostly because I have never been in combat, or drawn a firearm in self defense.

The car analogy can work both ways too. Most vehicles have seat belts and airbags. A larger capacity and spare magazine can be viewed as built in safety nets as well. To each their own.

[26 Inf]

No, it really doesn’t. It can happen. I see wierd shit occasionally in the ED...but it’s rare and it doesn’t tend to happen. It tends not to happen. Car accidents tend to happen. Falls tend to happen.

Unless you live in , say, Kandahar province or downtown Chicago, you are in far more danger of dying from a head injury sustained in a car accident than having to defend your life from some miscreant with evil intent. Car accidents don’t fall into the category of “wierd shit”, they are an every day occurrence. Do you wear a helmet when you drive your car? I’m just wondering about the total commitment to risk mitigation.

I've asked the same question numerous times over the years. Folks seem to want to prepare for the 'sexiest' risk and ignore the more mundane risks.

Kind of like getting all dressed up in you leather pants/chaps and vests to ride your Harley and then going with the doorag instead of the helmet.

[Hmac]

I wasn't implying you were wrong in your choice, because everyone is different and so is their needs, or perceived needs. I just personally would not feel confident carrying only 5 rounds. Mostly because I have never been in combat, or drawn a firearm in self defense.

Completely valid point, one that I (obliquely) tried to address when I mentioned that preparation for the dangers of life in Kandahar or Chicago would be different than here in my little corner of rural Minnesota. Even in urban areas, however, statistics appear to indicate that the average number or rounds expended in a civilian self-defense encounter is two.

As to airbags...also a valid point to consider, but despite seat belts and airbags, head injury remains far and away the leading mechanism of death in MVA's. Second leading cause of death is blunt chest trauma, so if risk-mitigation is the goal in our daily lives, those plate carriers and other forms of kevlar that are so popular here on M4C would be vastly better employed if those folks wore them while driving their car. Along with their MICH, of course. Focusing on how many extra magazines we carry while shopping at the grocery store indulging our gunfight fantasies seems a little like misplaced priorities.

Don't misunderstand...I'm not immune to those fantasies and don't look down my nose at people who indulge them. I carry a gun sometimes and don't wear a helmet while driving. If fact, I don't usually wear a helmet while riding my Harley. As you say...to each their own. Risk mitigation is a personal preference. I don't judge.

[Hmac]

I've asked the same question numerous times over the years. Folks seem to want to prepare for the 'sexiest' risk and ignore the more mundane risks.

Kind of like getting all dressed up in you leather pants/chaps and vests to ride your Harley and then going with the doorag instead of the helmet.

Heh heh. I don't have leather chaps or vest, and as I age, my hair has preferentially gotten short enough that a doo-rag is superfluous. I like your point about sexy risks and priorities. I envision the guy driving down the road with a gun in one of his 23 carry holsters (and his backup gun), no seat belt and texting his girlfriend on his phone.

[Watrdawg]

I carried a G19 almost exclusively and now a M&P 9 2.0 compact. I've carried my G43 with a +2 mag a time or two but just don't feel comfortable. I'll carry an extra mag with the G43 and still prefer the G19 or the M&P.

[26 Inf]

Heh heh. I don't have leather chaps or vest, and as I age, my hair has preferentially gotten short enough that a doo-rag is superfluous. I like your point about sexy risks and priorities. I envision the guy driving down the road with a gun in one of his 23 carry holsters (and his backup gun), no seat belt and texting his girlfriend on his phone.

I love to ride, but like you, don't do the dress up thing. Unlike you, my hair hasn't gotten preferentially short. I dreamed of having my high school hair when I retired, but at about 40 realized that wasn't going to happen. My oldest son didn't make it any easier by arranging for the hair club for men to send me brochures. My only solace is that I have more hair left than him and the girls at Great Clips seem relieved to do a simple #1 all over. They even trim my eyebrows.

I wear a shorty helmet behind the fairing and a full face on my dual sport. Probably twice a month I will hope on my Sportster and ride to coffee without a helmet, but that is it.

When I carry, it is generally either my G43, my 9mm Shield, or most often, my Ruger LCP, going on the premise that a .380 in the pocket, is better than the nine at home.

[Circle_10]

My preference is for a 9mm with a mag capacity of more than ten rounds, and a second magazine of similar or greater capacity for a reload. When I first got my CCW in 2004 I carried a Bulgarian Makarov with a Clipdraw, and a spare mag loose in my left pocket. In 2006 I switched to a Glock 23 in a Galco paddle holster and a spare mag in a Safariland horizontal pouch on my belt (between 2010 and 2013 I got lazy and became a sporadic carrier during this time, going about unarmed if having sidearm was "inconvenient". Eventually I decided I needed to get back into carrying on the regular) in 2015 I switched to a full sized HK VP9. And as of March of this year my CCW is a VP9SK with the 13 round extension and one in the pipe and a full sized VP9 15rounder as a reload in a SnagMag holder in my left pocket.
However I don't carry IWB so in hot weather, when a cover garment isn't comfortable or in situations where it's not acceptable or I'm engaging in an activity where a larger pistol in an OWB holster would be cumbersome (I recall the time I was on vacation in Acadia National Park and temporarily lost my reload HK mag after belly-crawling through a rock cave on the side of Cadillac Mountain, I didn't realize until the following day and luckily remembered the cave as the most likely place for me to have lost it.) Or at risk of exposure to bystanders, I now pocket carry a 5-shot Smith and Wesson 638 J-frame with two or three speed strips in another pocket. While I'm always cognizant of the fact I have way less firepower on tap vs when I carry my VP9SK, I don't find myself overwhelmed by fears of getting killed in the street. I practice with the J-Frame about as often as I do with my primary carry gun.
If I can, I carry the higher capacity gun OWB, if I can't, than I carry the lower capacity, less powerful one in a pocket. The former is better than the latter but either one is better than no gun.