The thought never really occured to me except maybe at the back of my mind...
You don't carry the second magazine so you'll have spare bullets. You carry the second magazine so you'll have a spare magazine.
I was carrying (on the rare times I actually have permission to) a spare just instinctively. Now I have a concrete, thought-out, reason.
So what's the second most likely thing to fail after the mag baseplate? Extractor? Cracked slide? Slide stop?
Hell, if the mainspring housing pin breaks on me again that would turn my 1911 into an unwieldy cudgel. You kinda need that mainspring housing to stay in place. But no one I've talked to has ever heard of those pins breaking. Just my luck.
Just like the old saying, "Two is one, one is none."
ReplyDeleteHell, I used to carry an extra sling, grip, and barrel for my issue rifle because all broke down at one point or another.
I had exactly the same reaction to Tam's post: palm-to-forehead. So I carry a spare now. Anyway, just another excuse to carry a single-stack!
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, the most likely failure is for the rear sight to come adrift or even fall off, but it still shoots.
I carry a spare mag both to have a spare mag *and* to have extra ammunition.
ReplyDeleteNo one ever leaves a gunfight thinking "Damn, I have too much ammo left over"... ;)
I carry an extra mag in case there is a failure in the primary and for the extra ammo.
ReplyDeleteI carry a Glock to minimize the chances of failure in ANY component.