Do you carry a full magazine + one in the chamber?

[LeeStreet]

I say fill er up, as I just did after some range practice.

 

[wolfman]

What I do now is drop a round in the chamber while the slide is held back, release the slide, and then insert the magazine.

Very bad on your extractor.
Loading this way, the extractor has to pop over the rim, and the lip will eventually wear and possibably bend or break, resulting in FTE because of a bent or broken extractor.

 

[GBuck]

Always nothing more useless than an unloaded gun.

...or a sentence without punctuation.

 

[bman1962]

12 should be plenty shur nuff. But think about it like this, if somebody ever decides to do your family harm the only thing between them and the bad guy might be you. What is between the bad guy and you is your front sight and what is in the gun. 12 might be enough but having 15 certainly won't hurt your chances. Practical Handgun Skills is more then just punching paper.

Good point, I might just go ahead and top it off after all, whats it going to hurt?

 

[jurassicnarc]

At my age, I have long since stopped emulating others, even if some see fit to call my sanity in to question. I choose not to top off based on my own personal preference and my own experience (please see post #16 this thread). If you choose not to top off, "good on you". I don't even top off my truck's gas tank until it"s half way down. You may conduct your business anyway you see fit, and I will not chide you for it. At least 80% of you seem to be preparing for either a Zombie invasion or the 2nd coming of Al Qaeda, with my blessing. At least you are contributing to the preservation of our 2nd Ammendment by thinking ahead of time.... Oh, for the troglodyte who suggested that I leave a round out of my revolver cylinder, lots of luck with that, except for SAAs where it is a safety issue. Am I to expect the delivery of another truck full of dead horses ?

 

[GBuck]

Oh, for the troglodyte who suggested that I leave a round out my revolver cylinder, lots of luck with that, except for SAAs where it is a safety issue. Am I to expect the delivery of another truck full of dead horses ?

Lol.. what?

 

[jurassicnarc]

GBuck, I'm simply suggesting we need more dead horses to beat, since the current one has been reduced to pulp :-D

 

[ATM]

...Oh, for the troglodyte who suggested that I leave a round out my revolver cylinder, lots of luck with that, except for SAAs where it is a safety issue. Am I to expect the delivery of another truck full of dead horses ?

Troglodyte? Nice!

But perhaps it is you who need the hypothetical question that was actually asked of you drawn out in pictures on the wall. You see, there was no suggestion for you to do so as you implied above - that would be a rather silly practice in my opinion.

Here it is again in case you'd like another stab at, you know... answering the actual question.

Leaving a round out of the revolver might work for you as well, but would you still claim that it's just as good as being fully loaded to capacity?

Bad horse!

 

[NavyVet]

Always better to have one bullet too many than to come up one short!

That being said, if it takes me 51 rounds to get out the situation I am in, then I should have avoided the situation. Or reach for the BUG!

 

[jurassicnarc]

Apples and Oranges. Full cylinders on revolvers were clearly the intention of the designer. For a 1911, the standard magazine was designed to hold 7 rounds, so the Wilson mag which holds eight has already given you the spare round. As earlier stated, I looked at the fully loaded 8 round magazine, and I saw the round on top cocked up slightly. Since I already do not trust semi-autos as much as I do a revolver, I (as in for my personal choice) decided not to top off. You do as you see fit, or better yet, go buy a plastic pistol with a 15 round magazine! You clearly have the majority on your side.

My Wilson 1911 is excellent quality in every respect, but I still trust a revolver more. That's just me. My shotguns have been double barrels, my rifles are single shots and bolt actions.... are we beginning to see a pattern here? I simply choose to follow a different path. Futher the deponent saith not.

 

[ATM]

^ TL;DR

I'll just assume you said no, you won't answer the hypothetical question I asked but will continue to treat it as if it were a suggestion which warrants rehashing your entire position.

...Futher the deponent saith not.

Apology accepted.

 

[.45 Dave]

I have an XD40. I carry one in the chamber always ready to fire and 10 in the mag. The actually holds 12 but I have been told that I shouldn't fully compress the spring. I look at it this way if I can't get through a fire fight with 11 rounds plus another 10 in an additional mag, I may be in a place I shouldn't have been to begin with. Statistically, unless you're in a war zone or just firing non-stop, gunfights are over long before you get through the first mag anyway.

 

[.45 Dave]

Apples and Oranges. Full cylinders on revolvers were clearly the intention of the designer. For a 1911, the standard magazine was designed to hold 7 rounds, so the Wilson mag which holds eight has already given you the spare round. As earlier stated, I looked at the fully loaded 8 round magazine, and I saw the round on top cocked up slightly. Since I already do not trust semi-autos as much as I do a revolver, I (as in for my personal choice) decided not to top off. You do as you see fit, or better yet, go buy a plastic pistol with a 15 round magazine! You clearly have the majority on your side.

My Wilson 1911 is excellent quality in every respect, but I still trust a revolver more. That's just me. My shotguns have been double barrels, my rifles are single shots and bolt actions.... are we beginning to see a pattern here? I simply choose to follow a different path. Futher the deponent saith not.

This is off topic for which I apologize but recently I had a test firing with a friend of mine. I have a 3 shot gas operated auto shotgun. He had a 5 shot (one in the chamber for 6) pump shotgun. I was able to fire my three round while he fired his, reload quicker than he did and fire again. Bottom line is that I could fire 10 rounds quicker than he could fire his. I imagine with practice,you could fire a double barrel, reload and fire again pretty darn quickly too and with much less chance of a malfunction! Sometimes simpler is better! I'm not saying you or I could outdo a really good shotgunner with a pump but I'm guessing the difference in firing rate would be minimal. Only difference is if I was against 4 armed opponents I might be screwed, but then that's why I have a pistol.

 

[Roadie]

I have an XD40. I carry one in the chamber always ready to fire and 10 in the mag. The actually holds 12 but I have been told that I shouldn't fully compress the spring. I look at it this way if I can't get through a fire fight with 11 rounds plus another 10 in an additional mag, I may be in a place I shouldn't have been to begin with. Statistically, unless you're in a war zone or just firing non-stop, gunfights are over long before you get through the first mag anyway.

Magazine spring madness: 'creep' to your 'elastic limit' to un-earth the urban legend of 'spring-set' | American Handgunner | Find Articles

As for "statistically", you statistically will never USE your gun in self defense, but why not be prepared. Also, the "may be in a place I shouldn't have been to begin with" thing is a myth. If you could choose where you might need a gun, you could avoid those places altogether..

 

[dtkw]

I use a Sig 229 in .40 and used the safety decocker to lower the chambered round then added another round to the magazine and inserted it back to the Sig. Now I have 13 rounds with the gun and two 12 rounds magazines ready. Total 37 rounds if I am still alive and shooting.

 

[AR15Jim]

I have always use the +1 s&w 6906 12 in the mag 1 up the pipe.

 

[famous187]

If your going to carry a gun for self defense I don't see any other option than to carry one in the chamber.

 

[Roadie]

If your going to carry a gun for self defense I don't see any other option than to carry one in the chamber.

No offense, but that isn't exactly what the OP was asking..

 

[DocSkunk]

my .357mag revolver is always topped of with one in the chamber when i picket my little j22s thou they are always max load, one in the chamber

 

[Citizen711]

That's like asking, if you take all the ice cubes out of the tray except one, do you refill it or wait till the last one is gone?

Actually, it's like if one ice cube slot cracks in the tray, do you just not fill any of them up?

I don't carry a round in the chamber at all. I can rack the slide in about half a second. I'll have it out in plenty of time to do that, if it's needed.