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Most of us CDP shooters who use a 1911 carry a Barney mag (in honor of Barney Fife) that we load into gun first, cycle round into gun, set safety on, remove barney mag and pocket it and load a full magazine to meet division capacity rule (for CDP either 7 in mag and 1 in chamber or 8 in mag and 1 in chamber depending on if you are using 7 or 8 round magazines) All my Active magazines are Wilson 47Ds which are shiny and my barney mag is a blued mecgar to make sure I don't mix them up.

I saw a Hi-Power shooter who had painted the follower, end and baseplate of a magazine bright red that he used as his empty mag to drop hammer on. I would suggest you keep your empty HammerDrop mag in a particular pocket that ONLY that mag is put in to avoid mixup.

As Steve says 6 mags is a good start, and only 5 of them have to be functional as the empty mag is only for dropping the hammer.

My goal is enough magazines to shoot the whole match without reloading (I figure 16 ought to be enough for most matches). I only need 2 more to be able to shoot Classifier without reloading.

BrassMonkey: It may help you mentally if when you are dropping the hammer, to aim at a target as if you are shooting it. This will be consistant with the 4 rules and only pulling trigger when AIMED at active target.

As for everything after you showing a clear chamber to the SO being Hogwash, I personally saw an Experienced shooter show clear to an Experienced SO and when he dropped the hammer, the gun went Bang. If ALL the steps are followed, it is impossible for a gun to be holstered and taken from the firing line that can fire (the goal on a Cold range)