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I grew up hearing the classic quotes "If you can hit 'em in six shots, you won't hit em with 12..." and other such non-sense mostly from guys who'd never been within 100 yards of a real gunfight. Still, I've always carried at least one spare magazine because all that I'd read from guys who'd actually needed a gun seemed to indicate that it was at the very least, a wise idea. Several of those guys said in one way or another that "two is one and one is none."

One day , I showed up at the range with no intention of shooting the match that day. All I had with me was my daily carry gear which on that day was a Glock 19 with that one spare magazine. Well, one thing lead to another and the guys talked me into shooting one stage. I walked onto the line wearing the clothes, gun and ammo I'd walked in off the street carrying.

I started the stage rocking and rolling pretty smoothly. Carry ammo was a bit more stout than I was used to shooting during a match but not enough to care. It just made me slow my shots down a few hundredths of a second and I was actually more accurate than normal. But things went stupid about 5 rounds into it when the magazine suddenly puked it's remaining contents all over the floor. Some how, the base plate had failed and all that was left in the gun was the magazine's shell.

LUCKILY, I had that one spare. So I quicky dumped the body, fed the beast and got back to work. I finished the stage and all was fine, no points down and the reload had cost me only about 1.5 seconds. But the fact that this happened with the gear I was wearing on the street that day hit home.

I bought two new magazines on the spot. I put them both through four complete cycles, charging them to 15 rounds and then firing 15 rounds, before leaving the range that evening. Glock replaced the failed magazine. The spare I had that day is still running fine. I realize the chances of that happening again are slim. Still, since that incident I've never carried anything less than two spare magazines unless it was impractical to do so.