Personally, I've made the decision to not bother carrying spare magazines or a backup gun anymore. Instead, I've started carrying Nate "Hort" Horton. Hort is a former SEAL Team 6 member who decided not to re-up with the Navy in 2020.
Sure, Hort is heavier than my 1911 or my Springer XDm plus any spare, charged mags. He also gets moody about having to live above my garage and go with me whenever I leave the house. Some of those times I catch him by surprise and he's wearing really ratty T-shirts and cargo shorts that look like they've been to every Metallica concert since 1986; I've been forced to leave some establishments and events because I was carrying Hort. And it really grates on him that he can't go anywhere without me.
Hort was miffed over the SEALs finally selecting the G19 to replace the SIG P226
after he decided not to re-up, because he was never the biggest fan of the P226. He remains miffed that I don't use a G19 and that he then has to match platforms with whatever I use on a given day. About 80% of the time it's a 1911 and he isn't thrilled about that. He keeps saying I should just go all-out and get an Alec Baldwin Special: a single-action Long Colt; commenting that Baldwin proved those effective enough and it could put me back even before 1911, into the 19th century, and that I should just love that.
So, sure. Hort is heavy; he's awkward to carry; he can be a pain; he doesn't fit it everyplace I go; it isn't safe to leave him locked in the car those times I can't carry him; and if people spot him, despite being concealed, there can be a MWAG reaction.
But like Clint Smith always says: one is none, and two is one.
