How Much Is Enough?

Both Tam and SayUncle have tackled the thorny question of "How many magazines should I have?" I thought I'd add a (slightly) new perspective, that of someone trapped in a state with some version of an assault weapons ban/magazine restriction. MA, CA, CT, HI, IL*, IN*, MD, NJ, NY, OH, and WI* all have some form of restrictions on magazine capacity, so this is not just a MA/CA/NY thing.

MA has extended the 1994 AWB in perpetuity, and as such has the most draconian laws on magazine restrictions. No new magazines with capacity over 10 rounds (5 if semi-auto shotgun) - possession of same being a felony. There is the grandfather clause for magazines made before September of 1994, so any magazines with a capacity greater than 10 rounds must be "pre-ban" to be legal.

With that in mind, my response to "how many magazines should I have" is a little different than that one might receive from someone in a free state. There's a definite emphasis on high-capacity magazines, in that I'll buy a pre-ban high cap mag long before I'll get a single-stack magazine 10 rounds or less.

I've got a few general guidelines I like to follow with regards to magazines:

• For a carry weapon, a minimum of three magazines is a must - one in the gun, one for backup, and one spare to rotate. Six is preferable to three, as every magazine has its own back-up
• For "fun" guns (guns that don't serve as dedicated carry, target, or teaching firearms), the number of magazines will vary anywhere from one to however many I can afford. General rule of thumb in these cases is to have enough magazines to load a good day at the range worth of ammo (generally 100 rounds). Price and availability of the magazine factors heavily.
• For defensive/SHTF guns, more is better. Minimum of a half-dozen; ideally a dozen or two magazines for the AR-15, AK-47, and M1 carbine.
• For guns that have pre-ban high capacity magazines available, buy as many as you can find whenever you can find them. I have a Sig P226 that I currently have 12 magazines for - two ten round magazines and ten 15-round pre-bans. The 10 round magazines do not work in the gun. They are factory SigSauer magazines, but they will not engage the magazine catch whatsoever. If I cannot find pre-ban magazines for this firearm, it becomes a very expensive cudgel...

Side note/open bleg: I'm always on the lookout for pre-ban magazines. I can always use 20- and 30 round AR-15 mags, 15- or 20- round Sig P226 9mm mags, Glock G21 13 round mags, and Browning Hi-Power 13 round 9mm magazines...

I started tallying up the number of magazines I had for each of my magazine-fed firearms, and had to stop when I had literally filled an entire page of my notepad. I've got half a dozen guns that I only have a single magazine for - this is not acceptable for any gun that's not a safe queen; obviously all of the guns in this category are safe queens. Generally the only reasons I don't have extra magazines is that they're either too hard to find (VEPR .308) or the gun doesn't work (Craft Prod K-25).

The guns I have the most magazines for are, obviously, those for which high-capacity pre-ban magazines are readily available:

• Bushmaster AR-15: 33 (2 40s, 20 30s, 11 20s)
• Sig 226: 12 (2 10s, 10 15s)
• M1 Carbine: 14 (6 30s, 8 15s)
• Glock G30: 8 (1 9, 5 10s, 2 G21 13s)
• AK: 8 (2 40s, 6 30s)
• Not a large capacity, but the Colt 1911, which I have a couple dozen magazines for

And I still don't think I have anywhere near enough of any of them...

That is all.

*Only certain areas