Carrying a spare mag on an AR-15?

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Chris Rhines

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I was thinking lately that I should keep a spare magazine attached to my AR-15 in some way.

- For competition use, loading off the gun is probably going to be faster than going to a belt pouch (depending on exactly how the magazine is carried.)

- Being as how I'm not any kind of SWAT ninja, if I ever have to use my AR for real I'm probably not going to have time to put on my armor, web gear, etc. A spare mag attached to the gun would be nice in that case.

I've looked into a couple different methods - the Boonie Packer Redi-Mag, buttstock mag pouches (rejected - too slow) and the ol' standby of lath and duct tape. What do you guys think is the best way to carry that spare mag?

- Chris
 
Tactical Tailor buttstock mag pouch

Company founded and run by an ex-Ranger. They still supply a lot of gear to everyone at Fort Lewis. Or try a Fobus mag coupler to pair up a couple of mags.
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I have a mag coupler coming in the mail right now. I'm hoping it will let me load a second mag in record time.

If I remember, I will post a "range report" when it gets here.
 
I use a MagPul and tie one around my neck with paracord when I sleep. :D
 
I would go with the butt cuff that nemesis mentions to begin with. The reason being that I don't keep my AR loaded all the time, but if I needed to grab it for some reason, I have a mag with it. Same goes for in the car. I don't drive around with a loaded rifle, but with the stock pouch, I have a loaded mag on the gun and it goes where ever the rifle goes. It also stores a mag in a protected manner. Going prone doesn't shove the open end of the spare magazine or it's feedlips into the ground.
If I was going to have the rifle loaded with a magazine and wanted a spare available for a speed reload, I wouldn't carry the mag on the gun at all. I am pretty sure that I can reload faster from out of my back pocket than any of the ideas mentioned already. But, I have done thousands of repititions of doing speed reloads with an AR15 and a magazine on my belt. Having it in my back pocket wouldn't be a whole lot different.
 
the mag clamp or like product has one thing going for it,space between mags,you can clamp them together lips up so when you go prone,no dirt gets in the mag.buffer tech. also makes a good strap clamp setup.
 
I too would opt for the buttstock mag puch. Inexpensive, the mag doesn't have to be locked into the mag well, no messy tape or upside down feedlips in the dirt and you always have the mag with the rifle. Granted, not the fastest, but a workable compromise in my opinion.
 
The Tactical Tailor or Eagle Industries stock pouches work well.

The Buffer Tech magazine clamp is seeing a lot of usage in the Sandbox from what I hear.
 
When I was at my Gunsite Basic Carbine class, the rangemaster for the class (who is a full time SWAT officer in Southern California) was putting the Redi-Mag through it's paces to see if they should go to them. At that point, he thought it was great. I don't know what his final decision was, but he liked it so far.

The thing about the mag pouch on the stock isn't that it is bad. It just doesn't seem to fit your needs. I don't think it was intended to be there to make rapid magazine changes. One use I have heard of is the police officer who carries a patrol carbine. He already has a duty belt full of gear. So, he has a magazine attached to the carbine so that when he grabs the carbine, he has two magazines without strapping any extra gear on his body. It would seem that it is highly unlikely for a police officer to get into a firefight with a carbine that would require two magazines, but you never know. Another option would be the one I described earlier where you don't want to have the carbine loaded, or have a magazine seated in the carbine. In that case, you have the magazine on the weapon and it follows the carbine around. So, it appears none of this plays into your needs.

I personally don't do any of the above. If I needed to grab the carbine, I would also grab two mags and stick one in my back pocket. If I had any advance warning at all, I would put the mag pouches on my belt.
 
The buttstock mag pouches really aren't an option - way too slow, and too much fumbling required to access the magazine.
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It worked well enough for me when I had to use it under "real" conditions. I personally liked the stock mag holder, but that's just my opinion. Every other soldier I was deployed with generally used them also.


Competitions are different, I imagine.
 
Mulliga:
Well, the mag clamp is nice, but does it have any advantages over duct tape?
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I guess it would depend how it was done. I see in the movies all the time the hero duct-taping a spare mag upside down to his working mag. You then get to see him extract his mag, reverse it, and insert the new one. This strikes me as a bad idea. The weak point of any of these mags is the mag lips. Persdonally, I'd want to protect them in a hard shell of some kind, but I definitely wouldn't run the risk of jamming them into the dirt or cement when prone-firing, or other.

Jaywalker
 
Everyone here has the buttstock pouch. I see a lot of right handed people with the pouch on the right side...dumb. Put the pouch on the left and set it up so you don't have to twirl the mag in your hand...just pull and insert in the mag well.
 
chris and i have talked about this is the real world. i know some people love redi-mags and there are departmetns that issue them. but for me, i think they get in the way of manipulating the ar. specifically, i can't reach under the trigger guard with my right hand and lock the bolt back. plus, you can no longer slap the bolt closed with a redi-mag in place.

chris, for your purposes ie home defense, i would think the butt stock carry would be best. you hear a noise and go for you rifle. you put one mag in the gun and have one already attached in the rifle. i know it is slower, but really the likely hood you will need a extra mag is very low. (actually it is pretty low that you will need your rifle either). but, you still have one if the s**t hits the fan.

in addition, the stock carry adds the weight of the additional mag to the rear of the gun, so it won't affect the manuverability as much as adding the weight to the front of the gun.

for gaming and speed purposes, a mag-cinch or similar device it think would be the best solution. you are not adding anything to the gun but still have a extra mag in close proximity.

at least that's my theory. chris, well talk more on sunday...
 
Last year my unit was in charge of base security, and part of our job was running the search lanes. My squad set up our ars with a m60 sling(nice for having the gun slung around the neck for 8-16 hours, and a buttpouch which held a extra magazine. While we were wearing lbes and magazines in pouches, the buttpouch with the magazine gave us the rifle with a magazine in it, along with a spare magazine. This way if something happened and the security guy went down, any one in my squad could have grabbed the ar and been ready to act and had a fully loaded gun with a spare mag. The buttpouch is not my first choice, but for any scenario where you want to be able to grab the gun and have it independent of on body ammo carriers, its a great choice.
 
Quite a few of us use the mag cinch for 3 gun matches. It works fine for our application. I have mine set so that the mag on the right (looking from the rear) is a little lower to allow clearance for the cover. I have found I can get very fast reloads, just hit the mag release button, move it over and inch or so and slam it back in. This particlualr one is made by Choate Machine and Tool.

It works for us, but maybe not for everyone.

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