How Much Ammo to Carry?

How much ammo do you carry when you are carrying a gun?  More is definitely better, but what’s the limit?  Should there be a limit?  I was lucky in the Marine Corps, in all my gunfights, I fired less than one magazine from my M16 (30 rounds). So how much do I carry here in the states?  I like to carry as much as possible.  For me in my Glock 19, 50 rounds is a good number.  I carry a 15 round magazine in the gun with one in the chamber and then 2 17-round magazines in a double-mag pouch.  Then I normally carry a back up revolver with 5 rounds in the gun and a speed loader in my pocket.  Why so much?  I study other people’s gunfights and take their recommendations as well as consider what I would like to have if I was there.

I just read a story on Policeone.com about an officer that now carries 145 rounds on him on duty.  That makes my 60 look pretty weak.  But here’s why:

The officer was involved in a bad gunfight.  An armed bank robbery had just happened and Officer Gramins went up on the highway looking for a suspect.  He saw a car and driver matching the description and tried to pull him over and the suspect sped away off the high and down main streets about 3 blocks.  Then went down a small side street and stopped in a quite neighborhood with children playing on the street.

Unbeknownst to Gramins, the suspect, a local gang member, had vowed to kill any cop that tried to pull him over.  The suspect stopped in the street and jumped out of his car and started running at Gramins’ vehicle with a 9mm pistol.  The suspect got off 4 rounds before Gramins could get his Glock 45 out of its holster.  All four rounds hit the hood of his car.

Gramins fired through the windshield emptying all 13 rounds in his gun.  Gramins is a master firearms instructor for the department and a sniper.  He says he was confident that the rounds where hitting the suspect, but the gunman didn’t even slow down.

The gunman got to the side of the car and continued firing through the driver’s side window.  All the rounds missed Gramins and the suspect ran out of ammo and started back towards his vehicle.

Gramins jumped out of his “coffin” (vehicle) and took cover behind the suspect’s vehicle while reloading his Glock.  The suspect got another gun from the car and turned on Gramins again.  He fired a .380 Bersa while advancing on Gramins.

Again, Gramins gun locked open on an empty magazine.  “I thought I was hitting him, but with shots going through his clothing, it was hard to tell for sure. This much was certain: he kept moving and kept shooting, trying his damnedest to kill me.”

By this time, the suspect was hit 14 times, 6 of which where lethal (hits included heart, right lung, left lung, liver, diaphragm, and right kidney).  At this point, Gramins reloaded and fired again.  Now he knew he was running out ammo.  He looked under the vehicle and saw the suspects’ feet.  He fired a couple rounds but had no effect.  The suspect bent down to look under the car at him, and Gramins slowed his fire, got a good sight picture and put round after round in the suspects head.  The suspect fell to the pavement and quit moving when a round went through the top of his head and into his brain.

The entire shootout last 56 seconds, the suspect fired 21 rounds from 2 different guns and Gramins fired 33 rounds.  Only 4 rounds remained in his last magazine.  He had a patrol rifle in the truck of his car and a shotgun in an overhead rack.  He never had a chance to get to either.

Luckily, no one was hurt except the gunman.  Amazingly the gunman was still alive when EMTs got there. The gunman made it to the hospital, but the doctors couldn’t save him.

Gramins big takeaway from the shootout, he now carries a Glock 17 with 145 rounds on his person.  The magazine in the gun, 3 extra’s on his belt, 2 33-round mags under his shirt on his vest and a back up gun.

While lecturing he encourages other officers to:

• Carry more ammo, “I can’t express how quickly your firearm will go empty when you’re shooting for real.”
• Practice Head Shots,
• Don’t waste time with arguing which caliber is better, carry the one that works for you and practice,
• Never consider yourself good enough, keep practicing and become better,
• Wear glasses when ever you can,
• Put clothing over your paper targets so you can’t see hits as easily.

My takeaways form this:

• I may not be carrying enough ammo to stop a truly determined killer (plan B? You should probably have one)
• Practice burst of fire appropriate to your weapon.  Don’t just dump magazines at a target, ever!
• Continue to look at alternatives to the gun (run someone down with a car), Gramins didn’t have time to think of anything, it happen too fast.  He did exactly what he had trained himself to do.
• Keep moving, don’t stop and let the gunman maneuver on you.  Gramins looked under the vehicle and the gunman looked under it too.  Good thing the dirt bag didn’t walk around the vehicle while he was laying on the ground
• Never give up! (Just reinforces this for me.  Gramins had to reload twice and fire almost all the ammo he had, but eventually stopped the bad guy).

Stay Safe,

Ben