Ammo management for pistol classes

[Stubb]

Following on the theme of Shep's thread:

• Drop partially expended magazines on the ground or stuff them in a pocket. Do not put them back on your belt.
• It's common to shoot 6- and 8- round drills and be using 15- or 17-round magazines. A 15-round mag doesn't give you two reps of an 8-round drill, and a 17-round mag doesn't give you three reps of a drill. Keep a dedicated Barney mag in your back pocket, load the top round off it, then put it back in your pocket and switch to a full magazine that you seat with a solid whack.
• Bring an UpLULA for quickly loading magazines.
• Mark any magazines that give you feeding issues with tape. If they continue giving you problems, they set them aside for malfunction/dry-fire practice if they're cheap (Glock, etc.) or troubleshoot the problem if they're expensive (STI, etc.).
• Keep track of how many rounds are left in your pistol and how many you need for the next rep of a drill so that you can reload before reholstering if needed. Speedy emergency reloads are cool, but that's usually not the teaching point of the drill.
• Learn to do an administrative reload where you replace a magazine while the pistol stays in your holster. Key here is ensuring that the new magazine is seated.
• Bring more magazines than you think you'll need

 

[SmittyC6]

I make it a habit to keep 15-20 loose rounds in my pocket. Whenever there is a pause in the shooting when I'm on the line I start stuffing rounds in any magazines I have on me that will hold them. It's not uncommon for a pause in an evolution that doesn't bring the firing group off the line but does allow me to top off a magazine. If you shoot single stack 1911's you get pretty good at topping off magazines while you pay attention to something else.

 

[cmshoot]

I make it a habit to keep 15-20 loose rounds in my pocket. Whenever there is a pause in the shooting when I'm on the line I start stuffing rounds in any magazines I have on me that will hold them. It's not uncommon for a pause in an evolution that doesn't bring the firing group off the line but does allow me to top off a magazine. If you shoot single stack 1911's you get pretty good at topping off magazines while you pay attention to something else.

I’ve always done the same.