After teaching my concealed carry class on Saturday I headed over to the NRA range for some personal training time. Since I had just taught a class my gear was in a bunch of different boxes, and when I got to the range I couldn’t find my magazine pouch.
After spending a while looking for the pouch (which probably means one minute since I’m a man of little patience) I headed into the range with my Glock 19, and all my shooting gear, minus my magazine pouch.
Now, when I go to the range I take the sessions pretty seriously. I go there for a purpose, and I always do a series of drills to improve my shooting skills. One of the more advanced drills I do is where I have a target the size of a paper plate and right above it I have a target the size of an index card.
The drill consists of 6 rounds…
And you start with 4 rounds in the first magazine and 2 rounds in the second. I shoot the four rounds into the paper plate target, I reload, and then shoot 2 more rounds into the 3x5 size target. When I’m doing this I start with the target edged, then it faces and then it disappears within 5-10 seconds. (You’ll see why I say 5-10 seconds in a minute.)
Well, as I just mentioned, I didn’t have my magazine pouch on me like I usually do so I was forced to keep the magazine in one of my pockets. At first I tried the front pocket and I was grabbing the magazine out of it slower than cold tar running up a dirt road. Next, I kept it in my back pocket and it wasn’t much better. It was taking me about 10 seconds to finish the drill.
When I walked out of the shooting session…
My wife, who had been watching me, said: “You sure looked slow today.” I kept my thoughts to myself and just nodded even though I wanted to say “yes my dear, it took me as long as it takes you to get ready for bed every night to get the magazine out of my pocket.”
The point I’m trying to make is that I know several shooters who carry their spare ammunition in their pockets and Saturday’s shooting excursion once again reminded me why it’s a bad idea.
It takes way too long to grab the magazine from your pocket and perform a reload. It’s a heck of a lot quicker when you have a magazine pouch. (I use a simple Kydex single mag pouch.) And if for some reason you don’t believe me, go to the shooting range this weekend and do what I did. Do some timed shooting drills wearing your mag pouch and then do some drills with the spare mag in your pocket. After you do these, I’m pretty sure you’ll agree with me that spare ammo needs to be on your belt in a pouch and not tucked away in some pocket.
By the way, I did find my magazine pouch and next time I go back to the range I should be back to regular form and shouldn’t be hearing my wife say: “you sure looked slow today.”
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