CARRYING SPARE MAGAZINES IN A POCKET

This is very typical of how I might dress when I'm out in the public space, carrying a gun. Whether I'm wearing these pants or jeans or khakis and a button up shirt or a pullover or t-shirt, the idea is I don't have a lot of extra space or a lot of extra bulk under which I can carry a lot of gear. So I tend to carry sub-compact firearms, something like a GLOCK 26 or maybe a long slide subcompact, GLOCK nine millimeter J frame revolver or something like that. Most people that I know don't dress around their gun, they tend to fit the gun to their lifestyle and the way they dress. And I think that's a more practical decision 99% of the time. What this means is I don't have a lot of space for a full-sized spare magazine. If I wanna be able to carry a full-size spare magazine, quite often, the easiest thing for me to do is to go ahead and throw it in a pocket. And we know that that means reloads are gonna be a lot slower, and we need to make sure that we're practicing our reloads as realistically as possible. So caring in this way with a subcompact gun in the appendix position, I don't really have space on my belt for that large magazine. Even in my front pocket, it might show, it might protrude a little bit and just kind of generally get in the way. So down here in a cargo pocket makes the most sense. Now, a lot of cargo pockets will have an internal pocket like this one does that are designed to keep the magazine oriented in an upright position in a consistent place. And that's probably the best way to go if you are gonna use cargo pants carry. But again, because you're not gonna dress around carrying a gun, your pants may not have that. In that case, you're gonna have the magazine just kind of laying flat in the bottom of the pocket, instead of angled upright. Either way, you're gonna have to practice digging that magazine out when you need it. And that is exactly the kind of thing that can happen when you have to dig that magazine out of the pocket. That's why we practice. Now, I can't tell you how many countless reps I've had of digging magazines out of carriers, out of coat pockets, out of vest carriers, out of drop legs, out of who knows where I've carried magazines. The fact that I just dropped one is perfect evidence of exactly the fact that we need to train. We need to constantly get reps, especially when we're carrying in a place that we're not used to. So when you switch to a new pair of pants, a new style of jacket, a new position that you're gonna carry in, coming out here and getting the reps is incredibly important. Now, generally the rule is if you drop a spare magazine, you go to your belt. And in a class situation, that's almost always what we see people do. In a law enforcement situation or a military situation, that might make sense, but if you're the guy carrying the subcompact gun, appendix carry with one magazine in your pocket, reaching back to your belt isn't an option. So here we are in the training environment, I've gotta go down to the ground and find that magazine. A lot of times, we'll tell people to sweep and try to find the magazine with their feet and then go down so that they can actually know that they're picking up, especially in the dark. So you're not just down looking at the ground, trying to find a magazine while something bad is happening up here. So I've got the magazine back in my hand, I'm gonna position it in the proper direction by feel and go ahead and finish that reload. Let's set it up again and try to do it a little bit smoother this time. That's the point of our training regimen. And that's what it's supposed to look like. Obviously, a lot slower than reloading from the belt, but that's part of it. Make sure you integrate motion into your training also. Remember, when you're moving, your legs are gonna change the position of that magazine. On the belt, it doesn't change the position much, I can move my leg pretty dramatically and my hand's always going to the belt right in this area. But when I think about going to my leg, if my leg is moving, my hand needs to be moving. Now, the concept of proprioception, the idea that we know where our body parts are, really helps here. I know that I can reach up and touch my left ear without a mirror. I know that I can reach down and touch my left thigh without a mirror also, but it's gonna be harder to get my hand on that magazine and into that pocket if my leg is moving. But obviously there's some great benefit to moving while someone's trying to hurt us, especially if we can get to cover or get out of the way completely. Let's take a look at another pocket method that we might have, and that would be in the pocket of a jacket. Now, obviously, from a concealment standpoint, this isn't gonna make as much sense. In this situation where I'm wearing a jacket, I could be carrying a spare magazine on my belt and it would be completely concealed. But the reality is not everybody wants to strap that extra magazine onto their belt. And of course, if you're going to work, if you're going to a restaurant, as soon as you get there and you take this jacket off, now, if you had three spare magazines on your belt, you're right back to square one where it's hard to conceal with just a t-shirt or a button up or a polo shirt. So when we go to the pocket of the jacket, it's really gonna be the same thing, a lot of the same considerations. Let's take a look. Well, in that case, you saw that I had to dig into this jacket and actually push this zipper down a little bit to get in there. That's very realistic. If I'm walking around with magazines in here, I'm not gonna want them falling out. I may zip them up, I may secure them up. While I'm moving, especially with the weight of another magazine inside of this pocket, as I'm moving, this is moving. So even worse than the leg, now the pocket of the jacket is moving as well. We have proprioception as far as where our leg is, we know where our leg is, even when it moves. Regardless of where I'm stepping, I can bring my hand to my leg. I may not know where this jacket is. If I turn this way suddenly and I reach for that jacket and the magazine's behind me, I have to get my hand on it and reorient it and get my hand in there. If I move this way again, the magazine comes forward. It's not where I thought it was, I've gotta try again. Presenting a magazine for a reload when it's carried inside of any pocket is always gonna be harder than getting it out of a carrier where it staged perfectly for a quick pull up, orient, insert, rotate, rack. When it's inside of that pocket, you're gonna have to have an even more assertive response as far as your movement, trying to get to your actual cover, trying to stay away from the bad guy. And you're gonna need to be more diligent, and that means not rushing. You can practice this a lot, but as we saw earlier in this clip, even with all the practice that I've had over the last 20 years of pulling magazines out, 30 years of inserting magazines in the firearms and getting them reloaded, I still managed to drop one. And that happens. Practice until you don't drop them as often and practice so that you know that you can find that magazine, dig it out and fish it out from wherever you happen to be carrying it. And making sure that it's oriented in the right way before you insert it into your firearm and continue your fight.