Some Observations on Ammo Capacity from Gabe Suarez
June 18th, 2006 by Syd
1). When we run FOF drills, we see students shooting continually until the bad guy falls down (preset cue for role players), runs away, or otherwise they perceive the scenario is over. I see upwards of five to ten “rounds” being fired.
2). By all accounts, specially those from the streets, all handgun rounds tend toward “iffiness”. One private students, an E.R. Doc, advised that over 85% of folks shot with handguns, regardless of caliber, survive. This iffiness includes 9mm. 40 S&W, 357 Sig, and yes, even the 45 ACP. In fact, historically, the 45 has done no better or worse than anything else. Read pages 73 and 74 of Shooting To Live to see how a 45 can fail. The modern ballistics have not changed THAT MUCH from those days. I am not putting down the 45, but rather pointing out that it is simply a handgun round and is not the vaunted American death ray some proponents have suggested.
3). The majority of armed fights involve unequal odds and multiple adversaries. If we consider that often we may get one adversary in the fight at the time and not realize we have a multiple adversary problem we may not be thinking of the “every one gets firsts before anyone gets seconds” rule.
4). In force on force, and documented in CRG street fights, a shooter may not be able to read his pistol as easily as he can on a safe sedate shooting range. Thus rather than the 1.0 second speed load in reaction to running dry, you will likely experience a trigger mash, followed by a WTF! “Why didn’t my gun work”, and only then reload. This taking more like 2.5 seconds. And remember that a fight only takes a few seconds to begin with.
The point is simply that we may easily develop “Ammunition Deficit Disorder“.A higher capacity weapon will give you more trigger time before reloading is needed. Is a higher capacity weapon, especially for an individual fighter, a tactical asset??