Ammo Carriers

The Gun Thing

When I were a lad, whenever I went out into the bush to do a little impromptu shooting, my method of carrying ammo in the field was simple:  the carriers were called “trouser pockets”, and I would just fill them up with loose rounds of ammo (whether .177 pellets or .22 cartridges).

But le temps se marche, if you’ll pardon my French, and now I need to carry my plinking ammo in some kind of carrier.

Of course, if I’m carrying a gun that shoots from a magazine, carrying spare ammo is not an issue:  just MOAR magazines.  And indeed that’s what I do, in that I have multiple spare magazines for all my semi-auto guns.

But what, I ask myself, do I do when I’m carrying a single-action revolver or a tube-fed rifle?

Sure, I could just keep the boolets in the box they came in, or jam ’em loose in my pocket as in times gone by.

But that means fumbling around, and getting them to line up to be reloaded and all that.

Then I read this article, and it made all sorts of sense to me:

A convenient solution I have found is the magazine for an M1911-style .22 Long Rifle pistol. The slim magazine can be conveniently carried in a pouch or pocket, with the rounds protected, and individual cartridges can be thumbed into a single-shot chamber, the magazine tube of a rifle or the loading gate of a single-action rimfire revolver.

I’m not sure about a 1911-style mag, because those tend to be spendy.  But any old cheap .22 pistol mag will do, surely?  Like this one:

That’s under $15 per mag, it holds 15 rounds, which means that four such mags would mean… [carry the 4]  ten reloads for a Single Six revolver, or… [carry the three]  five or so reloads for the Model 63.  All in a handy little package, so to speak.

Definitely worth thinking about.

10 comments

  1. Me too with the handfuls of .22s in my pockets, and in my rucksack, which caused me much embarrassment when flying to the UK from Canada with 8 or 10 forgotten ones in the front pocket of the rucksack, which I also use as a carry-on.

    The very nice and jovial security lady who seized them from me also told me it often happens at the Calgary airport. My wife will likely never forgive me. The seizure process, while kindly, was public, humiliating and time consuming.

    She now checks my luggage before we leave for the airport.

  2. Check out “TUFF QUICK STRIPS”

    Available on SCAMaZon

    Cheaper than the magazine you listed and meant to fit the rounds at hand.

    I have some of these for 38 and also the round speed loaders. Both are good.

    I also have some moon clips for a 9MM revolver.

    1. those Tuff Strips can be obtained from Bianchi I believe. They’re quite handy for various firearms

  3. not quite for mag carriers or loose ammunition to carry on your person but I went to Ocean State Job Lot, a discount store and bought some pencil boxes. I wrote on the end which firearm it goes to such as 10/22, 1911 and I put spare mags, speed loaders and any other gadget that goes to that firearm. It makes it handy when I head out to the range I just grab the firearm, the pencil box, ammo and targets.

    Loose rounds I leave in the box. Maybe a fanny pack would work for you. Fill the pouch with loose rounds or put the loose rounds in a zip lock bag. you could even write on the bag which brand and type of cartridge you have in the bag. That way when you open the fanny pack, nothing gets spilled out.

    1. Ghost , how are you posting links? Whenever I try to post links my post doesn’t show on Kim’s site.

  6. Old mags are a good idea. I have a couple of Buckmark mags that have defective lips. I can paint them orange and use them as a loading aid. The Speed-e- Loader was fantastic. They don’t make them anymore? A friend gave me some slightly bent aluminum arrow shafts that .22lr fit in, and Tam of View From The Porch gave high marks to some kind of shaker box that sorted and oriented .22lr and they would slide right in the magazines. I forget what that’s called and it’s stored with my range stuff, so not available right now.
    And as a matter of fact, no, I never throw much away. Ask my brother, but not right after I give him something he needed and couldn’t find.

  7. Yuppers. During my high school years (1970) I spent much of my spare time tromping through the lava rock, sage, and Juniper country of northern California, about 20 miles south of the Oregon border. Dump a 50-round box of Winchester Super-X in the pocket of my Levis, grab my trusty Remington 581 w/4X Weaver scope, and out the back door I would go. Only limitation on how far out I went was returning on time.

    These days, in the event that I am caught completely by surprise and have to go “full minuteman” defending the castle, I keep additional AR mags in a surplus G.I. cloth bandoleer hanging next to my rifle.

    During summer when I’m wearing cargo shorts, I got a nylon 4.5-inch “utility pouch” from Amazon to hold a reload mag for my pistol. It has a snap closure flap and rides on my belt on my weak side.

  8. As a teenager I would go into the woods in a military field jacket. The right pocket would have a dumped cartridge box to pull from when reloading. The left would have full boxes of bullets.

    Now most of the long guns have magazines. Only my revolvers get cartridge dump.

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