Guns: Bianchi PatrolTek Magazine Pouch

Most people who carry a concealed weapon will acknowledge that the chances of actually having to draw the darn thing are slim to none. Still, if you ever need your gun, you will really need it, and for many CCWers, that leads to carrying a spare magazine or two.

There are plenty of reasons to carry a spare. If your primary magazine becomes lost or broken, your semiautomatic pistol becomes a really awkward single shot. There is also the remote possibility of running out of ammo during a gunfight (incredibly unlikely, but then getting into a gunfight in the first place is incredibly unlikely).



Bianchi's PatrolTek line of accessories is designed to be an inexpensive gear option for LEOs, and the accessories also work well for CCW use. I picked up the single magazine pouch for less than ten dollars, and it works fairly well for the price. All I really look for in a magazine carrier is retention and reliability of access; even the cheap one-size-fits-all molded nylon of the PatrolTek pouch is good enough for making sure the magazine is secure.

Disadvantages of the PatrolTek pouch include a propensity to slide around the belt (the single 2" wide belt loop isn't very robust), as well as a slight rattling noise that comes from the unused snap ring (you can muffle it, of course). A pouch like this is obviously slower to access than a Kydex open top magazine carrier, but the enclosed design does help to shield the magazine from your body. All in all, it's worth a try if you don't carry a spare mag all the time but would like the option to.