If a m1a was your go to rifle how many mags would you want to have for it? I just got a scout squad and it is quikly becoming my favorite/ go to rifle. I only have 2 twenty round mags which is a problem for me personally. Im thinking at least 7 but more like 25 (not going to carry thay many)

Enough to fight my way to a lighter rifle.

I must think like you do...

I have a Chinese style 63 chest pouch to carry five mags if I need to, but I usually use an ammo can at the range.



This is a photo from the actual ad, and I bought it around ten years ago. It works and is simple enough. I added a Fastex buckle on the waist strap, as well as a camo paint job courtesy of Krylon, but that's it.

I bought the Type 63 harness from the same guy, as well, and it's a funky piece of gear. Again, it's cheap, simple, and reasonably comfortable for wearing at a hometown shoot or something.

Im just thinking about the future and $100 mag prices if they are banned, ill probably set up my chest rig with taco pouches so I can use ar ak or 308 mags. I dont want to only have a couple mags and then they get banned or one breaks im thinking ill order 6 or so cmi mags to start off and add a few.more every payday

My web gear is set up just like my army web gear was.

Two double mag pouches on the belt, one in the rifle.  Four in the rucksack.

Viewed as long term insurance 25 does not seem excessive.

A couple 20 & 25 round CMI mags, and good rifleman skills.

The chest carry is a good idea for local range shooting or human wave attacking. However, in two-way range shooting, it is not good to have something under you when you want to be as close to the ground as possible.
The USGI two round pouches are made to do the job and can be worn on the hips or both on the right hip for a right handed shooter. The over 20 round magazines don't seem to have a popular carry system available (maybe a bag over your shoulder?).

I only have one M1A (Springfield Armory Loaded M1A, walnut stock) and I am up to 21 CMI twenty round mags...  My "loadout" is one in the rifle and one happy mag on my belt, along a knife, two extra 1911 mags and my 1911.  This is asking ALOT of a belt (Bianchi B9 leather gun belt) by the way, anything more requires a chest rig or at least a web belt with suspenders.  I have a COUNTYCOMM mine bag (think bomb proff messanger bag)  that I carry, BOK, 6-8 other M1A mags, 4-6 other 1911 mags, along with field cleaning stuff.  Everything else goes in 3day size pack (Kelty Perregrine).  This is how I carry stuff for a day at the range.  I can set the bags down and shoot.  I have some nylon single pouches I just have had time to really put together a proper chest rig, I am thinking two rifle mags, two pistol mags, and BOK.  
Concur with what said above about having plenty of magazines, they do not go bad and you could always take them to BarterTown.

i went ahead and ordered 2- 25 round CMI mags as well as 6-20 round CMI mags. Sadly i only have 160 rounds on hand but i ordered 240 more from PSA today as well. I really wish .308 was .20c/round. I was too young to buy the cheap surplus 7.62

I like to have 14 mags for any "serious" rifle.

I figure that's 1 in the gun plus 6 for reloads. Then a whole set of backup/spare mags.

It's my civilian load out I guess you could say.

No number is "right" but I think it's only reasonable to have at least a handful.

I have 21 M14 Mags. Mostly old USGI with a few Check Mates, and a handful of Red Chinese. Regardless, I'd only take the M14 if I was working from a vehicle, and walking short distances (1K or less) or bunkering up. I'd have 5 Mags counting one in the Mag well, a bandoleer in a pack. That's 160 rounds at hand. The rest of the Mags in ammo cans in the vehicle.

 

I figured with the mags I ordered, that puts me at 10 which is a good start I have about 40 for my other "serious" rifles. ill try to keep adding more as I can.

Since my M1A is in  a designated marksman role I have 5 loaded mags and keep the rest of my ammo in cans. I'm old and will not be running around with a scoped M1A. I'll be on a roof top if I need to break it out.

Hey Yote...why don't you post a pic of your M1A nylon set up? I am trying to figure out a second set-up for the M1A I just got. I know I'll be getting the OSOE .308 Micro Rig, but I am not sure what the weight of a fully loaded 20rnd M1A magazine would be like on a duty belt. I may get the Velocity Systems OUB and throw a PALS magazine pouch on there.

I've been running a total of 7, not counting a loaded gun. I'll be switching over to another rig soon with 5 mags though with a new chest rig.  I have double that number in reserve, either factory wrapped or loaded in an ammo can.

It seemed to work well enough for these guys, and it was damn sure a two-way range in Rhodesia. They probably didn't spend much time in their bellies or attacking in human waves, though.

I understand your sentiment and theory behind this statement, but I disagree based on my experience. If the difference between living and dying comes down to the width of a magazine, then something went seriously wrong somewhere. Besides, this isn't 1944, and we don't do amphibious assaults against well defended beachheads anymore....well, hardly ever, maybe.

I would think the magazine loadout for an M1A would be the same as for an FAL. A 100-round SAW pouch will hold 4 M14 (or FAL) mags, and 4 of these pouches will fit on the front of a load-bearing vest. So that makes 16 magazines (plus one in the gun). Better to have too much ammo than not enough.

All I do is switch out any AR pouchs on my TT Mav. An replace them with 100 round Saw pouchs. You can get 2 mags per pouch or If you dont mind you can turn them sideways and get 4 in there. Makes prone a bitch though. So two saw pouchs 2 mags each 1 mag in the gun. Plus a ammo can or my trusty little cammo bag with a Spotting scope wind meter and my I phone with ballistic software. I can scare the shit out of you out to say 500.

In my humble opinion, you should have at least 30 standard USGI M14 20 rd magazines (ETA:  NOT to carry around, obviously-seven mags on your person, the rest in reserve).  CMI mags from .44mag.com are $25.00 ea, with free shipping.  You just can't beat that price, and I was ordering two per paycheck for weeks this summer.  

If you can't afford them, then at least save, or work an extra job or whatever to purchase a minimum of five.  You need more because any magazine can be damaged with less effort than the rifle itself, but five is the least I'd be caught with.  

One thing to bear in mind is that the M14 was designed from the beginning so that the magazine could be topped off with 5 rd stripper clips.   As long as you don't mount a scope on your weapon, this feature can provide an alternative to buying more magazines if you absolutely can't afford to buy more than the two you have in the near term.

At one time, CMP sold surplus USGI M14 magazines for $7.00 ea.  I  purchased ten or so USGI M14 mags from Entreprise Arms over a decade ago when they were only (I believe) $15.00 ea.  In ten years, just imagine how expensive CMIs will be, let alone original USGI M14 magazines.

Get what you need now.  Don't wait.

Sadly, not all M1A mags are equal. The only current manufacturer that makes legit m1a mags is CMI and Springfield, which to my knowledge, uses CMI as well. The 20 rounder is the best and the 25 rounder is something no company ever got quite right. Not sure about the 25 rounder from CMI but my thought is stick with the 20 rounder.

With that said, I would just buy CMI brands from sites like 44mag or midwayusa for any new mags I feel like getting. On my other topic, I stated Fulton Armory started to sell new USGI mags in wraps from the early 90s which should be CMI as well. They do sell used USGI mags and they are some of the best mags I have and they include battle scars for extra feels (but they might have just been used for training). To me, an m1a and m1garand should have any many usgi parts as you can because if history is right, that means your m1a mag could come from a soldier in Vietnam, or your m1 garand could have been int he hands of a soldier during WW2 or Korean War. Just imagining that gives me goosebumps. I keep all my original m1a mags as close to the condition I got them and keeping any scratches or stickers/paint on them. One mag had the a number on it which means that a soldier or someone put his rack number on it to keep track of his mags. Pretty neato if that is true but I won't ever know or verify.

As far as how many you need, that's the million dollar question. Now here's the big issue, first m1a mags are somewhat "rare" in the sense that there isn't that much diverse companies out there that makes it. Until CMI came along, the very best mags were original usgi issued and after the 95 AWB, it became somewhat of a premium. Keeping that in mind, if CMI decides to stop producing for civilians or if there is another big scare or outright ban in place, then pretty much the m1a market is back to what it was shortly after the 95 ban. A simple CMI mag may cost upwards to 100 bucks or more in such a situation. Just look at Colt and their USGI mags. It got so bad, they had to create another company NHMTG to produce the same exact mags as they did before. If CMI has to stop or do this, the market is going to go to a halt and prices will be sky high. No other company out there can make m1a mags, for some reason, only cheap Korean or Chinese knockoffs and the funny thing is once in the mid 90s Chinese m1a mags were the best because they made it exactly like the usgi spec, now they don't.

So my advice is that as it stands today the market is great to get cmi mags really cheap. My thought is buy how ever many you think, and then continue to buy them as time moves on. Like one mag per month, or a couple mags per pay day.

I have 28 CMI mags so far although I haven't bought any lately..  35 sounds like a good number to me.

I received the 6-20 round mags and 1-25 round mags I ordered from 44mag. All mags are CMI and are very high quality, I haven't used them on the range yet but all of them loaded up fine and locked in. Next thing I need is a fiberglass stock, the plastic one is not cutting it for me, it feels fine but mag insertion and removal is harder then it should be due to excess plastic in the mag area.