I was criticized by some all knowning persons in my unit for the way I carry my magazines. Apparently having the magazines positioned with the bottom up and oriented for loading is not the Army way. Apparently the way I'm supposed to do it is the magazines are carried with the bullets up and pointing out. Empty magazines are positioned bottom end up. Supposedly, with this great method of carrying magazines, the rightside-up position immediately tells you they are full vs. the upside down-empties.
Of course loading magazines carried in such a fashion requires a little juggling talent, as when you pull out the magazine, you need to somehow reposition your hold on the magazine on the way to the rifle such that you can slide it up inside the magazine well.
When I was asked why I carried my magazines the way I did, I demonstrated how by carrying the magazines in such a fashion, when a reload was required a change in grip on the magazine was never required, it simply rotates up and in.
So of course the next question that came was how I can identify an empty magazine if they are all upside down. Well, the answer to that was pretty simple: There are no empty magazines in my mag pouches. Full magazines go in the pouches, partially full magazines go in my pocket, and empty magazines go on the ground. An empty magazine in a fight is about as effective as a one legged man in an ass-kicking contest.
But what burns me is that people somehow, somewhere are being taught to carry empty magazines in their ammo pouches.
The only semi-valid-maybe-there-was-a-nano-second-of-thought argument I've seen for carrying the magazine right-side up, was it would keep rounds from falling out of the magazine should it be carried upside down. But the people who make this argument seem to have their train of thought de-railed when I point out that if they have rounds falling out of a magazine upside down, they need to get a mag pouch that properly fits the magazine and to ditch the magazine because it's got some tweaked feed lips if it's doing that and being upside down or right-side up isn't going to make any difference at that point. That magazine is no good.
Of course, one thing I find interresting is the people who have seen too many movies. It's pretty evident, they pull the magazine out of the pouch and before loading it, strike the back end of it a couple times on their kevlar, to seat the cartridges to the rear of the magazine. And of course there are those that do it becuase they see others doing it so they follow suit--these people are pretty easy to identify when they smack the front (bullet end) of the magazine against their kevlar. Now I could understand a light rap against the kevlar, but nothing can ever be done with finesse. Most every time I've seen people do the kevlar tap they do it with so much force that it not only seats the cartridges to the rear of the magazine but it bounces them back forward again, completely undermining what they were attempting to accomplish. Apparently lightly rapping a just loaded magazine against the heel of the hand (never had a problem with the cartridge bouncing forward doing that) and then stuffing the magazines into pouches has lost it's sex appeal.