Thoughts On Spare Handguns
One Is None
Author’s load-out for his favorite match The Pin Shoot (ThePinShoot.com):
comp .45, stock and carry .45s and 9mm XD-M, all by Springfield Armory,
and spares galore.
The late, great handgun authority Col. Jeff Cooper famously recommended “a pair and a spare” of Colt Government Model .45s tricked out the way he liked. One to carry and to use in the heavy training and competition; a second readily at hand in case something went wrong with that one — and a third that might just be in the shop for repair if you shot as much as he thought you should.
In January of 2005, I was one of the few Four-Gun Masters then in the International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) and had just changed to authorize a fifth gun division. “Service Revolver” had split into “Stock Service Revolver (SSR)” and “Enhanced Service Revolver (ESR),” each with different time standards for classification. For the first I jumped in with an S&W 4″ Model 15 Combat Masterpiece .38 Special with speed loaders; for the second class I brought a 4″ Al Greco Custom Model 625 in .45 ACP fed with moon clips. I made Master on first try in ESR but my .38 locked up at the end of a string in SSR. Fortunately, my buddy John Strayer had another Combat Masterpiece there and lent it to me. It got me through the Master qual on SSR and made me IDPA’s first Five-Gun Master, something I’m proud of to this day. (John made Five-Gun Master very shortly thereafter.)
There are reasons for spares going beyond rotation and maintenance due to a heavy shooting schedule. I travel a lot, and when I do, there are normally two handguns along. One year at ASLET, the American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers, I was carrying a then-new Kahr K9 9mm pistol as primary with a Smith & Wesson 442 .38 snub for backup. A friend wanted to try my Kahr at one of the live fire classes. No problem: I handed him the gun and spare mags. I still was armed, with the .38 snub.
When he gave it back, he said, “This thing sucks. It’s all locked up.” It was, too. Not being a Kahr armorer, I figured something had broken and just left it in the case and drove home carrying the .38 and spare ammo. It wasn’t like being unarmed. When I got home, I shipped the K9 to Kahr. They called back and told me, “Somebody took it apart and put it together wrong.” I phoned the friend in question, and embarrassment was in his voice when he confessed, “Well, yeah, I did take it apart to see how it worked … but you didn’t give me the owner’s manual!”
Lesson(s) learned — and I was glad I had a spare handgun along for the trip.
The 9mm Springfield XD-E with spare mags legal everywhere stands
ready for a friend to legally ship to Mas if he finds himself somewhere without a gun.
Post-Self-Defense Considerations
Let’s assume your sidearm works fine — fine enough to save your life in a gunfight. Even if the responding and investigating officers pat you on the back, the gun is going to be put into evidence and kept there for a long time. Your satisfactory resolution of the attack upon you may result in friends and/or relatives of the deceased who are not happy with you seeking the immediate gratification of revenge. If you only have one handgun but are still legal to carry, if you’re someplace where there’s a waiting period you’re in for a long, ugly period of vulnerability. It would be awfully nice to have something to, well, fall back on during this dangerous time.
When I was a police firearms instructor at supervisory rank, cross-trained in homicide investigation, I learned to keep a spare department-approved sidearm handy to issue a brother or sister officer if something happened to put their duty weapon into evidence or sent for repair. Individually, whether cop or “civilian,” having several versions of the same preferred platform provides not only versatility but functional spares “built-in” to your armory, taking compatible ammo and mags or speed loaders.
When Away From Home
As a long-time frequent flyer, there have been a few times when air travel screw-ups sent me one place and the guns in my checked baggage somewhere else. When your own guns are in limbo and you’re across state lines, there are problems with re-arming until your own hardware catches up to you.
More than once when that happened to me, I changed plans and stayed with a friend or host who could lend me one of their guns, legal to the best of my knowledge so long as we stayed together. Twice in New Jersey, once in Kentucky, and once in another country, when I was a cop training cops and therefore on police business, the hosting agency issued me firearms to carry while there and it was all perfectly legal.
Accordingly, I’ve left a Springfield Armory XD-E 9mm pistol and a few eight- and nine-round magazines with a friend who lives in the same state as I. It is perfectly legal for him to ship me my own firearm, magazines and ammo. The single-stack magazines guarantee I’m legal in even the strictest mag limit states. Conversely, I will lend a gun and ammo to a known good guy or gal who lives in the same state as I. My friends with FFLs know since it’s legal for me to ship to them anywhere, they can call on me anytime if they have an emergency need for such.
Access to spares is good, especially when we’re talking about emergency life-saving rescue equipment.
