While Strych9 carries a full-size H&K USP .45, his wife packs an FN FNS-9c with a spare magazine. Good on her for not only carrying, but carrying a reload too. Reloads are important.  In a nutshell because, as Clint Smith says, the fight will last until you run out of ammo.   And in this case, it looks like Strych9’s wife carries Hornady Critical Defense.

And while the Black Arch holster and gun look barely out of the package, that’s a well-worn Spyderco knife.  He said she carries the rest of her stuff in her purse.  As do most ladies I know.

I’d like to know Strych9’s secret for getting his wife to carry most of the time. Frankly I’d be a lot happier if my wife carried even part of the time!

For a complete description (and links to where you can get some of this for yourself), follow the link to Everyday Carry.

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37 COMMENTS

    • Heh. I was *hoping* it was gonna be her.

      But, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

  2. The Spyderco ‘Civilian’ is a knife that has *instantaneous* intimidation value.

    If you weren’t familiar with the Civilian when someone pulls it out, it’s pure reflex to say to yourself “I’m not getting close to that thing!”, and likely involuntarily take a step or two back away from it.

    It adjusts people’s attitude with warp speed.

    Nice loadout, Mrs. Strych. You have the hubby well-trained… 😉

  3. “….Clint Smith says, the fight will last until you run out of ammo…”

    That would be a NO!

    Everyone is free to take legal advise from whomever, but I wouldn’t follow Clint Smith’s advice.

      • Quite possibly a jury will decide if a carrying a reload was reasonable or not.

        For a Glock 19 (Gen 2) and two 15 round mags, is 31 bullets reasonable to the jury? A jury of your peers?

        Personally I would avoid a jury trial if possible, I’ve seen the jury of my peers and I don’t want them judging me!

        And I’m sure not taking advice from Clint Smith, or any other ‘instructor’ who has never seen the inside of a courtroom.

        Choose what you do and carry accordingly.

        ..just sayin..

        • Clint Smith did two Marine Infantry tours in Vietnam. 7 years LAPD served with SWAT and was Head of the Firearms Training Division. He has been there and actually done it. He’s been shot with an AK47. Long career of training.

          I think Clint Smith has some of the most relevant comments and training. He is actually someone I would go into a world of shit with.

          So what are your qualifications to make your statements? Every been shot, shot at or engaged in a gun battle? Perhaps you survived a gunshot wound from a rifle?

          I’ll agree that some trainers are a joke but Clint Smith is not one of them.

        • @DJ

          None of what you have said is relevant inside a courtroom unless Clint Smith has appeared as a expert witness in a DGU case. If you want your defense attorney to hire him to testify go right ahead.

          The real issue here is that there have been almost no instances of a civilian (non-police) DGU that involved a re-load. Practically zero. Pointing this out usually hits a nerve with some. Just as pointing out you need better equipment if you carry a spare magazine for possible malfunctions during a DGU.

          Again, it’s your freedom at stake in a courtroom, not Clint Smith’s. What will a jury of your peers think about what you were carrying? Will they think it was reasonable?

          Choose what you do and carry accordingly.

        • I just personally think people should honestly spend less time worrying about a hypothetical jury and prosecutor for a situation that has to happen. It’s a silly way to live. If that time ever comes, and there is a prosecutor with an agenda, they’re also going to come after you for things like “having a round in the chamber” and “carrying extra lethal hollow point bullets”, or “carting a black semi automatic weapon.” Does that mean that everyone should carry w/o a chambered round and with FMJs? No. That’s silly. If TTAG wants to do an article on this subject, a good place to start is the video from the George Zimmerman trial. The prosecution is arguing many of these things, trying as expected to paint him as some madman with a gun.

        • A spare mag is for more than just an extra 15 or so rounds. It also may be needed for corrective action if the first mag is damaged and misleading. Also, not everything is a double stack 9. Many single stacks, li mouse .380 and 9mm and 1911s, have 6-8 rounds in a mags, so 2 mags still doesn’t match one Glock 19 mag.
          It might be hard to justify 1 bg that you hit 30 times was still a threat and needed the 31st hit, unless he’s still breathing when it’s all over. Facing four bgs and putting 3-4 in each until they stop being a threat is very reasonable, and a couple misses will put the Glock 19 in to reload territory. I’ve never seen an actual study that says shows a distribution of how many handgun hits it takes to end a fight. The majority is probably 0-1 since many will surrender or flee without having to be physically disabled, and a fight without a central nervous system hit could last a minute before blood loss leads to unconciousness. Prosecutors will throw every argument they can against you to make you look bad (hollow points, hi cap, trigger job, knife, light, laser, night sights, etc). As long as you can convince the jury that you had a reason for each, you’re probably ok.

    • That Clint Smith line requires context and explanation, there’s just too little there. Depending on what you read into those few words it either does or does not make sense with other Clint Smith quotes about ammo, running out, spare mags, second guns, etc.

      In my youth and sometime after I wandered a lot in mountain and desert wilderness. After some experience was gained, my plan was to always have water left over, even in the desert. Because water is life out there and if you come out of it not thirsty, with water left over, you planned well. Or you were lucky. One of those.

      I look at the capacity of the gun I carry in a similar line of thought. No, I do not want to run out. If I run out, something even worse has happened than getting attacked, possibly I lost and they not only won but are very upset with my disarmed self. That’d be bad.

      So when I can I carry the full size pistol openly, with at least one spare magazine. When I can’t do that, I carry a smaller pistol with at least one reload.

      Hopefully I’ll never have to use any of it. If I do I hope I can retain enough presence of mind to not do an unthinking, un-aimed mag dump. Stop the threat and stop shooting. Not shoot like a bunch of NYC cops spraying every damned bullet they have at whatever unarmed passerby has them panicking.

    • ““….Clint Smith says, the fight will last until you run out of ammo…”
      That would be a NO! ”

      And, IMO, you’re right.
      The fight ends when there’s no more credible threat. That can happen two ways: the attacker is down, or you’re down. Neither requires the expenditure of all of your ammo.

      • “The fight ends when there’s no more credible threat.”

        Not sure why so many are having trouble understanding the Smith statement. What he is saying is indisputably true….if you run out of ammunition during a gunfight, that is the end of the gunfight, and the threat may still persist.

        If you run out of ammo before stopping the threat, your involvement, your ability to continue the gunfight is over (ends), although if you are killed because you lacked sufficient ammo, one could conclude that the threat ended.

        Since no one can reliably determine how long a gunfight will last, a magazine or cylinder of ammo may not be enough.

        Nothing more mysterious than that.

        • “Since no one can reliably determine how long a gunfight will last, a magazine or cylinder of ammo may not be enough.”

          Wrong. We can reliably determine how long a gunfight will last. A five round cylinder will get you through 90% of them, a seven round magazine will get you through 99% of them. Do you carry two spare tires in your grocery geter? Do you carry even one spare pair of glasses? Spare batteries for your EDC light? You’re far more likely to need those. Clint is selling macho fantasy and accessories not good advice for the recreating suburbanite, just like the rest of the industry. He was just doing it twenty five years before most. Also that guy is just the slightest bit crazy from all the tragedy and stress he’s experienced it’s pretty obvious.

          • “We can reliably determine how long a gunfight will last.”

            From your comment, I conclude that you are comfortable betting the gunfight you may experience will fall into the same result column indicated by data of past events. I provided a link to an article describing a gunfight endured by a cop, and he now carries 150 rounds. Obviously, the cop’s experience is not typical, but there it is.

            To belabor the slogan, “One is none; two is one.”

            Carry reload, don’t carry reload; personal choice based on personal opinion. Nothing more.

        • I don’t think you understood what I wrote.
          In your scenarios, the threat is ended. If you lose, no matter how you lose, the threat to you is ended.
          That’s what I was saying.

        • or somehow you win anyhow… if you bring your fists to a knife fight, it’s still a knife fight.

  4. The quote is “the fight will last as long as your ammo”. It’s in reference to if you have more ammo, you can fight longer. Not you should use all of your ammo no matter what.

    Strych: As a fellow Type 1, who also smokes Camel blue, and lives in CO, I salute you!

    • Maybe we can hang out sometime. You know, hit the range and grab something to eat, maybe do some shots… of insulin.

      LOL.

  5. Thanks Mrs, Strych…..nice to see another real dump and have the dump be the focus.

    Carry on ..

  6. Spyderco steel, check.
    FN pistol, check.
    Reloads, check.
    Non-color coordinated peripherals? Not my style, but it might be a deviously clever attempt to distract. I know it had that effect on me.

  7. Strych9, I would ask if your wife could talk to my wife. Mine likes to shoot her LCP but WILL NOT carry.

    • To be honest Dave, I was really, really resistant to carry at first. I am a “less is more” person most of the time. I figured it was just another heavy thing to have to carry. I really didn’t start carrying daily until I started long commutes with special California snowflakes in Priuses and FIBs with a short fuse. The road rage in the “highest” state in the US is hilariously high. I figured one day, one of the birkenstock wearing half caff soy latte lovers was going to go off the rails and ram into my beautiful blue Tundra beast. I have always carried knives but I would rather not have to get too close to the crazy.

      That said, when I started carrying, I went through multiple trials for what and where I liked to carry. I hate purse carry unless that one is your backup. You really just need to buy a ton of holsters and keep trying them out. Also, it doesn’t hurt to have one with colors!!! It helps to remember to pick it up before you leave when you can see it on your dresser/in your closet. You remember the holster, you’ll remember your firearm.

  8. I don’t carry a purse. Just one more thing to mind. I like my hands free. Had a weirdo circle me on a Chicago sidewalk. I’m sure he was looking for a purse to grab. I carry the knife on a break-away neck chain.

  9. I am female, been carrying for a year or so. I carry a full size FNS-9 double stack. While I don’t feel the need to always carry a reload, I see the value in it. My husband and I were just discussing this on our drive home an hour ago. For me, it isn’t so much the idea of having double the ammo on hand, it would be in the event of a malfunction that is more easily cleared by dropping your mag or a malfunction with the magazine itself. It may be rare, but I would prefer to be prepared.

    • Man, that video gave me the serious creeps, Possum…

      • Once fishing I watched a large Wolf Spider catch a Leopard Frog. I thought “Damn”,,,,,,

    • I don’t know how it does at killing spiders…I do know that it’s good for gutting critters.

  11. http://gunssavelives.net/self-defense/analysis-of-five-years-of-armed-encounters-with-data-tables/
    The above link written by Claude Werner.

    Is carrying an extra magazine supported by actual data? Does an extra magazine give an opening to some Solicitor to make you look like a nut in front of a jury? (Prosecutors are called that in SC)

    Carrying a spare magazine is not written in stone handed down from on high.

    I mean if it is….should we all wear Class II or IIIa anytime we are in public? Might be a good idea given all the gunfights and malfunctioning guns some have mentioned. Hopefully I’ve given reason enough to consider your choices and not take an ‘instructors’ gospel as your truth. Which was my original point after all.

    …moving on

    • “I mean if it is….should we all wear Class II or IIIa anytime we are in public? ”

      Now that is definite proof of someone looking for a gunfight. Anybody wearing armor is obviously, so very obviously, intending to protect themselves at disadvantage to to the target not wearing armor. I.E. the armor wearer wants to ensure the ability to shoot and kill others at little risk to self. If you don’t intend to get into a gunfight, you don’t need armor protection. Just like you don’t need cop-killer bullets, or 30rd magazines in a pistol. No reasonable on a jury of peers could possibly believe that someone armored-up, with an unnecessary number of bullets (data indicates the vast majority of defensive shootings only use three bullets), and bullet-proof vest was simply “being prepared”.

      A reasonable juror would find that all that gunfighting gear is not what “normal” people wear going to the store or work. A reasonable juror would feel that the awkwardness of managing all that gun stuff for everyday life is so restrictive that only someone with the purpose of hurting others would dress like that. Body armor, reloads, are only useful for someone looking for a fight, just to prove how macho they are. A reasonable juror asks, “Would I do that just because I could?”, and answer – “NO, we need to send the message that playing G.I. Joe in real life is something only people who shouldn’t have firearms would do.”

      Or something.

      • Don’t worry no one is going to wear body armor to watch their kids soccer practice. It’s uncomfortable. Getting sweaty is the point at which playing yuppie dress up stops being fun. There is no other area of your life in which you give similar consideration to astronomically unlikely events. In fact there are many facets of your life that you’ve given next to no consideration even though negative consequences are far more likely to occur due to that lack of consideration.

        • Well, you do know that anyone who wants a gun should automatically be a prohibited person. “Reasonable” jury members have trouble understanding how any “reasonable” person would want to shoot another person.

          Overall, given the extremely low probability of ever needing to use a gun to protect self, “reasonable” does come into question. After all, if you are a “good” person, you shouldn’t need to carry a gun. Better to have a day-glo vest with a no-gun symbol.

          Or something.

  12. I didn’t even notice this post until now.

    The gun is reasonably new, about a month old with 300 or so rounds through it. (At least that seems to be what she’s taken out of my 9mm stash and added to my 9mm brass stash.)

    The holster is brand new to the point it just got lock-tite on the screws the day this picture was taken. It’s shockingly hard to find a good IWB holster for the 9c so until she got the holster she kept carrying her XDs 3.3.

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