How many mags?

[leadcounsel]

How many mags? All of the mags. All of them!

But, seriously, a semi-auto is not much useful without mags. Mags are under constant attacks and banned or heavily restricted in 1/5th of the nation. Mag prices have steadily increased and will continue to do so, in all likelihood. At times, like 2012, mag prices went stratospheric and sold out for a spell.

I hoard them.

 

[wpod]

Mags are a wear Item. Go from there. I have an XD40 that I shoot it till it is so filthy it stops feeding because the chamber gets thick with powder and lead. I clean the chamber with a bore brush chucked in a drill. It is the pistol I try to wear out. Last fall the mags started to not drop out and took some extra pressure to seat and remove. I had some brand new mags and the worked fine. I took the problem mags and compared the measurements and the problem mags [ballooned] nothing a few wacks with a hammer didn't fix. This is a range gun only and I bought it used in 2008 and have run 40,000 rounds of my reloads through it. I am getting tired or shooting it actually.

 

[billt460]

Magazines have only two threats, politicians and manufacturing. The first can effect the second. I would say 3 per gun for a bare minimum. As Astro pointed out, manufacturing can stop at ANY time for discontinued models.

There just isn't a lot of financial incentive for a manufacturer to keep making magazines for a gun it no longer produces. Then, in many cases, that alone can cause availability to decline, and prices to skyrocket as a direct result. And even if an aftermarket company picks up production, many times the quality can be dubious when compared to OEM.

Depending on the political climate where you live, that alone could be enough incentive to obtain several more than you might need. Political temperature changes continuously, and rarely to the benefit of firearm owners. Especially when it comes to capacity.