This is actualy game related

[JmOz]

Could someone tell me the amount of ammo and the number of clips a police officers standard sidearm has

[Chris Goodwin]

It depends on the specific pistol, but probably 15 in the magazine and one in the chamber, and probably 2-3 extra magazines.

[CorpCommander]

Year and police force needed

 

If you mean modern police then the typical side arm if they are well armed is a .40 cal automatic. If they are not well armed then it is usually a 9mm parabellum. The .40 has good one shot stopping power while the 9 mike mike has questionable one shot stopping power. I would question the practice of keeping a bullet in the chamber simply on safety grounds, but I can imagine that since police can end up in unexpected firefights at 2 meters perhaps it is a standard practice. Anyway, your typical police .40 carries 15 rounds in the clip. It uses a striker fire mechanism meaning the gun is in a semi-cocked state at all times. The only safety is the first trigger pull pressure which is high. Subsequent pulls are much, much easier. A typical .40 is represented by the SIG P229 and the Taurus PT940 (10 round mag). Beretta, Browning, CZ, Glock, H-K, Kahr, Ruger, SIG, S&W, Taurus, Walther all make popular versions of this weapon. The original idea was to make a medium framed gun (a requirement for police holsters) fit with the FBI 10mm Lite round. The round had to fit in the same space as the 9x19. The result is the .40S&W.

 

9mm mags are similar but performance is not.

 

Here is what one gun site says. Take it with a grain of salt. Also do not believe all the hype you hear on special killer rounds like the hydrashock and the black talons. They have their place but they have drawbacks as well. Using blacktalons in winter in cold places is ineffective: the spreading package of 'claws' the round has gets caught up on parkas! Anyway, on to the quote:

 

"The cartridge was probably helped along by passage of the ill-advised "Brady Bill," which mandated 10 round magazines in the U.S. Now pistols that formerly held 15 rounds of 9mm or 10 rounds of .40 were limited to 10 round magazines in either caliber. The 9x19 lost its advantage in firepower because of the artificial influence of the Brady Bill. A lot of shooters no doubt figure that if they are limited to 10 rounds, they might as well have the biggest 10 rounds that will fit into the gun. In most cases, that is the .40 S&W."

[tesuji]

As stated, it varies.

 

9mm clips easily run int 15 round or so clips.

10mm mags often stop at 10 or so.

 

IIRC by law since 94, new magazines of greater than 10 capacity for handguns are illegal (though probably allowed for police and older clips are grandfathered) so it would not be out of place to find a lot of 10 round mags as common.

[Tom]

CAP10 restrictions only apply to civilian owners (magazines manufactured prior to '95 are grandfathered), military and police users are not effected by this legislation.

 

9x19mm and .40S&W are the two most common law enforcement rounds and the standard capacity runs 14 to 17 rounds depending on make and model. 15 rounds is probably the most common capacity, and some officers will carry with a full magazine plus one in the chamber giving them an extra shot. The makes I've seen most frequently are Smith & Wesson, Beretta, Glock, and Sig Saur.

 

Two spare reloads is typical.

 

Specific carry requirements will vary between states, and individual departments.

[CorpCommander]

Round in Chamber

 

Do you think the round in chamber is for the extra shot or to save time in an emergency from having to cycle a round. I have a police officer friend, I'll ask him what he does. I can think of reasons to do this (time savings) and reasons not to do this (safety and what if you forgot to chamber a round - always cycling a round out of habit lets you know the weapon is armed.) Not that this matters but in the movies you hardly ever seen police or bad guys chambering rounds! It might be a factor depending on what genre you are going for.

 

Oh and the Brady Bill is only for civilians. However it should be pointed out that some civilians have grandfathered high capacity clips. I used a .40 Barretta with a very large clip (20-21 rounds IIRC).

 

To be more on topic for the thread, I'd say police clips are around 15 rounds. Hope this helps.

[Tom]

The full mag plus one is for the extra shot.

 

Carrying hammer down on an empty chamber, may or not be departmental policy. I was taught (armed security) to carry with a live round in the chamber, hammer down, safety off (a moot point with a Glock ).

 

Another point that was taught, was to either always unload and load every time or to keep your weapon loaded.

 

A side note on extra mags. Police duty gear usually provides for either single or double pouches. I usually see officers wearing a single 'double pouch'. There are exceptions. I just saw an officer a bit ago wearing two double pouches, so you can have individual officers carrying as much (or little) ammo as you like.

 

Here is a web site with the some examples of police duty gear...

 

http://www.safariland.com/index.html

[Dog Soldier]

As far as I know absolutely no police department has their officers carry with an empty chamber.

[Tom]

Originally posted by Dog Soldier

As far as I know absolutely no police department has their officers carry with an empty chamber.

 

I've never heard of it either, but wierder things have happened. When I was with a MP unit in Germany during the first Gulf war, we carried hammer down on an empty chamber -- but we were also an activated Nat'l Guard unit carrying M1911A1's which are a single action autoloader...

[Pattern Ghost]

Military Police and civilian law enforcement are a far cry from each other when it comes to policies. Even regular Army MPs were required to carry with an empty chamber. Civilian law enforcement does not have this handicap.

[Vondy]

I am a former auxillary officer of several years with a local Washington department.

 

Most departments carry 9mm or .40 caliber handguns, though a few State Police agencies and the FBI have moved back to the .45. The Glock is the most common model, but Beretta and Sig Suaer also have a fairly strong following.

 

Police agencies are not limited to the high capacity magazine ban and carry the high capacity magazines. The total number of rounds will depend on the model of firearm in use by the department in question.

 

I know of no civillian law enforcement agency that requires an empty chamber -- in fact most police firearms instructors I have known are adamantly against it (chambered and hot is the way!). Policies regarding the use of the safety, if the weapon has one, will vary depending on the department.

 

As for the +1 capacity. The point is the extra round, but I've never come into contact with a department that had a firm policy on it. As such I would presume its up to the individual officer whether or not they want to "combat load" their firearm. The key -- and this the department armsmaster did comment on -- is for the officer to be consistent.

 

Thats just my experience -- YMMV

[Old Man]

Local PD here carries some .40 S&W as standard issue, I can't remember the exact model. My understanding is that if the officer wants to carry something else, then he can, as long as it's on the "approved" list.

 

I don't know whether they carry with a round chambered or not. If I was a cop, however, I would damn well carry with round chambered if I could get away with it.

[Killer Shrike]

I have a few grandfathered clips for my post-1999 short barrelled 9mm S&W Sigma (an admitted Gloch clone -- S&W eventually had to pay patent violations to Gloch ). As a side note it has a trigger-safety with no external safety.

 

Soon after I bought it the Brady Bill rolled down the pike.

 

If I had known that such a legislature was going to come around I would have bought a heavier calibre but such is life.

 

Back when I was in the Corps when I joined in 93 they were pretty much finished switching from .45's to 9mm's fleet-wide, and about the time I started getting out in 98 the MPs were switching back from 9mm to .45s and there was talk that the rest of the Corps would follow. I dont know if that came to be, but the MPs found that the 9mm just did not have enough stopping power. Originally the 9mm was supposed to reduce casualties and increase 'non-fatal' shootings for MPs when a takedown was necessary, and in a combat environment its increased magazine capacity was seen as an advantage, but the consensus of opinion among the MPs seemed to be that because the 9mm lacked stopping power they ended up having to put 2 or 3 rounds into violent drunks, substance abusers, and 'berserk' types which of course increased the chance of death . The rest of the Corps never really liked the 9mm on average, and vastly preferred the power of the .45's. Every trip to the range was laced with old salts bemoaning the 'pop-gun' qualities of the 9mm and harkering back to the 'good old days' of the .45s.

 

Me, I preferred the 9mm because it has less kick giving me a higher effective rate of fire (ie, accurate fire), and the slide on the .45 always seemed to catch me at least once every time I fired one, which is zero fun.

 

Also, I crushed my wrist playing Lacrosse in high school, and had it reconstructed in a couple of operations, and I have some nerve damage which reduces the sensitivity and responsiveness of my right hand, particularly the pinky and ring fingers. The odd thing is, heavy handguns like the Desert Eagle .50 cal (my fave ) kick so much my whole arm is affected allowing me to maintain wrist-lock, but most .45s kick just enough to make my arm bend at the wrist rather than lift at the shoulder, which is uncomfortable for me.

 

In the Corps, we carried cold with safety normally until told to 'lock and load'; unless we were in a high-risk zone, in which case everyone carried hot with safety on. In a normal situation we would deploy cold, then lock & load and do a synchronized fire check prior to starting a patrol or route reconnaisance, etc.

 

 

To the best of my knowledge cops and feds carry hot.

[CorpCommander]

From a real cop

 

Ok I got to speak to an actual veteran of the Massachusetts State Police. YMMV.

 

He says his .40 carries 13 rounds in the clip and he ALWAYS puts a hot round in the chamber. He was issued a Sig-Saur which is rare for police departments as they are expensive. He also says that the SWAT (called STOP in Mass.) teams have gotten rid of the MP-5 and now use .40 cal UMP's and that someone now makes a .40 cal carbine that is compatible with his pistol clip. So soon, with the exception of shotguns, the MSP will have a universal round.

 

Oh, and he says guns he pulls off of people are almost always junk. The bad guys always have cheap, guns. He hasn't seen any high-capacity mags. In fact he's seen it go the other way - very small and concealable weapons. Like 4 shot .45's!

 

Hope this helps.