diff --git a/lfsapi/client.go b/lfsapi/client.go
index 4be02b43..87788c92 100644
--- a/lfsapi/client.go
+++ b/lfsapi/client.go
@@ -131,11 +131,10 @@ func (c *Client) doWithRedirects(cli *http.Client, req *http.Request, via []*htt
 		retries = defaultRequestRetries
 	}
 
-	retries = tools.MaxInt(0, retries)
-
 	var res *http.Response
 
-	for i := 0; i < retries; i++ {
+	requests := tools.MaxInt(0, retries) + 1
+	for i := 0; i < requests; i++ {
 		res, err = cli.Do(req)
 		if err == nil {
 			break
@@ -153,6 +152,10 @@ func (c *Client) doWithRedirects(cli *http.Client, req *http.Request, via []*htt
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
+	if res == nil {
+		return nil, nil
+	}
+
 	c.traceResponse(req, tracedReq, res)
 
 	if res.StatusCode != 301 &&
diff --git a/lfsapi/retries.go b/lfsapi/retries.go
index 8fb5f8e3..df4f2503 100644
--- a/lfsapi/retries.go
+++ b/lfsapi/retries.go
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ const (
 
 	// defaultRequestRetries is the default number of retries to perform on
 	// a given HTTP request.
-	defaultRequestRetries = 1
+	defaultRequestRetries = 0
 )
 
 // WithRetries stores the desired number of retries "n" on the given