Keeping Rounds in the Magazine

[Mr Evilwrench]

How many times have I seen this question? Mostly, no, it won't ruin your spring. Maybe sometimes; I'm not going to dispute anyone's claim. But if you load it up and it goes weak, what's the worst that could happen? Failure to feed 1 or 2 rounds. Drop it and load the next one. Empty mags, yeah, those aren't even heavy enough to make good paperweights. I keep all mine loaded.

 

[greyhound47]

No harm keeping them loaded. Common myth.

Springs wear from cycling.


ETA: Magazine spring madness: 'creep' to your 'elastic limit' to un-earth the urban legend of 'spring-set' | American Handgunner | Find Articles at BNET

Great post. Very informative. Thanks ATM!

 

[ultraspec]

This should probably just be a 'sticky' post.

 

[jtull01]

Mag storage

Boy,
I'm sure glad I found this thread. I was too, wondering about storing mags loaded.
I like the idea of swapping them out every month or so, simply to clean them and use up or at least inspect the ammo.
Carry guns pick up some dirt I'm sure, so would spare mags that are carried.
Thanks for the wealth of information!

 

[Drail]

All of the people who claim that mag springs will never fail from leaving them compressed have never seen one fail or have been told that they will not fail. All of the people who claim that magazine springs most certainly can fail from leaving them compressed have personally seen it happen. I have seen springs weaken that were in fully loaded magazines for long periods in guns that were almost never shot, just stored loaded. Some of them were my own personal guns. Some of them were LEO guns. So consider the source of the information. Like I said, there are good springs and crummy springs out there. Do you KNOW which type you have? Is having a stoppage worth those extra couple of rounds? Just downloading a magazine that is going to sit idle for a long time by two rounds can mean the difference between all rounds will feed or not. The military has been teaching and doing this for many years. Police armorers have known for a long time that riot guns loaded to full capacity that sit in racks for long periods and never get cycled will have feed failures because the mag springs have weakened.

 

[Yup!]

How many times have I seen this question? Mostly, no, it won't ruin your spring. Maybe sometimes; I'm not going to dispute anyone's claim. But if you load it up and it goes weak, what's the worst that could happen? Failure to feed 1 or 2 rounds. Drop it and load the next one. Empty mags, yeah, those aren't even heavy enough to make good paperweights. I keep all mine loaded.

I don't have the statistics to give an accurate number, but an EMPTY Mag with a strong spring is 100% ineffective in a defensive shooting.

A full mag with a weak spring has to be a little better than that!

 

[812homes4u]

I store them in every mag I own. I try to unload them as often as I can (at the range)

 

[Tombs]

Springs take set when you keep them loaded. They don't "weaken" they just drop to the poundage they're supposed to be.

Most noticeable is with 1911 magazines. I usually have the strongest springs around in mine, and they're useless until you keep them loaded for a few days to let the spring take set. After that, they drop down to normal pressure levels and tend to stay there unless you load and unload them constantly.

I suggest on new mags, leave them fully loaded for a day or 2, empty the magazine, then reload it back up and leave it. Gives everything a chance to settle.

 

[Misplaced Yankee]

All of the people who claim that mag springs will never fail from leaving them compressed have never seen one fail or have been told that they will not fail. All of the people who claim that magazine springs most certainly can fail from leaving them compressed have personally seen it happen. I have seen springs weaken that were in fully loaded magazines for long periods in guns that were almost never shot, just stored loaded. Some of them were my own personal guns. Some of them were LEO guns. So consider the source of the information. Like I said, there are good springs and crummy springs out there. Do you KNOW which type you have? Is having a stoppage worth those extra couple of rounds? Just downloading a magazine that is going to sit idle for a long time by two rounds can mean the difference between all rounds will feed or not. The military has been teaching and doing this for many years. Police armorers have known for a long time that riot guns loaded to full capacity that sit in racks for long periods and never get cycled will have feed failures because the mag springs have weakened.

This all boils down to quality of spring. Springs typically aren't a high-profile element to the firearm. I mean, who's going to sell based on spring quality? It's absurd. I'm willing to bet that every time spring based failure is based on lackluster quality of materials more then left staged.

Look at the mag spring sometime. 90% of the time they look cheaper then what goes into nerf guns. Uncoated, basic, and fragile. It's a thin piece of metal that's not that's not protected from elements, and is so tiny that a slight amount of failure would be immediately noted. Take a mag spring, toss it in a closet for ten years. I'd bet dollars to donuts that it won't feel as good as a new one. Time wears equipment. And factor in the fact that moisture/dirt couldn't work it's way into the spring deteriorating it further? This is why stored things go bad, not because they had a load. Unless you can bring hard evidence, equal to what ATM brought. Empirical evidence is well and good, but it's colored by prior experiences.

 

[Drail]

Well, my experiences always seemed pretty factual to me. The point I was trying to make is that when everyone on a forum says that springs don't weaken from compression only they're assuming all springs are equal. They most certainly are not (as you pointed out). It sounds as if you're suggesting that a new mag spring left in a bag unused will weaken with time just like one that has been left fully compressed for years. Have you any evidence to support that? Or did I misunderstand your staement?

 

[Wwwildthing]

Coming from the machine-world (industrial background of my youth)... springs wear through cycling (compression/decompression). Sitting in a fixed state (a loaded magazine) can cause spring-memory. A spring with no stress on it experiences no wear.

Someone mentioned the military-way of doing it, load 12 in a 13 round mag (that's the way I do it), and cycle the mag (empty and reload) once a month.

That said, I've seen mags that were left loaded for YEARS and worked perfectly.