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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Magazines: Loaded or Unloaded...? (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 1/26/2008 1:38:49 PM EDT
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Magazines: Loaded or Unloaded...? I was of the old belief that the best magazines are the ones that were left unloaded. Now I've read/heard that the tension is not what kills springs, but the cycling of loading and unloading. The search function showed nothing, so I figured I'd ask here, altrhough I apologize in advance if this has been answered before... |
Correct so loaded is how I keep mine. 
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| Unless the AR-15 is your 'ready' gun for home defense, in which case you'll only need one loaded magazine, I'm sure you'll all have plenty of time to load magazines in case of some SHTF scenario developing. Back during the Rodney King riots when I thought it was going to be 1968 all over again, I loaded some mags when the news first broke. Nothing happened in my area. A few years ago we had Hurricane Isabel here and the power was down for a week. There were reports of goblins going into peoples' open windows at night and robbing them. I loaded some mags for my Beretta 92 and strapped it on (military rig) but didn't mess with the AR. Again, nothing happened, but I sure felt better. |
| I can only vouch for three years, that's how long mine have been fully loaded and they function fine. They've also been cycled a bit, some more than others but having 76 mags keeps them from being over worked. I use my newest mags most as a matter of testing and distributing the work load among them, also a good excuse to buy many mags. |
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Funny you should ask this. I just pulled out an ammo can of loaded mags that have been loaded for the last year and a half. I noticed that the floor plate on at least four of them had swelled and deformed. These are all mil-spec mags (either Okay,Center,Colt,) so it's not like they are cheap mags. I'm thinking about unloading all of these mags and storing my ammo on stripper clips with the mags nearby with speed loaders. .02 |
I was just getting ready to load all of mine up until I read your post.Jeff |
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I think loading them with 25-28 rounds should help that. These are **cheap** aluminum magazines, which makes them light, and disposible. One of my mags was separating at the top seam as I was loading it, and when I went to tap the backside to seat the rounds, three shat out of it. Every tap on a hard surface shat more rounds out. That was one failure out of a lot of mags-I won't even return it, just pull the fresh guts out and transferin it in an older mag shell 
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The cover is supposed to help keep the feeder lips from getting out of place. It wouldn't really do anything to help the spring or the base...but as said before loading and unloading a mag can damage the spring just as much (if not more) than storing it loaded. I'd keep half of your mags loaded, and the other half unloaded. Maybe swap the loaded/un-loaded after a while to save the base. |
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Seems the concensus is in, keep em loaded. Kinda makes me wonder tho why the worlds militaries ship and store mags unloaded. Could be to save money I guess. But probably not since they spend more to have ammo shipped and stored in stripper clips. Not to mention taking up twice the space during shipping and we all know how valuable cubic footage is on a supply run. Could be to keep the soldiers busy, sort of like peeling potatoes at KP. But then again, if that was the reason wouldn't they ship links and ammo seperatly and have the GI's link em together on site? Maybe, and this is a big maybe, the military has learned through decades of field reports and research that its better to store the mags unloaded and only keep a ready supply loaded for immediate usage. Call me old fashioned (also call me an active duty serviceman who lives and dies by techpubs) but I think I'll take Uncle Sams advice on this one and keep only a ready mag or two loaded and store the rest empty. Since I'm still doing research before getting my AR, I'll have to relate things to my 1911. I have one out of my 10 mags with a weak spring. 8 are GI mags, 2 are SA. All have been in use the same ammount of time (took the GI mags out of their wrappers), all have been shot the same ammount, one was left loaded all the time. Guess which one now has a spring too weak to trip the hold open after the last round? |
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I keep mine loaded, I only have 7, but unload them for a couple days about once a month, to give the springs a rest. If you are one of those guys with 90 mags, IMO, there is no reason to keep everyone of them loaded, if you are storing them. Keep as many as you wish loaded for SHTF, and leave the rest unloaded, to rest the springs. Its the same theory as storing your AR in the fire position. |
| I recently fired several mags each for a 1911 and Uzi 9mm. all were loaded for 17 years and all are like new with no problems. I do not worry about keeping mags loaded anymore. It is more likely that the ammo brass will turn green or go bad before the mag will left loaded. |
I agree. I just have 3 mags loaded. I figure I shouldn't need to shoot more than 90 bullets if something ever happened and if something like Katrina or Riots happen in my area I'll load up all the others real quick. |
You're free to take Uncle Sam's advice on this one, but I know enough of modern metallurgy to know that he's flat wrong on this one. Storing magazines loaded won't do a thing to them. At least not any made with modern materials. If you have some WWII BAR magazines, those might warrant different treatment, but any modern AR mag isn't going to have a problem being left loaded indefinitely. |
Then please explain why my USGI mags (made with modern materials) had bulged floor plates after being loaded and stored for approximately 1 1/2 years. From personal experience I plan on using stripper clips and keeping just a few mags loaded. Like others have said.....if Katrina or some other event takes place all I'll need is approximately 15 minutes to get 30 or mags loaded. |
I'd keep more mags loaded...and then use that precious 15mins unassing your family (if you have one that is) or doing some other priority of work.
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Hurricanes don't happen in "the blink of an eye". The "katrina people" had days to prepare. Hell, even a Nuclear strike would have more warning than just a few minutes. No, I don't think an extra 10-15 minutes is gonna make a difference. If it does, and I need more than 120 rounds RIGHT NOW then it's a situation far bigger than I can handle by myself. |
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Just some thoughts here to put things in perspective, possibly with a lil levity thrown in for good measure. Based off of this picture... http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa185/heath223/allmags.jpg 30 magazines per case, 30 rounds per mag = 900 rds per case. 4 cases = 3600 rds + 7 mags = 210 rds for a total of 3810 rds. Figure one shot every 3 seconds thats 11430 seconds or 190.5 minutes or 3.175 hours of continuous firing. Doh, forgot to allow for mag changes call it 10 seconds per mag change, thats another 2 minutes 12 seconds for a grand total of... Wait for it... 3.53 HOURS of continuous firing. Just what kind of unholy zombie infested hell are you envisioning that you honestly think you will need the ability to fire continuously for 3.53 HOURS? How do you plan on transporting that stash with zombies hot on your trail? Even a moderate zombie swarm will most likely be 500 or less giving you some time to reload at some point. Wouldn't you be able to transport alot more ammo if one case was full magazines and the other 3 were filled with boxed ammo? Just messin with ya Heath since you were kind enough to post a pic. |
I have no idea, other than they are defective in some way. The bodies shouldn't ever be a problem, barring some kind of impact damage. I was referring to the metallurgy of the springs, which is generally the area of concern when the discussing loaded versus unloaded magazines. The spring steels made today are a lot better than those of old. |
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Here's the CW regarding magazine springs. This was cut & pasted from another post. The writer explains his credentials at the end of the article. ***************************** SSDSurf, on magazine spring fatigue: Loaded vs. Unloaded (or Partially Loaded). This is a myth that has reached urban legend status. Mag springs do not care how long they are compressed. Key words to understand are "creep" and "elastic limit". Creep is "the tendency of a material to move or to deform permanently to relieve stresses". Soft metals like brass, copper and lead can suffer quite easily from creep while metals like steel have no real appreciable level of creep and under normal or most conditions steel will flex and then return to its normal condition. Only when steel is pushed past its elastic limit it will deform and not return to normal. Any good magazine maker have engineered and manufactured their springs so that they do not ever reach their elastic limit even when fully compressed. Therefore mags can be loaded and left compressed theoretcially forever. One of the gun magazines (can't recall which one at the moment) actually found a .45 mag that was loaded for over 50 years and fired it with no problems and the mag was good to go afterwards. With the AR, M16, M4 family, the mags may not seat well with a closed bolt when loaded full with 20 or 30 rounds mag size dependant. Colt Armorer instructors actually suggest 18 or 28 for this reason. Most of us pretty much have this one figured out though. Some of the problems related to mags that are left full are that over time the rounds can actually shift in a mag on duty belts causing scratching, dents or deformations in the casings due to the mag lips or other casings, which may cause feed problems or jambs. It is generally suggested that rounds be rotated for this purpose and not for the purpose of giving mag springs a rest. If it matters I am a certified armorer from Colt, Sig and S&W. They will all tell you basically the same things on this topic. |
[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Magazines: Loaded or Unloaded...? (Page 1 of 2)
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