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Posted: 6/10/2011 1:59:39 PM EDT
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Has anyone kept their mags loaded for a while and do they take the pressure?
I would love to have the MSAR as my go to rifle with a loaded mag but not if I can't trust the magazine to still work right after a few weeks of being loaded. |
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I had some fully loaded MSAR 42 round magazines in my trunk last summer. I had three ambers and three black. The temp was around 90 degrees. When I went to get them out after a few days the lips on the black ones were warped outward and had ejected ammunition all over the trunk. The lips did not recover and the magazines were ruined. The amber magazines were perfect with no issues. I have left amber 30 and 42s loaded for years in the house with no issues at all. I also left 30 and 42 round ambers in my trunk fully loaded since the black ones failed just to see if they could take it and they have without issue. IMO the ambers are the only ones to own. Ratworx did take the black ones back and replace them with ambers so it did work out. Nothing but amber in my car and vault now. I wouldn't touch a black or OD green MSAR magazine of any size.
On a side note, I've read a lot on the "loaded magazine storage" issue. Most manufactures will tell you that if you have a quality magazine spring it wont matter if you store the magazine loaded or unloaded. The spring will be just as good either way. Its the loading and unloading process repeated in normal use the that eventually causes wear to the spring. In my experience this is true. |
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Quoted:
I've got 7 STG 42rd mags that have been fully loaded since I bought my first STG (3yrs???) and every 6 months or so I testfire 'em then load 'em back up and to date no malfunctions of any kind. HTH... Tomac I'm with Tomac on this one. EVERY single mag we have for the STG's have been loaded since we bought them 3+yrs. ago. Also the same with the 2+yr. $13 blow out Ratworx MSAR mag sale mags. Never any FTF on any one of them...even the 10 rounders.  I keep them fully(10,30 & 42rds) loaded 24/7/365
Edit to add: all of them are amber. |
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Quoted:
On a side note, I've read a lot on the "loaded magazine storage" issue. Most manufactures will tell you that if you have a quality magazine spring it wont matter if you store the magazine loaded or unloaded. The spring will be just as good either way. That's a big "if." By all means, keep loaded mags. Nothing wrong with that. But for comparison's sake, keep a mag unloaded so you can compare the spring tension every once in a while. On my carry pistols, I've noticed that the mags that stay fully loaded 24/7 tend to weaken noticeably over time (talking years here) and they will be shorter when compared to springs from mags that aren't stored fully loaded. Whether or not this happens will depend on if the magazine is engineered properly to save the spring. If the spring is bottoming out and that's what stops you from loading more rounds - and the spring isn't designed to be bottomed out for long - storing the mag fully loaded will weaken the mag. The worst that's ever happened to me due to this issue is a failure to lock the slide back on the last round. No big deal. Springs are always going to be a wear part. Every spring has an expiration date measured in round count. Buy and keep spares. |
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Quoted: Quoted: On a side note, I've read a lot on the "loaded magazine storage" issue. Most manufactures will tell you that if you have a quality magazine spring it wont matter if you store the magazine loaded or unloaded. The spring will be just as good either way. That's a big "if." By all means, keep loaded mags. Nothing wrong with that. But for comparison's sake, keep a mag unloaded so you can compare the spring tension every once in a while. On my carry pistols, I've noticed that the mags that stay fully loaded 24/7 tend to weaken noticeably over time (talking years here) and they will be shorter when compared to springs from mags that aren't stored fully loaded. Whether or not this happens will depend on if the magazine is engineered properly to save the spring. If the spring is bottoming out and that's what stops you from loading more rounds - and the spring isn't designed to be bottomed out for long - storing the mag fully loaded will weaken the mag. The worst that's ever happened to me due to this issue is a failure to lock the slide back on the last round. No big deal. Springs are always going to be a wear part. Every spring has an expiration date measured in round count. Buy and keep spares. Often times around here you will hear that cycles wear springs, not compression. Thats simply not true. Compression alone with no cycling will wear a spring. However, a properly designed magazine spring takes that into account, and has excess tension to function properly even after taking a compression set. |
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