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Posted: 3/10/2008 3:07:58 PM EDT
| I have had different people tell me different things and was wondering what you all thought? I usually store my magazines for my pistols fully loaded and some people told me that you are better off doing that than always loading them and unloading them. But I have had someone else tell me that if you keep them fully loaded for long periods of time that it will damage the springs. So what do you all think? If the later person was right then what the hell does the military do in there arsenals? How else are you gonna be ready for battle? Because it would take to long to put each round in at a time. Especially 20 round mags on up.h |
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There is no harm in leaving a magazine loaded. Loading the magazine compresses the spring, and stores energy. Unloading the magazine releases energy. Each loading/unloading cycle weakens the spring a little. Leaving the spring compressed does nothing. If a spring is weakened while left under load, there is something wrong with the temper or material used to make the spring. Karl |
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hello. keeping your mags loaded wont hurt them. this has been proven many times. especially with todays modern steel, there isnt anything to worry about. small arms review did an article where a guy died and there was found a 1911 from ww2 in his dresser. it had 2 loaded clips with ammo headstamped from ww2. they decided to fire these to see if they worked. all rds fired from the clips. i keep around 100 sten mags loaded all the time and they still give me 100%. i keep all my mags loaded and dont have any problems. if i were to keep them unloaded and then have to load them in a hurry, i would be there for a week. kirk |
| Well here's my two cents worth...I asked a Bushmaster tech what he recommended for keeping mags loaded. His answer was that you should cycle your mags every two months; which I have been doing for the past few years. Every two months the bullets come out and are fed back in the spare mags that have been resting for two months. Works for me anyway. |
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Here's the word from a member who IDs himself as a gunsmith (his creds are at the bottom of the page). 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. |
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