Leaving mag loaded to capacity ok?
- Thread starter dacaur
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Cheesewhiz
Hunter
It's fine to leave a magazine loaded for extended periods, there are reports of mags loaded for decades that still function fine afterwards.
Jumping Frog
Bearcat
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- Jun 11, 2009
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It isn't the compression that wears out a spring, it is many compression-release cycles that wears a spring out. (Assumint the compression is still within the spring's elastic limits, which a loaded magazine would be by design.)
Jumping Frog
Bearcat
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Even if you were able to shoot thousands of rounds per year and eventually wore the magazine springs out from many, many compression-release cycles, just replace them. Magazine springs are dirt cheap anyway, running $2-$3.dacaur":3avh27wg said:
MountainGator
Single-Sixer
Here's some factual "Data" on "compressed" Springs...
We're Skiers. If you are a skier, you (probably) know that there are springs in your bindings that are normally compressed (even with no boot in the binding). For a long time there has been an "old wives tale" that at the end of the ski season, you should re-adjust your binding to the lowest setting (least compression) (during summer storage), and then re-set them at the beginning of each season. The myth went on to say that if you didn't, the springs would change their spring constant, and the "numerical settings on the bindings" would no longer be accurate. (The same as a mag spring losing 'power' because the mag was stored loaded)
For my first "Retirment Job" (a few years back) I became a 'Certified Ski Technician'. I was certified by 6 different corporations to mount, repair, and adjust every 'current' ski binding out there, and I was employed by a good shop (actually the ski area itself) that had Very Good Testing Equipment.
To (try to) make a long story short (which I'm told I can't
), I ended up testing 4 pr of my own bindings (16 total springs)that had beend stored COMPRESSED for over 10 years, and every one was Right on Specification!! ... Myth BUSTED!
We're Skiers. If you are a skier, you (probably) know that there are springs in your bindings that are normally compressed (even with no boot in the binding). For a long time there has been an "old wives tale" that at the end of the ski season, you should re-adjust your binding to the lowest setting (least compression) (during summer storage), and then re-set them at the beginning of each season. The myth went on to say that if you didn't, the springs would change their spring constant, and the "numerical settings on the bindings" would no longer be accurate. (The same as a mag spring losing 'power' because the mag was stored loaded)
For my first "Retirment Job" (a few years back) I became a 'Certified Ski Technician'. I was certified by 6 different corporations to mount, repair, and adjust every 'current' ski binding out there, and I was employed by a good shop (actually the ski area itself) that had Very Good Testing Equipment.
To (try to) make a long story short (which I'm told I can't
), I ended up testing 4 pr of my own bindings (16 total springs)that had beend stored COMPRESSED for over 10 years, and every one was Right on Specification!! ... Myth BUSTED!Thinking about it a little more, it makes perfect sense that it wont affect it, and now I dont know why I ever questioned it, being a machinist heh. So long as its within the limits it was designed for, and doesn't rust, the steel will keep its spring forever, because steel has in infinite fatigue life. You can take a piece of steel with a bending strength of 10000psi, and bend it with 5000psi over and over forever and the steel will never go out of shape. Do the same with aluminum, which has a finite fatigue life, and eventually that piece of aluminum will snap.
dacaur said:
as long as you are within its modulus of elasticity, correct.
Aluminum does not have a modulus of elasticity. Even its own weight would eventually destroy itself if just rotated about an axis.
IOW, everyone's advice it correct so far: no worries in a properly designed magazine.
Everything everybody has posted is accurate- as long as the spring is good. I have mags for my P89, my Glock 21 duty gun and the Glock 26 that my wife swiped from me that have had mags loaded up for YEARS with no trouble at all. In fact, the mags I currently carry for my G21 were bought right after the '94 AWB. Aside from shooting them, they have been constantly loaded since late '94 with no loss of compression at all, as far as I can tell.
Several years ago, I bought a S&W 6906. Great gun, not so good mags. After being loaded up for ~6 months, the mag springs would be so weak that the mags (all of them, not just 1) would refuse to feed the last couple of rounds reliably. Replacement springs from S&W did the same thing. I finally ended up buying Wolff mag springs and the problem went away. Bad mag springs from S&W, good mag springs from Wolff.
Moral of the story- occasionally test your mag springs by using them and using them HARD. As long as they work OK for several months, they should be good to go for many, many years. If they fail, replace them before you need the gun.
Bub
Several years ago, I bought a S&W 6906. Great gun, not so good mags. After being loaded up for ~6 months, the mag springs would be so weak that the mags (all of them, not just 1) would refuse to feed the last couple of rounds reliably. Replacement springs from S&W did the same thing. I finally ended up buying Wolff mag springs and the problem went away. Bad mag springs from S&W, good mag springs from Wolff.
Moral of the story- occasionally test your mag springs by using them and using them HARD. As long as they work OK for several months, they should be good to go for many, many years. If they fail, replace them before you need the gun.
Bub
graygun
Hunter
Is this somehow M16-related in origin? I remember 20-rd mags being loaded to 17 or 18 for standby situations. I heard it was mag spring related.
This was in the 70/71 time frame.
This was in the 70/71 time frame.
Paine
Bearcat
I got out in 05 and we were still only loading 25-28 in ours in iraq. Something to keep in mind is that all military equipment is built by the lowest bidder. I never had any problems with 30 in them though, but I never used the 20s either.
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