Magazine spring question

[mailman]

How long can you leave a magazine fully loaded before the spring loses it's stength to advance another round? I have an LC9 that I carry and use for home defense and it doesn't get the range time you guys seem to get. So the magazine stays fully loaded 24/7. I'm a revolver guy with not much knowledge or experience with semi's and their magazines. But I'm learning.

 

[96/44]

There is a lot of discussion about this topic, but the consensus seems to be that leaving a mag loaded doesn't wear out the springs. Loading and unloading however does cause the springs to wear out- eventually. I personally have seen mags that were loaded for decades, that still work fine.

 

[clint_lnl]

96/44 is right, there are many talks on every gun forum I have been to about this. your better to leave it loaded or empty then load and unload all the time.

 

[Big Stu]

Do a simple test. Buy a spare magazine and leave it unloaded, and keep your main magazine fully loaded. In twenty years let us know if there is a difference. I'd bet they'd both still work. :lol:

 

[mailman]

Ok, thanks for the input. I feel better now but the 20 year test might not work since I am already 65. Haha!!

 

[Pinecone]

mailman, I have posted on this before but will do so again for your benefit. My uncle brought back a Browning Hi-Power pistol from WWII in 1945 and loaded two magazines fully and inserted one in the gun. He put it up on a shelf in his closet and there it stayed until 1971 (26 years). In passing conversation, he told me about it. As a gunsmith, this was a question put to me many times and I finally had a great "test" subject to check out with that Hi-Power. I took it out to the gravel pit and fired both magazines out of that Hi-Power without a "hitch"! Now that doesn't mean that you can repeat that with every pistol. That was an individual case. However, since that time, many years have passed, and many customers I have discussed this subject with have told me about magazines they have kept loaded anywhere from a year to 20 years and fired the gun without any problems. That being said, I believe it's safe to say, leaving a magazine loaded generally does no harm. Talking to spring manufacturers, they claim that a mag spring will usually take a "set" after 1 to 2 weeks of being fully loaded and there after no longer taking any further set. I highly recommend their "idea" about loading a new mag for at least two weeks before firing to let the spring take it's normal set!...................Dick :wink:

 

[axisofoil]

The spring "set" does happen. They also do (extremely) slowly encounter a condition called "creep" while loaded (or unloaded for that matter, but I suspect this would be to a lesser extent).

Basically, even within a material's elastic limit (how much you can deform it before it changes shape permanently... think of bending a paperclip: You can bend it a little and it pops back, bend it a lot and it won't), if it is held anywhere except equilibrium, the crystalline structure will slowly (again, I'm talking extraordinarily slow, especially in spring-steel and coil-springs where a large deflection of the spring is associated with a small deformation of any location on the spring) deform and the spring will lose a (for the most part negligible) amount of "springiness".

Unless you're loading your pmags to 31rd (it'll fit in there) and letting them sit for 30 or 40 years, or examining your springs regularly with an SEM, you will probably NEVER notice this lost springiness.

In theory... they will stop functioning over a certain amount of time. In practice, they would more than likely corrode or be confiscated by a Zombie Hit-Squad before creep kills them.

 

[Pinecone]

axisofoil, Good post! This is exactly what the spring manufacturers will tell you. Good info for all on this subject!......................Dick :wink:

 

[axisofoil]

Hey, I try.

There is good theory on all sides.

Loading/unloading leads to fatigue wear. (Mind you that steel has a pretty epic fatigue life, unless you're getting close to the elastic limit of the material... which you're not unless you're overloading your mags and such... the followers/mag bodies are designed to not allow you to over-compress your springs)

Leaving loaded leads to creep wear.

Existing leads to corrosive wear.

Zombie hit-squads are absolutely frightening in my book... so I keep my mags loaded and the springs lightly oiled to prevent corrosion.

 

[mailman]

Wow, some great information here. I am impressed. This board rocks. Thanks again for everybody's input, I appreciate it.

 

[axisofoil]

Glad to be of assistance!

 

[Xsales]

Axis

Great post, well presented thoughts

AZ people rock :lol: AND all other States :lol:

 

[vacextar]

Just for fun, I'll add this:

I've got a Sig P230 that was my carry gun for many years. When I bought my holster, I also had a spare mag holster made by the same guy. Maybe I'm just a wiener, but the rear corners on the mags were extremely sharp and would cut the crap out of my side, so I stopped carrying the spare mag.....put it in the gun safe, still fully loaded, still in it's custom made holster. Continued to carry the Sig for many more years after that and that spare mag stayed in the safe for....I'm going to take a rough guess and say over 10 years. (I bought the gun right before my first kid was born......and he'll be 14 in 2 weeks.)

One day, I decided to run some rounds thru it, and decided to use both mags. I pulled it out of the safe, pulled the mag out of the holster, put it in the gun and it ran just fine.....no problems.