topping off your mags

[SkunkApe]

"If you follow the practice of chambering a round from a magazine thats loaded to full capacity and then remove it and top it off, you're hampering reliability.

Why? Because magazines that are loaded to full capacity have no area left for spring compression which causes the slide to bind to against the top round in the magazine during the firing cycle and leads to a failure to feed.

So no, I do not top off my magazines as reliability is more crucial than the warm fuzzy feeling that extra round supposedly provides." - triggertime

Triggertime speaks some truth here. I've seen more than a few autos where topping off the magazine created reliability problems. If I'm going to carry this way, I test the gun this way to check for reliability with that particular gun. I haven't seen many others doing this at the range, though. Have you guys that top it off actually tested your weapons thoroughly this way?

 

[Gewehr98]

Yup.

For just over 20 years.

Including IPSC, Thunder Ranch, and 16 years active-duty military using the M1911A1 and M9.

 

[Soap]

Always.

I don't understand why people worry about their mag springs so much. Just toss them, and buy new ones. Life is too short to worry about springs in magazines. I use Wilson 47Ds and if the springs went sour, into the dumpster the springs go, the rest goes into a spare parts bin.

 

[Shaughn Leayme]

Always,

At the range and before it goes into the holster and I walk out the door..

Wether it be 7, 8, 10, 14, 15 or 20. The magazine gets topped off.

I have also checked every single magazine for function in the pistol when fully loaded. Not one quality magazine has given me any problems by binding against the slide when loaded to capacity.

I know people who don't practice reloads under stress, because it will all be over in 3 rounds or less and they have x number of rounds in the gun. They don't consider that they may have a malfunction and need to drop the mag, or that they may just hit that 1 in a thousand event and they just might have to go to that second magazine, provided they even carry a spare.

Assumptions and averages can get you killed, don't trust your life to them.

 

[Kahr carrier]

Yep you never know when you will need that extra round.

 

[Peetmoss]

This may be a stupid question but

For all those who top off your mags after stripping a round off the top to chamber a round, why not just drop a round in the pipe close the slide and insert the full mag?

 

[boing]

Forcing the extractor to ride over the rim of a cartridge that's already in the chamber can cause damage to the extractor. Most auto-pistols are designed to have the rim slip under and behind the extractor as the round is stripped from the mag and levered against the breech face as it gets pushed into the chamber.

 

[Duke of Lawnchair]

I top off my magazines when I'm playing USPSA Limited 10 games.

 

[boing]

A properly designed mag spring will take a set fairly quickly, but it will set to the length and tension designed for proper functioning of the gun. A virgin spring is too long and stiff (no jokes, please), and is supposed to set.

None of my mags for my handguns bottom out when loaded to capacity and inserted, but that's the way they were designed, and they function reliably, as designed. Even after being fully loaded and locked into the magwell for years, they still feed.

If you're talking about postban Glock mags, or similarly neutered mags, these are known to have reliability problems, especially when fully loaded. The springs are over-stiff, with inadequate clearance at capacity, to prevent the Evil 11th Round from being mistakenly (feloniously) loaded.

If your gun won't run without downloading the mag, then...download the mag. I don't care. My guns run fine.