Loading Magazines Full and Leaving Them

As I understand it what wears on magazine springs the most is loading and unloading of the magazine.
With that said I rotate my carry magazines every couple of weeks and change the magazine springs as I should.

Multiple, multiple, many, many threads on this already. Shame on you for not searching.

No, the magazine won't wear out from keeping it loaded.

I think theres even a thread on this on the page. come on guys search is our friend

leaving the mag springs under stress will eventually reduce their tension... That having been said, a few years ago I purchased a Luger from a widow and one of the mags had been loaded for over 50 years. It worked just fine.

However, I find little reason to leave a magazine loaded for more than a few weeks at a time. Mine get unloaded at the range with some regularity

With good spring steel properly tempered, compression or lack of it has no effect. Its the working of the spring repeatedly that will eventually kill it.

The springs

in your car's suspension are loaded all the time. I've seen lots of 20+ year old cars with fine springs.

With good spring steel properly tempered, compression or lack of it has no effect. Its the working of the spring repeatedly that will eventually kill it.

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+1

My magazines remain loaded for years at a time.

A very extreme case is,
In 1961 I was given a 1911 magazine that had been brought back from WWI.
The magazine had remained fully loaded from about 1918 until 1961.
I should have kept the rounds, dated 1918 and before, but I wanted to see if they would still fire. They were very weak but all fired.
The magazine continued to function fine and is now mixed up with my other 1911 magazines.

This is probably a stupid question, because it feels like one. Will leaving my magazines fully loaded for a week at a time wear them out?

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no they will be fine, and btw that isn't a stupid question it gets asked alot.

You don't change the magazines.

You might want to change the springs when the gun stops feeding or locking open on the last shot.

rcmodel

Keep'em loaded. If the springs do wear out, buy more, they are cheap

For a week most likely not.
My Kel-Tec has been loaded for
over 2 years, last time out it did fine.
It will at some time make the spring weaker.
But $25.00 every 3 or so years is fine with me.
That's the price of a new mag. I don't know on the spring alone.

It will at some time make the spring weaker.

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No, it will not. Springs under compression do not get weaker. One week, one month, one year, one decade, it matters not. A properly made spring under normal compression will not get weaker. Consider this: A spring in a retractable pen, which is an example of a relatively weak spring, will not go bad if you leave it compressed, right? Don't believe me? Click a pen open, put it somewhere, and come back 5 years later. Provided it isn't rusted up and provided the rest of the mechanism is still in working order, I can guarantee with a pretty fair amount of certainty that when you click the pen it will still work. In conclusion, a spring under compression will not get weaker.

As mentioned here and other places, what will wear out the spring is actually using it, and even then that is going to be a rare enough occasion for the average shooter. Your best bet is to simply make sure your not abusing your mags and inspecting the feed lips on a regular basis to make sure they aren't cracked or something.

TimboKhan said:

As mentioned here and other places, what will wear out the spring is actually using it, and even then that is going to be a rare enough occasion for the average shooter.

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I think that it may be a rare occasion for any shooter. The valve springs in a car engine are compressed billions (trillions?) of times over the life of the car. As well, they are heated and cooled over and over and over. They seem to last just fine.

Where guns are concerned, a quality spring should last forever I'd think. Even a crappy one should last an awful long time.


-T.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=395513&highlight=mag+magazine+springs

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=383706&highlight=magazine+springs

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=360919&highlight=magazine+springs

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=340213&highlight=magazine+springs