870 Express magazine spring

[WoodchuckAssassin]

One of my home defense guns is an 870 express, and I was wondering if it would affect reliability to keep 5 rounds in the chamber for long periods of time? Would it wear out the magazine spring to leave it fully loaded for months at a time?

 

[oneounceload]

No, springs weaken by work, nit by a static load

 

[PJSprog]

^^^^^ What oneounceload said. (-ish)

 

[Onmilo]

Brownells offers a very good replacement stainless steel shotgun magazine tube spring.
They won't rust in place easily and aren't prone to taking a compression set under strain.

 

[btg3]

^^^
Is that what Remington puts on the Marine 870?

My 870s are 1950s vintage and the original mag tube spring has not rusted.

 

[Captains1911]

I replaced the mag spring and follower in my 870 Express with ones from Scattergun Technologies. Was it necessary...probably not, but it certainly didn't hurt.

Leaving the magazine tube loaded won't hurt anything, same as any other magazine.

 

[Mark8252]

Shotgun Spring

I replace mine every few years. Probably no need to do this. Peace of mind

 

[AI&P Tactical]

This gets beat to death every time posted, however, yes the springs do set and weaken when compressed for extended time. You said five in the chamber? You mean in the magazine tube and if it is a standard mag tube on your weapon it would hold four and I recommend only loading three. If you have a tube extension on it and it holds six then five is OK but four is even better.

A Remington magazine spring for the 870 cost $4. I would say that is a small price to ensure a defense weapon feeds correctly and would suggest changing once a year.

 

[Captains1911]

This gets beat to death every time posted, however, yes the springs do set and weaken when compressed for extended time. You said five in the chamber? You mean in the magazine tube and if it is a standard mag tube on your weapon it would hold four and I recommend only loading three. If you have a tube extension on it and it holds six then five is OK but four is even better.

A Remington magazine spring for the 870 cost $4. I would say that is a small price to ensure a defense weapon feeds correctly and would suggest changing once a year.

It has been beaten to death, and the consensus is that springs weaken from repeated compression and decompression cycles, not from sitting compressed. Mag springs aside, it's a simple property of steel and how it responds when loaded within it's elastic range.

 

[gamestalker]

Mine sit for years on end with a full magazine, haven't failed or rusted so far.

GS

 

[rcmodel]

It's a good idea to change out the ammo occasionally.

Plastic hulls have been known to swell too big to chamber when compressed in the mag tube for an extended length of time.

I would worry about that more then the mag spring.

rc

 

[bullseyebob47]

i bought a used mossberg 500 that had a mag spring so weak it barely pushed out the last shell but never malfunctioned. midway has them for $3.

 

[Onmilo]

"Mine sit for years on end and haven't rusted so far,,,"
Coming from Arizona, broad statement, no detail to loaded or unloaded, etc.
Congratulations, your guns are likely stored under optimal conditions.

Leave one stashed in a leaky trunk in Florida or shoved in the corner of a tractor platform for a while under bad conditions,,,

 

[AI&P Tactical]

The consenus of who? "Forum Experts"? The information I post comes from over forty years of being around these weapons and over 34 years of working on them. Add going to where they are built and being trained by the people that build them. I take information from what I find and from the source and that source says compact the magazine spring over time and that spring weakens. The OP asked for information and he received it. He can decide which to take.

 

[Captains1911]

And it's my experience that leaving mags loaded for extended periods of times had no noticeable effect on the springs. I don't dismiss my understanding of material properties either.

Of course we could jack our cars up when not in use to prevent wearing out our shocks....

 

[oneounceload]

Of course we could jack our cars up when not in use to prevent wearing out our shocks....

Or leave it sit a while and watch the tires go flat all by themselves......

 

[Virginian]

Properly designed coil springs do NOT weaken over time from being compressed. Most small leaf springs do. The stress levels in the steel are much lower in coil springs. That is why coils springs have replaced leaf springs in most applications. Leaf springs can be designed to eliminate this issue as well, otherwise every pickup truck would be sagging in the back. I learned this 40 years ago in mechanical engineering classes.

 

[WoodchuckAssassin]

As always, thanks for all the replies HighRoad. Lots of good information.

 

[ElPasoWrangler]

No. just shoot the gun enough to know all is working.

 

[AI&P Tactical]

And of course as always thanks for all that shared knowledge, however, I will stick with the guys at the Remington factory and their 45+ years of building those guns and teaching idiots like me the real deal about them, and with what I have found to be true in over 40 years of doing this.

 

[Virginian]

I will stick with the engineers who designed those springs those guys in the factory started installing all those years ago. I have a '63, '66, '78, '70, '76, and 2002 Remingtons at present, and I have yet to replace a spring. I do have a couple of sprares. You never know when you will get a spring made with a lot of bad alloy, or that was improperly heat treated, or run across a rusty one in someone else's gun. I might wear one out. But, if I were to swap a good working spring, that new one just might be the one with a flaw. I could be trading the angel I know for the devil I don't. And, with the state of metals sourcing in the world today, the odds are worse all the time.