Am I wearing out my magazine spring?

[MSgt B]

My daily carry weapon is a Sig Pro 2009.
While carrying I keep one in the chamber and nine in the magazine.
When I "clear" the weapon, I return the tenth round to the magazine and leave it stored like that until it goes back on my belt.
I've always had a nagging suspicion that I should not leave the magazine fully loaded like that. When I clean, (about once a week) I leave the magazine unloaded until the next time I carry. Basically, that's the next morning. I do this to give the spring a "rest", but I thought that was just me having a "Monk" moment.
So I mentioned this habit to my ever-so-knowledgable shooting buddy.
I thought he was going to stroke out on me. I was checking my cell phone to make sure I had a good signal to call the paramedics while he went into his tirade about the terible damage I was doing. I argued with him, pointing out that I've been doing this for over a year. I hit the range about once a month, and I have had exactly zero problems. (Further proof that Sig pistols are the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I digress)
He asked if he could have my oak roll-top desk after I'm gone, because he's sure that my pistol is going to jam at the moment of truth, due to my terrible negligence. I should be unloading the magazine every night. He's going to turn me in to the Society for the Preventon of Cruelty to Firearms, etc. etc.
Please, somebody give me some "ammo" here. The spring feels fine to me.

 

[Sunray]

Your buddy has been reading too much Internet nonsense. Springs do not wear out by being kept compressed. They can get work hardened at the bends, over a very long time, by being used at great deal, but not by leaving a mag loaded. The only other way to damage a spring is to heat it enough to take out the temper.

 

[American_Pit_Bull]

A spring will fatigue faster if you follow your friends advice. The more compression cycles a spring is subject to, the closer it is to failure. Plain and simple.

Ask your buddy if he treats his mag springs to a nice cup of coffee after it has a good nights rest. That would be about as plausible as his advice to you.

Print this out and see what he has to say...

 

[Soybomb]

To me the logical answer is that the less the spring is cycled, the longer it should live.

Wolff Spring seems to suggest that may not neccessarily be the case however http://www.gunsprings.com/Resources/FAQ.htm#5 and I feel like they should have a reasonably valid opinion on springs as well.

 

[Lucky]

Great link, I'd been wondering too.

 

[Alex45ACP]

Wait a minute, are you saying you re-chamber the same round every day? That might not be a good idea.

 

[American_Pit_Bull]

Wolff Spring seems to suggest that may not neccessarily be the case however http://www.gunsprings.com/Resources/FAQ.htm#5 and I feel like they should have a reasonably valid opinion on springs as well.

That is what I would probably say too, if I were trying to convince people to purchase springs from me as often as possible.

 

[Taurus 66]

I should be unloading the magazine every night.

Are you going to reload in the dark if needed? You'd better have a loaded revolver handy if this is the case.

A spring can be compressed indefinitely and still contain the potential energy needed to feed rounds. Look at the springs on your car. These have thousands of pounds constantly compressing them, yet, the springs never seem to lose their "Boing Boing!" whenever you hit a bump or dip. Ten years, twenty years later .. still like new.

Lateral to the discussion, you should be able to cycle a magazine over 10,000 times on average before you encounter any problems.

 

[MSgt B]

I never thought about the same round being rechambered. The rounds get rotated about once a week, and expended for fresh rounds about once a month. Should I be that worried?

 

[Taurus 66]

I never thought about the same round being rechambered. The rounds get rotated about once a week, and expended for fresh rounds about once a month. Should I be that worried?

About rechambering the same round?

May I politely ask if your firearm, ammunitions, and accessories (in general) are made of metals like the rest of ours here? Seriously, what's the deal?!

 

[nipprdog]

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BTT/is_163_27/ai_99130369

 

[TarpleyG]

Here's an idea...just put 10 rounds in your mag, insert mag, rack slide and chamber a cartridge, eject mag, top off, reinsert, and leave it the hell alone. Why do you unload it at night? EVERY time you load/unload that handgun, you run the risk of a negligent discharge AND you risk bullet setback and you are wearing out your springs even faster (if that should even be a concern--springs are cheap). Why improve the odds? If you are worried about leaving a loaded gun lying around, get something to lock it up in. Just my opinion of course and you know what they say about those.

Greg

 

[Firehand]

Assuming the spring is properly made of good material, it'll take being compressed for a loooong time to make it take a 'set' and lose power.

That being said, I do rotate magazines out about once/month, just to be on the safe side.

 

[JohnKSa]

In the IDEAL case, simply leaving a spring compressed will not weaken it. In the real world, under some circumstances, leaving springs compressed CAN weaken them, and it's easy to repeatably demonstrate that this is true.

The design of the magazine plays a VERY important part in whether or not leaving the mag fully loaded will weaken the springs or not. The quality of the spring is also an issue, although even a very good quality spring can be weakened under the proper circumstances.

This topic is not uncommon, if you do a search, you should find a good bit of information. Here are a couple. There are more, but "search" is choking at the moment.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=174964&highlight=coilbound

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=173129&highlight=coilbound

 

[armedandsafe]

In clockworks, long term storage recommendations are to either fully wind the mainspring and stop the clock, or fully release it, to offset spring set. A mainspring which is kept wound for years (over 100 years has been documented, IIRC) will not take a set and will be just as effective when put back into service. Mainsprings which are wound daily and allowed to run, will take a set after about 10 (cheap works) to 50 years. So, if you are going to continue to cycle your springs daily, replace them every 9 years.

Pops

 

[f4t9r]

not a problem

 

[Stevie-Ray]

A spring will fatigue faster if you follow your friends advice. The more compression cycles a spring is subject to, the closer it is to failure. Plain and simple.

Ask your buddy if he treats his mag springs to a nice cup of coffee after it has a good nights rest. That would be about as plausible as his advice to you.

+1

Leave it fully loaded til you go to the range. Then, if it's your primary carry, let it be your first weapon fired.

 

[gazpacho]

As a running test, I've kept some MecGar 1911 7rd magazines fully loaded continuously for over 4 years now (except for the time it takes to get back home from the range). They function flawlessly. I have no reason to suspect that your SIG mags are any less well built.

Keep you mags fully loaded, and if you must clear chamber, then keep a spare empty mag around for rechambering.

 

[dm1333]

I have replaced the recoil and firing pin springs in my Astra A75 but the magazine springs still work fine after 11 years of being loaded for months at a time. My analogy would be that if you keep bending a piece of metal it will break a lot quicker than if you bend it once and leave it be.

 

[Firethorn]

Hmm...

Are there any problems with loading a semi-auto manually? I've been placing my first round in the chamber, then closing the slide before inserting the magazine.

I understand that this is a no-no with 1911's, but what about CZ75's?

Oh, and as long as you have a high-quality magazine, you should have no worries once you've verified functionality for years of even serious use.

Oh, and I agree with Trac, Wolff springs probably want to sell as many springs as possible. Kinda like the Oil change businesses wanting you to change oil every 3000 miles.

 

[carebear]

Firethorn,

I can't speak with authority on the CZ but, in general, no extractor in a handgun that I'm aware of is designed to pop out and over the rim of a cartridge.

Lock the slide to the rear, seat a magazine and drop the slide to load it, then put it on safe, drop the mag and top off if need be. That's how the weapon is designed, for the cartridge rim to slide up and under the extractor, not the other way. I doubt you'll find the "load one by hand" in your user's manual.

 

[JohnKSa]

As a running test, I've kept some MecGar 1911 7rd magazines fully loaded continuously for over 4 years now (except for the time it takes to get back home from the range). They function flawlessly. I have no reason to suspect that your SIG mags are any less well built.

Single column magazines (especially good quality 7 rnd 1911 mags) seldom, if ever, show issues with being loaded fully for long periods. Double column magazines often do--and the difference is not necessarily one of quality. It has more to do with the design of the magazine and spring.

carebear,

Ruger P series and the Beretta 92/96 series, per the factory manuals, are designed so that they can be direct chamber loaded without damaging the extractor. I don't know about the CZ pistols, but if the manual doesn't say, I'd avoid single-loading directly into the chamber.

 

[carebear]

Thanks John, good info.

 

[Soybomb]

I agree that wolff has a clear bias here, but at the same time their advice isn't just "buy more springs", they let certain magazine types off as not having a problem, suggest underloading and rotation as possible ways to prolong spring longevity. If they are just trying to sell springs they aren't being 100% evil about it

 

[benEzra]

I'd be a lot more worried about bullet setback from repeatedly chambering the same round. I try not to rechamber the same round more than twice, since if the bullet gets set back a couple millimeters, you can double the chamber pressure when that round is fired...not a good thing. I personally keep my 9mm loaded at night, and lock it in a quick-access pistol lockbox if it's not going to be on my person or within my reach. That works for my home situation (married, kids 7 and 5, no teenagers in the house), it may not work for yours.

Keeping a quality magazine spring compressed will not wear it out. Repeatedly loading and unloading a magazine will wear it out faster, but with quality magazines it shouldn't be an issue either way.

Cheap crap magazines will quit working regardless of what you do with them, but quality magazines should keep working whether loaded or not.