Do you Download your magazines?

[usmarine0352_2005]

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Many people say that you should download your rifle or pistol magazines by 1 or 2 rounds for two reasons, one, so that it does have a malfunction when inserted into the weapon and two, so that you don't over-compress your mags which will help extend the life of the magazine.



Do you believe/follow this?




Also, how many rounds do you Download by if you do this?




I have a SW Bodyguard .380 that I use for CCW that only has a 6 round magazine, if I download it by 2 rounds it will only have 5 rounds.

.

 

[Creature]

I dont download by two...or one for that matter. If the magazine cant hold it's intended capacity and reliably feed the gun, I get rid of it and use a magazine that can.

 

[kingpin008]

Ditto. If a part is meant to function a certain way but won't unless I do something to "help it along" it needs to be sent back and repaired.

 

[TexasRifleman]

Do you believe/follow this?

No and no.

If I owned a firearm that I couldn't keep fully loaded, or reload with a full magazine, I wouldn't even consider using it for defensive purposes. It would just be a range toy at that point.

And this nonsense about magazine springs lasting longer if you download doesn't seem to have any basis in fact either. Springs made from the proper metals get weak from usage cycles, not constant compression.

 

[MrCleanOK]

I will download pistol mags by 1 if needed, and USGI AR mags by two to make seating easier. "making the springs last longer" and any other such excuse is BS. I only do it to make seating magazines on a closed slide or bolt easier, if needed for that combo of magazine/firearm.

 

[HOOfan_1]

No I like a physical magazine...I am not into E-Readers....


oh wait, you meant firearms ammo magazines....no I don't..in fact I often fully load it, chamber a round, drop the mag and reload the lost round

 

[Mike1234567]

I haven't owned "dozens" of pistols for which I've kept mags loaded but I don't download those I have or had and I've never had any problems... none... ever. With that stated, I will say that I NEVER load a full 14 rounds in my 14 round M&P45 extended mags because S&W messed up with those. They're obviously 13 round mags because that 14th round, if I'm able to cram it in there at all, is extremely tight. I do keep the "full 13 rounds" in those at all times.

 

[BADUNAME37]

No, I put in what the capacity is.
30 round magazine gets 30 rounds.

Been doing it that way since 1980 when I used to have some 40-round Ruger Mini-14 mag's (while they were still available and not yet illegal), never a problem with the 40's loaded to capacity either.

 

[Sam1911]

No and No.

 

[ChCx2744]

Only mags I download are Glock 9mm 33 rounders. I download them by 3, but that's just to keep them at an even 30. I'm sometimes OCD like that lol

 

[ColtPythonElite]

No...Been carrying fully loaded mags in my duty gun for 20 years now without a problem. My duty mags only get unloaded twice a year...At qualifications.

 

[MyGreenGuns]

No and No

I heard this the day I bought my autoloader. I had 2 mags and kept one full and one with -2rds in it. Its been quite a few years and both still work fine.

Now that I think about it, you might put MORE wear on the mag by 'downloading' them, since you'll cycle it more loading less at once.

chamber a round, drop the mag and reload the lost round

^This is what I do now

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

My understanding is that if you shoot ALOT, like over a thousand rounds a week through a Glock 17, you'll wear out the magazines alot faster if you don't download by 2. Read that on a torture test with a Glock 17, the guy said that his magazines wore out after a few thousand rounds until he started to download them. For carry though I have all my magazines fully loaded.

 

[Mike1234567]

My understanding is that if you shoot ALOT, like over a thousand rounds a week through a Glock 17, you'll wear out the magazines alot faster if you don't download by 2. Read that on a torture test with a Glock 17, the guy said that his magazines wore out after a few thousand rounds until he started to download them. For carry though I have all my magazines fully loaded.

Not the "mags"... just the mag "springs"... which are cheap and easy to replace.

 

[hso]

Used to, but didn't always do it so I found that it made no difference in performance for anything but cheap trash mags.

I also realized that magazine manufacturers design and make their magazines to handle the capacity they state and that matched my personal experience so I just gave up on buying cheap mags and quit caring about the myth.

 

[Kliegl]

I think a mag can hold it all. However, I put a full mag into a gun, chamber one, safety on, so it gets automatically downgraded.

Also, it depends on the mag. 6 round pocket pistol mag? Full load. 12 round service pistol mag? Full load. 20 round M1A mag or 30 round AR mag, maybe not full.

 

[Snowbandit]

No........... if a standard capacity magazine doesn't hold its standard capacity it's defective and needs to be replaced. Modern springs are designed to work within their designed parameters and only wear when actually working, ie: moving. A static spring, whether compressed or stretched suffers no wear within its designed limitations.

 

[Kliegl]

Oooooh boy, he's speaking in absolutes. I would hesitate to say a spring suffers no wear under compression. Sure, according to Hooke's law, classical physics, and other reasons, it doesn't, but there's truth to be found in material science on the molecular level.

Unless one possesses a PhD in metal material science and makes his living observing crystalline deformation under a microscope, one really can't say that a spring experiences NO deformation under constant loading. I don't have the aforementioned doctorate, but I know enough to know that I don't know enough to be able to make that sort of assertion.

However, cycling of the spring is much worse than constant loading.

 

[Robert]

It holds X so I load X. When it fails to do the job it was created for then it goes back, gets replaced, or rebuilt.

 

[JoeMal]

When I'm at the range I will shoot my G17 with only 10 in the mag, but that's simply for easy counting and grouping. Otherwise it's packed full

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

Not the "mags"... just the mag "springs"... which are cheap and easy to replace.

If one part of the magazine doesn't do its job the magazine doesn't work, I refer to it as a complete system.

 

[Mike1234567]

If one part of the magazine doesn't do its job the magazine doesn't work, I refer to it as a complete system.

What is your point, sir?

Replace the mag springs every 3-4 years and stop worrying about it unless you shoot 1000 rounds per year, in which case, you replace the springs every 2 years.

You seem to indicate that you shoot VERY little in which case you may not hit the threat anyway.

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

What the hell are you even talking about? I can consistantly hit a steel gong standing up at 200 yards with my XD40, I've come in first place in a few competitions my club has held. Where did I indicate that I hardly shoot? I could most certainly hit the threat.

I don't even worry about my magazines if they function.

 

[45_auto]

I shoot with FIVETWOSEVEN all the time, and he can "consistently" hit a steel gong at 200 yards with his XD.

What he's not telling you is that the "gong" is the side of an old freighter about 1000 yards long and 50 yards high sitting in the canal behind the berm!

 

[Mike1234567]

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