Has anyone ever wore their magazine springs out?

[Animal Mother]

I've seen a lot of concern about magazine springs wearing out lately and was just curious if anyone has ever had a magazine fail due to the mag spring just losing it's spring-like qualities due to age or use. If you have experienced a failure of that sort, please post the details of the failure.

I myself have a magazine for a S&W 422 that has seen thousands of rounds and has been kept otherwise loaded for the past 15 years and it is still going strong. I also have an internal magazine for a 1927 Mosin Nagant which is still fine. I tend to think the concern about mag springs is a bit overblown, but I've been wrong before.

 

[bologna1]

The internal magazine spring for my 1903a3 eventually failed. The follower kept hanging up on the 4th round when cycling the bolt, and it would sometimes nose the round into the top of the magazine right below the feed ramps. A new magazine spring fixed the problem 100%.

 

[BCCL]

Nope, I have never had a magazine spring wear out from age and use.

I used to own a .30 Carbine, and had several 1943 military surplus mags for it, and even those all ran like champs.

 

[Rockwell1]

I bought an RIA 1911 in 2007 it came with a GI issue magazine that was at least 20 years old it wore out pretty quick. But I have no I dea what kind of use it was put to before I got it

 

[gym]

no, never

 

[Auburn1992]

Haven't yet.

Well, I think my Savage .22 bolt's mag is in the process. It seems to be hanging up on some shots.

Good thing new ones are only $10 from W Mart.

 

[CWL]

Yup, on my ParaOrdnance P-13. Something about those big doublestack .45 ACP mags and the skinny springs Para uses. I have found them to work reliably for about 1200-1500 rounds before I get consistent stovepiping.

Owned this pistol for 13-14 years and have gone through 3 sets of springs in the 4 mags I own. I now use Wolffe +15 springs.

Have some old AR15 20-rounder mags that I've swapped springs & followers just to be safe.

 

[Jim K]

The best magazine springs I have ever seen were in WWII GI M1911A1 magazines. Many have been found that were left loaded in wartime and still work fine. I have some that have been loaded for up to 10 years with no problems.

A good magazine spring will last decades, even if left compressed.

Jim

 

[Vonderek]

cheapo squires bingham .22 mag springs gave up the ghost after not much actual use. everything else has worked fine over the years.

 

[Will Fennell]

Shoot more...

Shoot more, and you will wear out mag springs......

I've had to replace enough mag springs to melt them down and make a small car

Mainly 1911 springs, in all calibers. Also Para Ordance Hi cap springs....lotsa them.

Glock Hi Cap springs.....oh yeah, plenty of them also.

Beretta semi auto shotgun and Rem 870 mag tube springs....yup they go also when you shoot them enough.

Springs are cheap, replace them as needed.

 

[searcher451]

Sure. More than one, in fact. Of course, it was for a Walther P1, and I was buying used mags to begin with ... but they worked fine when I first got them. It's just, over time and a lot of range work and a lot of Winchester WB through the pipe, some adjustments had to made to keep them operating efficiently.

If you don't wear out the springs on a magazine from time to time, you aren't out there often enough. What's the point?

 

[browningguy]

Yes, I had to replace the springs in two of my magazines last year. They were 1943 manufactured mags for a BHP.

 

[moooose102]

yep, 2 of them. taurus 24/7. they wouldn' consitently feed correctly. to check, i bought a new magazine, which fed fine. the springs were way weaker in the old mags.

 

[buttrap]

A spring for a High Standard HD Mil that had wore its self flat on the mag sides and a mauser 96 mag spring that did the same too.

 

[VegasOPM]

Bunches of worn out mag springs in Glock's, 1911's, 2011's AR's. Shoot 20,000 rounds per year- you will see.

 

[gidaeon]

yeah, I once bought a well used Ruger mkII that had fatigued mag springs from so many rounds. Springs are cheaper than replacing whole mags but I traded the gun in for a new one not knowing better at the time.

 

[Tyrannosaurus]

At the range I work at, several folks are coming out of the woodwork recently to learn how to shoot the guns that have been handed down to them.

Unfortunately, a good percentage of them have really bad guns.

On the topic of magazine springs, anything by Raven, Jiminez Arms, and hell, anything that is chambered in .380 besides Sig Sauer, is worthless. Even worse, these springs are probably difficult to find even online.

Folks like to think that the guns handed down to them will be effective. It's my job to tell them, "Sorry, that's not safe to shoot." or, "This probably won't fire when you need it to".

 

[Ky Larry]

I have never had a spring fail but I have replaced all my mag springs with Wolf springs. Cheap insurance.

 

[Gunther]

I have 30 round Colt magazines I bought in late 70s early 80s (when you could buy them 3/$15) they all work great. I have a Mauser 32ACP my grandfather brought back from WWI and the magazine in it works great. I think if properly cared for and rotated if fully loaded magazines will last a long long time. Probably rust and belly button lint are the two biggest enemies to watch out for.

 

[jerkface11]

anything that is chambered in .380 besides Sig Sauer, is worthless

Now that's a sweeping statement.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

I have several 30rd,.30 cal M1 magazines that are useless because of weak springs. They were kept fully loaded for years and only saw limited use.

 

[Coltman 77]

Never wore one out.