Leaving P-mags Loaded
- Thread starter DMW1116
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mcb
Member
Put the caps on them and worry not.
.455_Hunter
Member
Not really the main topic of concern here.
.455_Hunter
Member
I would only store loaded P-Mags with the snap covers in place.
.455_Hunter
Member
Education is good.
CapnMac
Member
Well you ought to worry about them, in about 25 or 30 years.
mcb
Member
Do you have any data to back this up? I have beat the hell out of a fair number of 20rd 308 PMags and never found the need to down load them.
Magazines are a consumables, use them and repair or replace as needed. I am not going to down load a magazine to try to eek a few extra uses out of them. Load'em up. Put the caps on them if you are storing. The feed lips are the weakest part of a PMag and the cap protects those.
.455_Hunter
Member
Your words, not mine. The concern with P-Mags is not the normal "can I store my mags loaded?" question. The concern is long term polymeric creep of the stressed feed lips. Some people report problems, others don't. Magpul themselves state that the snap-on cover, which removes the spring force from the lips, is to prevent damage from dropping a loaded mag on a hard surface and hitting the lips, not creep. Since a cover is included with every mag, I view that it sure doesn't cause any negative problems, so why not use them? If you have a couple "ready use" loaded mags, those covers could be left off, especially if the mags are cycled regularly.
[MCB types faster...]
I wanted to load enough 308 to fill 2 magazines. I just wondered if I could load my test ammo and store it in the magazines and then if that works load the "production" ammo into the magazine for storage, or would I have to store it and load it at the time of use. Even before the ammo shortage it was rare for me to empty a full magazine in a single range trip. All my AR15 magazines metal, so P-mags are a new animal to me.
Charlie98
Member
Not anymore...
FWIW, I have a first Gen 20rd 5.56mm P-mag, it's at least 10 years old, probably more like 15, and it's been loaded and setting for about that long. It's loaded with tracer mix, so I don't shoot with it that often... but once in a blue moon I'll unload it, and take it to the range... never a problem. I do store it with the cap on, however, so I can't really comment on the feed lips.
.455_Hunter
Member
When did that change? I loaded up on P- mags before the CO 2013 limitations and haven't bought any recently. They all came with cover clips back then.
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Charlie98
Member
I don't think any of the Gen3's have covers. It's been a while since I bought any, but I know for sure they don't necessarily come with covers.
My technique is to keep them underloaded/downloaded by just a round or two.
Every cover I have is faithfully utilized. It is true mags do not always come with covers.
I use a handheld loader to minimize stress on mag lips and I do not carelessly drop them.
Another thing I do is ensure they are wiped with a lubricant rag as a protective barrier.
Those are the basic "care and maintenance" techniques that I have found are beneficial.
Magazines seem to stay functional and reliable thus far. Good luck to everybody.
Every cover I have is faithfully utilized. It is true mags do not always come with covers.
I use a handheld loader to minimize stress on mag lips and I do not carelessly drop them.
Another thing I do is ensure they are wiped with a lubricant rag as a protective barrier.
Those are the basic "care and maintenance" techniques that I have found are beneficial.
Magazines seem to stay functional and reliable thus far. Good luck to everybody.
Springs wear out from being compressed or stretched beyond their design limits. Springs also wear out from a great many uses, as in load the mag, shoot the rounds, load the mag, shoot the rounds.....some springs are rated for over a million compressions.
Aside from that, leaving them compressed within their design limits won't hurt.
Aside from that, leaving them compressed within their design limits won't hurt.
Assuming the manufacturer knows precisely what the design limits are and trust that the manufacturer stays well within those limits. Some manufacturers do not. Some manufacturers buy cheap springs from Taiwan. Maybe leaving them stuffed for long periods is OK and maybe it's not. Do ya feel lucky? Downloading by one or two rounds doesn't hurt either.
Bacon buster
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- 308
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. I have several pmags that have not been empty for more than five minutes at a time in over 8 years. Still work flawless and I didn’t get caps with any of them. If your shooting and you have a failure just put a piece of tape or mark that mag. They do wear out eventually but i believe the concern is over rated. I guess if you wanted to you could have dedicated service mags that are only used for actual duty and keep them empty until it’s time to work. I keep em hot and out of twenty five mags I’ve only ever had failures with one and it was a metal mag which now wears a tattoo of a big x on it
mcb
Member
If we were discussion a no-name magazine maker then maybe you would be right but we are talking about Magpul. I am no Magpul fanboy I actually don't use their magazine much but the are a US maker using US materials. Magpul has their own engineer staff that designs the parts and makes and runs the injection molding tools inhouse, it is their specialty. I can almost guaranteed the springs are US made to. They sell a fair amount of magazines an other products to various US Government contracts and many of those require US sources for all parts and materials. Not to mention having gun parts made overseas is a pain in the arse due to all the ITAR hoops you have to jump through.
Designing a spring correctly is not a difficult task and there are plenty of COTS software packages that make spring design a fairly straightforward process without cracking opening a engineering book. As a design engineer I have designed and had fabricated a fair number of springs and its it not rocket science.
Charlie98
Member
that sounds about right. Are there any differences otherwise?
Buzznrose
Member
I agree with the concept of downloading mags. I agree with and follow the logic in this article:
https://www.vickerstactical.com/magazines.html
mcb
Member
Do what you got to do I only download in very few cases.
That articles only reference downloading magazines if they are hard to seat, not to make them last longer. Never had issues seating fully loaded 20rd 308 PMags.
I will down load 30 rd AR-15 magazine for 3-gun matches to ensure I get a fast reliable seating of a reload during the stage but the magazine I start the stage with will be a full 30 since I will be inserting it on open bolt.
Downloading a magazine is not going to significantly add to the life of the magazine spring or any other part of the magazine.
I have rebuilt and replaced a fair number of magazines over the years, especially for my competition guns. As the article points out in it's final point, "They require periodic replacement."
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