Magazine cleaning question

[armedpolak]

SO my Beretta manual says I should clean the mag if there is some dirt in it, but I should by no means leave any oil in it.

I shot 450 rounds through my new handgun and later, at home, when loading and unloading the mag (just for kicks and giggles) I notices some dark residue on the shells. Not much though. I wiped the dirt off of the plastic thing inside the mag that pushes the bultes up.

Is that enough? How do you guys and girls take care of your mags after shooting?

P.S. So why magazine instead of clip ??????????????????

P.S. 2. Can I keep a loaded mag for a "long time" without screwing up the spring??? How long will the compresses spring hold it's properties ???

 

[javacodeman]

Magazine: non-disposable
Clip: disposable; not used a lot since WWII

You should be able to take the bottom of the mag off by pushing the "button" up and sliding the plastic piece off. Take the spring out and

the plastic thing inside the mag that pushes the bultes up

. Note how the spring and "bullet pusher upper" are aligned--you'll want to get that right when you put them back. Also, don't go stretching or compressing your spring.

Now you should be able to give everything a wipe down, or at least pull a cloth though.

Reassemble and make sure you put it together right.

 

[Bruce333]

clip: no spring. used to hold rounds to load a magazine

magazine: has a spring, feeds rounds into the chamber, sometimes internal to the firearm, sometimes removeable.

The thing that wears a spring out is movement, not being compressed. The more you use a spring (ie compress and release it) the quicker it will wear out (generally quite a while for mag springs).

edit: a good example of clip and magazine is the Garand. It uses both in the rifle, the enbloc clip holds the rounds, the whole clip with the rounds is inserted into the magazine. the magazine spring feeds the rounds into the chamber. When the last round is fed, the clip is pushed out of the magazine ("PING!" love that sound!).

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

I think a magazine has always been the term (whether internal or external), a clip was simply a device to get rounds into the magazine quickly. M16's used to have 10rd stripper clips to force 10 rounds at a time into the mag (external magazine). And of course the WWII M1 stuff (internal magazine).
The thing that pushes up on the bullets is called the follower. Dont worry about taking the mag apart and cleaning it unless it's binding. After 450 rounds if you have any magazine problems it's a defective magazine. Also don't worry about leaving magazines loaded, it's not a problem.

 

[3 gun]

Mags won't normally need to be taken apart to often for cleaning. If you use them outdoors a lot that could change depending on if you drop the mags on the ground or not. I will clean mine after each stage in a big match, my indoor practice mags go thousands of rounds between cleaning.

You are right about no oil in a mag. It will attract dirt and can kill primers.

A mag can be left for YEARS loaded. You might want to leave one round out in high caps. Some mags will be highly stressed fully loaded. I keep 15 of 16 max in my CZ mags.

Clips load mags, mags load firearms. Some mags, like a SKS are fixed, some like M14s are detachable. Clips can be used to load both types of mags but the firearm is loaded from the mag during use.

 

[javacodeman]

After 450 rounds if you have any magazine problems it's a defective magazine.

I guess I didn't catch that this was the *first* 450 rounds.