Spring wear on loaded mags

[supraneurotoxin]

Just out of curiosity, will keeping magazines loaded wear out the springs faster? for example, I have a bunch of cheap 30rd eagle mags for my 10/22, and it's a little disheartening to think about unloading what I don't shoot just to load them back up again next time. what about 9mm hi point mags? sig p225 mags? and what about the spring in a shotgun magazine?

 

[pdowg881]

try the search funtion. This has been discussed countless times. In short, no leaving the mags loaded doesn't wear springs, but the actual compressing and uncompressing of springs does.

 

[CDignition]

No..

 

[Nomad101bc]

Really i always only kept only one magazine loaded for fear of wearing out the springs. If you compress a spring long enough then let off the pressure it will only be a slightly larger size so i assume the same would hold true with mags.

 

[Hoppy590]

best described as
spring wear is negligable at best. a myth at worst.

any reasonable amount of time ( read as decades) and any reasonable storage conditions ( read as anything but intense, moist, heat) a loaded mag will have no ill effect on the spring.

i only specify conditions to rule out any rust or other variables i dont know about ( im not metalergist, if thats even a word)

 

[American_Pit_Bull]

If you compress a spring long enough then let off the pressure it will only be a slightly larger size so i assume the same would hold true with mags.

No properly designed spring wears/fatigues under a static load that is within it's elastic limit. It's all about the physics. The compression and decompression is what wears springs.

 

[Andrewsky]

Talking about your mag springs behind their backs can really stress them out if they find out about it.

 

[rocinante]

Springs in all kind of devices are normally compressed in a static state. Car suspension springs for example.

 

[Mandirigma]

Spring wear comes from the loading and unloading of the magazine. I've heard tell of mags being loaded for 20+ years and performing flawlessly.

I keep 10+ mags for my 1911's, 6+ mags for my glock, 10+mags for my AR, and both my mossbergs loaded all the time.

 

[fletcher]

Just out of curiosity, will keeping magazines loaded wear out the springs faster?

If the spring was properly made, no. A spring will only lose strength when loaded for three main reasons:

1) Manufactured poorly with a low yield strength. This would be evident after the first or second time it was loaded, and it wouldn't work the same again.

2) Staying loaded for thousands of years. Don't even worry about this.

3) Staying loaded at extremely high temperatures. Your ammunition would cook off and magazine would likely be glowing before this happened. Even then, it would still take a period of time.

Spring wear comes from the loading and unloading of the magazine.

Any spring wear you deal with in your lifetime will be of this sort - fatigue, although you're still pretty unlikely to see it.

No properly designed spring wears/fatigues under a static load that is within it's elastic limit.

Correct. Nothing can fatigue under static load; a cyclic load must be present.

 

[redneck2]

im not metalergist, if thats even a word)

No, but metallurgist is

 

[Hoppy590]

No, but metallurgist is

ya, it was like 2 am. my spelling sucks when im in my prime. just imagine how bad it is tired at 2 am

 

[Nomad101bc]

That would explain why the 10+ year old magazine i bought for my berretta for only 15 dollars still works great.

 

[fixyurgun]

I've got 4 of those "cheap" eagle mags that ive been using since 1993. Have left them loaded for over a year at a stretch(truckgun) with no problems at all. Jim