Leaving Mags Loaded VS Unloaded

Chevusa

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What's everyones opinions and experiences with leaving your pistol mags loaded? I usually rotate between 2 or 3 carry guns and I usually try to carry a spare mag. So at any given time I might have up to 6 mags sitting around loaded. I have heard a few thoughts on this. So I ask you, will leaving my mags loaded cause the springs to wear faster or is the spring only worn when being used (loaded and unloaded)? It seams like staying in a compressed state would cause wear to me. Everyone likes pics so here's today's carry with the spare mag. Thanks!
E0D3EEED-C7B3-4638-87D6-CA921A6FD6E6_1_201_a.jpeg
 
vanderblack

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Even if you had to replace the springs or mags every 5 to 10 years, not a big deal. I have a mini14 for which the mags have been loaded for over 25 years. They still function perfectly.
 
Chevusa

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Lol thank you everyone. I will keep them loaded. So much more convenient that way. It makes me wonder why I see people number their mags and swap them out then. Do they number them in case they have a malfunction they will know which one it was? Seems like a decent idea.
 
Bananabandit

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Chevusa said:
Lol thank you everyone. I will keep them loaded. So much more convenient that way. It makes me wonder why I see people number their mags and swap them out then. Do they number them in case they have a malfunction they will know which one it was? Seems like a decent idea.
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They are just OCD and weird.
 
spat

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Chevusa said:
Lol thank you everyone. I will keep them loaded. So much more convenient that way. It makes me wonder why I see people number their mags and swap them out then. Do they number them in case they have a malfunction they will know which one it was? Seems like a decent idea.
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I do try to rotate out the *ammo* in carry mags periodically.

Constantly being in motion on your person can physically break down the powder grains and at least in theory cause higher burn rates and pressure spikes.

But as soon as that mag gets emptied at the range it gets filled right back up with fresh stuff and stays that way.
 
Exonautic

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I keep most of my mags loaded. I have one Glock mag with a tti extension, it gave me a lot of issues in my first match with it. Turns out keeping it loaded for a bit is the best way to break it in. Some springs need a bit of breaking in. But tests have proven that they don't degrade significantly overtime.
 
Uzi

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It's important to keep them in a relativity dry area too when storing them. The tiniest amount of rust or corrosion can easily bind up the follower when it's compressed down for a long period of time.

A magazine can look fine externally, but internally covered in surface rust or other grunge and crap either on the spring or mag wall. I've seen this more than several times. Springs will fatigue when they're compressed followed by being depressed, but other factors are more likely to mess up the feeding reliability. I like to lubricate my magazines but I also keep them very clean.
 
Exonautic

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Uzi said:
It's important to keep them in a relativity dry area too when storing them. The tiniest amount of rust or corrosion can easily bind up the follower when it's compressed down for a long period of time.

A magazine can look fine externally, but internally covered in surface rust or other grunge and crap either on the spring or mag wall. I've seen this more than several times. Springs will fatigue when they're compressed followed by being depressed, but other factors are more likely to mess up the feeding reliability. I like to lubricate my magazines but I also keep them very clean.
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Second the rust free environment, I keep my mags in metal ammo cans and pelican like cases
 
Podmonkey

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Light duty coil springs like found in most magazines will eventually lose tension but this takes quite some time, typically years. Springs such as the kind found in the valvetrain of motor vehicle are much, much stiffer and stronger than the springs in a magazine so the wear interval is of course much longer but they too will eventually lose tension eventually, just usually not before the rest of the engine wears out.
A way to help extend the life of your magazine springs is to keep them downloaded by 1 round. Simply load the magazine to capacity and chamber the first round and the spring should be good like that for years another way to extend magazine life is to segregate magzines for duty/HD/SD use amd those that you will use for the range/training/competition. It also helps to have as many spares as you can reasonably afford to keep the cycle rate for each individual magazine low.
But they can eventually wear out. I need to replace the magazine spring in my 590A1 because I hadn't followed my own advice and I kept the magazine at max capacity for years and now the tension is very weak, had I kept it down by obe it would still probably have an acceptable amount of tension yet.
Also its easy to acquire and replace magazine springs, particularly for the Glock, so I wouldn't consider it a major consideration in the first place.
 
spat

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Podmonkey said:
Light duty coil springs like found in most magazines will eventually lose tension but this takes quite some time, typically years. Springs such as the kind found in the valvetrain of motor vehicle are much, much stiffer and stronger than the springs in a magazine so the wear interval is of course much longer but they too will eventually lose tension eventually, just usually not before the rest of the engine wears out.
A way to help extend the life of your magazine springs is to keep them downloaded by 1 round. Simply load the magazine to capacity and chamber the first round and the spring should be good like that for years another way to extend magazine life is to segregate magzines for duty/HD/SD use amd those that you will use for the range/training/competition. It also helps to have as many spares as you can reasonably afford to keep the cycle rate for each individual magazine low.
But they can eventually wear out. I need to replace the magazine spring in my 590A1 because I hadn't followed my own advice and I kept the magazine at max capacity for years and now the tension is very weak, had I kept it down by obe it would still probably have an acceptable amount of tension yet.
Also its easy to acquire and replace magazine springs, particularly for the Glock, so I wouldn't consider it a major consideration in the first place.
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The springs can be designed for essentially any lifespan the engineer chooses.

If you go for the absolute cheapest possible spring, then yes they might have a lifespan issue in a magazine. If they are a quality magazine though they should be designed for decades of use.
 
Darth

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spat said:
Constantly being in motion on your person can physically break down the powder grains and at least in theory cause higher burn rates and pressure spikes.
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Shenanigans.

They've done tests on ammo in a tumbler for extended periods and looked at the before and after under a microscope. No changes.
 
Exonautic

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Darth said:
Shenanigans.

They've done tests on ammo in a tumbler for extended periods and looked at the before and after under a microscope. No changes.
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I thought that sounded like hogwash but I didn't know enough about the subject to dispute otherwise
 
spat

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Darth said:
Shenanigans.

They've done tests on ammo in a tumbler for extended periods and looked at the before and after under a microscope. No changes.
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You have a link ?

I can see that being true of a ball powder in a compressed load, but no way does a stick or flake powder in a case with significant empty space not break down.

Powder just doesn't have the mechanical strength not to.

The only question is how fast.
 
Darth

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spat said:
You have a link ?

I can see that being true of a ball powder in a compressed load, but no way does a stick or flake powder in a case with significant empty space not break down.

Powder just doesn't have the mechanical strength not to.

The only question is how fast.
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I can't find the microscope one at the moment, but this was a big concern with people that tumble reloaded rounds, search for that for videos on the subject. I'll see if I can find the microscope one.

EDIT: Shit, here it is, but the photos seem to be removed:

Live ammo, in tumbler for over 200 hours with microscopic images.**OP UPDATE**fired rounds - AR15.COM

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