Do you keep your mags loaded?

[BigJ3780]

So.. are there any downfalls to always having the mags loaded? I had a friend of mine mention that it wears the springs? Is this true? I have three mags for the AK and the Glock always loaded, ready to go. I think it is kind of silly to keep a mag loaded, kind of like a door with no knob if you ask me.

 

[TomN]

I always keep at least two or three mags loaded at all times. I've been told that it's the loading and unloading of the mags that causes the springs to weaken, not leaving them loaded. Plus mag springs are cheap if you ever have to replace them.

 

[sloughfoot]

For the AK, keeping them loaded to 30 rounds is the best way to store the ammo. I won't speak to the Glock since I have no experience with it.

 

[Drakkule]

I have left them loaded long term with no ill affect.

 

[kludge]

Springs can and do change over time. Cycling them -- especially beyond their design limits -- is what makes the most difference. Storing a spring in a relaxed position will affect it the least.

I store my pistol mags "ready to go" with one less round than they will hold. The last round is hard to get in there, and it was shown in one of the torture tests I read that the magazine springs lasted somewhat longer when doing this. (But this was after like 8k to 10k rounds had been run through them.) YMMV. As already mentioned it's easy to replace them.

 

[K_W]

I found an m14 magazine buried in my grandfathers garden a few years ago. It was loaded with 24 spent, mud filled, blanks. After a quick spray off it functioned like it was never buried. Grandpa said he never had a use for it so he threw it in the scrap pile "years ago". I still have it.

 

[Vince49]

Yes

All of my carry and home defense mags are loaded to capacity all of the time. My range mags are all loaded with five rounds of FMJ as that is the groups I usually shoot. About every three or four months I empty all of the JHP in my carry/defense mags in the,"natural way", at the range. It does no harm whatsoever to leave mags fully loaded. The mag springs wear out from repeated cycling ie; compression and extension cycles not from being compressed. (much like bending a coat hanger wire back and forth until it breaks).

PS: I also rotate my magazines between carry and range mags so that I know that they all function properly whether loaded to capacity or with a partial load. I have all of the mags numbered so that I know the sequence of rotation.

 

[sepe]

When we cleaned out my grandpa's house (mostly taking his guns out as grandma didn't want them around) after he died, we found the Browning Hi Power that he "won in a poker game" during WW2 with 2 loaded magazines. One had been loaded since some time in the 1960s and the other was still loaded from when he brought it home. Mag springs are fine in both. We brought it home in the spring of 1998. I'd have no problem leaving mine loaded.

 

[MrYesterday]

Leave them loaded. As Kludge said, leaving one out helps a bit. Best thing to do, in my opinion, is rotate. I have 30 mags loaded. When I take 2 out to the range and bring them home I'll load them, and put them at the back of the line, and pull out the 2 at the front of the line. That way your mag springs are wearing equally. Just how I do it.

 

[the1kidd03]

ultimately it's the repeated compression/de-compression which wears them out....sort of like bending a paper clip back and forth....it wears out the "integrity" of the metal......keep them loaded or unloaded and you'll be fine...you won't notice enough of a difference in your lifetime to be concerned with it either way, unless you cycle them to empty a LOT

 

[boosteds13cc]

really glad someone asked this question.

 

[dietmountaindrew]

Factory glock magazines seem to have no ill effect, mine are loaded to capacity always and no problems ever. I had some older Bersa magazines circa 1990s fail to feed properly from leaving them loaded, even for as little as one week. Maybe other cheapy brands are the same?

 

[MrYesterday]

I had some older Bersa magazines circa 1990s fail to feed properly from leaving them loaded, even for as little as one week. Maybe other cheapy brands are the same?

Ones with this issue are the ones that can benefit from leaving one round out, in my experience.

 

[JohnP82]

Most of mine are loaded.

 

[chuddly]

loaded...all the time...all of them. They do no good empty

 

[jeremy]

Full Compression, Partial Compression, or Full Release on a spring does not matter. It is the Cycling of the Spring that wears them out...

 

[jaybird_123]

Here is the true test. Ive had a mag loaded for almost 30 years, 5 rounds, and the spring is just as strong as it was then.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Full Compression, Partial Compression, or Full Release on a spring does not matter. It is the Cycling of the Spring that wears them out...

This is pretty much it.

If you want to dig down and get real dirty in difficult engineering talk, then keep reading.

Your mag springs will "wear" from being loaded. We call this "creep". The material, being in a continuously flexed, or stressed state, will "creep" or lose springiness over time. The rate of creep depends on many properties of the material including the modulus of elasticity, hardness, alloy, temper, storage temperatures etc. Modulus, hardness, alloy, temper are all controlled by the manufacturer of the spring, and it's pretty much irrelevant to this discussion because most springs from a reputable manufacturer are made of high quality materials with high quality processes so any creep that will be experienced from storing loaded magazine will be negligible unless stored at an improper temperature. As temperature increases metals get softer, so if you store your magazines at 400 degrees the springs will creep more than say 60 degrees. That still doesn't mean it will negatively impact your mag springs enough to cause problems immediately, or even relatively soon. What it means is that you will have problems sooner. All this is also irrelevant though because if you're storing your loaded magazines at 400 degrees you're a moron.

So now we get into the mechanics of what can cause a spring to become ineffective. There are 2 main mechanism that can cause a spring to no longer function as desired. They are exceeding the modulus of elasticity and material fatigue. Exceeding the modulus of elasticity is very simple so we'll start there. What that means is that you stretch or compress the spring so far that it no longer will return to it's original length. That is also irrelevant unless you're tearing your mags apart and messing around with the springs and do something stupid with it. So that leaves us with fatigue. Springs do wear out, it takes a long time, and very many repeated cycles, but it's the repeated cycles of a spring that are the largest component of decreased power (called spring rate in the engineering world) in a spring. The specific number of cycles it takes depends on far too many factors to start listing and explaining them here, so just take it for what it's worth.

Leaving mags loaded will eventually wear out the spring, however, under normal storage conditions, it will take hundreds or thousands of years for the spring to become ineffective just from storing it compressed.

Loading and unloading mags repeatedly will also wear out the spring, but this loading and unloading is far more likely to wear out the spring in your lifetime.

So the bottom line is this, there is nothing wrong with storing mags loaded, the problem is with intentionally unloading them to avoid wearing out the spring, because it is this action itself that actually wears out the spring the most.

Credentials: mechanical engineer with a focus in metallurgy

 

[LockStocksAndBarrel]

Loaded to the gills. As others have said, cycling the spring causes the wear.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

I keep my mags like I keep my women: loaded.

-J-