How long can I leave Magazine/clips loaded?

Nismo

Nismo

Joined
Jun 27, 2002
Messages
323
I have a couple clips but not shure if I should leave them fully loaded or empty since I heard that leaving them loaded will cause the spring to lose tension. Sounds logical but anyone have any info on that? Right now I only have a few rounds loaded in there(rather than the whole capacity) for emergency purposes.
 
Magazine springs (and all springs, in fact) will 'take a set' after a while. THis means that they become slightly shorter and less strong than they were when new. I believe it is usually more of a 'one shot deal' (no pun intended) rather than a gradual process that gets worse and worse over the course of time. Most springs are manufactured with this in mind, and it is less of a concern than one might think. I have left magazines loaded for years and have never had a problem.

It is still worthwhile to have a few extra magazines and to rotate which ones remain loaded and which ones remain empty, or to buy new springs every few years (check out Wolff Gunsprings at gunsprings.com they are THE spring manufacturer), they're not very expensive.

-John
 
Without going into a bunch of detail that I can not remember anyway, everything I have read in gun magazines and from personal experience it is just not a problem.
 
While I don't believe they will ever lose that much of their spring, I still play it safe and only keep mine loaded to about 3/4 capacity.
 
I've heard that if you keep it one short of max capacity that it helps. No real authority for that claim, merely hearsay wisdom. I do tend to rotate them around though as well.

Phil
 
Jeff Cooper found some 1911 magazines that had been loaded and forgotten for decades and they worked perfectly. That incident is pretty well known (he's a writer, after all) yet people still worry....

IMHO magazine springs are too strong when new, which makes more friction on the slide on the first round. How many times have you had a stovepipe on the first round with a new gun that isn't broken in yet? It's less likely to happen if the gun has been broken in even if the magazine spring hasn't, but even so I think the best thing you can do with a new magazine is load it up and keep it loaded. Sometimes you'll find the only way you can get it to function reliably on the first round for a while is to download it one or even two or three rounds.

I store all my magazines fully loaded and I have never had a failure to feed on the last round. If I ever do have a spring-related failure I would much rather be deprived of the last shot in the gun than the second.

A spring, whether it's in a gun magazine or a motorcycle suspension, will sag noticeably in the first few weeks of use, then it will hold constant until it nears the end of its lifespan, then it will sag noticeably for a while before it breaks. A suspension spring in a motocross bike (a very demanding application) will last for several years. A magazine spring is stressed so much less you can expect it to last many decades, likely centuries if it doesn't rust. If you have a very old magazine spring, say a WWI vintage Luger, you could measure the free length from time to time and see if it gets measurably shorter ... or just replace it, magazine springs are cheap ... but I don't worry about it. I don't expect to ever need that last shot anyway.
 
How about the springs in a pump shotgun? I keep mine loaded and locked into a special safe in my closet. All I gotta do is unlock the safe and close the pump action closed and am ready to rock and roll. I do not have it loaded to full capacity however... have I think 3 or 4 loaded with a total capacity of 7 or 8.
 
Good topic. I've often wondered about this myself.

I keep one 3/4's loaded and rotate them around every few years if I'm lucky.

Sounds like it's not much to worry about though based on the prior posts.

I thought this quote from above was particularly insightful:

"If I ever do have a spring-related failure I would much rather be deprived of the last shot in the gun than the second. "
 
its a good idea to rotate them every few months, at least, just to be safe.

that said i have had 3 SIG P220 mags loaded, all the way, 8 rounds, stuck them (w/the pistol) in my safe when i "retired" the SIG and went to glock, was gonna go shoot it/etc, and never did, took it out and shot it w/out a problem. had federal hydra shok 230 gr in it.

also keep my mossberg 500 12 gauge loaded all the way (6 rounds) forever, and the spring is the same now as when i got it. i occasionally unload, dissassemble,clean, reload, but it stays loaded.

if its a good high quality firearm, with good ammo, i dont think ya will have a problem imho. actually i think the ammo would go bad before the spring would, IIRC the nickle cased ammo in the SIG was getting discolored some, if that matters. maybe if ya left the thing in your trunk in the heat it would degrade the ammo faster?? if i had it in the trunk i would check more often i know that.

but no i wouldnt worry too much about it

greg
 
I happened to catch the same article in the gun rag. It doesn't matter how many you stuff in the magazine, and the author stated that 'springs do not have to go on vacation,' meaning that rotating magazines for a 'rest period' does no good at all.

Even fully loaded, you are only compressing about 65% of the springs strength.

I'm picky, I'm OCD, but one thing I've quit doing is worrying about magazines. I don't even take mine apart anymore. A bit of non-gumming oil, and a good blow of compressed air every few years seems to work. But then, I have magazines that are decades old, have never been cleaned and work just fine.
 
Cycling of a spring is what wears them out. Leaving them compressed for extended periods of time does no harm at all.

Load 'em up and forget about 'em.
 
Hmmmm... should I worry about leaving my S&W 686 loaded? Will it eventually affect my cylinder rotation? ;) LOL!!!!


Okay, seriously... I tend to rotate my loaded emergency mags, and I've heard some in the services unload theirs to reduce the possibility of spring failure... But, I've not yet known of any actual failures, beyond operator error, of magazine springs... I'd be more worried about them rusting, especially my G-27, 'cause it's carried concealed and gets a might sweaty after a long day...

Anyone come across issues with chronic exposure to sweat leading to more than surface rust?
 
Springs 'taking a set' is one of the urban legends that doesn't want to die. A properly made spring does not take a set. If you are so worried about taking a set or wearing out think of the valve springs in your car. They get many more cycles than your gun will ever see, they never have a problem.
 
If you want to feel good about rotating something, then rotate your combat ammo. I'm really carefull with oil, but if you soak a loaded gun with some penetrating oil, similar to WD-40, there is always a possiblity of soaking a primer.

My own belief is that this is close to a urban legend in and of itself. I did see a magazine article ten years ago where they did, in fact, soak a primer.

However, hunting ammo usually has something like fingernail polish sealing the primer and the bullet to the casing. Black Talons were secured into their case with a glue that looked like black tar. And modern ammo is so good that I doubt if it degrades over two full decades.

I say "two decades' because I have seen reports where powder manufactured for WW II has been found with rust in the powder. It's not really rust, but it is a degraded condition.

So if you want to be really OCD, do like Masaad Ayoob does; when you buy a new box of factory combat ammo, field strip your pistol to use the barrel as a head-space gauge. Discard all that don't measure up.

Personally, I have not had a stoppage in over five years. With some of my collection the time frame is closer to a decade.
 
good point about checking the headspace, also check all ammo for weird stuff, ie primers in backwards/sideways, excessice OAL (short or long)or any abnormalities.

i got a remington 357SIG round that the primer was seated cockeyed and it misfired, luckily it happened at the range.

never thought it would happen w/remington ammo,

GR
 
Tadnine,

You have your own set of problems with a revolver.

If you get a grain of powder or a tiny slice of leading (from improper timing) under your extractor star, your revolver will tie up so tight that freeing it will take a gunsmith.

At least with an automatic I can do a 'tap-rack-slam' procedure and be running again in under a second.

The debate over reliability of a revolver vs. an auto was over a decade ago. The auto won.
 
Really that debate was settled by the tests the US Army conducted in 1911, but a lot of people still haven't got the message....
 
Its a magazine, dammit. If it sproings out the top of a Garand its a clip. And revolvers have been made that take clips: full and half moon, and one took a magazine; the Dardick, so before the revolver guys get all snotty stick that under the extractor star and smoke it. Magazines springs do not take sets, and 14 round magazines hold fourteen rounds, not 13 or 15.

However, I firmly believe that it is bad form to manually unload magazines. If I loaded it, I'm gonna shoot it.

All the previous was strictly in jest, except for the serious part.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top