Keeping loaded magazines in storage.

[elco93]

Perhaps this is a newbie question but I didn't give it much thought until recently.

Is it a bad idea to keep your magazines loaded all the time? I keep a 45 in one gun safe with the mag inserted but not chambered, an extra fully stacked mag is there as well. Does this wear out the spring??? Should I be unloading the magazine if it stays in storage? I only get to shoot about once a month now since my work schedule has changed.

Thanks.

 

[StrikeEagle]

Questions such as this are asked from time to time and the prevailing wisdom is that springs are not fatigued by staying in compression, but rather by a repeated cycling of compression and release. That's kind of counter-intuitive perhaps, but that seems to be the view of most experts on this.

So the short answer is that leaving mags loaded is ok.

Hope this helps!

 

[plom]

put some wolff springs in your mags, if it's an 8 shots mag leave it loaded with 7 rounds so it's not fully compressed.
The LE department I work for issue the Sig pro SP2022 and after some tests, we had some FTF problems sometimes, the results were that fully loaded magazines for extensive time tend to cause FTF problems, the same 15 shots mag left loaded with 12 rounds permanently does not seem to give any signs of wear and no FTF issues.

 

[AR10FAN]

Old springs?

It's not so much a question of age but quality.

A friend bought a .45 that had been kept loaded in a drawer for 44 years. He fired the mag with no malfunctions.

Modern spring steel is very long lasting even when the pistol is loaded but mags will fail fast if the spring is bad. The M9 is having problems because of mags with bad finish and bad springs. The problem has been solved but it'll be a while until those mags are replaced.

The best advice is to buy high quality mags. They're not the place to skimp to save a few bucks.

 

[fattsgalore]

To be honest I'd load one less. I have a G23 (13+1) and I keep it loaded with only ten for every day storage. When it leaves the house it's stacked to the max.