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Magazine question...

1K views 19 replies 5 participants last post by  futuremodal 
#1 ·
Is it alright to leave them loaded for extended periods of time? I've heard of this "spring memory" and just wanted to get some input. I have an ACT MAG that came with my RIA 1911 and 2 Wilson Combat mags. Thanks guys.
 
#2 ·
I leave mine loaded at all times, and they still feed fine. Never had an issue. It may just be a matter of opinion and preference.
 
#3 ·
I used to leave mine loaded at all times but then I remembered hearing about the spring memory so I unloaded them.
 
#4 ·
I used to leave mine loaded at all times but then I remembered hearing about the spring memory so I unloaded them.
So what do you do for home defense?
 
#5 ·
I live on base so I hope it never comes to that, and I'm not supposed to have a loaded weapon in my house anyway. I can have weapons just not loaded, not sure how they'd find out but you never know.
 
#6 ·
I live on base so I hope it never comes to that, and I'm not supposed to have a loaded weapon in my house anyway. I can have weapons just not loaded, not sure how they'd find out but you never know.
Ahhh I see.. Do they not trust you? LOL im jk. Yea I would imagine you're pretty safe in the home defense department.
 
#7 ·
I live on base so I hope it never comes to that, and I'm not supposed to have a loaded weapon in my house anyway. I can have weapons just not loaded, not sure how they'd find out but you never know.
Ahhh I see.. Do they not trust you? LOL im jk. Yea I would imagine you're pretty safe in the home defense department.
Sadly like a year ago there was a rash of break-ins, I think it was bored kids during the summer. The cops drive around a lot more here than off base I guess. If I do move off base I'll have my 870 loaded and ready and my 1911 good to go as well :devilsidesmile:
 
#8 ·
I live on base so I hope it never comes to that, and I'm not supposed to have a loaded weapon in my house anyway. I can have weapons just not loaded, not sure how they'd find out but you never know.
Ahhh I see.. Do they not trust you? LOL im jk. Yea I would imagine you're pretty safe in the home defense department.
Sadly like a year ago there was a rash of break-ins, I think it was bored kids during the summer. The cops drive around a lot more here than off base I guess. If I do move off base I'll have my 870 loaded and ready and my 1911 good to go as well :devilsidesmile:
Man I hate to say it but MP's are douches. Why move off base? Isn't it free?
 
#9 ·
I live on base so I hope it never comes to that, and I'm not supposed to have a loaded weapon in my house anyway. I can have weapons just not loaded, not sure how they'd find out but you never know.
Ahhh I see.. Do they not trust you? LOL im jk. Yea I would imagine you're pretty safe in the home defense department.
Sadly like a year ago there was a rash of break-ins, I think it was bored kids during the summer. The cops drive around a lot more here than off base I guess. If I do move off base I'll have my 870 loaded and ready and my 1911 good to go as well :devilsidesmile:
Man I hate to say it but MP's are douches. Why move off base? Isn't it free?
That they are. Technically it's free, housing was privatized like a year ago. Active duty military gets Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) which for me is $819 a month (depending on where you live you will get more or less), it is given to them in an allotment and I don't see a dime, but if I moved off base and rented a house for say $500 a month I would pocket the other $319.
 
#10 ·
I live on base so I hope it never comes to that, and I'm not supposed to have a loaded weapon in my house anyway. I can have weapons just not loaded, not sure how they'd find out but you never know.
Ahhh I see.. Do they not trust you? LOL im jk. Yea I would imagine you're pretty safe in the home defense department.
Sadly like a year ago there was a rash of break-ins, I think it was bored kids during the summer. The cops drive around a lot more here than off base I guess. If I do move off base I'll have my 870 loaded and ready and my 1911 good to go as well :devilsidesmile:
Man I hate to say it but MP's are douches. Why move off base? Isn't it free?
That they are. Technically it's free, housing was privatized like a year ago. Active duty military gets Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) which for me is $819 a month (depending on where you live you will get more or less), it is given to them in an allotment and I don't see a dime, but if I moved off base and rented a house for say $500 a month I would pocket the other $319.
Which is exacty what has driven the rent up where I live. A lot of the military doesn't live on base and since they receive so much allowance for housing, the companies who own the houses are like, well hell, we'll just charge an arm and a leg, they can pay it. It sucks, but oh well. Do you live in an actual house or a dorm or something?
 
#11 ·
I live on base so I hope it never comes to that, and I'm not supposed to have a loaded weapon in my house anyway. I can have weapons just not loaded, not sure how they'd find out but you never know.
Ahhh I see.. Do they not trust you? LOL im jk. Yea I would imagine you're pretty safe in the home defense department.
Sadly like a year ago there was a rash of break-ins, I think it was bored kids during the summer. The cops drive around a lot more here than off base I guess. If I do move off base I'll have my 870 loaded and ready and my 1911 good to go as well :devilsidesmile:
Man I hate to say it but MP's are douches. Why move off base? Isn't it free?
That they are. Technically it's free, housing was privatized like a year ago. Active duty military gets Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) which for me is $819 a month (depending on where you live you will get more or less), it is given to them in an allotment and I don't see a dime, but if I moved off base and rented a house for say $500 a month I would pocket the other $319.
Which is exacty what has driven the rent up where I live. A lot of the military doesn't live on base and since they receive so much allowance for housing, the companies who own the houses are like, well hell, we'll just charge an arm and a leg, they can pay it. It sucks, but oh well. Do you live in an actual house or a dorm or something?
It is a duplex from the late '50s or early '60s, it's kinda falling apart. That is probably why I can't move off base, everything costs too much, anything I can afford sucks, all I really want is something with a 2 car garage and A/C as like I've said in other threads swamp coolers SUCK. A lot of people moved off base because the company that took over is ridiculous when it comes to their rules. When we got Directv the dish could not be on the house it had to be on a tripod which wouldn't have been that bad but they don't allow any digging so I couldn't make a hole and fill it with concrete to really secure the dish to make sure it wouldn't get messed up, if you have a dog it must be tied up if you put it outside even if you have a fully fenced backyard and the list goes on for another 1/4 mile.
 
#12 ·
Wow they really do own you dont they. LOL. Jk once again. Well I do hope that things work out for you. And I know living near a base is what has driven our cost of living up. Sucks, but oh well.
A few decades ago Ft Rucker sold some old bomb shelters or something like that, and people actually bought those things and turned them into houses, looks pretty cool too..

Why are they so strict on you guys?
 
#13 ·
Wow they really do own you dont they. LOL. Jk once again. Well I do hope that things work out for you. And I know living near a base is what has driven our cost of living up. Sucks, but oh well.
A few decades ago Ft Rucker sold some old bomb shelters or something like that, and people actually bought those things and turned them into houses, looks pretty cool too..

Why are they so strict on you guys?
I dunno power hungry maybe. Even when the housing was DoD operated it wasn't this bad, I could have dug a hole anyway, just would of had to fill out a paper and have Civil Engineering come out and make sure there wasn't any pipes or wires where I planned to dig. Oh and you can only have 2 un-caged animals, for a while we had 2 cats and 2 dogs, almost got kicked out until we got rid of the cats....
 
#14 ·
To get back to the original question, leaving a mag loaded for extended periods of time does not "wear out" the spring. What wears out a spring is cycling it. Many people "rotate" their mags by loading and unloading them every few weeks, letting one set "rest" while the other is loaded and ready for use. Their mistaken belief that this prevents the springs from "going bad" is actually wearing them out faster!

All springs "take a set" during compression. This means the original length shortens up a bit after it has been compressed for a while. A well designed and made spring takes this into account, the final length with the set in it is what the mag designer specified. Once the initial set is in there, it stops. It doesn't continue to shorten unless the spring itself has a bad temper to it, in which case it will shorten any time you load the mag, not just when it is kept loaded for long periods of time. Another thing that will cause too much set is over-compression. Trying to squeeze an "extra" round in for example might overcompress the spring beyond it's design limit and kink it, or otherwise damage it. A well designed mag prevents this, but many people like to leave their long term loaded mags a round or two short of full "just in case".

Cycling the spring is what wears it out and removes some of the tension it supplies. Many firearms makers, especially the small sub-compact models, recommend a recoil spring change after so many rounds have been fired. This recommendation is always based on round count (cycles) not time. They know what weakens a spring.

Over the years I have read many letters to gun magazines and heard from people first hand how they have found Dad's/Ganddad's/Uncle Joe's old Army footlocker up in the attic and inside it was an old handgun he brought back from the War. Left loaded all that time of course, many as long as 40+ years. They invariably report that they fed and fired just fine.

There are a couple notable exceptions. AR15 aluminum mags, because they are so soft, have been known to spread and deform the feed lips from the pressure the rounds exert on them. Also, the European style AK drums come with a warning not to leave them loaded more than a few days as spring damage will result. Poor spring design, poor tempering, or they have bought into the "compressed springs weaken" myth? I dunno, but at $100 a pop I would follow their advice for that particular mag.
 
#15 ·
Question: Can leaving mags loaded during storage cause enough pressure against the casing walls of doublestack mags to crack them? The reason I ask is that I have 4 GLOCK 17 17-round mags for my Kel-Tec S2K which I have kept loaded with 15 rounds each in storage - one of them now has a significant crack running down the rearward face (enough that I couldn't reload it), while two of the others are showing signs of cracking in the same general area. Keep in mind, these are GLOCK factory mags, not the Korean knock-offs. Go figure.
 
#17 ·
When I was doing my selling/trading off towards the start of the year, I found an older 7rd 1911 mag fully loaded at the bottom of my safe(I don't know where it came from, since all my 1911 to date have been hi-cap) so I left it loaded and threw it in an ammo can.

About a month ago, or longer...when I bought my RIA. I took that mag out and put some lead through it. Not a problem.

I don't think leaving a mag loaded will hurt it at all.
 
#19 ·
The steel lined ones drop free of the magwell from their own weight when fully loaded, the earlier ones were not fully steel lined and swelled up when loaded, this prevented them from falling free and you had to pull them out. This was touted as a "feature" as the bean counters are always worrying that a soldier will flip a mag out of his gun and leave it behind, costing the government $8.39 to replace it. Having to manually remove it was seen as a plus, less likely for it to get lost.
 
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