Do you keep your 30round ar15 mags. fully loaded all the time...will it hurt them to keep this way even for years?

I do, but mine are MagPul and have a cap that takes the pressure off the feed lips.

If they are USGI or better load them up and leave them. Can't comment on the cheap ones.

And before someone brings it up: load 30 rounds in a 30 round mag, not 28, not 29...

I have a few that where loaded for about 8 months and I finally had a chance to shoot , with no problems at all

Yep, keep them loaded.

You will cause more harm to the spring by using it, than leaving it full, or empty.

It is the repeated compressing and decompressing that will eventually cause the spring to fatigue, not leaving them full.

Consider it brought-en: I load mine with 28. Sometime a fully loaded mag will be the cause of a FTF.. And I didn't learn that on the internet or read it in a magazine.

I would have to drop the mag, pop a couple of rounds out, and then put the weapon back into action. It happened enough times that I made it a rule to quit loading 30.

But, to each his own. A loaded mag, (no matter how loaded) is more useful than an unloaded mag.

That never happened to me in Afghanistan or Iraq. You sure it was the mags that caused it?

With some of my AR rifles, not all, a fully loaded mag won't seat with the bolt closed. I have taken to loading 28 for that magazine, and all the mags after that are loaded fully, as they seat into the well with an open bolt.

Never been to Afghanistan or Iraq but right here in Okalahoma, I've had trouble seating mags loaded with 30 rounds on a closed bolt. I subscribe to the push pull method while inserting a magazine, 30rds will keep it intersting on some guns. Some guns lock up just fine.

Never bought into the idea of downloading mags to keep the feedlips from deforming.

TWR-Should have bought a Smith and Wesson...Saw it right off!!!

No problems here loading a full 30 round clip with the bolt closed.That must be one of the "many" things a Colt can do, a Smith can't you mentioned....(Kidding)

Jayco

You mean like this one?

Just kidding right back.

Oh and they only do it with USGI mags, Pmags I have no problem but it's a habit...

No/No..I was not talking .22 rimfires.I was talking the big boys like the .223/5.56....

That is a very nice .22 and would love to have one except for one thing called a wife, and about 10 other .22's with my .22 levergun being my fave.

Naw,just the, my weapon is better than yours, sometimes gets to me.My Henry shoots just as good as my Marlin and that's all I am after in a rifle,is accuracy and reliability.

Jayco

I would have to disagree with this. In fact strongly. Quite often a factory magaizine with 30 rounds will fail to seat properly or will be exceedingly difficult at an inopportune moment. Downloading by two rounds completely eliminates this issue and ensures smooth, speedy reloads, regardless of if the bolt is locked to the rear or forward.

This holds true no matter which continent you are on...

Good post, I tend to give much stronger weight to advice given by those who "have seen the Elephant" or maybe in Mackay's case "Been kissed by a Camel" - yea I saw the pic :-) :-)

...................dj

WOW..Is the AR forum a war zone or is it sportsmen with AR's?Two very different situations and needs and especially,stress's on the weapon.

Being on topic,Smith and Wesson knows as we all do,semi-auto's can and do fail mostly due to the magazines, whether an M-16 or a 45 ACP, used and feeding and that is one reason Smith and Wesson send out Mag Pul mags with there weapons and have the reputation of flawless use.

Not to say others are not..Just saying on mags.

The new Colts in Nam failed and failed and there still failing in the new wars in sand or whatever.The AK always has been more reliable but less accurate...But that is my opinion only.

Jayco

28 for me. For the reasons discussed above.

It doesn't matter where you are, the bolt not closing on a full magazine sucks.

It would just REALLY suck if you're getting shot at!..................dj

Your right and that,I assume,was a Colt...If more combat vet's would chime in,it would make it easy to show,how they can and do fail as all weapons can.

I spent about 1.5 years at Fort Benning Georgia and that is where my military carrier ends,publicly,unlike the hero's of today.

Interestingly,In North Idaho I met two of the Navy's finest..One,Jim(DC) from ST-2 and the other,Rick,ST Sniper with 67 kills in Nam....Most don't even know the Seals have to(or did) take training in Benning or Bragg to finish off there training from the Army.

My point,we all agreed there were and are flaws in any weapon under different scenarios that us hunters/gun nuts will never see....

I just do not buy the Colt or your dead mentality here but again,that is just my opinion.

By the way...Israel is attacking Iran tomorrow...

Jayco

Many of my fellow marines are religious about loading 28 rounds into their magazine. I always ran with 30 and I never had a problem in training or in Afghanistan. Never had a problem storing loaded mags either.

I didn't know I was supposed to have a camel pic....

While it may work most of the time, we found that 30 was not totally reliable, but 28 was. If the mags were a hair deeper, 30 probably would be no issue.

Regardless I still don't see what the clamor over 1-2 missing rounds is. Its proven to be more reliable. But then again if you don't really care if your mag seats fully EASILY, and don't care if the first round strips clean or not, then have at it.

And I've never worried about feed lip issues....

Logcutter, pay close attention, that is a 5.56 AR not a 22lr. Though it is a Colt pencil barrel. This is a 22lr.


I've never seen the elephant nor kissed a camel but I have dropped a mag that I thought was seated good. As I said 28 rounds for me and I'm just a hunter...

But, but, those ground squirrels in Stanley Basin are Dangerous! Have you seen the TEETH on some of them?!

Heck, the ones on the Pahsimeroi require a no less than a .44 mag to knock over !!

Mackay

I here 'ya on the dangers of Stanly Basin and the area and critters that bite back.This huge monster was snacking on my horses before I threw my Colt to the wind and grabbed a proper weapon.



Even with a sidearm in each hand and my knife in my teeth,I enter that area with extreme caution and stay very focused.



I truly underestimated what a war zone is right here in Idaho.My bad!!!I have brought one of those monsters you kilt home more than once hidden in the oats bag..There a very worthy enemy.

Jayco

curious, how old is that bear mount and how big was teh actual bear?

The Bear mount is about 40 years old and the bear was about 225 lbs.My Dad decided to mount it and spend the money because of it's history of getting into our horses and Fish and Games warning of a wounded bear advising us to move camp because a packers cook in the area shot it once with a .38 special the night before up river from Granjean Idaho.

It usually wears sunglasses over our bedroom door.

Jayco

Rost,

I cannot speak for Jacyo, but most of our black bear here are not too impressive. Right down the road from where we are talking about, at a place called GrandJean hot springs a number of years back, I was sleeping in my bedroll on the back of my flatbed with a little cutey from Florida (we had been dancing and drinking in the Casino bar in Stanley).

Anyways, she wakes me up all scared as hell because there is this typical black bear making a racket at the hot springs in a garbage can. I hop off the truck, grab a decent sized rock and beaned him. That was all it took and he took off. Needless to say, the little Florida honey was all nervous and excited and impressed. Scared little beach bunnies are fun!

Anyways, we have a few decent blackies, but most I see are no big deal. In fact I have hit more bears in my life with rocks than bullets.

There are some grizz on the MT/ID line. You won't catch me throwing rocks at them.

Yup..Two years ago my wife and I were out shrooming a few miles out of town as my wife yelled,there is a Bear and it fell out of the tree..What?A wolf pack had treed(actually bushed) a smallish Black bear around 150 but a beautiful coat and the sound of my truck scattered the Wolves and the Bear made tracks in a hurry.

Later in the year during hunting season another one hit the narrow road from a steep bank and ran down the road right in front of my son and I for about 50 yards until it was flat enough to get up the bank...This one was about 2-250 pounds..Biggish body and smallish head.I could have run over it had I hit the gas.

In all my years here in Idaho(all 63),I have seen about three Grizzlies and a ton of Black Bears with few if any hitting above say 3-350 pounds at the most.

Council Idaho once quoted from F&G as having 3-4 bears per square mile on the Snake River breaks just above Council to Bear and Cuprum.

I miss the Gandjean area..I have packed from Grandjean to Elk Lake almost to Atlanta..My old stomping grounds when I lived down south.

Jayco

Idaho is on my list of places to visit, sounds like a great place for an okie.

I will make sure the coffee is on TWR!

I am one that thinks my mags need to seat with the advertised # of rounds or they get sidelined pretty quickly.

If you have to deal with issued mags and your issued mags will not seat when fully loaded then the 28 or so round count is a very good plan.

If you buy your mags it is pretty simple these days to buy mags that will seat when loaded to capacity. I have very little use for 30 rnd mags but all mine that are front line mags will seat when loaded to capacity as will all my 20 rounders which are much preferred for my use.

While it would hardly be a detriment to load my 20 rnds with 18 rnds I do like how easy it is to tell when they are full with a simple short push.

The PMAG has shown us that we can have our cake and eat it to in this regard and current correct Aluminum mags work very well when filled to the brim.

I even fill my 60 round SF mag all the way to the top because it just seems silly to have a 58 round mag. Of course given how I use an AR the 60 round mag is just as silly but I had to give it a try.

On the spring life I am in �the # of complete cycles determines spring life camp� and not �the time said spring is compressed determines life camp�.

I would download a GI 30rd er by two, a 20rd one round and a Pmag probably one round (haven't messed with those as much) This greatly facilitates being able to perform a tactical reload. If you are shooting to bolt lock and aren't being overrun at that instant you need remedial training.

Mackay, I'll holler when I start planning the trip.

The Pmags were designed to hold 30 rounds and seat on a closed bolt, in fact you can almost squeeze 31 rounds in there but it is not reccomended.

Yeah, well, I've watched some pretty cockstrong Marines struggle a bit with tac reloads with Pmags, so I ain't so sure I agree.

Like I said, I load 28 by habit...

Nope. But then, we were never sure when the pins were going to fall out of our grenades either. So we taped em.

No matter where you were.. 28 worked always. 30 worked sometimes. (And a taped pin never fell out.)