Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Spare mags- how long do you leave them loaded?

Whats the general consensus regarding leaving magazines loaded ? Will a set take in the spring? How long?

Is worrying about this a nothing burger?

Few schools of thought on this. The one I go with is springs only weaken when cycled. Left in a compressed state should do no harm. I have run mags through an ak that I have no clue how long they were loaded, probable close to a decade. No troubles.

Never had an issue with springs weakening. Only mag issues I've ever had were new mags, not good ones in the first place.

Springs only take a "set" if they are overstressed, ie forced past the elastic limit of the steel, unless perhaps you heat them to a degree which would also ruin the ammo and the gun. A properly-specified spring, used within its design limits, will recover completely regardless of how long it is loaded. They'll do this repeatedly too, more or less infinitely, absent some flaw, corrosion or wear.

You can leave them loaded for eternity.

No.

No such thing.

Yes.



Travis

Until you see the whites of their eyes?

Springs taking a set isn't an issue, but accumulated dirt can be. That's life in the Zone.

Dunno how a fella would clean a mag without shuckin' the cartridges out first.

I had some loaded for years, they worked fine when I decided to use them.

The chrome silicon springs used in mags today can last years compressed.

Run them through the dishwasher with your Glock.

See Glock/dishwasher thread in Handgun section for clarification.

Musta been a relief for the spring !?

This is correct. I work with springs daily, and it is cycle length that matters. Springs fail due to metal fatigue, and metal fatigue is a function of movement. Loaded springs do not fail, only springs that move do. They wear out, and the metal Crystallizes, becoming brittle.
Load and stack as many as your budget will allow, without qualms.

Thinkin' outside the box again, hey?

That's how I clean the muffler after running BP loads thru it.

Metallurgists tell us that compression of a spring to the point it was designed to be compressed doesn't wear the steel out. It's the cycles of compression and release that do. So the mags used regularly for range work, but which are left empty when not in use, will wear out far quicker than mags left fully loaded for years.

This is the only thing I've seen that caused failure of quality magazines. Lots and lots of dirt.

Open top holsters and lots of hours on ATV's or bikes will cause this.




Travis

As an FYI I unloaded a pair of 1911 mags found in an old WWI era footlocker, in an old Mills canvas pucker bottom magazine pouch about 1973. The ammo in those mags was headstamped "FA 18". Springs were just like new! Really dunno how long they had been loaded for sure!

All metals crystallise as they solidify. Every spring you work with is crystalline. Every metal article or component or piece of solid metal around you, ductile or brittle, hard or soft, crystallised as it solidified, and it'll stay crystalline unless you melt it (and then crystallise again as it solidifies).

Working a metal, such as a spring, within its proportional limit, does not work harden it (cause it to become brittle) either.

As for fatigue, it is a poorly named phenomenon, and is nothing to do with the metal somehow getting "tired". It is a name for the progressive development of a crack across the section, more often than not initiated at a flaw or stress raiser, over repeated load cycles, until the remaining section cannot bear the applied load any more. The number of cycles you need depends on the stress as a proportion of UTS, geometry and material. One of the nice qualities of steels is that they have a fatigue limit, a level of stress below which fatigue failure isn't going to occur regardless of the number of stress cycles. Just by way of example, a valve spring in a car engine, under ordinary use, may be expected to last many millions of cycles. How often are you going to cycle your mags?

As I said, cycle length is what matters. I can change a cycle length, with a given load, by going to a diffrent diameter, wire size, and or length. (To do the exact same job, but for a longer time/cycle length ) . A properly loaded spring that doesn't move, may never fail in your lifetime. A spring that moves several times a day, will last for only a few thousand cycles.
(Springs on your garage door, are rated for 6000-8000 cycles from the factory. ) a spring, is simply a bent lever.

Just checked all four mags for my Sig P226 T/O 40 cal, all have been loaded for months, none would hold the slide back empty, pulled the springs and gave the front lip of the springs under the follower a little upward bend, replaced, and rechecked, all GTG now.

20 round 30 cal and 30 round 556 cal Pmags seem to run right forever, so do all the Tripp, McCormick, and factory Colt mags for my 1911's.