Hi Evil Black Rifle Campfirettes,

How do you store your 'go to' AR mags...I'm talking 20 round, 30 round, and 60 round drums.

Do you load them max full and leave them sit for decades? Load them 2 rounds less? Leave them empty and load them as needed? Or some other ritual...like rotating loaded magazines every month/quarter year?

Have you ever had any fail from your storage practices?

Just curious...what others do in theory.

Later,

John

USGI mags get loaded 18 and 28, Pmags loaded full with covers on.

I have one particular 20 round USGI mag that lives in my truck. It’s been in 2 trucks now for almost 20 years. I’ve shot it, loaded it and stuck it right back in several times and never had a problem with it. That’s living in temps of over 100 degrees down to -0 a few times.

nuff said!

There are stories of Military team shooters who found Vietnam era 20 rounders topped off with M193. They worked just fine with no malfunctions 30+ years post.

I also load 18 or 28.

Leaving that little bit of elbow room in the magazine helps ensure the magazine fully seats and locks into place in the weapon, without needing to rap upward on the bottom of the mag. Also, it makes it easier for the BCG to strip that first round off the top.

Most of my mags are stored empty. LOL. I supposed when the time gets wrong it will be time to load.

2 rounds is rarely if ever going to make a difference so I do load 18 and 28. But rarely 28 as I don't care for 30s to start with.

18 and 28.

Had to relearn that the hard way again at Thunder Ranch.

Mr. Smith kept saying “Oh for [insert cuss word of choice here] sake, you KNOW this! I taught you this 20 years ago!!!!”

Edit to add: dirty mags and a dirty gun were less forgiving than the clean gun with clean mags

Full. They sit in ammo cans, sometimes for years that way. They always work. USGI, I should say.

Should also say most are Okay or other old mags. The newer D&H need to have feed lips lightly dressed with a file before I'd trust them fully loaded.

When I've stored P-mags full in cans without covers they sometimes lose a round being jostled about. Not bashing P-mags. If I need mags to withstand being run over by a tank, or dropped from an aircraft, they'll get the nod. I don't need such things, so.....

I've also left them full for years and years, but I load two down bc as said above, a GI mag with 28 rounds seats pretty easy against a closed bolt and when you load it with 30, it gets very hard to seat, especially if you're in a hurry. I load my Glock mags one down for the same reason--they seat easy against a closed slide that way.

I’ve wondered about this too. I might have one AR mag loaded but if I knew for sure they would be fine, I would probably load all my Magpul M3’s.
My 1911 mags are all engraved as sets and I try to rotate them every 6 months. That’s my nightstand gun so I am pretty anal about that.

Can you explain or expand on this? I've acquired a "few" of these.

"The newer D&H need to have feed lips lightly dressed with a file before I'd trust them fully loaded."