BAck to the stored, loaded mag question...

[Crow 2]

Seems a forum member started a thread of this nature but it tended to focus more on the kosherness of keeping a loaded mag in the gun. What about keeping yer mags loaded and in their carry bag ready to go? Any opinions/facts relating to what it does to the mag or spring? I have always kept all of my AR and M-14 mags loaded and ready, sometimes for years at a time, and they have always performed just fine. But some have said that it will wear out the spring. I need facts on this matter. I currently keep 5X10 rounders and 6x5 rounders loaded and ready to go. Am I inviting a mag failure?

[kmoore 3]

Seems a forum member started a thread of this nature but it tended to focus more on the kosherness of keeping a loaded mag in the gun. What about keeping yer mags loaded and in their carry bag ready to go? Any opinions/facts relating to what it does to the mag or spring? I have always kept all of my AR and M-14 mags loaded and ready, sometimes for years at a time, and they have always performed just fine. But some have said that it will wear out the spring. I need facts on this matter. I currently keep 5X10 rounders and 6x5 rounders loaded and ready to go. Am I inviting a mag failure?

 

I'm not an expert on springs, but my understanding is the materials and methods used in todays springs means that they don't readily fatigue. If someone with real knowledge doesn't come a long and give the real story, check out a more general board like thehighroad or thefiringline and search on spring compressions or fatigue or ???

 

Here's what I know from reading others:

Springs will take a small bit of set when left compressed. This is often NECESSARY with mags that are notoriously hard to load to full capacity when new. Glocks are supposedly that way (hi, I'm a gun nut and I've been glock free for .... my WHOLE life ). I had some KRD mags (17 rounders from CDNN for my bhp) that ruined my thumbs while loading. I finally stoked one up and left it for a bit. Now they are still strong, but they aren't impossible to load up.

 

Current springs are not like the springs of old. You CAN leave these fully compressed for years and not loose a significant amount of strength.

 

The thing that kills springs is compression cycles. So, unloading the mag does more damage to the spring than leaving it .... but it takes many 1000's (maybe millions) of compression cycles to kill it.

 

Competitors serious about the game change springs out with regularity (once a year, every 5 or 10K rounds, depends on who you ask). This is mag springs and others. This doesn't fully jive with the earlier statements, but I believe in the real world application than the theoretical. Still, we just don't shoot our shotties as much as our pistols. (competitors that is).

 

My own experience, I've left 8 round mags fully loaded with 9 rounds, that is to say VERY stoked, for weeks, maybe a month or two at a time. Still work fine.

 

My guess is that you have much more to worry about in the feed lips (saiga, pistols and maybe rifles?). Especially the stainless initially shipped on the AGP's. This is just a hunch, and not based on a long term experience. Leaving a mag loaded and inserted into a shotty would likely keep the top round off of the feed lips. But again, the idea of feedlip failures (common on cheap mags) is just a hunch.

 

Lastly, I have a 30 round mag for my high power. It's cheaply made (manufacture conveniently left off his name). It lasted a couple of uses, now won't feed the first 20. I'm pretty sure the spring is the main culprit. I'd love to find a quality replacement. If that didn't fix it up, I'd look at tweaking the feed lips, then tempering the area if it seemed likely to suceed (not me, someone who knows metals). Point is every mag is different. It's likely the springs in the AGP mags are top notch, but Kevin is the one who knows for sure. The Saiga factory mags seem very good after several years of use/abuse by me.

Edited February 17, 2007 by kmoore

[Telly458 0]

I used to leave my P-85 factory mags loaded,and the springs did indeed get soggy.Keep in mind,they were made 20+ years ago.

All I did to fix them was pull 'em out and stretch them a bit.

[topmaul 42]

I can say this about long term storage of a loaded magazine in a Saiga the top round will be crushed over time by the bottom of the bolt. It will become oblonged and then not feed into the gun. I would not be overly concerned about the spring unless we are talking about years of loaded storage.

[THE_HUNTER 2]

Cheap mags= cheap quality.This could account to some springs going capute.I have never had problems with springs losing tension.Forget about it!

[romeo1oscar 1]

From what I've seen with Glock mag springs, they eventually loose some of their spring if kept compressed; but I'm talking 5 plus years. I do not know for sure but I think it would be the same for Saiga springs. Just my one cent for what it's worth.

[G O B 3,516]

How many LOADED mags do you need? I keep 2 mags for whatever I am using for HD, loaded 1 less round than full.

One mag in HD gun,one handy to the gun. Gun on empty chamber uncocked.

May apply to more than one gun at a time, Mrs. has her own S-.410.

 

I keep the rest unloaded and locked up where they can't come to mischef.

Other than HD I load mags only when getting ready to use them.

I find that if I leave them loaded, I will shoot up ammo that I wanted to keep instead of what I bought to chew paper.

 

My Saiga shottie's use steel hulls for HD. And only in mags that proven reliable for many rounds of the same ammo they are loaded with.