Resting magazine springs....

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KCJeep

KCJeep

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I had never heard of this till our gunsmith mentioned it to me last year. He said the magazine springs would last longer if they were unloaded and allowed to rest once in a while. He replaced a couple of my magazine springs at the time.

I have been doing that ever since, but I have no idea how long to leave them unloaded or how often to do it. Thoughts?

I also clean my mags from the top/outside but almost never take them apart if they seem to be working properly. Okay?
 
This is a myth. Springs only wear when they cycle. Leaving them fully compressed or uncompressed has no effect on reliability.
 
My theory is to exercise loaded magazines occasionally, to check for function.
 
I just rotate mine so that one is always empty for a while. I really don't know whether it matters or not.
 
Originally Posted By: Reddy45
This is a myth. Springs only wear when they cycle. Leaving them fully compressed or uncompressed has no effect on reliability.


This is exactly correct. Leaving a magazine loaded has zero effect on reliability. This reminds me of an article I read by the late, great Jeff Cooper. He said one day a friend called him to tell him he was cleaning out his grandmothers attic. In an old steamer chest he found his grandfathers 1911 .45 ACP pistol from W.W. I. The weapon was fully loaded, in the holster in, "Condition One", (cocked and locked). It had been there since he returned home from the war, some 50 years before. (His grandfather had long since passed).

Cooper told him not to touch it, and he would be right over. When Cooper got there, they took the pistol out back. He pulled the trigger 7 times. The gun went bang 7 times. He said after that he quit worrying about magazine springs, along with the age of his stored ammunition.
 
Originally Posted By: billt460
Originally Posted By: Reddy45
This is a myth. Springs only wear when they cycle. Leaving them fully compressed or uncompressed has no effect on reliability.


This is exactly correct. Leaving a magazine loaded has zero effect on reliability. This reminds me of an article I read by the late, great Jeff Cooper. He said one day a friend called him to tell him he was cleaning out his grandmothers attic. In an old steamer chest he found his grandfathers 1911 .45 ACP pistol from W.W. I. The weapon was fully loaded, in the holster in, "Condition One", (cocked and locked). It had been there since he returned home from the war, some 50 years before. (His grandfather had long since passed).

Cooper told him not to touch it, and he would be right over. When Cooper got there, they took the pistol out back. He pulled the trigger 7 times. The gun went bang 7 times. He said after that he quit worrying about magazine springs, along with the age of his stored ammunition.
This is what I have been told as well.
 
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It's no different than the leaf springs on your truck. If your truck sits in the garage under it's own weight, the springs will never wear out. If you drive it over rough roads for thousands of miles, where the springs are constantly loading and unloading, in time they'll wear out and you will have to replace them. Constant compression and decompression is what wears them out. Not sitting motionless under a load.
 
How many magazine springs does this gun smith want to sell you, exactly?

Springs wear out with compression cycles or being over compressed. If you are not cramming 18 rounds into a 17 round magazine, or loading and unloading your magazines every day, than expect them to last a long time.

That being said, I keep a like new magazine/magazine spring in the gun for defensive use and use older magazines for range use. I put a few hundred rounds through my "good" magazine to make sure it works 100%.

As far as cleaning the insides of magazines, if they are range mags, it doesn't matter. But if you are using them for defensive use than I am of the opinion that you should dissemble and clean after every use. Doesn't take but a minute to slide the base plate off and wife it clean of dirt and carbon.
 
It was the department gunsmith. He switched out a couple of my G22 mags and made the comment. They were free. But they had been almost continuously loaded for about 15 years at that point. Made me wonder. Maybe they were just old.
 
You have to worry more about feed lips deforming (on some mags)than the springs wearing out from sitting too long loaded.
 
I've seen magazine springs take a permanent set after being loaded for a long period of time. I found this by disassembling two identical magazines - one fully loaded for a number of years, and the other never used. The fully loaded mag showed to have a noticeably shorter spring when it was in the uncompressed state. Therefore, it probably also was providing a little less force to feed the ammo, but probably still plenty enough for proper functionality.

http://www.luckygunner.com/lounge/magazine-springs-and-ammo-cycling/

"When left loaded to full capacity and not used, most magazines will very slowly lose some amount of spring tension over time. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to say with any certainty just how long it will take before the spring loses enough tension to start causing issues. Some springs may stay loaded for decades and still function, and others might wear out after a much shorter period of time."
 
Originally Posted By: Robenstein
You have to worry more about feed lips deforming (on some mags) than the springs wearing out from sitting too long loaded.


There were several articles about loaded Magpul P-Mags doing this if left in high heat conditions fully loaded. The polymer warped the feed lips on several mags to the point they wouldn't fit and lock into the weapon.
 
I've seen pistols from the pre-WWII era with original magazines that worked just fine. Springs going bad must be a defect affecting some specific makes and models if it exists at all.
 
FWIW I had a fairly new mag from my Springfield 1911 fail and I oiled it with a Q-Tip and some Break Free CLP and all is well again. It would stick and rounds would get stuck and not feed. I would say to periodically oil them, wipe off the excess and forget about them. Never use penetrating oil, though, as when I was in the academy they told us about a trooper whose gun misfired because penetrating oil does something to the primers.
 
Originally Posted By: Silverado12
FWIW I had a fairly new mag from my Springfield 1911 fail and I oiled it with a Q-Tip and some Break Free CLP and all is well again. It would stick and rounds would get stuck and not feed. I would say to periodically oil them, wipe off the excess and forget about them. Never use penetrating oil, though, as when I was in the academy they told us about a trooper whose gun misfired because penetrating oil does something to the primers.
I've never heard of lubing a modern magazine. Now that I've heard of it it sounds like a terrible idea. Oil attracts stuff. You don't want that stuff in your mags.
 
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Its OK to lube a magazine as long as you wipe out all the lube before use. There should be no liquid lubricant left, just a smidgen of residual left behind.

All my mags/mag springs gets sprayed with Remoil from the aerosol can, and then wiped clean with an old t-shirt with no visible lube left behind. The teflon component left behind does seem to offer a smoother function of the follower.
 
Originally Posted By: billt460

There were several articles about loaded Magpul P-Mags doing this if left in high heat conditions fully loaded. The polymer warped the feed lips on several mags to the point they wouldn't fit and lock into the weapon.


I keep my P-Mags stored with the magazine covers in place to keep the feed lips unloaded.
http://www.amazon.com/Industries-Magazine-Accessory-556NATO-MAG216-BLK/dp/B00FDWQ0G8
 
Originally Posted By: hatt
Originally Posted By: Silverado12
FWIW I had a fairly new mag from my Springfield 1911 fail and I oiled it with a Q-Tip and some Break Free CLP and all is well again. It would stick and rounds would get stuck and not feed. I would say to periodically oil them, wipe off the excess and forget about them. Never use penetrating oil, though, as when I was in the academy they told us about a trooper whose gun misfired because penetrating oil does something to the primers.
I've never heard of lubing a modern magazine. Now that I've heard of it it sounds like a terrible idea. Oil attracts stuff. You don't want that stuff in your mags.


I had never of lubing a magazine either until a gunsmith at the range told me to do it. I was going to just throw it away, but I just use the gun for target practice.
 
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