Keeping mags loaded

[slickdj96]

Sorry if this has been asked before but I couldnt seem to find the answer searching. Is there any harm to the mag spring by leaving mags fully loaded for long periods of time? My concern would be that after very extended periods of being fully compressed that they would begin to loose some rebound which in turn may lead to issues pushing the last few rounds completely to the top of the mag.

[ucrt]

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Lot of discussion about this throughout M4C.
To summarize, springs are weakened by compression cycles not by being compressed for long periods of time.

There are several members here that reported having mags loaded for 3+ years and they still work fine.

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[bullseye]

to give you an answer besides, ''use the search button'',, it is widely accepted that the working of the spring is what causes fatigue,, not being loaded for an extended time.

[SeriousStudent]

Not an issue.

I found one of my father's 1911's when we were cleaning out my mother's house a few years ago. The pistol had been loaded, and set in Condition One on a closet shelf.

.....and left there for over 35 years. The oil had turned into varnish. I had to soak the entire pistol in Kroil just to operate the slide.

I gave the pistol a detail strip and lube. At the range, the Colt factory mag worked fine and gobbled up all the rounds like Rosie O'Donnell at a Chinese buffet.

I do remember my dad grumbling about looking for a pistol back in the late 1960's. So I am thinking that was probably the last time that mag had been cycled.

[Eurodriver]

I have over 30 PMAGs that have been loaded with 28 rounds (I know you can put 30 in them, I have run into issues before so I choose not to) for over a year. I keep them in a neat little briefcase sized pelican case for a quick grab and go situation.

On Christmas eve I shot 10 of them and there were no malfunctions. I marked them, reloaded them, and put them back in the case.

Next year, I will shoot the 2nd group of 10 and see if there are any issues.

I do keep the dust covers on PMAGs to relieve the tension on the feed lips, but I also have USGIs that I've kept loaded all the time that haven't had any issues.

[slickdj96]

Thanks guys. I guess when I get mine I'll just leave mags loaded.

[Redline]

Here's a post where I asked the same thing. Overwhelmingly the answer was that it's not bad. But I think u wanna unload them and reload them every so often. I think it was something about the rounds changing shape or something. Sorry it's been a long time and I didn't read it again. But I think they talk about it in this post.

https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=39949

Ok, just read part of it (the big post that takes up a whole screen) and they talk about the ammo itself creasing if left in a mag for too long in situations where those magazines are being moved constantly like in a cop's belt. So as I said above, unload them once in a while and reload them but in a diff sequence. In other words make sure that the round that was at the top is no longer at the top next time, and so on.

[Iraqgunz]

Put to sleep before it becomes a monster.