loaded magazines

[Expendable]

alright, been looking for information about this for a while now. i'm planning on keeping a set of gear and a rifle in my truck. how long can i keep the magazines loaded before it will affect the springs? how often will i need to cycle the rounds out to fresh mags?

[MerKWorK]

What rifle What mags and what capacity mags

[Expendable]

ar-15 30 round, military issue

ak 47 30 round

ak 74 30 round

fn fal 20 round

[MerKWorK]

I would say for all, that you could load them full or maybe -2 and shouldn't have to change them out for a few months. I know a guy who has had 4 cheap ak mags loaded (2-30s 2-40) for years. When we finally shot them we had no problems. But if you are just trying to err on the side of caution I would say a few months should do it. For ar I would recommend switching to magpuls p-mag. I think it is the best mag and is cheap and light. Just my opinion though. I also suggest you load up 1 mag from each gun full, mark it and put it to the side. The time till you shoot it is up to you but could ease your mind on wearing out your mags.

[Expendable]

thanks for the advice

[MerKWorK]

forgot ... you can also take the spring out of any mags and "stretch" them to give them more tension. Should be easy enough to do this every once in a while. Hope it helps

[Expendable]

friend of mine told me about stretching springs, figured i'd only do that in a really bad situation. said it screws the springs up since you can't really stretch everything evenly. like i said, just a last resort kind of thing.

[reeper_4]

Hey how ya livin? I am a retired Army Ranger and Scout/Sniper. Whenever I had my mags loaded when I knew I wasn't going to be out and about, I would only load up 25rnds 5.56 and 15rnds 7.62 (.223/.308). Kinda up to you though. The Magpul stuff is really good, but I only use my old beat up Military issues...kinda nostalgic for me...hehehe...if you keep the military ones though, I would however recommend replacing the follower in the mag with Magpul followers...Can't miss'em, they are brown instead of that goofy green crap. But anyway, if you are going to be storing them for awhile, I would really only recommend going about five shy, and then whey you go get yer trigger time in, just throw in 5 more rounds and then THROW'EM DOWN RANGE....ENJOY!!!

[Expendable]

very much appreciated

[skeeterbay]

I have read that modern day mag springs will not be hurt by being stored loaded for long periods of time. I myself have seen AR mag's loaded for over a year with no problems. However with my own I would change them out every two or three months just to be safe, (I like to go easy on my stuff). On a side note I remember one Fed agency telling it's agents to change out loaded mag's every three months. I was told that came from the manufacture but I don't know. They did issue twice the normal number of mag's for this reason?

Skeeter!

[Ryder]

Had a talk awhile back with my buddy who is a Degreed Mechanical Engineer.

According to him, springs wear out from use. The compression and release is what wears the springs out. He says that a spring stored in a compressed state would take years and adverse temperatures to lose its "spring".

FWIW

[Expendable]

Interesting, I appreciate the input

[Colt]

hey,

previous post was correct. A spring won't wear out unless it's being compressed and released repeatedly. (something to do with the crystalline structure of the metal fatigues as it flexes repeatedly....been a long time since metallurgy 101)


I found a couple of old 1911 mags last year at an estate sale that had been left loaded since sometime in the 1940s....the ammo didn't look bad, so I gave them a try. I had one dud round, but everything cycled like it was supposed to--and in a SIG GSR that's notoriously picky about weak mag springs.

Also of note, I left about 2 dozen AR mags and about 30 FAL mags (all loaded) in storage while I was stationed overseas. When I got home 4 yrs later, everything worked exactly the way they were supposed to.

[GS Rider]

I had about 8 M16 mags that got load full and then packed up and forgotten about. Then when they were found about 3 years later all 8 were fired with no signs of spring fatigue. I keep many mags loaded all of the time and have confidence that the springs/mags will work as designed.

[crusty]

I have always wondered about this myself. The concenses seems to be that if you have good quality springs with the proper tempering it is better to LEAVE THEM LOADED rather than load and unload. Apparently according to some it is the "cycle" of unloading that wears the springs out. I know ......sounds crazy to me too but .........:cool:
cheers

[Andy the Aussie]

Repetition of compress/uncompressed = usage which is MORE detrimental apparently than remaining compressed for LOOOOOOOONG periods.

Andy