In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Magazine spring damage?
vallopez2000
Member Posts: 91 ✭✭
I've had all my AR15 30rd mags fully loaded for a while now. Does keeping the 30rd mags fully loaded for extended periods of time damage the springs? How long would be safe? How do you know when to replace a mag spring? I have more mags than I can take to the range so I can't realisticaly test them all. I hope I'm not the only one who keeps dozens of fully loaded mags. Feel free to insert "over prepared" joke here.
Comments
DO RIGHT GUNSMITH, INC.
Vipereater
Sell the stock market and buy guns.
I'm not saying this is proper use or maintanance but it does show that they are fairly tough when they are made well like the Glock mags seem to be (maybe I'm the exception). Just get some spare springs and replace them if/when the gun starts malfunctioning. If the springs are no longer available, then I'd follow some of the other advice...
It will hurt you, More than it will hurt me..
Life Member... N R A
Thanks for all the help!
I do know that I've gone thru 15 1911 Chip McCormik & Wilson mags over the years because I kept them loaded. The 1911 mag springs in my experience weaken quickly! I now keep my Ruger GP100 revolver loaded for home defense & let the semi mags rest. However I have kept one Glock 21 mag loaded which I rotate every couple weeks or so for carrying at the gun shop where I work part time.
Regards,
FREE IRAQ
If you feel that you must keep loaded magazines, keep one empty magazine for each loaded magazine and rotate them every 3 days. Also to extend the life of the magazine spings, take the magazine apart once a month and leave the spring out for 3 days and than reassemble.
Gosh! How much spare time do you have that you can do all this "rotating"?!
Don't worry about your magazine spring (assuming you're using a quality firearm and magazines with quality springs)--"spring-set" is largely a myth.
If "spring-set" was a serious issue, all the major firearm manufactures would be warning against it.
People may be able to give isolated examples of failures they attribute to "spring-set," but they cannot provide any engineering data (or scientific expanations) to demonstrate that it's something that happens.
Maybe on some new weapons or inferior makes, spring set may be a reality, but I've never seen it.
I stripped and cleaned the gun and then took it out and shot it. It functioned perfectly using the magazine that had been loaded over fifty years.
This may be an exception, but there was no spring set on this magazine.