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Will keeping your mags loaded wear out the springs, eventually causing them to lose their elasticity?
My buddy has a bunch of guns and keeps mags half full to save wear on the springs. What do you guys think of this practice? I keep a mag fully loaded in my HK USP (10 rounds Cali sux) and have taken to periodically rotating mags to let the springs "rest"
Am I pissing into the wind? USP mags are pretty easy to disassemble... Can I stretch out the springs myself to counter-act the wear?
Will keeping your mags loaded wear out the springs, eventually causing them to lose their elasticity?
My buddy has a bunch of guns and keeps mags half full to save wear on the springs. What do you guys think of this practice? I keep a mag fully loaded in my HK USP (10 rounds Cali sux) and have taken to periodically rotating mags to let the springs "rest"
Am I pissing into the wind? USP mags are pretty easy to disassemble... Can I stretch out the springs myself to counter-act the wear?
Burning questions... I haz dem...
No, its actually the compress/decompress that ruins them. Ive had mags loaded full up for 3+ years work fine. I used to unload my USP mags before a long underway and the springs were shot after less than a year. As long as you buy OEM or quality USGI mags you can load them full up.
Edit: dont mess with the springs, youll hose them up even more, just get some replacements. Trust me I tried in my younger days See your in SD? I got my USP from El Cajon Gun Exchange, or should I say BS story exchange.
No, its actually the compress/decompress that ruins them. Ive had mags loaded full up for 3+ years work fine. I used to unload my USP mags before a long underway and the springs were shot after less than a year. As long as you buy OEM or quality USGI mags you can load them full up.
Edit: dont mess with the springs, youll hose them up even more, just get some replacements. Trust me I tried in my younger days See your in SD? I got my USP from El Cajon Gun Exchange, or should I say BS story exchange.
Good to know. Yeah I m in SD near Del Mar. Bought my USP at So Cal Gun in Kearny.
Keeping a magazine fully loaded will not weaken the spring. Like GMZ said, it's the compressing and decompressing of loading and unloading a magazine that ruins the metal.
All designers of well-made magazines make sure the spring never approaches the elastic limit when the magazine is fully loaded. Honest. This means the spring will not weaken when the magazine is fully loaded -- not even over an extended time. Like 50 years. American Handgunner recently ran a story about a magazine full of .45 ACP that had been sitting since WWII and it ran just fine on the first try. So there you go.
Don't take your mags apart and mess with the spring, they are find just the way they are.
Here is another real world example: on my duty days I would issue a few M9's every 4 or 5 hours. We kept the ammo loaded in the mags. Well there was some kind of discrepancy with the ammo count one day, so from then forth the watchstanders had to load their mags every watch. ALL of our mags (which had to then worked perfectly) were Screwed after about 9 months.
Keeping loaded Mags
See your in SD? I got my USP from El Cajon Gun Exchange, or should I say BS story exchange.
