Do you guys keep you rounds in your magazine?

[CessnaDriver]

I do have to say I had a 40 rd Mini 14 mag from the eighties that I needed to stretch the spring out, and it's working fine, but yes that spring did indeed lose it's ability to feed the last 10 rounds or so. Granted it's a 40 rounder and god knows who made it back then.
Anyone know where I could even get a replacement spring? Can we even legally buy the damn things if I did find one?

[Fight CA GC]

Always. When I go to the shooting range, I take out the hollow points. After I'm done shooting, I put my hollow points back in before I get into the truck.

[Merc1138]

I do have to say I had a 40 rd Mini 14 mag from the eighties that I needed to stretch the spring out, and it's working fine, but yes that spring did indeed lose it's ability to feed the last 10 rounds or so. Granted it's a 40 rounder and god knows who made it back then.
Anyone know where I could even get a replacement spring? Can we even legally buy the damn things if I did find one?

A spring isn't a "kit" so technically you should be able to, finding a cooperative retailer on the other hand may be an issue.

[iBkickinit]

As another pointed out, the only exception I would say is polymer mags like Magpuls (Not metal lined Glock mags). I make sure to keep the lip protector on a loaded mag, or inserted in the maxwell. Make sure the action is closed, and the bullets are depressed riding the bottom of the bolt carrier. In my experience, Magpulls will deform and no longer drop free if left for months loaded without the dust cap attached.

[jgraham7897]

Seems pretty pointless to keep an empty magazine.

[sonofeugene]

The myth that won't die. It is the compressing/uncompressing that wears the spring. Sitting compressed WILL not affect the spring.

This. And note my correction above.

[ocabj]

Looks like you should have bought a revolver instead to ease your mind.

Leaving a round in the cylinder will wear it out.

[Tripper]

Leaving a round in the cylinder will wear it out.

Dang, that means all my guns are worn out

Time for new ones

[Metal God]

Generally speaking you can keep the mags loaded with out issue . Quality mags "should" not have springs that get worn .

That does not mean it's a myth . It's actually a fact that some springs can go bad if left depressed . Depending on the steel quality the spring in a mag can get worn if left loaded . I know this because my Ruger SR45 mags do that very thing . What happens in that case is they seem to get weaker and no longer push the follower up hard enough to lock the slide back after last round . I sent my mags back and talked with Ruger about this . They confirmed you should not keep the SR45 mags loaded for long periods of time . I now just take the spring out and stretch it longer when it starts to get lighter rather then send them back . There had to be some reasons the SR series is so cheap . It seems at least one of those reasons is cheap spring steel .

[Milsurp Collector]

That does not mean it's a myth . It's actually a fact that some springs can go bad if left depressed .

No, it is a myth.

The Truth About A Popular Gun Urban Legend

Written by: Adam C Guns & Ammo

The firearms community is filled with incorrect theories, misconceptions and old wives’ tales which are universally believed, mainly through the phenomenon of urban legend.

Word of mouth is a powerful force, and even a tale that is repeated without the user testing the theory out for himself can be a powerful incentive to do – or not to do something. The firearms community has lots of myths, fables, conjecture and debatable topics which will never really go away. Whether it’s the merits of barrel seasoning (or not), or whether it’s the efficacy of 9mm versus .45 ACP, there are more opinions out there than cold, hard facts.

One of the recurring statements made in the firearms community is the theory that magazines should never be kept loaded for extended periods of time. The theory holds that the magazine spring weakens with age, causing it to eventually be unable to push the follower upwards and thus causing misfeeds and jams. Occasionally the feed lips will be mentioned; it is surmised that the strength of the magazine spring can bend the feed lips of the magazine over time, causing the magazine to once again misfeed or jam. To further complicate the matter, the people that advocate not keeping magazines loaded for extended periods also know of “someone” who did, and then went and shot off some rounds, which predictably resulted in misfeeds or jams. It’s hard to debate this logic, especially if you’re new to shooting in general. Let’s look at both parts of this theory and see if we can shed some light on it.

The Spring

The majority of box type firearms magazines use a helical coil shaped spring that’s inserted into the magazine from the bottom. This spring pushes the follower upwards while being retained in place by the magazine floor plate. The coil of the spring is not round; rather, it’s boxed shaped, often matching the contour of the inside of the magazine.

In order to understand how a spring works, we need to look at what it’s made from – spring steel. Spring steel is a low alloy and medium to high carbon steel with a high yield strength. The high yield of the spring steel allows the spring to return back to its original shape despite the fact that it is loaded down – that’s the whole point of spring steel. Without getting too far into the physics and engineering aspects of creating springs, realize one key point about spring engineering: Springs are designed based upon how many cycles they can withstand before failure. What’s a cycle? Simple – a cycle is one compression, followed by one release. The spring is compressed, then it is released – that represents one complete cycle, and that’s how its lifetime is measured. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t matter how long the spring is compressed for, it only matters how many times the spring is compressed!

This is a shocking revelation for firearms enthusiasts who insist upon leaving a magazine empty, since loading it up will weaken the spring. Realize that loading a magazine and leaving it alone hasn’t even allowed the spring to go through a single cycle. Also, look at other applications where springs are compressed and released many times – how about a valve spring on your car? This spring is cycled hundreds of times per minute when your car runs, and yet valve springs don’t routinely fail on cars, even ones that are decades old. If that isn’t convincing enough to you, listen to what Century Spring, a major spring manufacturer has to say about the lifespan of springs: “in cyclic applications, springs are generally designed for infinite life.” Whoa – infinite is a long time. Finally, if you still aren’t buying it, look at the experiment performed by James Wesley Rawles, who inherited a 1911 pistol that was sealed in a manila envelope the 1950s, complete with a loaded magazine. This sealed envelope was opened some 45 years later in the mid 1990s, when Rawles promptly inserted the loaded magazine (which had been loaded for nigh on 50 years), and fired it off. Not only did the pistol work flawlessly, so did the magazine!

Feed Lips

The supposition here is that the magazine spring is strong enough to distort the feed lips on the magazine, but it’s a stretch (no pun intended). Think about it for a minute – the spring, which is generally believed to be so weak that it cannot maintain its shape for extended periods of time when loaded, now suddenly has the strength to damage the feed lips of the magazine. You can’t have it both ways, people. We are personally not in agreement that the feed lips are overly vulnerable to stretching over time.

A loaded magazine is a great thing to have on standby, and we recommend having several ready to go, just in case. Don’t worry about the springs dying or the feed lips bending; it’s not going to happen in your lifetime. If you are overly concerned, rotate the magazines, or keep some of them unloaded. Or don’t worry at all, which is what we recommend.

http://www.offthegridnews.com/self-defense/guns-ammo/the-truth-about-a-popular-gun-urban-legend/

[Steve1968LS2]

A spring isn't worn out by being compressed any more than being relaxed.. it's worn by being used (ie, cycled between compressed and relaxed).

Physics is your friend

[Metal God]

Wow I had no idea that all spring steal was made the same . I always thought that there could be different qualities of all metals depending on how they were made . Guess calguns learned me something new again .

That's interesting seeing how my SR45 mags got weak with in 200 rounds through them yet always stayed loaded when not being used in a 12 month period . Then there's the fact the manufacturer of those mags say not to leave them loaded . You'd think Ruger would know that spring steal is ALL made the same therefore my springs did not get lighter over time . Yet they replaced them and advised me to no longer leave them loaded for long periods of time . Maybe I'll send one of the largest manufactures of firearms and magazines in history the quote above . That way they know how uninformed they are .

Funny thing is when I got the new mags and compared the springs to the old ones . The new springs were an inch longer with the same amount of coils .

I know calguns members like to regurgitate info rather then having actual knowledge of the issue . How ever IMO this is not up for debate . My SR 45 locked back every time after last round when new . It then started failing to do so with one mag then the other . At first not every time but over the next 7 or 8 months it got worse and worse to the point it almost never locked back . Yes I cleaned the mags and the gun to see if it would help , no it did not . The springs got weaker . Did they settle in and may not get any weaker . I don't know but at one point they were strong enough to push the slide lock up . 12 months later they were not .

[Milsurp Collector]

Wow I had no idea that all spring steal was made the same . I always thought that there could be different qualities of all metals depending on how they were made.

You'd think Ruger would know that spring steal is ALL made the same...

Guess calguns learned me something new again .

Here's something else Calguns can "learn" you.

steel: a hard, strong, gray or bluish-gray alloy of iron with carbon and usually other elements, used extensively as a structural and fabricating material.

steal: take (another person's property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it.

And are you implying that Ruger intentionally uses poor quality "steal" to make their magazine springs? Is that what Ruger told you? It seems unlikely they would want that to be known, even if it was true.

Maybe I'll send one of the largest manufactures of firearms and magazines in history the quote above . That way they know how uninformed they are.

Appeal to Authority

argumentum ad verecundiam

(also known as: argument from authority, appeal to false authority, argument from false authority, ipse dixit, testimonials [form of])

Definition: Using an authority as evidence in your argument when the authority is not really an authority on the facts relevant to the argument. As the audience, allowing an irrelevant authority to add credibility to the claim being made.

It's important to note that this fallacy should not be used to dismiss the claims of experts, or scientific consensus. Appeals to authority are not valid arguments, but nor is it reasonable to disregard the claims of experts who have a demonstrated depth of knowledge unless one has a similar level of understanding and/or access to empirical evidence. However it is entirely possible that the opinion of a person or institution of authority is wrong; therefore the authority that such a person or institution holds does not have any intrinsic bearing upon whether their claims are true or not.

Just because someone works for the customer service dept. at Ruger it doesn't mean they are an expert or authority in metallurgy or spring engineering. That individual might believe the same urban myth that you believe.

I know calguns members like to regurgitate info rather then having actual knowledge of the issue .

There is only one person regurgitating the urban myth that springs can become worn out by being kept compressed within their design limits.

If you want to blame anything for your springs wearing out if that is indeed what happened, blame your fooling around with them, cycling them, and stretching/compressing them.

[Ant45]

So for my own fyi what I gather from this thread: a mag that's loaded and used regularly will wear out faster than a loaded mag that stays loaded for years, your SHTF mag for example.

Am I on point?

[Jet Setter]

I keep most of mine loaded. I just don't have the room to have everything loaded.