I've not had the opportunity to fire my BG380 yet, but while I was firing my P-11 with my brother-in-law in KS., we were discussing various gun do's and don'ts, it's been 13 years since I've had a pistol and I told him that I prefer to keep my magazines fully loaded. He told me that it wasn't good for the spring in the magazine to keep it loaded and that I shouldn't put it up with more than 3-4 rounds in the magazine. His concern is that the spring will be compressed for a significant amount of time since I won't be shooting often.

I have my P-11 by my bed and a S&W .380 by the front door and I prefer a full mag and one in the chamber, otherwise it's just a doorstop.

Any comments regarding the full mag spring issue?

Also, I've heard that 9mm and .380 are the same size ammo; that being said, can I use 9mm ammo in my .380? Or .380 ammo in my 9mm? Or should I tell the person who told me this (my niece's boyfriend) that he's a moron??

never had an issue with a good quality magaizine being loaded all the time. I run wilson combat mags in my carry gun and shoot it about every two weeks and never had a issue.
As to your last question....I would tell your neices bf to go out and try it and let you know how it goes...

Spring die from cycles, not from sitting compressed. If that were the case we'd be changing our suspension on our cars all the time.

Moron? Well yes,if you want to be truthful.
f.t.

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South Carolina-God's country

Uh, don't try the 9mm in a .380. Though the bullet diameter is the same, the bullet weights are higher in the 9mm and the case is longer.

As far as mag springs go, the best long term recommendation I heard was from Chuck Taylor and his glock torture test. He had problems with his mag springs wearing out and switched to loading two rounds less in each mag. Solved the issue for him.

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Even older, even crankier....

Thanks for the info guys!! I'll just keep mine loaded until I need to shoot something. As for my niece's boyfriend; I had already come to the conclusion that he was a moron before he made that statement.

I wouldn't call him a moron, which is a definition of a specific category of mental deficiency, but if he's
espousing such nonsense, he's certainly ignorant and ill-informed, and not smart enough to know better or to keep his mouth shut when it comes to subjects about which he plainly is clueless. The facts are that while the bullets are of equal diameter, the 9mm parabellum (Luger) case is longer than the .380, also known as the 9mm Kurz (9mm "Short" I'm told is the German-language version, which, thanks to our WWII vets, I've not been forced to speak...)

The cartridges are not interchangeable...

As for springs, they of course wear out after repeated cyclical use, but not from remaining in prolonged compression

You evidently need to start hanging out with better informed individuals, or at least, paying little attention to your current companions...

OK, if it's not politically correct to call your niece's BF a moron, how about retard?

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Bob.
SWCA 1821

Well, a moron is someone with a mental age of between 8 and 12, unless, of course, the person actually IS between 8 and 12. I have known several 8 to 12 year olds that acted like morons, when used in its pejorative sense.

On the other hand, retard is a term (although not PC) that can apply to any level of mental retardation, or even someone who is of normal intelligence but just acting stupidly. My brother-in-law is not a moron, but he frequently acts like a retard.

in the early 90s i bought a 1911 with the complete belt rig. the gun was discovered with a loaded mag in it and two loaded mags in the double mag carrier. all the ammo was dated 1918. the grandson who found it didn't even know his grandfather had been in WWI until someone elso told him. i tested the theory about mag springs later that day. i fired all 21 rds with no problem. immediately cleaned the gun as that old ammo had corrosive primers. since then i leave several 1911 type mags loaded for long periods of time. lee

Lee is right. I think the current research shows that it's not the amount of compression of the spring that matters, but the number of times it's cycled: compressed and then released.

I know that when I was on an Army pistol team, we frequently wore out our 45 magazines. We never loaded more than 5 rounds in them, but eventually would begin to get jams. We threw them away and got new magazines. I think part of the trouble was that the springs wore out from all the cycling, and part of it was the magazine lips either wearing or getting bent from all the force on them; (think about it: 5 rounds in the magazine. When the gun is fired, the recoil will force the rounds down into the space normally occupied by the two bottom rounds of the seven round magazine. Then the magazine spring shoots the column of rounds up against the inside of the feed lips. This can't be good for a magazine)

I have heard many times to use snap caps and let the hammers down on SXS shotguns. My granddads L.C.Smith sat in a corner cocked for 40 years and I took it skeet shooting and it never missed a lick. Larry