At the possible risk of beating a dead horse, I still wonder about leaving magazines loaded for an extended period of time. I've always used SW mags and springs but my house pistol has seven magazines that I routinely rotate every few months and wondered if I shouldn't just pick one magazine that's always reliable(all are of course) and load it up and let it be without taking the ammo out and putting it in another mag for another 3-4 months. I'm open for opinions and/or experience.

The ONLY magazines I have had "get tired " on me are two 30 round mags for my .30 M1 Carbine. I just replaced the springs and all is good. All my other magazines are in perfect working order and some of them date back to WWll (1911 Mag's).

My carry guns are all Revolvers, but if I were to use an Autoloader for SD purposes, I would rotate the magazines on a regular monthly basis and check their worthiness each month. Definitely can't hurt.

Chief38

Unloading and reloading the same ammo cionstantly in magazines can cause more problems than just leaving it loaded in the same mag (chewed up cases, burrs, etc). It will certainly hurt nothing to leave your primary magazines loaded for at least a year or so (much longer if it comes to that) and many people do exactly this with no problems at all. Load it and after a year or so, get to the range and shoot it out...replace with new ammo for the next year, etc.

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Run Fast, Bite Hard!

After 101 years of 1911 experience, I believe the consensus of the 1911 community is that it depends on the quality of the spring. Poor springs don't last long under max compression very long nor will they take the repeated cycling of being loaded/unloaded. The tricky part is that sometimes even high quality magazines come with bum springs. There is annecdotal evidence that mags that have been loaded for over 50 years functioned fine for the ammo that was in them, but failed soon afterward. Many times mags supplied with a gun will be bad from the git. FTL often is the result of just a new bad mag spring.

So, you kinda takes yur chances when it comes to leaving mags loaded and most folks won't or just plain don't do the necessary part of proving in a long time loaded mag. Rotation helps, but is not a guarantee.

People that shoot autoloaders competitively replace their mag springs and mags quite frequently.

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NRA Benefactor

It would be hard to shoot the ammo I have now loaded and just replace it with fresh after a year. Ok, I'm a dinosaur and always like the Speer Flying Ashtray of which I have a fair supply of and that's what I have in my bedside 4506. It has always functioned even when Speer made the Lawman Series and Corbon came out with the same bullet in their 1050 fps load. That's the one I have and they ain't making 'em anymore. They are tried and proven loads and that's why I use them and don't shoot-just rotate the mags as indicated. Maybe I should go with the GDHP.

Most advice I've seen, especially the 1911 forums, state you can leave a mag fully loaded till dooms day basically and that it's the compression/decompressing the springs(as in rotation) that will weaken the springs. That's why I asked this question and there seems to be a sundry of opinions. I normally use S&W's springs but have some Wolff 16# Extra Power recoil springs and mag springs. Whether they're better in the long run, I don't know. I dont see the need of replacing good mag springs every six months if not necessary.

Some of mine sit around loaded for several years and seem to work fine when I finally shoot them.

There is MUCH better ammo available today than the old 'Flying Ashtray'...just sayin'...among that, Federal HST, WW Ranger T and Gold Dot all in the 230gr range if .45acp is your choice.

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Run Fast, Bite Hard!

I have all three of those(a few boxes each) and periodically run some through my Commander but haven't tried them in the 4506 although I have no doubt it will feed them. I haven't ran across anything yet it won't feed. As to whether they're better...the FA had a pretty good track record.