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Old 09-18-2010, 10:12 AM
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Default Loaded magazines & spring tension....

How long is too long to keep the spring in a magazine compressed? Should i unload my magazines every few weeks & reload (to relieve spring tension)? Or is it ok to keep them loaded. Unfortunately i don't have the opportunity to shoot as often as i'd like & i prefer to keep them loaded for home safety. This might be a dumb question but i've been wondering about it for a while..... thanks, mike.
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Old 09-18-2010, 11:50 AM
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If you keep them fully loaded without use for prolonged periods. You can remove a few rounds from each so the springs aren't fully compressed all the time. It's a spring so eventually it gets replaced.
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Old 09-18-2010, 03:04 PM
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I did a Search of these forums and found that this subject was covered in 11-19-09.
Here is a link to a very interesting and authoritative article from American Handgunner Magazine that was mentioned in one of those forum posts:

Magazine spring madness: 'creep' to your 'elastic limit' to un-earth the urban legend of 'spring-set' | American Handgunner | Find Articles at BNET
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Old 09-18-2010, 03:27 PM
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Mittenzon, thank you. that's the info i was looking for.
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Old 09-19-2010, 05:37 AM
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IMHO--Never believe everything you read off the internet or see on tv, and don't follow just one person's advise everyone will give you different story/advise. I had some *** mags that without new springs they were unreliable, but that was after thousands of rounds and keeping them fully loaded for years. I also had a few that were never kept fully loaded but were used just as much, those still fully function flawlessly to this day. Of course nothing lasts forever that's why replacement mags, springs, followers are manufactured. If you compare a new mag to one that's been loaded indefinitely the new mag gives more resistance when loading the last two to three rounds. When a mag begins to fail you can replace the spring & follower or you just throw it away and buy a new one and that is one of the reasons they tell you to keep them fully loaded indefinitely.

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Old 09-19-2010, 06:29 AM
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I have more than a few guns. Many are never fired. Some are fired occasionally. A couple are fired regularly. Almost every one of them stay loaded and most have a spare loaded mag stored beside them. Been this way since before most on this site was born.

NEVER lost a spring yet. Never had a problem with a mag.

I figure my luck with springs may be due to keeping trash out of the springs of the guns I shoot and not messing with the mags or springs of the guns I do not shoot.

A few years ago, on another site, there was a man that was an engineer for a company that made magazines for guns. He said the springs are made to cycle over 1,000,000 times and continued compression is not harmful to them. I know guys I work with have not touched their spare mags other than bi annual qualifying and their mags work well when they finally do use them.

We often worry about the things we do not need to worry about.

However, I will say I have over 100 extra mags that are not kept loaded. Do I worry about the springs weaking from the lack of compression? Nope.

Life is a **** shoot. You take chances and play the numbers that come up.
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Old 09-19-2010, 08:13 AM
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I usually keep four mags around for my carry guns and I use two at a time. I keep one in the gun and one extra on me. Than I rotate the mags every other month.
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Old 09-19-2010, 10:35 AM
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This is an internet Forum, so you may choose to take the following with a grain of salt. However, it's based on sound Science and anyone with a great deal of experience with springs will back it up. I am also a Mechanical Engineer who has been using springs in my designs for over 20 years, so I have both experience and training in most of the aspects pertaining to springs.

Spring steels have some rather unique properties. To an Engineer, some of properties of steel are almost magical. One being the Fatige Limit, at which point a steel alloy won't EVER fail. No other material, not Aluminum, Titanium, or Inconel has this property, all these other materials will eventually fail when cycled even at extremely low load cycles.

One is that they will Work Harden somewhat due to cycling, which means being compressed and released. You can see this property by just bending a wire hanger back and forth. After making that first bend you'll find that hanger is much more difficult to re-bend that wire at that same spot. This is because when materials work harden, they also become stronger.

Spring steels are normally formed at a harness that is close to the ulitimate hardness that can be achieved for that particular alloy, however they are NOT at the full hardness that can be achieved. Because of this it's completely normal for a compression spring to become slightly shorter when it's first cycled. This is where the term of a spring taking a "set" comes from. What happens is that as the spring is cycled it will increase in hardness slightly to it's ultimate hardness and because it's a compression spring, it will reduce it's length slightly as this happens. Once that fully work hardened state is achieved that "set" won't change until the spring approaches failure due to internal crack migration due to fatigue. Basically the process is as follows, initially a slight loss in length with a slight increas in compression strength, followed by a long period of stable length, then followed by a rapid decrease in free length leading up to complete failure. Note, this only happens as a result of cycling of the spring through compression/decompression cycles. Keep a compression spring compressed and it won't ever fail until it starts to corrode.

Bottomline, you can keep all of your magazines fully loaded, it won't hurt the springs one bit. You actually have to cycle a magazine spring to wear it out. In addition there is a very simple way to spot a failing magazine spring, that being that it will rapidly start losing free length just prior to failure and that loss will be readily visible using a tape measure. If you see a once stable free length suddenly dropping, it's time to replace that spring. As for the initial "set" that will probably take between 100 and 1000 cycles, unfortunately that will depend on the particular alloy and the initial hardness of the steel used to make the spring. I'll also note that initial "set" will probably be only on the order of 1/32 to 1/16 inch, also depending on the alloy and formed state.

Final note, if you see a magazine spring that continually loses free length as it's used, that indicates that the spring wasn't properly hardened and tempered when it was formed and that loss in length is due to an extreme level of work hardening taking place. Bascially, instead of a real spring, you got soft wire in the shape of a spring, so beware of unbranded gun show "buys", they may be a cheap knockoff.
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Old 09-19-2010, 11:04 AM
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Quote:
Should i unload my magazines every few weeks & reload (to relieve spring tension)?
Whatever you choose to believe (and I like scooter's post a lot) believe this: spring steel is NOT alive, and they don't "rest, recover, or relieve tension".

A **** spring or a spring taken past its elastic limit fails quickly.
A good piano wire spring lasts about 5,000 cycles or 5 years, easily.
The chrome silicon springs have a phenomenal life: how long do the valve springs stay compressed on your car, and how many cycles do they do? Chrome silicon springs are available for many popular handguns.
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Old 10-02-2010, 04:26 PM
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Default Thanks Scooter123

scooter123 great explanation. Makes total sense to me (a physician). Thanks for the physics of springs! My mags will always be fully loaded now!
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Old 10-02-2010, 05:26 PM
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We expect a lot from relatively inexpensive springs.

FWIW, S&W recommends to its LE armorers that mag & recoil springs are replaced either every 5 years or every 5,000 rounds fired, whichever comes first. I've been told that this is a conservative recommendation. Naturally, armorers also use periodic bench checks to make sure a mag (or recoil) spring isn't exhibiting signs of weakening or failure earlier than the normal preventive maintenance recommendation.

Over the course of having been a firearms instructor for 20 years I've had ample opportunity to see a lot of pistols come through both LE & non-LE range sessions. I've seen my fair share of instances where a weakened mag and/or recoil spring caused feeding stoppages and other functioning problems.

Something else to consider is that once a mag spring starts to weaken, it might lack the necessary force to help overcome some issues that can occur with dirty or contaminated mag bodies.

I've seen springs last for a long time, and then I've seen others which didn't last as long.

When a spring manufacturer ships out a crate containing 10,000 springs, do you really think each and every one is going to be identical when it comes to specification?
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