I know I'm fairly green, but stay with me here for a minute. Most everyone has a mag loaded with personal defense rounds. Other mags are used with target rounds and get emptied and filled semi-regularly. The numbers here dont matter much. But the PD mag, hopefully, never gets used. Are we to just assume it'll work as promised, kept loaded, 5 , 10 years down time road? Is there a common practice out there of unloading it every so often?

Cope!

This topic has been an on going debate or discussion for probably 100+ years. First off, conventional wisdom is that magazine springs get weaker from cycling them (loading and unloading them by shooting constantly) and not from being kept loaded and unused. Some disagree with this theory but the vast majority take this as the rule.

About 11 years ago my Dad passed away and in cleaning out his stuff I found 4 USGI 1911 WWII vintage magazines fully loaded with very very old cartridges. I am guessing they had been loaded for at least 40 years judging by the age of the ammo. When I went to the Range with them, every single round worked perfectly and there were no misfeeds or hang ups on the magazine's part. I know LEO's who leave their Duty magazines loaded and unfired for many years - when they do eventually fire them they work fine.

I myself leave magazines loaded for long periods at a time and I have yet to have one that failed. I do shoot out the ammo in the magazines of my EDC gun every year or so and again - no problems. So while I am not a metallurgist this is about the best advise I can give and I think most here would agree.

By the way, there are many video's on this subject and if not mistaken, I believe Paul Harrell, a popular Youtube channel guy has done a video on this if you care to search it and watch it.

I have read somewhere (can't remember where) that some gun manufacturers recommend that the springs be replaced every so often - but don't remember where exactly I read that. If it makes you feel better, replace the springs every 10 years or so but again, in my life's experience it has not been an issue and I'm still using magazines that I have personally owned for 55 years with no issues.

Here is the link to the Paul Harrell video on magazine spring compression:

When I was a firearms instructor we had the officers quality with the ammo they had in the pistol and on their belt, then we gave them new ammo.

I, too, agree with this, and had a friend who experienced this in the sixties with a WWI (as in one) magazine. Nevertheless, unless I had personally disassembled the magazine and cleaned and very lightly lubed both inner mag walls and spring, I would not trust a decades-loaded magazine. Rust?

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Formerly Model520Fan

A quality magazine spring will take an initial set, but after that, will retain consistent pressure, whether loaded or not. Repeated loading and unloading of the magazine will wear on the spring's ability to maintain the correct pressure.

Corrosion can be an issue, it depends upon the conditions in which the magazine is stored. A rusty magazine is far more likely to cause erratic feeding or failure to feed.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

You should shoot up your actual carry ammo at least once a year. That will rotate your ammo and give the springs a little exercise. That being said magazines are pretty reliable. They find guns in Europe left over from WWII pretty often still loaded and mostly they work just fine when checked. Also one of my old gunsmithing instructors who used to work for Colt told me that have a few dozen magazines that were loaded before WWII stashed somewhere and every couple of years they take one out to function test it. So far, no problem.

Welcome to the Forum, Cope!, from a fellow North Carolinian.

Glad you're here and participating, and as you can see, a good question posed around here will get excellent feedback from knowledgeable people. This is a good place, and we welcome you!

And I can't help pointing out that in this day and time of so much stress out there in the world, this is a good place to "Cope!" with it!

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

My G23 was retired w/me in ‘97 and sat in the safe, loaded, for almost 10 yrs. When I finally took it to the range there were no malfunctions. That said, I shoot my LCP carry rounds annually & have never experienced a malfunction w/those four mags either.

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Old Cop
LEO (Ret.)

I have a Glock magazine that has been loaded at least since 2011. Now that I think about it maybe its been loaded since 2005. I really don't remember. Old age is wonderful isn't it. I have seen magazines that have been loaded for a long time. The only problem I have Found is that they will not lock the slide open on the last round. If you count your shots this does not constitute a problem.

Quality magazines are designed to work, not fail because the spring is compressed.

On your other topic, your so-called personal defense magazine, I never heard of such a thing myself but maybe I live under a rock. I like high quality defense ammunition for my personal defense but I really don't worry about it. If I use it up I will load any rounds that I have available for my house guns and carry guns. 9mm NATO works just fine; it's a little hot but I have plenty of it most of the time. I do shoot the fancy hollow point ammunition at the range for function firing so, eventually, that gets used up. In the current shortage, well, I have range ammunition that will be totally suitable for self defense. It's not a big deal to me; I don't concern myself with a "PD magazine". YMMV and I'm sure many folks are in the YMMV camp.

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Come and take it!!

I think firing a few rounds of the (no doubt pricey, and now hard to find) defense ammo out of a couple of your magazines periodically would be a good idea. Doing it out of one mag verifies your pistol functions and if it shoots to the sights; and the second mag the same, especially handy if you damage or lose the first mag.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

A little personal experience here.
Over the last 25 years of my career, I carried S&W semi-autos a good portion (maybe 85-90%) of the time. We qualified quarterly, and as with most of my peers used the same mags for qualifying as for duty. That meant for the first 3 quarters, unloading duty ammo, loading practice, sometimes reloading with practice for extended sessions, and then reloading duty ammo. The last shoot of the year was duty ammo shoot, so we just went ahead and shot that. I never had a single magazine-related problem, nor do I recall anyone I knew having one, either. (And in the 10 or more years I carried a 3913, I never had a single malfunction, either, but that's a topic for another day, even though I'm still proud of that gun.) By the way, my maintenance of those mags was minimal at best, only cleaning them when I saw anything growing in there. (Well, OK. Seriously, when they got dirty or greasy.)
EDIT: Almost forgot, your mention of a "personal defense magazine" is the first time I've ever heard that term and I've been shooting guns steadily since 1971. Must be something from one of those YouTube commandos....