How often do you replace (brand new) your everyday carry mag?

Springs have been around for centuries. And today's springs are better than ever. Everywhere you look something has a spring in it.

They wear out or break due to repeated use. Also known as metal fatigue. You would be hard pressed to wear out a quality magazine with routine use.

All of my carry magazines sit fully loaded. Never a problem. Never worried about it.
 
Re: "Wolff Springs Website..."

"Rocker valves..."??? Never have seen such a thing on the couple of hundred engines I've rebuilt. Lotsa valve springs and rocker arms, though. Maybe UFO technology? I'll have to check with my buddies at Area 51...

ANY spring will eventually lose it's engineered specs. That being said, I won't lose any sleep over swapping out mags on any specified date. I do it when I think of it, maybe every six months to a year. Thumb the rounds out, inspect the loads and stuff them back in a "rested" unit. Good to go!!!

Just thought of something: I hope none of this gets everyone worrying about the springs in their revolvers. Things could get panicky in a hurry...
 
ExcitableBoy said:
Re: "Wolff Springs Website..."

"Rocker valves..."??? Never have seen such a thing on the couple of hundred engines I've rebuilt. Lotsa valve springs and rocker arms, though.
Click to expand...

Bet you've never had a typo either
 
Would have to guess it has more to do with the alloy, quality and processing of the spring than anything.

I've 1911 mags that are 100 years old which work fine. As well as 1980's vintage Glock mags. But whilst I was working at Glock in the late '80s, they made several changes to their mag springs as some were failing in a year or two. (All I remember at this point is there were "copper washed" springs, "dark" springs and "bright" springs.)

Oldest semi-auto mags I have are from the early 1900s: Colt .38 ACP 1902 and some .38 ACP 1903s. With a Military Model .38 ACP mag thrown in. They all still work just fine!

Same for the various WWII Inglis 9mm 13 rd mags.

BTW, I can't recall ever having a STEN, M3 or MP-40 mag spring go bad, and they're all very high capacity.
 
It's a sample of exactly one, which is not a statistical proof of probability. But this gun was kept loaded in a car for 12 years by me, no lube or mag changes, worked fine.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/smith-...4-sw9v-fired-after-being-loaded-12-years.html

I remember Bob Bell, who used to write the optics column for Gun Digest fired a magazine of .45 ACP that had been loaded since he brought it back from Europe after WWII on (I think) the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, and had no problems.

It obviously never hurts to take care of your equipment, but I do think the modern trend is to overthink a lot of things. That's never been a problem for me. :p
 
exactly what he said.....

GaryS said:
Never. Although I have replaced springs. Actually I disassemble, clean, inspect, and put new springs in any used magazines I acquire.
Click to expand...
exactly what he said.....I bought some used hi caps that were 25 years old. cleaned them up and put fresh wolff springs in them.they will last me another 25 years of use. i wouldn't be worried about any mag springs wearing out in modern firearms.
 
Arik said:
Actually science tells us that a spring in USE will loose elasticity over a number of years. A compressed spring does not.
Click to expand...
We see lots of comments like this where people use the term "science" or "physics" but never actually do the science or even read the articles published by scientists. In fact, science tells us the exact opposite of what you just said.

Springs held compressed will indeed lose power over time. This has been proven many time. I did my own test that showed just that. Also, I've worked in a calibration lab where we calibrated torque wrenches and could measure exactly how much power a compressed spring from a torque wrench lost over a specific time.

The video Smoke posted is a decent example of a reasonable test.


The question is not will they lose power, but how much power do they lose? Is that loss enough to affect function? There are multiple examples showing that in most cases it is not enough to reduce the function.

So, leave your mags full. Leave the hammer cocked. The gun will work fine if otherwise properly maintained.
 
I have had the same three colt 8 round stainless mags loaded for almost 20 years. I shot them last week, and reloaded them. No telling when I will shoot them again
 
Revolver. No wuckers.

But when I owned and carried automatics I heard a lot of conflicting opinions on this. It's been a number of years, but I think I compromised by loading magazines one round light. I wouldn't do that today. I'll be dead and gone before a mag spring would have time to think about weakening, if that's even a problem.
 
I have two 45 magazines that are left over from when I shot competition in the late 1950s. They've each had at least 10,000 rounds run through them and they each funcion peerfectly.
 
Tom K said:
You need to lose some weight? :eek:

/ducks
Click to expand...
Correct. Now that I have lost some weight, my couch works a little better. Still not optimum, whatever exactly that is. However, changing out the springs is more trouble than it's worth. Much easier to maintain mags with decent springs.

BTW, I have been playing with guns for over fifty years, and have had no need to replace even ONE mag spring, ever, of the many dozens that I have owned. I did once replace a trigger spring on an FN LAR with a cut-down rebound slide spring from an S&W, but that was because the stock spring was unnecessarily strong for its function on a semi-auto (may have been unnecessarily strong, altogether, but I don't know much about that).
 
dben002 said:
Science tells us that a fully depressed mag spring will lose it elasticity over a number of years. So it makes sense (i think ??) that if you have a flush mag with one in the chamber (added pressure on mag spring) in your EDC and it's been there forever you may want to purchase a new one.

Any scientist here on the forum that can comment on this?????
Click to expand...

People have shot mags that were loaded in WW2 and they worked fine.....Compression or decompression does not kill a spring.....constant(many times) compression.decompression is what kills a spring......I am using mags from the 50's and WW2 that still work fine......So its a non issue...........
 
While it is often written about in Gun-rags, I can not say that I've personally experienced Spring fatigue. When my Dad passed away 6 years ago I found a half dozen or so loaded WWll vintage Gov't issue 1911 Mag's fully loaded with vintage Military .45 acp hard ball rounds. I can not state with exact certainty how long they were loaded but would bet at least 60 years or so. I brought them to the Range 6 years ago and shot them all out - NO FTF, NO hick-ups, and the Mag springs were like they were made yesterday. In actuality, they felt much stronger than my commercial Colt springs that came with my Gold Cup & Gov't model. I also own many ORIGINAL Colt magazines for Model M 1903's 1908's (.25acp, .32acp, .380 acp) that are almost 100 years old. The original springs work perfectly!

Just my personal experience and can not state that every single mag spring will exhibit similar properties - so do what your common sense tells you.
 
The recoil springs in my autoloaders cycle a ton more than the mag springs do. ;)
 
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