Spring fatigue; spring set?

[Naphtali]

I have a 20-plus year old 12 gauge pump shotgun with six-shot magazine that I have kept loaded for about four years. Every so often, when I think about it, I empty magazine, sometimes by firing the shotgun, most of the time by cycling shotshells through the mechanism and replacing ammunition with new shotshells. Shotgun has an American-made tubular magazine spring, and I have two unused replacement magazine springs among my parts bin.

While I believe the likelihood of spring fatigue or spring set will result in failure to feed any shotshell within the magazine approaches zero, what can it hurt to ask LEOs who have shotguns fully loaded for many years in their duty automobiles?

Is there any reason to pay closer attention for shotshell feeding from the magazine becoming a problem - say in the next decade?

 

[chief38]

While I have replaced Springs in Magazine Tubes as well as in Magazines of Rifles and Pistols, I can't say I've ever had a failure to feed. A few years ago I replaced the Spring on my home defense Shotgun and it had shrunk over 3 inches which concerned me. While I never had any issues with the SG, I did replace the spring anyway just to err on the side of caution. I'd bet that even if I took the new Spring out right now there would be "shrinkage" but that is mostly due to the Spring taking it's normal loaded "set".

I have also replaced Recoil Springs on semi auto Pistols that get shot frequently but again, not because I experiences failures - just to keep recoil and stress on the gun as minimal as possible.

So am I just wasting my money?? I don't really know for sure but it certainly can't hurt as long as the proper springs are used for replacement.

I own some older Semi Auto HG's that are about 100 years old and they still have what I believe to be the original Recoil and Magazine springs - they still work perfectly fine! Ask 10 people and you will get 10 different opinions.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Ask 10 people and you will get 10 different opinions.

This is the greatest truth about the internet!

Ivan

 

[scooter123]

I had a 20 gage 870 Youth Model I kept as a house gun loaded for 17 years before I sold it to a co-worker with a 7 year old son needing a youth shotgun. Kid has been shooting it for 2 years now without one single failure. BTW, the little squirt is getting to be a darned good shot, takes care of rabbits plus he's getting good enough at Sporting Clays to beat several fully grown shooters.

Prior to handing it over all I did was empty the magazine and wipe the dust off the shotgun.

 

[Goldstar225]

My personal duty shotgun (now retired it's a home defender) has been fully loaded for almost 20 years now and the springs are fine. The only time the magazine is empty is when I shoot it or clean it. It has the six round Wilson magazine extender with a Wilson spring. I don't know if the Wilson spring makes a difference or not.

 

[Gene L]

I have read that springs only wear under compression/expansion, not from being merely compressed.

 

[stansdds]

Ask 10 people and you will get 10 different opinions.

Ask 10 dentists and you will get 15 different opinions!

A high quality spring will take an initial set, but then it will remain stable for many decades. It is the cycle of compression and relaxation of a spring that causes it to wear. If the spring is left compressed, it will be just fine, so long as it is a high quality spring. Cheap springs are a whole different ball of wax.

 

[dusty3030]

Spring isn't a concern as much as the inside of the tube itself.
Ask a duck hunter, wet hands, wet shells, and the inside of the tube rusts causing the follower to hang up.
Gunked up lube (WD 40, 3 in 1 Oil etc.) can also "glue" the follower in place.

A clean tube and follower and replace spring if it shows corrosion has been my protocol.

 

[fiasconva]

My grandfather kept his Browning A5 fully loaded in his closet for at least 50 years with no problems whatsoever. It served as his home defense and hunting gun all that time. The only time it wasn't loaded was when he was transporting it from one hunting site to the other.

 

[steelslaver]

100 human years would be about 1 second to a motionless spring. Repeated flexing could eventually cause it to fail. Just setting there compressed would do nothing to it as long as it was not beyond its elastic limit. Once the elastic limit is past the spring is damaged immediately.

 

[mckenney99]

As a former LEO who carried a fully loaded extended mag Rem 870 shotgun in the patrol car every day, the one problem we encountered wasn't with the springs. With being keep in the interior of the car fully loaded in a hot car we did experience the nose/crimp area of the Remington Shells starting to swell from the pressure in the tube. Some of these swelled shells would drag in the mag tube and some swelled so badly they wouldn't chamber. We started down loading the mags by one round and that resolved the swelling issue. While heat in the house shouldn't be a problem and if using a standard 4 rd mag I don't think you would ever have a problem, but those extended tube springs really put a lot of pressure on the shells when loaded at full capacity.

 

[mike campbell]

... Shotgun has an American-made tubular magazine spring, and I have two unused replacement magazine springs among my parts bin....

Typically, an ACTION spring will be replaced if it measures appreciably shorter than a new one.

Why not measure the installed one periodically and compare to an unused one?

 

[Old Corp]

It appears mckenney99 beat me to it, but as an LEO with too many years on patrol, all of them with - first a High Standard Riot 12 ga., and later a Remington 870 stored either in the trunk or in an overhead rack - the issue was never springs.
Most common was the aforementioned swelling of the crimp-end of the shells due to the combo of spring tension, extreme heat and plastic hull material doing what it does.

With a shotgun that sees mostly home, woods and normal field/range use, the spring(s) will far outlive the first several users.