True or myth?
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Florida J Frame
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This is a myth. Loading and unloading cause the spring to "wear" not sitting there full.
fyimo
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The only time I was ever mandated to carry magazines with one round short of full was in Vietnam in 1969 with the M16. We told it was because some soldiers were experiencing feeding problems so our SOP for our ammo supply was 21 magazines with 19 rounds in each.
SpringGunTunes
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Cycling a spring wears it out. Not loading it.
My father has a Bi-Centennial Ruger Mark II that he always has kept fully loaded since 1776. (Ha, ha 1976)
Shoots just fine with original magazine and spring.
Russ
Arik
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Carrying a J frame takes care of that problem!
But then you have to leave 1 cylinder empty where the hammer rests
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JonF
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Absolutely nonsense !!
Gunsnwater
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They sell replacement springs.
modraker
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You don't need one less in the magazine for the M&P but you definitely need one less for some Glocks. I had a Glock23 where it was all but impossible to manually rack the slide with a full 13-round magazine.
Maddmax
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I carry a full mag and one in the pipe. Never had a problem in all the years I've been shooting. ...and I'm (getting to be),one of the "old timers".
But then you have to leave 1 cylinder empty where the hammer rests
Nonsense again. Study the inner working of the j frame and see what you come up with.
HereSinceTheLongHunters
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Good to get some experienced feedback on this. Been rotating and leaving the mag light on the HD gun to save the spring (as suggested by the LGS crowd).... will be packing 17 now.
Arik
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But then you have to leave 1 cylinder empty where the hammer rests
Nonsense again. Study the inner working of the j frame and see what you come up with.
I was joking. You know....since we're talking myths about downloading on ammo :banghead:
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blasterp7
Member
Total Myth!! I have a 59 that has had all magazines fully loaded since 1974 (except of course when they were utilized, but then they always got fully reloaded after use) I never had a problem, and never changed a spring...
I have a friend that uses that excuse. He says it's hard on the mag spring to keep it fully loaded. Truth is he just doesn't have the finger strength to get the last round in. He's 6'4" and 225 pounds and won't admit that a gimpy old Injun can get the last round in with my gimpy hand and he can't with his healthy hands.
DocSunShine
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The irony is "rotating" will wear your springs, keeping them loaded won't.
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This has just never been an issue in good quality single stack magazines such as those used on the Colt 1911, SIG 210s, etc. Always load to full capacity and don't worry about it. The one exception might be a poorly designed 8 round magazine for a 1911. Stay with 7 round mags for the 1911 unless you are using one of the really high quality after market Wilson or McCormick type power mags.
After the "wonder-nine" craze and the double stack magazines that were used in the high capacity pistols beginning in the 1980s in the run up to the military's adoption of the Beretta M9 (92F) pistol, a concern arose over the springs in the double stack magazines. Spring issues either did, or did not, crop up, in the high capacity magazines, depending upon who you believed.
The practice of loading one round down, or starting with a full magazine and loading the chamber but not topping off the magazine had its genesis in a magazine article which said that spring life could be extended almost indefinitely if the magazine was loaded one round down. While that may be true, it is no longer necessary.
Further research has now revealed that it is not continuous compression that causes the issue of excessive spring set, but hard use, i.e. the continual stress of the spring being cycled over and over again, which causes issues. Most all factory high quality magazines allow for this in their design, and full compression is not an issue as there are enough extra coils and pounds of spring weight built in to prevent issues when spring set occurs, which it will in all magazines.
As far as cycling, most of the gun makers have simple armorer tests that can be used to tell you when to replace the magazine spring. With Glock, the test always has been to rack the slide back as fast as possible on an empty gun with an empty magazine seated. If the slide locks back, you are ok. Naturally, in shooting, if you start noticing issues with a lazy last round (not getting up in time to be stripped from the top of the magazine by the pick-up rail resulting in failure to feed), then a spring replacement is necessary.
So, if you have a high quality pistol, it is not necessary to load one round down to avoid issues.
That said, there may be a different reason for loading magazines one round down. With some brands, the tolerances are so close that seating and locking in a full magazine is very difficult with the slide closed (this could happen in a gun fight), or manually running the slide on a full magazine is very difficult.
This is especially true with the legally mandated 10 round magazines where too much tolerance allows in an 11th round when forced, and that is, in some cases, a felony, and in some cases a misdemeanor. This is true even if the magazine is marked as a 10 round magazine and even if you did not modify it.
Authorities in such backward locations will force one in if they can and then your liberty is at issue, even if the magazine was built and designed as a 10 round magazine. Never modify such a magazine to make that last round easier to insert or to make it easier to seat in place with the slide closed. Doing so may result in enough space to force in an 11th round, and then you are in trouble.
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jstanfield103
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Exactly correct, it's not leaving them loaded or unloaded. It's the compressing and uncompressing that wears them out. I have always left my magazines fully loaded and always fine.
RobzGuns
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If we're talking mags in general, I can do better than that.
I have a Nazi Issue P38 that gets fired a few times a year. All mags are kept loaded and it's still using the original springs. I do have spare spring on hand waiting for that time when I'll need to replace them.
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dsbock
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Only if you are carrying an 8-round magazine in New York State. 
David
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If y'all will pardon some comments by an auld codger.......
Waaaay back when the Browning P35 was the latest and greatest wonder pistol, it was discovered that the 13 round magazine wasn't always as reliable as one could wish when fully loaded. Downloading by one round solved this problem. In fact, the British Royal Army institutionalized the practice while it was their service pistol. Many others followed suit.
The M-16(no revisions) was found to be less than reliable with a full 20 round magazine, leading to the standard practice of downloading by 2 or 3 rounds to improve functionality. This was a field exedient practice proven to work, functionality being more important than an extra couple of rounds.
These are two examples off the top of my head of downloading magazines being standard practice to improve functional reliability. They probably aren't the only examples known to man, but improving spring life didn't have anything to do with it.
Now, one of those examples is 78 years old and the other something over 40. We've learned an awful lot about both magazine and weapons design since then. Unless you find you have functional difficulties, or it eases your mind to download, load 'em up all the way. Either way won't make any difference to the springs.
Waaaay back when the Browning P35 was the latest and greatest wonder pistol, it was discovered that the 13 round magazine wasn't always as reliable as one could wish when fully loaded. Downloading by one round solved this problem. In fact, the British Royal Army institutionalized the practice while it was their service pistol. Many others followed suit.
The M-16(no revisions) was found to be less than reliable with a full 20 round magazine, leading to the standard practice of downloading by 2 or 3 rounds to improve functionality. This was a field exedient practice proven to work, functionality being more important than an extra couple of rounds.
These are two examples off the top of my head of downloading magazines being standard practice to improve functional reliability. They probably aren't the only examples known to man, but improving spring life didn't have anything to do with it.
Now, one of those examples is 78 years old and the other something over 40. We've learned an awful lot about both magazine and weapons design since then. Unless you find you have functional difficulties, or it eases your mind to download, load 'em up all the way. Either way won't make any difference to the springs.
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From one oldie to another:
I agree, and had forgotten about the old P35 mags. I did not address the M16 mags as the question was about pistol mags, but I agree that if using the original type magazine (not the Magpul or the Sure Fire), you should load 2 rounds down (18 in a 20 rounder, 28 in a 30 rounder).
Thanks for the reminder!
Good show!
