How long can you keep a 1911 magazine loaded?

[RetiredUSNChief]

Again...

If you have, and use, a 1911 magazine long enough to wear the magazine spring out, you have well and truly gotten your money's worth out of it.

If that's the case...buy another magazing spring for a few bucks and have another go at trying to wear it out.

 

[ephraimf]

Again...

If you have, and use, a 1911 magazine long enough to wear the magazine spring out, you have well and truly gotten your money's worth out of it.

If that's the case...buy another magazing spring for a few bucks and have another go at trying to wear it out.

I'm not worried about the money. I'm worried about trusting my life to a magazine that doesn't work when I need it.

--Ephraim

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

I'm not worried about the money. I'm worried about trusting my life to a magazine that doesn't work when I need it.

--Ephraim

As mechanical devices go, a magazine and its spring are about as simple as they get. And for mechanical devices, generally the simpler and less complex, the more reliable and long lived they are...because there are fewer moving parts which can wear, break, or otherwise malfunction.

This specific design also has the advantage of more than 100 years of continuous use and literally millions upon millions of magazines and springs manufactured. It's therefore an exceptionally well proven design.

If you're worried about reliability for the reason stated, then use a quality, brand name spring with a good reputation and function test it for as long as it takes to assure you of its suitability.

If your concerns over the longevity of the spring are not alleviated by what you've found here or elsewhere, then pick a periodicity that satisfies your concerns and replace the springs on a routine basis. Like maybe every ten years on the decade years, so it's easy to remember.

 

[FL-NC]

If its a good magazine, a long time. I would buy 4 good mags from Wilson or Mccormick. Keep 2 loaded, switch out whenever you do an oil change on your car. Problem solved,

 

[Walt Sherrill]

If its a good magazine, a long time. I would buy 4 good mags from Wilson or Mccormick. Keep 2 loaded, switch out whenever you do an oil change on your car. Problem solved,

Problem not solved -- problem delayed. And remember: not all mag designs are created equal.

Switching out your good quality Wilson or McCormick mags simply shifts the work load to other mags. Even if you switch out mags when you change your car oil, you could eventually still have mag springs that fail, but it may just take longer to experience it.

Taking mags out of the rotation doesn't let them rest and get stronger -- springs don't heal. More importantly, if you leave the "switched-out" mags fully loaded, you've done NOTHING to lengthen the spring life of either set of mags, and doing so could be harder on the stored mag's springs than if you had just continued to use them!.

Why? Because spring wear occurs when the spring is deeply compressed. If the mag design is never deeply compressed (i.e., if it's not pushed to or near it's design/elastic limit) cycling will have little or no effect on the spring's functional life. (That's why a 7-round 1911 mag springs can last for many decade, and continue to function well, even when left fully loaded for the whole time! -- as that mag spring is s never compressed near it's design limit. The earliest 8-round 1911 mags were notorious for failures -- but gun designers wised up, redesigned followers, and changed the mags a little, and 8-rounders do much better, now.) But the very high cap mags used in some of the gun games can behave far differently and live shorter lives,, because many of those springs DO get pushed to or past their elastic limit.

It's too early to tell, yet, but I'll bet you won't hear stories about some retiree's Beretta M9 being found in a drawer, having been left fully loaded for 50 years, and those mags still working like new...

Go to the range regularly and pay attention to mag behavior. Install new springs at the first sign of mag-related problems.

With some hi-cap mags you might want to download a round or two for long-term storage. (That's what Wolff Springs recommends on their site.)

 

[JTQ]

It's too early to tell, yet, but I'll bet you won't hear stories about some retiree's Beretta M9 being found in a drawer, having been left fully loaded for 50 years, and those mags still working like new...

Though you might.

Original Beretta 92 and SIG P226 mags are 15 rounders which are probably the right number for that tube. Just like HK takes a lot of heat for having only 15 round capacity for their full size guns. HK (like Beretta and SIG originally) probably figures they'd rather have a mag that worked great all the time, for a long time, than have a couple of extra rounds.

 

[Walt Sherrill]

Original Beretta 92 and SIG P226 mags are 15 rounders which are probably the right number for that tube.

True... but BHP's were originally made with 13-round mags, and now you can get 15-round mags. Different followers, probably. My SIG P228 came with two 13-round mags, but you can get 15-round Mec-Gars that fit flush, too. CZs use the same springs in their 10 and 15 round mags, and in some of the 16, 17, and 18+ mags used in those guns. Something will have to give somewhere down the line -- as the "same spring" is being compressed far more in some of those mags.

I've had a bunch of Glocks over the years, and have yet to hear more than a really rare and seemingly random complaint about Glock mag failures. (Glock uses very strong springs. When I've gotten new Glock mags; I sometimes thought I would need a hydraulic press to load the mags to capacity for the first month or two.)

The mags in question, here -- Berettas -- had a lot of problems during their military career, but that was attributed to crappy mags bought at the lowest price. I never had problems with my 92 or 96 mags, but I generally left them unloaded, and didn't shoot them enough to get a real feel for their durability.

I do know, however, that 1911 7-round mags, the kind that creates all of the 'net buzz and are held up as examples of how springs don't wear out -- are mags that, when fully loaded, don't come close to the spring's elastic limits. It's a shame all mag springs don't have the functional life of a 1911 7-round mag spring -- but if all the other springs used had the same reserve (lack of compression) when fully loaded, they probably would.

 

[FL-NC]

Problem not solved -- problem delayed. And remember: not all mag designs are created equal.

Switching out your good quality Wilson or McCormick mags simply shifts the work load to other mags. Even if you switch out mags when you change your car oil, you could eventually still have mag springs that fail, but it may just take longer to experience it.

Taking mags out of the rotation doesn't let them rest and get stronger -- springs don't heal. More importantly, if you leave the "switched-out" mags fully loaded, you've done NOTHING to lengthen the spring life of either set of mags, and doing so could be harder on the stored mag's springs than if you had just continued to use them!.

Why? Because spring wear occurs when the spring is deeply compressed. If the mag design is never deeply compressed (i.e., if it's not pushed to or near it's design/elastic limit) cycling will have little or no effect on the spring's functional life. (That's why a 7-round 1911 mag springs can last for many decade, and continue to function well, even when left fully loaded for the whole time! -- as that mag spring is s never compressed near it's design limit. The earliest 8-round 1911 mags were notorious for failures -- but gun designers wised up, redesigned followers, and changed the mags a little, and 8-rounders do much better, now.) But the very high cap mags used in some of the gun games can behave far differently and live shorter lives,, because many of those springs DO get pushed to or past their elastic limit.

It's too early to tell, yet, but I'll bet you won't hear stories about some retiree's Beretta M9 being found in a drawer, having been left fully loaded for 50 years, and those mags still working like new...

Go to the range regularly and pay attention to mag behavior. Install new springs at the first sign of mag-related problems.

With some hi-cap mags you might want to download a round or two for long-term storage. (That's what Wolff Springs recommends on their site.)

The point was and is, when you switch them out, you unload one set of mags. Also using quality mags vs something from Asia bought at a gun show for $5.

 

[Walt Sherrill]

The point was and is, when you switch them out, you unload one set of mags. Also using quality mags vs something from Asia bought at a gun show for $5.

If you keep the mags unloaded when stored, you've taken them out of the rotation but caused other mags to do the work in their place. Doing that delays further work-related deterioration of the unused, unloaded mag springs, but does nothing else. Those mag springs will continue to deteriorate when they're put back in service, at that same rate as before.

Most springs, if not over-stressed, will degrade very slowly for a long, long time, will continue to function properly, and may never truly fail. Some springs, like those used in very high-cap mags and recoil springs in very compact semi-autos, are routinely over-stressed.

Having extra mags in the rotation does nothing to increase or improve overall spring function. It may just take four mags twice as long to wear out as two mags. From a purely economic perspective, It would make more sense to just buy extra springs and have some on hand for when mag springs starts to misbehave.

(Most of us want extra mags, and if we shoot competitively -- ala IPSC, USPSA, IDPA, etc. -- we really need MORE than than the two or three mags that might come in the factory box.) But regardless of how many mags you have for a gun, it makes sense to test the ones you actually use (unless they're kept unloaded) from time to time to be sure you can count on them when you need them.

Leaving the mags loaded could accelerate deterioration, but may not -- it all depends on whether the springs in those loaded mags are pushed to their elastic limits when they are fully loaded. Not all mags are. Wolff Springs, on their FAQ page, recommends downloading hi-caps by a round or two for long-term storage. (That's not advice that is intended to sell more mag springs!)