magazine spring question

[MyRoad]

I'm just curious if anyone knows what the military specification is (I think they have one for everything, don't they?) for when to change out mag springs? And do they have a guideline for how long to leave a mag loaded?

What about police armorers? LEO's tend to load them and leave them loaded for long periods of time. I was looking at some used LE mags at a gun show (G22), I compared them to new ones and the used springs had almost no resistance at all vs. the new ones. Obviously they don't want to wait until they fail to replace them, so I wonder what the guideline is for leaving them loaded?

thanks for the info -

 

[nicholst55]

The Army has no set guidelines foe either. M16 magazines cost the government about $8, so why bother with springs?

 

[MyRoad]

M16 magazines cost the government about $8, so why bother with springs?

Then, I wonder how they determine when to replace them? And the M9's?

 

[Bix]

I've found that the competition guys are a great source for maintainence interval information -- they tend to put more rounds downrange per year than most other folks.

Glock mag spring PM is at the bottom:

http://www.custom-glock.com/maint.html

 

[rcmodel]

Then, I wonder how they determine when to replace them?

When a GI gets tired of messing with a mag that won't work, and runs it over with a HumVee.

Then he turns it in to supply.

They will then give him another mag in exchange that may be better then the flat one.

rcmodel

 

[nicholst55]

When a GI gets tired of messing with a mag that won't work, and runs it over with a HumVee.

Then he turns it in to supply.

They will then give him another mag in exchange that may be better then the flat one.

That's funny right there! I don't care who you are!

And pretty much true. When a GI's mags get finicky, he replaces them. If you're real lucky, he smashes them first. If not, they get tossed into the 'range' box of mags and eventually turned in. Although nearly every unit that I visit here in Korea still has boxes of 20-round mags, so maybe they don't get turned in...

With all the M4s being issued here, most units have footlockers full of NIB mags (they're issued with seven new mags). That's a good thing, as it will hopefully take some of the old, well used mags out of circulation.

I advise combat arms units to replace magazines every two years; combat support and combat service support units can use them a lot longer, because they seldom use their weapons - at least here in Korea.

 

[MyRoad]

I advise combat arms units to replace magazines every two years; combat support and combat service support units can use them a lot longer, because they seldom use their weapons - at least here in Korea.

Thanks for that. I have some "just in case" magazines loaded, and I'm curious how long they can sit fully loaded before they become unreliable. Obviously there is no one right answer (as an example, a Romanian AK mag will probably have a different life span than a Glock factory mag), but I was looking for a basic guideline.

 

[rcmodel]

I have M-16 20 & 30 round mags that have been left loaded since I stole them in 1970. They still work just fine when I shoot the old ammo and replace it with new stuff occasionally.
They still work just fine.

Being left compressed is not what ruins a spring.

Cycling a spring by using it is what wears out a spring.

If you want to leave a mag loaded indefinitely, download it by one round and it will still be working when you aren't.

Some hi-cap factory mags like the Glock over-compress the spring when fully loaded. They will especially benefit from down-loading by one or two rounds.

rcmodel

 

[MyRoad]

If you want to leave a mag loaded indefinitely, download it by one round and it will still be working when you aren't.

I'll do that -- thanks!

 

[Riss]

In the event you have a Glock it should not be fully loaded to 15, ever. Doing so can over compress the spring and make it bind when you load it into the gun with the slide forward. Keep them at less than 1 of full capacity and you should be ok. When the rounds start to nose down and fail to load it is past the time to get new springs.