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Posted: 4/23/2003 11:17:58 PM EDT
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Ok guys, What is your opinion on leaving mags loaded for extended periods of time. Will the springs "set" or lose reliability. Before the question comes up I only have USGI 30 round mags. If you download by say five (5) rounds will that help? |
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Quoted: Ok guys, What is your opinion on leaving mags loaded for extended periods of time. Will the springs "set" or lose reliability. Before the question comes up I only have USGI 30 round mags. If you download by say five (5) rounds will that help? If I store loaded Mags I download by 8 rounds. I had a little class on this long time ago, it is recommended for long non use period not to be loaded at all, but if necessary leave out 7 to 9 rounds for spring life. |
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*Properly designed and manufactured* springs will not wear by being left compressed for long periods of time, provided they aren't compressed beyond their design limit. USGI mags use properly engineered springs, and have followers that prevent overcompression. You can leave them fully loaded for decades without any problem (it's been done!). Now, this will NOT apply to most aftermarket mags. One of the main places money is saved with cheap mags is the springs. These springs are almost always poorly engineered and use sub-par materials. Most factory and military mags won't be damaged by keeping the mags fully loaded, though "Ring of Fire" guns may not fall under this umbrella... -Troy |
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Quoted: *Properly designed and manufactured* springs will not wear by being left compressed for long periods of time, provided they aren't compressed beyond their design limit. USGI mags use properly engineered springs, and have followers that prevent overcompression. You can leave them fully loaded for decades without any problem (it's been done!). -Troy I wished I had kept the spring I would have sent it to someone who could have ran a test on it. I had a fully loaded Colt 20rd Mag set for 11 years. Shot the rounds out early this month and the spring was collapsed. The follower was loose in the Mag Body you could shake the Mag and it rattled like hell. I pulled the spring and threw it away while we were still shooting. I hate that because that came out of my only original new Colt Mag I bought new before the ban. I knew better than to leave it fully loaded, but I really forgot about the Mag until I went shooting. I even forgot about owning it until the wife found it last month. |
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I would have like to have seen it. One problem that especially plagued the 20s was that the mag springs rusted very easily, and MOST of the springs I've seen in 20s have rust on them. This significantly weakens the metal. Of course, it may have been an early mag with a bad spring, too. Some of the earliest 20s had weak springs, and later mags (67-on) had a stronger, higher quality spring. The spring strength on USGI 30s was also increased, and stainless steel specified along with GFs in 1991. They are equivalent to the Wolff "+10%" spring. -Troy |
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Troy I can't figure it out either, the spring had 0 rust or bitting on it. I have thought about this even called Dad today to see if he had the bag we put our empty ammo boxes so I could get the spring. When I pulled the floor plate there was very little to no tension from the spring. I changed the factory new green followers to orange followers tonight on my DPMS 20rd Mags and the springs were jumping out of the Mag bodies. Here is a pic of my DPMS 20rd Mags only. I think the orange looks damn sweet with the Black Teflon Mags. What do you think?.[:D] [img]http://photos.ar15.com/ImageGallery/IG_LoadImage.asp?iImageUnq=11299[/img] |
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[b]IF[/b] you really want to download, I would suggest you download by [b]10[/b] and leave a spoon and stripper clip mounted and ready to top off. If you have the time, top off the mag, if not, dump the extra 10 [i](note - I don't store this way anymore, after learning it's not needed)[/i] [img]http://photos.ar15.com/ImageGallery/IG_LoadImage.asp?iImageUnq=11450[/img] |
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