This question applies to my Glock 19 CCW, as well as my bed side 870, or the AR15 stuffed into my living room ottoman.  Does leaving the Mag loaded damage it over time? I know we've always been taught not to load our standard AR mags to full cap, does that go for other guns? Like, as of now, my 870 MM is full cap, as is my AK and glock 19 mags that I carry day to day. My AR15 Pmags i load to 25.

So what im asking is. Should I load these guns to full cap, or is that risking a jam? (Note, im useing factory glock 15 rd mags, AR15 pmags and who knows what kind of old russian ak mag)
Also, should I swift out the mags. Like, every other day put the rounds in another mag to keep the springs are getting worn?

I've heard that you should do that and not load full cap, then iv also heard it doesn't matter.

Any feed back is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Provided the magazines are decent quality, and you're not storing them in an oven, there's no reason not to load them to full capacity. This has been debated ad infinitum, and I don't understand why you're asking in Self-Defense & Fitness.

The rationale for not loading AR magazines is: With the 20-round magazines (Vietnam era), the springs were crap and would take a permanent set if fully loaded. With 30-round magazines, loading them to 28 rounds makes it easier to seat the magazine on a closed bolt. That's it.

That's called fatigue.  Unless you're doing thousands of mag dumps it really isn't an issue.



 

It's fine to keep the spring compressed, it will not harm anything.

Try doing squats.

Load/unload cycles are the issue not compressed/decompressed.