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About LinkBacksDo you leave your spare mags loaded? For how long and does it hurt the reliability?
This is a discussion on Leaving Glock Mags Loaded within the Related Gear & Equipment forums, part of the Defensive Carry Discussions category; Do you leave your spare mags loaded? For how long and does it hurt the reliability?...
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Do you leave your spare mags loaded? For how long and does it hurt the reliability?
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I don't have a glock, but I will bet the answer is the same for all mag fed hand guns.
The mag is made to hold ammo. It's the constant unloading and re-loading that will stress the spring. So I don't think it will. Glocks (my phone auto corrected to Blocks LOL) are well made firearms....
1. Yes - at least a couple for each gun.
2. As long as I need to, and No
Nearly any quality magazine made in the past 25 years has used good steel for the spring. Leaving a mag loaded for an eternity won't hurt it.
What will reduce a spring's force (spring constant) and reliability is a lot of cyclic loading - that is, loading it to max deflection and unloading it.
If you do a LOT of shooting, either dedicate some mags to range use, or simply rotate your mags. The more you have, the more important it is to number then to keep track of 'em.
Smitty
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I had a spare magazine for my Glock 27 that was loaded for over a decade. I took it to the range a few months ago. It worked flawlessly.
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Pretty much sums it up for me as well.Originally Posted by gasmitty
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Thanks, I've got some LE only mags just after the ban was lifted for my G19 and have left them loaded for a while. It's my bedside gun and I wanted the knowledge it will work when I need it.
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A good practice is to leave a round or two out, so the mags are not under full compression, and rotate periodically.
I don't load them all (for each firearm), but the 4 I use for a firearm, like my Glock-36 or Glock-26 stay loaded. Maybe after a course, I will change the four I am keeping loaded.
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I kept mine fully loaded (with some mags put away as spares)...including some I left loaded at home when I was in Afghanistan. They worked flawlessly.
As others have mentioned, it's the repetitive compression and release of the spring that causes stress....NOT full compression (or release) as goes the myth.
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Same here. I've got a dozen or so mags for my G23 and several are kept fully loaded for any given length of time.....even for the duration of a deployment, sometimes longer. Never once have those mags failed to work as intended.
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Wolff Gunsprings suggests that double stack magazines be stripped of one or two rounds less than full capacity for extended storage and no problem with single stack magazines remaining loaded to full capacity.
I guess that info would be relevant since most gun manufacturers do not make their own gun springs and use Wolff gun springs in their factory produced firearms.
All of my carry guns are single stack so it's really not a concern for me personally.
I have no idea if GLOCK makes their own springs or not.
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I have four mags for my 23. I keep two 10 rounders in the door of my truck with FMJ, and two 13 rounders on me full of 180 gr GDHP. The 10 rounders have been in the door for as long as two years at a time and worked flawlessly every time I go to the range and rotate ammo...downrange of course. I wouldnt worry about it. I would worry more about constantly unloading and reloading.
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I have some G19 mags that were used heavily over 5 years. Then they sat fully loaded for another several years. Then they were used pretty heavily again. Not one single malfunction. Several thousand rounds since 1997, same mags.
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Thanks for the info. Anybody keep the 31 rounders loaded for periods of time?
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It's been repeated many times; cyclic loading is the only cause of wear. There is a way to cause wear to a spring by compressing it too much, just like stretching it too much can plasticly deform it. I am pretty sure with all the technology these days, that magazines would not be made to reach that point by simply putting the specified amount of bullets in.
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