Good or bad to leave magazines loaded?

[thehemi]

For firearms and ammo in storage, would it be a good or bad idea
to store ammo in spare magazines? I suppose it might be wise for
at least one magazine for HD purposes, but I was curious if having
magazines loaded for an extended period of time would wear out
the spring or whatever is inside that applies the ejection pressure?

Hopefully I'm not over thinking this...

 

[robin303]

I have had 20+ mags loaded for over two months before and never had a problem. I always keep them loaded no matter what and I keep hearing about those Zombies and I'm not going to say "Time Out" LOL.

 

[guy lemmond]

cheap mags have cheap springs.

 

[Wolfwood]

i havent had any problems.

if you are goign to be storing them in burial tubes for years or soemthign i'd probably leave the ammo in 20-50 round boxes though.

 

[Texas1911]

A good, properly designed magazine will not wear out if it is loaded. Mags wear out when the metal spring is pushed beyond it's yield point (design flaw or aftermarket mods), and/or is loaded and unloaded to the point that the metal has work fatigued.

I've seen people fire rounds that were loaded into a stock Colt mag over 30 years ago, without a hitch, in a 1911.

That being said ... the magazine itself is a big determination of if it's good to do so. Aluminum AR magazines for example shouldn't be left loaded for a long period because of the pressure on the feed lips causing them to splay over time. Those mags are shit anyways and should be replaced with Magpuls.

 

[Wolfwood]

thanks, man, i hadnt thought about that property of aluminum in relation to magazines.

 

[cseale86]

I wouldn't worry about it, I was up visiting a friend over the holidays and he decided he wanted to use his surplus ammo and mags and refill them. Twenty five steel GI mags loaded since the Clinton era went off without a hitch.It was an interesting experiment.