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    Marksman
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    Question for you guys that keep you mags loaded. How long do you keep them loaded and have you ever noticed your mags fail because they have had loaded pressure in them for an extended time?

    How long have you had your mags loaded?
     

    stage20

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    loading and unloading is what wears the spring. if its loaded its not supposed to wear. gonna be hard to load bullet by bullet when the zombies are comming. gotta keep them loaded. lol
     

    wildrider666

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    Mag springs: In non extremes temps, where moisture is controled: load them and leave them till you need them. Load being full listed capacity (minus 1-3 if you prefer but your mags dont care).

    Mag bodies: Spot welded aluminum will hold together. Not all poly/composite are made to the same standard, and can stress crack or split under full compression pressure. Often this will be exacerbated by an impact. Extended Sun exposure (years) will degrade most plastics making them brittle but thats not normal storage/use.

    There's still a bunch of Glock mags out there that are not fully metal lined and bulge the sides when fully loaded. These are commonly refered to as non-drop free mags and must be pulled from the pistol when emptied. I got rid of these years ago.
     

    stage20

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    i see several people load 28 in 30 round mags. dont know if it helps or hurts those 2 extra bullets may save your life one day
     

    M60Gunner

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    I have had some weaken noticeably due to unloading and loading. Recently ordered new mag springs to correct this in my XDM mags.
     

    Zeroed in

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    I have some glock 33rd mags loaded and 17rd mags loaded for 7+ years for testing purposes, and they are still strong. I loaded an older scherer 30rd mag and it failed within 6 months (spring collapse). I still have the mag, but swapped the scherer spring with a glock spring. Works great ever since. There are some companies which use inferior springs, unfortunately you can't be sure which ones until it fails. So stay with the name brand mags and springs and you should be fine.
     

    FrommerStop

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    Yes it can affect some magazine springs/designs


    Excellent. Of course I can think of other things I would have like to have seen done, but that would require an engineering lab and he did well with what he had. Of interest the glock mags were the best. I will likely now go replace springs in some mags that have been loaded for years in some other guns and for sure will not trust after market glock mags.
     

    p95ccw

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    Yea I think some of the new design of magazines really push the springs to their limits. My M&P 9c compact mags are some of the hardest mags to load I have ever seen. I think they put a lot of stress on the springs and that's why they wear out faster than some other mag designs.

    I have not handeld one yet but I think the new sig 365 mags will be tough on springs as well. They have a lot of rounds crammed in a tiny mag.

    That said I still don't hesitate to carry my M&P. I just plan on rotating out my carry mags to range mags after 1-2 years.
     
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