Can I keep my magazines loaded?

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moecomputer

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I got a Marlin 982 .22WMR rimfire rifle.

Is it okay to keep my magazines fully loaded for months at a time? Forever? Will they still function properly when I shoot? Thanks.
 
Any spring is capable of failing and I'm sure a fully loaded mag on even a .22 will stil be compressing the spring quite alot.
 
*sigh*

Definitive answer, take it or leave it.

Springs are designed to never wear out in thier range of motion. So if you over load a mag, there is a chance that it wont return to its full length as strong. Also, people who advocate stretching a spring to get it to push up stronger are shortening the life of the spring, and often after even one compression, the spring wont push up as hard as it ever did.


Load a magazine to specified capacity for a hundred years, or load it and undload it a hundred times, or any combonation. It will work.

Dont over load, and dont pull the spring longer, and your mag will out last you.
 
The above answer is not correct...it isn't load on a spring that kills it, it is repetitive cycles...springs have a cycle life, mag springs the number is likely high...50,000 or more cycles till the spring breaks from fatigue(the metal changes microscopically every time it is flexed, after so many, it work hardens and fails)....

lets look at the valvespring in your car...it is designed to withstand the load of the valve opening a certain amount, and to do it "X" amount of times(Millions of cycles in Valve springs)..after millions of cycles, the spring gets weaker, and your car don't run as well, cause the valves are leaking.

Now, take a 35 year old car that has been sitting with 10 miles on it..the springs will be fine, cause they havent been cycled millinos of times...(the seals will be shot tho,lol thats a diffrent story altogether..;))
 
Okay, so it is okay to keep it loaded for a while, but it wears out by loading it and unloading it all the time. Thanks for awnsers.
 
yeah leave it loaded... :) as far as cars spring CDignition i would think that maybe Heat has more to do w/ the failure then the useage alone, but then all the answers here sound good to me.....
 
heat has an effect also, but it is always cycle life that you should be concerned with...thats why youre supposed to change springs in your guns at certain intervals...

Load em up and forget em.:)
 
The Definitive answer is... It depends.

Some magazines are pretty loaded at their max capacity, while some mags will hold max capacity and function fine 50 years later. Typically we hear stories of a GI .45 from WW2 being loaded 50+ years and working fine. While some of the double stack 9mm get weak after 5 years or so.

Corrosion also shortens spring life. Your old old car may start to sag on its springs after they get some good rust on them, which technically makes the steel thinner. But a well lubed and maintained gun mag shouldnt suffer from this.

Just get new mag springs when you see a problem... its cheap, and it wont happen often.
 
My father gave me a box of WW II souvenir pistols. He'd had them stored with full magazines for some 50 years. Some of the pistols dated from the 1920s and 1930s.

They all functioned just fine.

:), Art
 
We seem to have a lot of 'experts' here. I guess they have degrees in engineering or metalurgy.
All I can offer is years of experience messing around with guns. I have never found a magazine spring that wore out though.
 
well my dad had a sig226 loaded for as problay longer than he's had me, and it worked when we shot it so i dont think that you have to worry to much about the springs wearing out any time soon.
 
If the Marlin magazines failed I'd be surprised but...

For myself I don't sweat it - although if I did worry about it I might load a little less than maximum capacity in magazines with higher capacity from semi-auto rifles to 1911's.

On the other hand I'd love to hear about any real long term extreme tests
- on the valve springs of course they can be and are tested; at least they used to be when I knew anything about it -

Anybody test magazine springs before and after a long term test?

I'd expect a GI mag, or a two tone, loaded before I was born to work today, magazine, pistol and ammunition assuming reasonable storage. I'd expect a Winchester 1890 loaded in the 19th century and left hanging to work today.

On the other hand in the proverbial 1911 I wonder what would happen if somebody stuck an extra capacity follower in to make an 8 round magazine or if that same magazine was used with .45 Super? Would the spring get the last round up in time for a faster than expected slide velocity. I know the magazines have tended to work in every case I've ever heard about but the tests were not extreme.
 
Spring tension

I worried about my 226 jamming over spring tension after sitting for a long period so I use a .38 revolver for home defense.
 
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