How often do you rotate mags?

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spclPatrolGroup

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I keep my Glock 19 in a GunVault strong box on my nightstand, loaded and chambered. How concerned should I be about the springs in the clip wearing down under constant compression, I only load 14 in the clip thinking it may help giving the spring a little room. How often do you rotate magazines? I guess this wouldnt be a problem with a revolver, but pistols are all I have at the moment. Has anyone ever had a problem with a magazine due to keeping it loaded?
 
I've had magazines that were loaded the best part of a decade that have exhibited no problems when used. Ammo was fine also. There have been a number of threads discussing this issue.
 
Every day I fire the mags untill empty thru my back door, then clean and re load. No that was wild bills method. Leave em loaded or unloaded I was told, it shouldnt hurt the spring.
 
I don't rotate mags at all. I used to rotate ammo with some frequency, but only because I would accidently shoot my carry ammo. I finally got colored base pads for my mags with carry ammo. I don't mistakenly shoot my carry ammo anymore. The only round that gets rotated with any frequency is the one that has been chambered.
 
I don't rotate magazines. I will occasionally rotate the first rounds in a magazine to prevent setback from a round being repeatedly rechambered and extracted; but that is about it.
 
I have a couple of MP5 magazines that have been loaded for right at 20 years. I should give them a try to see what happens. Bet they shoot just fine.
 
I believe that what will eventually wear out a magazine spring is a great deal of loading and unloading it... not just leaving one loaded for an extended period of time or even leaving one unloaded for a long time.
 
Well, call me excessive/compulsive but I have the mags for my SD guns
numbered 1-4 and I rotate them every quarter. The exceptions are the 10
round, Clinton era mags and I could care less about them.
 
Pistol mags with exception to my XD mags that I broke in, every two weeks more or less.

Right now my two 10 round mags don't get use outside of the range while I prepare to get my CCW.

Rifle mags? Mine are so heavy duty that I don't rotate them. My AK drum though I just don't wind it up till I'm getting ready to rock and roll.
 
I almost never rotate mags. It's less wear on the actual spring to keep it loaded as opposed to unloading and reloading.

I do offload a round or two out of all of my high caps.
 
I never feel the need to rotate mags, but it happens. The springs degrade from compression and relaxing, not from staying compressed. Your mags will be fine if you leave them full.

I only rotate mags when I shoot them all empty on the range, or empty them for training or to swap ammo. When they get reloaded, I may have a different mag than I am used to carrying, but they all work.
 
I've always wondered about that too. With my Glock 23 .40 I load 10 instead of 13 figuring it might be more spring friendly. Maybe an unnecessary precaution. OTOH, in my 61 years I've had maybe a dozen vintage 1911s, Lugers and Hi Powers from as far back as the WWII era and never found a magazine that was not fully functional. Add to that I've never had the need to replace a recoil spring in any semi auto.
 
I've always wondered about this too. Interesting that static compression is believed to not be a factor. I do believe that squashing a spring to it's max and leaving it like that is not good though. For that reason I load 10 of 15 into the magazine (oops, almost said clip again). I figure if I ever have to shoot more than 10rds inside my home, something is very very wrong. If I wanted more, I'd get the 18rd mag and load only 15.

It's the same reason I release the firing pin spring on each gun before storing it.
 
Sounds like most people here are not worried about the springs. But not many comments on the ammo, I have heard that under pressure the case will start to deform and can cause problems with chambering. I shoot often, but not the SD rounds, what is the longest you would keep ammo loaded before using it and then replacing?
 
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