What in the world can do this to a magazine?

Kinked springs I've had two of them , I read on S&W forums couple years ago of defective Shield mag springs . One of mine may have been reassembling the spring backwards , Wolff Springs sells heavier springs pack of three 7 and 8 round are the same size
 
Polyphemus said:
Whether most magazines don't have different diameter springs,OP's happens tohave one that that does.Metal fatigue can cause the smaller D.section to collapse into the larger one and when removed show the 90* bend visible in his
photo.MecGar magazines also have smaller D. top loops to fit in the step follower.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected on diameters varying, etc. Nearly all of the mag springs I've seen have been pretty uniform in size, and almost never find the diameter of the wire changing. (That would take a really unusual production process, and one that had to be created as the wire itself was formed; bending the wire differently as the spring is shaped around a form would be less complicated.)

If the spring has defective metal it can bend or kink in ways that a structurally sound spring can't and you'll end up with a strangely deformed or kinked spring that bends in ways that it wasn't intended to bend. It could look exactly like the first photos posted in this discussion.

I don't see that the wire diameter has really changed (which was what I thought the various folks were referring to) in the photos here, but do see the shape and the length of some of the segments changing from one end to another. But even that is unusal and not all that common.
 
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The 17 round 59 series Mec Gars have a similar tapered spring design. It allows the spring to fold into itself and hold a couple more rounds than the OEM S&W mag. I had experienced binding problems after the spring is worn. I think the OP's experience was caused by spring design and fatigue.
 
The diameter of the wire doesn't change, Walt is right there. But the size of the coils does. I called them the diameters of the coils because I don't recall the proper nomenclature.

If this was a common problem it would have been all over the internet some years back so it may be a result of spring fatigue and/or incorrect assembly.

tipoc
 
Diameter of spring wire = gauge or thickness (in mm or inch). Spring Diameter = Outer Diameter and Inner Diameter

Typical life of a garage door spring is like 10,000 cycles. Even if the life of a mag spring is 500 cycles, that would be like over 5,000 rounds down the pipe with a single mag.
 
emailed sw. they will be sending me a replacement spring for this magazine.
I have probably put quite a few rounds (1000+ at least) through this magazine, maybe even didn't install the spring in correct orientation (just a theory).

Still very concerning to have such a sudden and massive failure on what has been my
CCW weapon for several years.
 
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