I hate to disagree, but I must add my own .02 cents on this topic...
My own personal experience is the opposite of what you (and others) have stated on this particular subject.
Case in point;
I have carried Glock's (almost exclusively) for many years now.
I moved from California to Texas about 7 years ago and during that move I boxed up some of my fully loaded Glock 19 magazines during the big move and kind of forgot about them as they sat stored inside the taped up box for over 6 years straight.
When I finally re-opened up the box and saw the two Glock 19 magazines (still fully loaded) I decided to unload them both and check them for any malfunctions. Both magazines ended up being non-reliable imvho. The spring's in both magazine's had clearly weakened over those 6 years of being left fully loaded.
I have since replaced both spring's and they are now as good as new.
I always rotate my magazine's every 6 months or so nowaday's and have not had anymore problems since.
Hey Outlaw, not challenging your personal experience, just trying to understand and square it with my own experiences.
How was the box that the mags were in stored, in a climate-controlled environment (like inside the house) or not (like the garage or a storage unit)? Reason I ask is that if it was a place that it was exposed to that stifling Texas heat for six long years, there's a good chance that it wasn't the pressure from being loaded that made the spring(s) weak, but the springs' heat-treating being (even slightly) annealed over that long a time of extended periods of exposure to heat.
If it was a leaf-spring or some other kind of heavier base metal with a spring temper, certainly ambient heat wouldn't be adequate to anneal it. But magazine springs being as thin as they are could conceivably be made softer (annealed) by ambient temperatures, especially in hot climes like Texas (or Alabama too!).
If they were inside the house or otherwise kept relatively cool, then nevermind. In that case, I guess we'll just have to chalk it up to an anomaly, because in good quality firearms (which Glocks certainly qualify), that maintains good quality control in their manufacturing processes, heat treating technologies are so close in tolerances to specs that manufacturers have next to no liabilities in recommending storing springs under pressure if that's how they designed them to function, and with mags, that
is how they are designed. The only caveat that I would offer is if the weapon(s)/mags being discussed are of the "disposable" variety. In other words, cheaply-made, low tolerances (if any) adhered to in the manufacturing processes.
To telpinaro, in
almost every case, you can leave your mags loaded
almost indefinitely, assuming that you would at least take them shooting every now and again.
Blues
Yes, the differing temperatures most definitely would have had an adverse effect on a compressed spring. The metal will expand and contract which will shorten its effective lifespan. At least your ammo was good. Rock on!
