Keeping bullets in magazine all the time?

[wolf_fire]

A Glock magazine costs about $22. A glock magazine spring costs about $6. My life and my family's life is priceless.

With that said, regular practice with your daily firearm is a must. You will notice if the spring needs to be replaced at the range BEFORE you need it in an emergency. That's when I replace it. Also, keep a set of springs on hand (like I said earlier, they're inexpensive) that way when they do need to be replaced you have them.

 

[NotTwoShure]

Keeping springs compressed is not what wears them out. Constant compression and extension, over-and-over is what wears them out. So, by "rotating" the magazine that you keep loaded, you're actually wearing out your mag springs faster than if you just kept them loaded all the time. It's counterintuitive, but true.

This is what I was looking for and what I have been told, thanks.

 

[johnsoda]

I have a Glock 19 with factory Glock mags for it. I don't rotate the mags out or reload them, but I do not keep it loaded to full capacity. I have had this mag loaded for years and never had an issue with it, but as posters above have said springs are cheap and if its a gun your life may depend on change them out.

 

[titon]

I keep 2 identical ccw guns. one for practice, one to carry, the carry gun almost never gets shot, or unloaded. the practice gun thus gets all the wear and all the fouling and I rarely have to clean it, cause the occasional malfunction or very rare parts failure don't matter. If I somehow have the ccw gun seized or lose it, say in a car wreck, then i can just put the spare into my holster, while a new gun is being acquired. I also have 2 practice mags, 2 carry mags, and one "spare" in case of loss of one of the others. I normally never use the ccw mags in a match or in practice.

 

[golocx4]

I have to have at least 15 characters: NO!

 

[CharlesMorrison]

I keep 2 identical ccw guns. one for practice, one to carry, the carry gun almost never gets shot, or unloaded.

Two guns of the same kind can be very different under the same circumstances.
Just because they are the same does not mean that they will both function the same.
You should be shooting BOTH to make sure they are BOTH reliable!
It's not uncommon to have two of the same gun but with different "quirks".
I think it's dangerous to assume they both function and feed the same, all the time...

 

[Rocketgeezer]

Two guns of the same kind can be very different under the same circumstances.
Just because they are the same does not mean that they will both function the same.
You should be shooting BOTH to make sure they are BOTH reliable!
It's not uncommon to have two of the same gun but with different "quirks".
I think it's dangerous to assume they both function and feed the same, all the time...

You do have a point, but it really depends on exactly what kind of gun we are talking about, two Glocks maybe, but 1911s, or 22 semi autos, it would be unusual to have two operate exactly the same, if nothing else one would seem to "feel" a little differant than the other

 

[wolf_fire]

You do have a point, but it really depends on exactly what kind of gun we are talking about, two Glocks maybe, but 1911s, or 22 semi autos, it would be unusual to have two operate exactly the same, if nothing else one would seem to "feel" a little differant than the other

A firearm is a mechanical system. It will break down over time and it does have the chance to fail. Even the most reliable gun will have parts that wear down. There is even the chance that from the most reliable of firearms manufacturers, you had that one turd on the assembly line whose wife just left him and he's putting your gun together at the factory with a hangover. You just never know when the gun you rely on the most will fail.

Even a Gen 3 and a Gen 4 Glock feel extremely differently. The gun you carry should be the gun you fire. You will notice with lots of practice when it needs to be tweaked. In other words, spring needs to be replaced, etc. I compared my Glock 23 to another's 23 and they were both Gen 3. With my sites at 7 yards I was keeping tight 1" groupings at center, with his, they were hitting about 2" left and down from center with about as tight a grouping. Even the site alignment is going to be slightly different with the "same" gun.

 

[Rocketgeezer]

Can keeping the magazines filled possibly damage the magazines?

Have seen mags loaded for years, never could honestly blame the fact that they were loaded for all that time if they screwed up generaly they may have gotten dirty which more likely caused a problem, as a rule if the mags are of good qaulity parts they don't have a problem, ..........a lttle story concerning loaded mags, a few years ago we were going through some old stuff in moms back room/attic it was a old house, great grandparents, grandparents, mom & dad, anyway we found some old 45 mags still loaded from when dad was in Korea, now this was in 07 or 08 we found this stuff, and my brother and I thought no way this stuff would still fire, had I think 6 or 7 full mags, and all but two or three rds went off, mags fed the rds through my Colt Commander like they were lust loaded yesterday, and it was all of 55 years+

 

[EOD Master]

The only magazines that I've had any issues with were for the M9. On one deployment, I had to transition to my M9 due to tight quarters (clearing a cave) and I had feeding issues. Luckily, I only had to take a few shots and had time to manually load another round between encounters. After that, I rotated the M9 magazines every 3-4 days.

My personal weapons magazines have been loaded for years at a time, with NO issues (S&W 22A, Springfield XD Compact). I have 2 mags for the S&W that had been loaded for more than 4 years, and when I used them this past weekend, they fed perfectly. I think it just depends on the manufacturer.

 

[mappow]

Thanks for your Service EOD Master.

 

[kerb]

Can keeping the magazines filled possibly damage the magazines?

My belief is that springs don't fail due to remaining compressed - they fail after repetitive compression/uncompression cycles.
I keep mine loaded.

That's just me; I could be wrong.

 

[kerb]

Would we not want to place fully assembled (and filled) rounds in the magazine rather than just the bullets? ;-)

Loading just the bullets is a lot safer. Kinda like not carrying with a round in the chamber.
You wouldn't want that pistol going off accidentally would you? Safety first!