Store magazines loaded or empty?

[Bugzilla]

Would think that this has been discussed, but my quick search did not find any info. How do you store your extra magazines, loaded, partially loaded, empty?

 

[KellyinAvon]

If they are out of the packaging they are loaded.

edit: for the most part. My range only magazines in my range bag are empty.

 

[Expat]

What good is an unloaded magazine?

 

[mark40sw]

Storing magazines with rounds will not hurt them. Leaving a spring compressed will not weaken it, unless compressed beyond its elastic limit. The number of cycles a spring experiences can weaken it.

 

[IUKalash429]

What Mark said.

Choose one method and stick with it - load them and stash them, or stash them empty (although to me, an empty mag is about as useful as a wet newspaper). It's the multiple compressions and expansions that can wear out springs over time. Even then though, it takes a HELLUVA lot to wear out a quality mag. Having extra mags and/or springs never hurts. I buy replacement spring packs from Damage Industries.

FWIW I have mags that have been fully loaded for several years and still function like new. I have ~70-year-old surplus AK mags that are all original and still function as they did in the late 1940s/early 1950s.

 

[Tyler-The-Piker]

 

[KellyinAvon]

View attachment 137025

That pic needs accompanying theme music.

 

[Tyler-The-Piker]

That pic needs accompanying theme music.

agreed.
hard to pick one though there's so many possibilities:

 

[BR8818]

agreed.
hard to pick one though there's so many possibilities:

Love Waylon and Pantera, but Haggard's "fight'n side of me" fits perfect in today's climate.

 

[DadSmith]

If they are out of the wrapping they are loaded. If wrapped they are in storage containers.

 

[fullmetaljesus]

For wear a s tear on the spring.

A loaded and unloaded mag place the same stress on the spring they are designed to compress. Magazines aren't typically designed to allow you to over compress springs.

You only mess up springs by over compressing or stretching them.

And of course the wear and tear of loading/unloading will cause issues eventually but again the are designed to worm until they don't

Loaded unloaded they don't give a ****.

I say load up a bunch and let em sit won't cause one issue.

 

[turnerdye1]

I found an ammo can at my grandpas that I forgot about. It had 4 loaded AR mags with 30 roundsand an assortment of other ammo.

I kept it at his house a stache in case something happened. I put that ammo can there in 2010.

Well I found it a couple weeks ago and was surprised that the contents were all in good shape and appeared the same as I put them in.

I went this past week and shot them all and they worked without a single hiccup. Slow fire, fast fire, it didn’t matter. I was pleasantly surprised and now I’ll be keeping a few more mags loaded around the house.

 

[rooster]

when I was in the army we found crates of mags that had been loaded for presumably years and possibly since the first gulf war. Date code on the ammo was late 90’s if I remember right. Mags seemed fine. No malfunctions reported when used.

load them and don’t worry about it.

 

[ashby koss]

Mechanical engineer here. Springs only fatigue DURING movement.

Store loaded or unloaded or partial. just use them to keep them dirt free and function checked, have some spare springs set aside.

 

[gregr]

Mechanical engineer here. Springs only fatigue DURING movement.

have some spare springs set aside.

Throwin` pearls here...

 

[JTL165]

Feed lips will fail due to being stored loaded before springs will fail. That is the main failure I've seen with AR magazines.

Keep an amount that you're comfortable having at the ready loaded (if thats all of them then keep them all loaded) Store the rest empty. Just my two cents.

 

[Vigilant]

when I was in the army we found crates of mags that had been loaded for presumably years and possibly since the first gulf war. Date code on the ammo was late 90’s if I remember right. Mags seemed fine. No malfunctions reported when used.

load them and don’t worry about it.

Not to call you out, but the first Gulf War was 1991ish, so if the ammo date code was late 90’s...
Regardless, loaded mags were not kept at any duty station I was ever at. If live ammo was warranted, we had to load it each time, and unload it when we turned in the weapon. That from an MP that drew live daily, and had to unload, and download mags daily. YMMV.

 

[mark40sw]

Feed lips will fail due to being stored loaded before springs will fail. That is the main failure I've seen with AR magazines.

Keep an amount that you're comfortable having at the ready loaded (if thats all of them then keep them all loaded) Store the rest empty. Just my two cents.

Heard of polymer mags having feed lips spread under pressure over time. Magpul sells magazine caps, & some magpuls come with caps for that reason.

 

[rooster]

Not to call you out, but the first Gulf War was 1991ish, so if the ammo date code was late 90’s...
Regardless, loaded mags were not kept at any duty station I was ever at. If live ammo was warranted, we had to load it each time, and unload it when we turned in the weapon. That from an MP that drew live daily, and had to unload, and download mags daily. YMMV.

We found ammo in connexs that dates well into the 80’s, The vast majority of the ammo we had even at Condition code alpha was already a few years old, the stuff we issued for training was usually dated early to mid mid 2000’s. The particular boxes of loaded mags I’m talking about stayed loaded for probably the same reason we didn’t unload them, no one wanted to spend the time or effort.

Kuwait has had US Military installations in it since the first Iraq war. Camp Doha was formed after the first Iraq war and then took part in the 2003 invasion.

Yes loaded mags are generally not allowed to be laying around in the military. That said we took in all manner of weird not supposed to happens during the drawdown from Iraq.literally we had helicopters hover the flight line, shove boxes out and haul ass, it was a mess. We found tasers, Russian weapons, giant canisters of pepper spray, just all manner of “how the F did that end up in the ASP?”

Anyway I digress, do what you want but I load my mags when I get them new and forget about them.

 

[Itchytriggerfinger]

The only time I have an empty magazine is when I don't have enough ammo.