Something interesting I read a few minutes ago. I always thought this was the correct way to do it - guess I was wrong
“Proper maintenance can go a long way towards maximizing the service life of your magazines. The biggest contributor to premature magazine wear is the practice of “rotating” magazines; that is, unloading your mags and reloading the ammo into a different set of magazines periodically.
The rationale behind this practice is to take the strain off the springs and allow them to rest. Theoretically, alternating between two sets of magazines in this manner should extend the life of all the mags. In practice, though, it does the opposite.
Leaving magazines loaded does not place any additional wear on the springs, but constantly unloading and reloading the springs does. Each time the spring is compressed, a small amount of wear is incurred by the metal, but leaving it loaded does not create additional wear in high-quality modern springs.”
yeah i originally was skittish about having mine always loaded… then i decided when i researched it enough to go the route of always loaded and never worry from there on, because it is good for the mag… so i load all my mags i can for my load outs (typically 7 magazines for each rifle, 4-6 mags per handgun) and keep them in their kit ready to go with that rifle. it can be expensive in the long run to load all those mags with ammo, and then to have extra ammo after that too, but in the end it is worth it. plus in case its needed dall you gotta do is grab one and go so to speak.
its not a boatload… i swear… the boat held them fine till we got in the middle of the lake… then i dont know what happend. it was a long swim back to shore though.
veyr nice build / ammo / workbench station you got there.
in all actuality… im going to be trying to downsize my ARs… i’ve got way too many, and honestly dont need them anymore due to health reasons.
There used to be an issue of magazine srings getting weak after being used and stored fully loaded. The metallurgy of spring steel wasn’t what it is today. I used only keep a few mags per weapon loaded. I loaded the mags with all of the rounds but the last round. Leaving the last round out would cut the spring tension in half. Now I keep significantly more mags loaded. I have read many articles over the years arguing all sides of the issue. The full truth now is to load them if you want to. It isn’t going to hurt the modern mag springs. Companies like Wolff Gun Springs really take spring steel to the next level. Springs will wear out over time if you use them. I have had to replace internal weapon springs on some of my WWI & WWII handguns and rifles due to the internal springs getting weak and causing malfunctions. I have put back mag springs and gun spring kits from Wolff as future insurance. If you aren’t familiar with Wolff Gun Springs they are an excellent company with a very wide selection of very high quality gun springs. https://www.gunsprings.com/
Right? Some people must have a lot of time on their hands…
The only “rotation” my mags ever get is when I shoot through them and have to reload them afterward. The only exception would be removing expensive self defense rounds to shoot range rounds, then putting the pricey ones back in afterward.
