Thread: Do you keep your clips loaded or unloaded?

Originally Posted by cyborg

Well Riot, If you parked your truck in a gun safe and never drove it for 10 years chances are the shocks could be fine. Except for the fact that they are likely hydraulic and full of fluid and the seals would leak.

Maybe comparing the suspension springs would be a better analogy?

Sure...but what would be the point? Unless American Handgunner wrote something about it I guess it wouldn't be true anyways...right?

Got 6 more clips lol mags at the gun show last weekend. O and a few folowers

Oops and they are all 30 deep and ready to go

I'm fairly certain that the springs wear compressing/decompressing, not from being held in the compressed position

Case creasing? That's a new one! Do you mean by constant chambering the same round, it moves the bullet deeper into the case??? That I can comprehend, and yep it does happen, and it does raise chamber pressures. I suspect that this a partial reason for Kabooms in Glocks. Loaded magazines I must be doing something bad with my 45 year old GI 1911A1 mags. Although I keep a minimum of twenty, only once did I find one with crappy lips that I kept the spring and follower and pitched the body. Last month I decided to change out ten that have been loaded since 1963, three with 180 gr. cast, and seven with Rem. and Win. Ball. Maybe someone can point out why there wasn't a single malfunction in 70 rounds???? On the thirty rounders filled full with anything but the MagPuls I load two less. This is due to being difficult to load with a closed bolt on some of the metalic mags. The MagPuls load up slicker than snot. Again no clue as the metalic are all rebuilt with MagPul followers and springs. Only thought is the feed lips on the MagPul are a bit different, with both sides of the feed lips about equal. All future replacement mags will be Mag Puls.

I keep my Garand clips loaded at all times.

As do I. They are not magazines, as they lack a spring and follower. The last of the CMP Greek ammo was sent that way, and stored that way since the 70s and 80s. Only unpacked one of the six cans to see what the condition might be. In banderleers, 13 clips of eight to a banderleer. they appeared as new. I recall in my Marine days, all the ammo came in cloth banderleers and the only single loading of the clips was the first two in a ten round rapid fire string of fire. I have reloaded these clips dozens of times for Ceremonal rifles for our Honor Guard Garands. Swap them out with new when they kind of lose their springyness, and load too easily. Sometimes they reload for a couple of years before I replace them. In ten years the six Garands have had two each, their clips replaced.

I figure the price of being 'safe and ready' is to have to change out some mag springs once in while....so I keep my mags loaded...

I have kept my magazines loaded for years but I usually do not load them full up. 28 in a 30 round magazine, 40 in a 42, 18 in a 20 etc. It is just a habit I picked up so as not to put too much pressure on the bolt carrier group or slide to strip a round out of the magazine to chamber it. It probably is more myth than method but it never fails to chamber a round. I have seen the bolt carrier groups hang up on fully loaded magazines on the range in my years of Marine Corps and Army training. Could be dirty magazines, that rough parkerized finish, dings in the feed lips, weak buffer springs or just bad luck but I have seen it happen so I always download 2 rounds from AR magazines. For the same reason I never top off a double stack pistol magazine like my Beretta's or a Glock after I chamber a round. It works for me so I still do it although I just got a couple of Magpul magazines and those things are slick as bubblegum through a goose so I may change my mind about those.

Long Term Storage of Magazines is fine loaded.

The repeated compression and decompression of the springs will weaken them over time.

So if you loaded and unloaded each night, you would wear it out much quicker than if you loaded it once and let it sit for 5 years.