Mags were all loaded to 31... whoops. The steel mag is a C-products. Here's a video I did on my poor gear --- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GEc2iQ1wjRE.htmlsi=sjdFYVKLh9g0Xulb
Way ahead of ya, im 70 years old. I had 40+ various m16 magazines loaded up with 30 rounds and stowed away since 1983. That's 38 years loaded. 2 years ago the debate came up again so we decided to test them all thru 2 ar15s and a US marine Corp M16. To shorten this story, they all worked perfectly, mags, ammo, rifles. So I've never give the issue a second thought. Yes it was a blast
About a year ago, a couple of guys kicked in my front door at 9 pm. My wife and kids were gearing up for bed. I didn't have any magazines loaded up, so I kindly asked the intruders to give me about 90 seconds to locate a box of ammo and load one up. They were nice enough to wait by the door, but the first guy was a real stickler on the 90 seconds. Needless to say, I was able to come out of my room guns hot - ready. I haven't seen my wife and kids since then, but man were they nice.
"Compressed too much". So, tell us, is that what's happening when a 30-round magazine is holding 30 rounds? Please state your sources in your reply. @@newerest1
It's frustrating to see this needs discussing over and over, but I appreciate that some folks have the patience to do so. Then there's those who will argue the results, even when actual experts on the matter have spoken on the topic.
@@joeydehart3429 this question is very common so it’s usually answered by instructors -> engineering principles -> industry manufacturers. On paper, a spring won’t degrade if left compressed within its design parameters. Springs degrade from repeated cycling. They also degrade from exceeding their load parameters. _(Look up on wiki: Stress Relaxation - is a response to strain, strain is relative deformation from a reference position or configuration. Elastic deformations cease to exist after the stress field is removed. Plastic deformations are permanent and occur once attaining the elastic limit. Creep - This is long term, high stress, below the yield strength, which causes slow deformation)_ A properly designed spring _shouldn‘t_ have issues.
@@joeydehart3429Travis Pike for one, wrote an article on it. Long story short, this is the part that is relevant. “Magazine springs won’t wear much from being left compressed. The truth is that compression and expansion cycles wear springs out, like the repeated filling then emptying of a magazine. “ So if you keep some loaded ones in your go bag and use some others all the time , but keep them unloaded when not in use, the go bag mags will be more reliable as they aren’t always being used…
@@-John-Doe- Anybody that has a classic car or a old switchblade knows none of this is true. I'd like to see you take that "barn find" all original survivor out on a drive without having suspension springs and shocks looked at and replaced. Also none of these turkeys are knife guys either from their replies. Have you ever pulled out a old 1950/60s Italian Stiletto switchblade that was left and stored closed for many years? It lost all it's oomph and doesn't have enough kick to even fire and lock the blade anymore. People should stop repeating what they heard and read then get some real world experience offline.
Mags can be stored loaded or unloaded, it doesn't matter. There is no undue wear on the spring. A spring wears out when it is exercised or expanded and contracted such as loading then unloading a magazine or loading then mag dumping. This only happens over time however (barring a defective spring). The only potential issue with loading a mag and storing it that way is ammo issues but that depends on how and where the mag is stored and the general environment of the area. In a bandolier inside your home where the home is A/Cd and thus temperature and moisture controlled, fine. In a garage? Probably not. I personally keep mine loaded and then stored in an ammo can with a good rubber o-ring seal then toss in a couple of those silicate moisture absorption packs for good measure.
Thats kinda what I always thought. Springs wear from being used, compressed and released. Not sitting, compressed or not. Using mags may fatigue the spring. Not leaving it compressed
@@rediron44 Not true at all and this is the biggest myth in the firearm community. Many "gun guys" can't even change their own oil or a flat tire. They have no mechanical aptitude whatsoever. If they did they would know "classic cars" left setting for long periods of time almost always need new shocks and leaf/coil springs before they are road worthy again. Many "gun guys" aren't knife guys also. If so they would know you can't store switchblades with the blade closed for years and years. You pull out a 1950s/60s Italian Stiletto out of a gun cabinet left setting closed and it lost all of it's oomph and won't fire hard enough to lock the blade open. Many "gun guys" aren't archery or bow guys as well. If so they would know you can't leave a bow or crossbow stored for years without having to have to go all back through it to replace the string at bare minimum and check for cracked limbs before you shoot it again. Know your facts and stop spreading opinions and misinformation.
@@JohnDoeEagle1 You do know that most of what you said is either half truths or total BS, right? Automatic knives don't lose their tension strength through sitting unattended, it's through excessive cycling, never mind the fact that OTF knives aren't even under spring tension when closed. Modern compound bows can absolutely be stored strung indefinitely, provided you're not storing the bow resting on it's limbs. Only wood bows and classic or recurve bows should be stored with the string removed to prevent deformation of the limbs. As far as bad struts on sitting cars, well that's not so much an issue with the strut spring but rather the dampener itself which is pneumatic and rotting seals may result in gas leakage thus reducing the efficacy of the strut subassembly. Ad yes, I do have reasonable mechanical aptitude as I perform all of my own maintenance on my own cars and guns. I also keep a respectable collection of automatic knives, some of which I've had for about 30 years with scant use and no discernible change in performance. Also get this, I'm also an archer, believe it or not, and I know for a fact that modern compound bows do not need their strings removed prior to long term storage. I only wax the strings on my rarely used bows a couple of times per year, more often for my more commonly used bows. As far as limbs cracking, that's just not going to happen in storage unless you're dropping the bow on its limbs, which I would never recommend, or storing immense weight on the the bow's limbs, also not recommended.
@@intruder217ESmith and even then, a properly designed spring will never reasonably get to a point where it no longer works as intended. I’m talking like cycles in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. It’s also really easy to see with brand new mags. The springs are really stiff initially, but after the first few cycles you can easily see the spring is lighter. Eventually it gets to a point where there’s no noticeable difference. The springs are designed to still function beyond that point, so they’ll essentially work forever. I’d expect a failure, if any, to be the spring breaking from cycling and storage in less than desirable conditions.
@@scooter2161 The springs in my STI 2011 mags got too weak to function as expected at about 12,500 rounds each. They're probably lighter springs than for most production mags, though, since they're intended to allow 20 rounds to fit into a magazine that has a maximum allowable length per competition rules.
I admit I never bothered with the science of it, but I always leave my mags loaded (different brands, different calibers, different materials). If things go south, I want to be prepared. Never had a problem.
I got 5 fully loaded AR mags from 2016 and was never worried about them getting worn out from the spring compression... Good to know. Plus 2016 is 7 years ago? Wow lol.
This backs up what I had seen from at least one other guy that did a five-year full mag storage test...he had ZERO issues with multiple mags as well. I cycle my mags every year - and because of you and that one other guy - I have all the confidence in the world they will function 100%...thanks very much for taking the time to share this valuable information !!
It’s spring cycle that wears them out… not keeping them loaded. I’ve seen 45 pistol mags loaded from WWII era still work perfectly. They were loaded for over 60 years!
I always keep four magazines fully loaded in my AR case. You never know what might pop up in a second. I do the exact same thing with my 1911s, never had a problem with any of them. As long as the magazines are good, you are good to go. Most of the problems I've had with guns jamming. Have almost always been from bad magazines.
I was afraid of that. Since this is my first AR and it came with a polymer magazine. I was afraid of the lips deforming. But since this proved nothing happened, might just keep some mags loaded
Anyone who thinks spring steel or stainless steel springs in a magazine will deform or fail over time, let me just say…. NOT IN YOUR LIFETIME OR THE LIFETIME OF YOUR CHILDREN AND YOUR GRANDCHILDREN!!! LOAD YOUR MAGS PEOPLE AND HAVE THEM READY TO USE WHEN YOU NEED THEM!!!!
The only time I've had problems with magazine springs wearing out was with shooting high volumes. It was with my STI Edge in .40 S&W and 20 round magazines. At around 50,000 rounds between the 4 mags I started having failures to feed because the springs were getting weak. That averages to 12,500 rounds per mag. Many shooters in the USPSA class in which I shoot number their magazines but mine aren't numbered so they probably got fairly close to equal use. When the problem developed I was at a big match and a vendor was there selling Arredondo springs so a quick change of springs restored the function 100%, I've kept other mags loaded for extended periods, without shooting with them and have not observed any noticeable deterioration of the springs.
There was 1911 Mags and M1 carbine mags and BAR mags fully loaded for many years after WWII and still worked in Vet Nam, it is not the staying loaded that wears the spring out it is the use of the spring
I wish you would have loaded them back up immediately to see if the spring compression had any effect on follow up use after storage. Great experiment nonetheless!
I thought about that afterward, and the next day to satisfy my own curiosity, I did test that. I pushed the followers down with my fingers a few times, loaded each mag with 10 rounds, and shot them. Loaded the pmag to max and dumped it. No malfunctions. I trust these mags enough to use them.
I am actually really glad to see this, I have 6 standard steel mags that have been sitting in the safe with M855 in them for around 5 years at this point and was worried that if the time came they would be worthless. I'll probably burn through them anyways soon since this video made me think about them. Wouldn't hurt to get new rounds in there.
thanks for this educational video. i'm a livestock herder. usually gotta keep on my toes for the coyotes. i'm always scared of long term storage of my ar15 mags with full loads. now i can be at peace with these livestock. God bless you !
Good test🤘 I have had 65 steel mags and 25 poly mags loaded for over a year and only a few of the poly mags had issues with the feed lips expanding which allowed the rounds to pop out. So I am possibly going all steel mags. ~Drop it like it's Scott
My dude, they have legit dug up caves worth of AK mags in Afghan and the worked fine. Things were probably 50 years old. What hurts springs is cycles, not constant pressure. Keep your mags loaded, gents'.
If these mags were truly stored for 7 years, this might be the best video that currently exists showing the results if the myth that storing loaded mags over time is bad. This is an actual example.
Springs really don’t go bad barring any rust or extreme temperatures. They can wear out over repeated use, but if springs just went bad being under compression everyone’s cars would be unbearable to drive after a few years. Think about all the springs you use in every day life that have never been changed that are under some force. Garage door springs, cars, pens, shoot even the guns other springs don’t just go bad because their under pressure. Otherwise we’d all be changing hammer and detent springs every couple of years. Fudd-lore seems scary until you realize all the other springs that you never touch on your gun again.
@@xostler The other springs on firearms are only preloaded or not fully compressed. The magazine spring is and it wears out from setting loaded for long periods of time. From another comment.... "Automatic knives don't lose their tension stored long periods of time". Well, you must be green then because plenty of Ka-Bar Grizzly and Case Zipper switchblades from the 1920s have their springs shot as well as Frank Beltrame and AKC Italian Stilettos. Also Boker and Hubertus German lever locks. The fact 4 people gave you a thumbs up lets me know who I am talking to here. Nobody......
I have personally done this test myself. Never have I had a problem. No matter how much you go over this issue, there will always be those that will say it destroys the mags.
@@ashsteele7361 at least he knows how springs work. if static compression wore them out, we would have to replace the springs in our car's suspension every year. those are also exposed to much more dynamic compression, still not a problem. so what is it, muh feed lips?
This is the biggest myth in the firearm community. Many "gun guys" can't even change their own oil or a flat tire. They have no mechanical aptitude whatsoever. If they did they would know "classic cars" left setting for long periods of time almost always need new shocks and leaf/coil springs before they are road worthy again. Many "gun guys" aren't knife guys also. If so they would know you can't store switchblades with the blade closed for years and years. You pull out a 1950s/60s Italian Stiletto out of a gun cabinet left setting closed and it lost all of it's oomph and won't fire hard enough to lock the blade open. Many "gun guys" aren't archery or bow guys as well. If so they would know you can't leave a bow or crossbow stored for years without having to have to go all back through it to replace the string at bare minimum and check for cracked limbs before you shoot it again.
Thanks for blowing off all those rounds and heating up your AR for the sake of science and us watching. Thats real good to know. Proof is in the pudding where ever that came from lol. Good job Johnny, TY.
I would guess that if you added up all the loaded magazines that have been fully loaded for more than 5 years in America the number would north of 300 million
I work with springs and coils in my day-to-day. You don't lose quality just cause its under its (tolerated) load for a long period of time. The issue is when in compresses and decompresses over and over and over and over...etc. This should really be a no brainer in todays discussions as the science for this has been out for a long time....
I've got various calibers of ammo that I have bought through the years since 1980. If there are any Collectors out there looking for any particular Boxes that 12 gauge shotgun shells came in since the 80's, I've probably got it. Keep your powder dry and be safe my friends.
My husband trained me and told me the same thing the mags will be okay loaded for long periods of time. My husband is a veteran and the magazines he was most comfortable with was the Galil 5.56 magazines which we have a lot of in our house. My husband trained me on both the Ar-15 platform (my favorite) and his Galil which he keeps calling the Vector R4. My husband is ex-SADF and now a level 3 security officer trainer in the Southwest USA. before my husband i only touched an airsoft rifle and that’s because i’m originally from Japan.
Your husband is a man among men. He's making sure that if he isn't able to be around, that you will be able to. Ftr, the South Africans called their 5.56 Galils by this nomenclature. They were Galils that were licensed and manufactured in South Africa. Those guys are tough s.o.b's.
What are you talking about? All the top Not-Sees were put in high level government throughout Europe Russia & US, also science, Intel and on and on. Now they’re becoming active again in Ukraine and globally. It’s heating up son.
It’s been proven time and time again, You can store mags loaded. It’s the compression and decompression of magazines springs that weaken them over time.
I left 5 FAL mags and 6 CZ 75 Italian made magazines loaded in my gun safe for 10 years ,the FAL magazines worked perfectly but 4 of the 6 Cz mags failed due to the springs loosing tension..kinda a bummer ..
Ive heard the military has done tests shooting close to a million rounds through a single pmag and it still works even with all of the spring compression and relaxation. All I buy is gen 3 pmags now.
They are. The only thing I don't like is that if the sliding part is not fully seated, it can cause feeding issues. Makes it easier to load them, though.
AR mags work well. The problem with ARs is not the magazine - it's that they stop working well (or at all) after about 6-7 mags, particularly in any austere environment. That forward-assist wasn't added because it looks cool. An M16 becomes a gummed-up mess and a single shot because of the basic flaws inherent in Eugene Stoner's direct gas-impingement design with the stupid gas tube, piston rings on the bolt, a Slinky-Spring bolt carrier & buffer tube arrangement...JUST ADD SAND, SNOW or MUD!
Yeah, I love how people think springs lose strength when stored under tension. Springs fatigue from compression and decompression cycles, aka loading and unloading. Just being statically compressed does nothing to fatigue them. Now yes, over compressing or over decompressing (read stretching further then intended) can indeed damage them. Don’t buy cheap garbage and you won’t have a problem with the former, I don’t know how you would have a problem with the latter but some people are just built different.
Magpul has stated that those covers are dust cover, they were not made to keep the feed lips from warping, and leaving them off of a loaded, stashed magazine for an extended time was 100% okay. I have seen zero cases of their magazine feed lips getting warped during storage because someone didn’t use the cover. But people will believe what they want to believe. I’ve had loaded mags work fine after 4 years, pistol and AR, not a super long time but still enough to prove a point. I was never worried about my mags being loaded for a long time. Shotgun mag springs going bad is shutter, untrue, myth. have a Mossberg 500 12gauge 8 shot that I keep loaded for HD that I’ve had since 2016 (now 2023, still keep it loaded). I take it to the range several times each year so it hasn’t been sitting since then but it runs great and I’ve never had to replace the mag tube spring, at one point I didn’t take it to the range for a full year. I believe the idea that the magazine springs wear out over time when the mag is loaded was introduced by keyboard Internet professionals (also know as trolls) some time ago. Since there weren’t videos disproving at the time people had to load mags and wait. No there is proof that magazine spring can last a very long time. If your magazine spring are failing, something is wrong with them.
I had magazines stacked full since the first gulf war we fired them in 2009 when I was a specialist in the army we had 15 mags fully loaded and an M16 A1 in Aberdeen proving grounds Maryland guess what we only had one hiccup when the extractor from a relic 55 year old M16 broke once fixed it ran great.
Spent 20 years in the military, we found loaded mags from over 15 years that worked just fine, even put them back in the lines at cad, no issues. Keep you mags loaded and stop worrying fellas.
It's the people who paint plastic mags that have problems. And those who use plastic mags into extremely hot guns can make feed lips brittle. I have a couple mags I got too hot by leaving them in the rifle when it was really hot. I can see the plastic lips started to soften them got rock hard. I use plastic mags at the range because they are lighter to haul around when loaded. I take multiple rifles each trip so having 10-12 fully loaded mags in a bag is heavy as hell. Add twice the mag weight for steel mags and it's barely able to be carried. But once you switch to plastic it's much more comfortable. I leave all my mags loaded. Rifle and pistol. I keep some ammo in their original cardboard boxes and some is loose in plastic ammo tins for ease of reloading mags for the range. New mags I will use about a dozen times, clean and oil them, then load for storage. Gotta make certain they function flawlessly before counting on them with your life. And mags need to be cleaned. They dirty just like the gun.
Like these vids where a guy mag dumps several mags...and the trigger finger vets slower and slower. Makes my arthritic fingers seem less a problem. Remember reading a story where they found some military mags that had been loaded since Korea, if I remember correctly. They all worked fine. They say it's a "spring" thing. Keeping it compressed is no problem. The constant cycling of the spring is what causes mag problems.
In my younger years a bought some aluminum mags that apparently had bad roller designs or something, or perhaps it was the metal being too thin. Anyway they were sh*t straight out of the factory bag. Disappointed I bought the heftier steel mags, never had an issue for decades and swore by them... until I bought a new rifle 3 years ago with a pmag. I thought the pmag was going to be terrible, it was so unbelievably light in my hand, I took it to the range and put 300 rounds through it in the middle of the Texas summer, no problems. Firarms Technology has come a long way.
I have 25+ mags that have been loaded for who knows how long. They are stored in a hideaway box with a rifle, body armor a medkit and a backpack. I use my many other mags regularly. But those stay where they are. Its funny to think people cant believe they will be ok.
Didn't see anyone comment on the other myth of only loading to 28. Your rifle was designed to feed from a full magazine. If it can't, you have issues other than magazine capacity.
A spring will only lose tension from repeated cyclical movements. In other words repeated use will wear the metallurgical properties and metallic structure down. Sitting static under tension or at rest make no difference to the spring steel. Chinese made spring steel may not hold up as the steel may be inferior. Impurities in the steel or less robust springs could be affected. So if your an internet bargain shopper you may have a bunch of junk that won’t hold up. I’ve always said that cheap shit costs more money because you will replace it again.
I understand why people worry about this, but if you think about it, physics aside even, magazines are literally made to constantly be loaded since they are the device that feeds the gun.
hey johnny, new sub for ya here n i am a u.s. marine vet here 93' to 97' active n only have email here , def. wanna talk more n godspeed to our beloved 2A, thanks bro > tom !
The best thing about this video is now I know that in a gunfight with a would be criminal, I won't need to ask him to let me load my magazine first. Of course I have been told keeping them loaded weekens the spring, but in my opinion it only makes sense to keep them ready. Thanks!
Here’s some anecdotal evidence about quad stack mags: I fired a 100 round quad stack surefire mag that was brand new never fired and kept fully loaded for 3 years. Fired 100% flawlessly. However the follower(s) busted upon attempting to load it and fire it a second time…..
I’ve got a bunch of them that have been loaded for around 7 years now but they are for shtf so I’m afraid to fire them but I probably should to test their reliability….
The dust cover does keep the pressure off of the feed lips - the cover presses the bullets further down by roughly 1/32 of an inch. Whether that keeps the feed lips from expanding, I dunno, but other tests measuring with calipers have shown expansion. You can definitely feel/hear the bullets shift down when you put the dust cover on.
@@smaccattack9228whatever the design reason, it most definitely pushes the rounds down and that keeps pressure off the feed lips. I don’t store P mags without them, it certainly doesn’t hurt to do so.
I heard debate on this a few years back if you should or should not store the mags loaded. Information was found where springs were studied to see if they lost strength under sustained load. They found that springs do not lose their strength left in compression.
Yeah, it was found that springs do not wear out from a static state. They wear out from repeated compression and decompression. The example I remember was a car's shock springs. They are under constant compression, but a vehicle sitting forever will not wear them out. Driving/bouncing will wear them out overtime.
