Will loaded magazines lose spring tension over time?

It's an age-old question of firearms and you're likely to get a plethora of different answers from different shooters. Some people will swear that it harms the springs in the magazines over time and others will claim there's nothing wrong with it. Honestly, there's so much conflicting information, it's hard to know who is right and who is wrong. Well, as we usually do whenever we have a firearms-related question, we went to the Internet to find the answers.

It didn't take long to find this video from our favorite online gun guru, Hickok45. In less than a minute he gives his opinion on the matter short and to the point.

Watch as he delves into the urban legend of leaving magazines loaded causes them to lose spring tension over time.

Well, there you have it. We have all contemplated this urban myth and question that has been around since the advent of the box magazine. Will loaded magazines lose spring tension over time? For those not familiar, Hickok knows his stuff and we trust his word because we rarely see him having to correct himself. This guy goes through more ammo in one year than most of us will in a lifetime, so his words carry a lot of weight in the matter.

This question has had many of us unloading our magazines after our shooting trip for storage. Other shooters rotate their magazines so all of them get equal use. Hickok45 sets us straight that magazine springs fatigue with unloading and loading. They do not lose tension from a loaded magazine that is just sitting still. So, technically that means all that loading and unloading you were doing to save the springs may be doing more harm than good.

So, as long as you are storing them in a safe place and not inside the gun, you should be good to keep your magazines loaded until you use them.

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