Here is an odd little rant.

I just read yet again about how keeping the magazine for your gun loaded wrecks the spring.  I'm pretty tired of hearing people say this because they heard someone else say it.  So now we are going to look at the situation a bit.

What makes a spring?  Start with steel.  Harden it by heating to glowing, almost to the point of being plastic.  Plunge into cold water or other liquid to remove heat as quickly as possible.  This is called hardening.  At this point the metal is extremely brittle.  Next heat the part again gently and slowly so that it heats evenly.  The desired properties govern how you do this, but heating to a uniform 450 to 600 is usually pretty good.  In air steel will take on a blue color on the surface at this point.  This relaxes the internal stress that builds up at the molecular level during hardening.  Now air cool and you have tempered the part and you have a spring.  Why?  It has to do with the placement of alloying materials (mostly the carbon) and the crystals of metal.  Hardening makes the crystals small so the carbon can be evenly mixed in the composite matrix and also crystals don't bend so if you have big ones the part will fracture between crystals.  But the carbon is squeezed into the voids.  The tempering changes the crystal structure enough to remove the strain.  Now you have something like a polymer chain of metal-carbon-metal-carbon that can bend and return without breaking.

What breaks a spring?  Heat is the main factor.  Too much heat and the structure will continue to relax until you have something more like anealed steal.  It bends and stays where you put it.  Bending past the yeild point also damages springs.  Also, too much weight.  Ever stretch a slinky?  You know that after a certain length it won't go back to original shape.  Ever step on one?  Same thing.  Also repeated flexing, even if it is within limits.  Even if you treat your car perfectly, don't overload it, drive it gently, etc. it will eventually need new springs.  But did you ever see a model A Ford that has been in a barn for 100 years?  I have, and it turns out that the springs are fine (unless rusted through) since they haven't been flexing all that time.

So this morning I read yet again that storing the magazine with bullets in it will wreck it.  I've read or heard this at least 100 times from people who should know what they are talking about.  Well, I have next to me a gun with a spare magazine.  Both of these mags have been loaded since 1954.  In all that time they have been unloaded for a total of about 10 minutes (while getting around to reloading them).  That is more than 50 years.  So when are they going to be wrecked?  They function perfectly.  This gun has never, not one single time, failed to feed.  So if keeping your mag loaded is so bad, I challenge anyone out there to tell me when I will start seeing this terrible effect.  I won't.  Because holding a spring compressed is a static situation.  There is no energy, no source to cause heating or fatigue in the spring.  Loading, unloading, and firing will wear them out but that also will take a long time unless the spring is incorrectly designed so that it over flexes when used.  That is why there seems to be room at the bottom of the mag when it is full.  If you remove the stop and force another round or two in there the spring will have travelled too far and will be weakened.

Seriously, can you think at all.  An empty mag is still pushing the feed platform up with enough force to feed the last round with authority.  Why aren't the empty ones getting ruined by this force?  Oh, yeah, because the whole story is crap.

What does this tell you about keeping your gun cocked? Did you ever hear someone say that it will wear out the firing pin spring? What about the extractor spring? It's under compression all the time. The mag release button spring. Do these die every few months or years? It's under compression all the time, too. There are several to a few dozen other springs in most guns that magically seem to last forever even though they are under strain all the time. Then there are the countless other springs all around you every day if you just look. And these are almost all under tension or compression all the time. I don't remember ever hearing someone say don't wind your Swiss watch or you'll wreck the spring. Really, if you don't have it at least part way wound all the time you are doing it wrong.

Have fun out there.  Learn some things about the world around you.  But most importantly, learn to think critically and logically.  Form a theory, test and analyse it, and draw a logical conclusion.  Not just because someone told you so.