I own a semi auto pistol,pump shotgun,and lever action rifle.If I keep them loaded?

13 Responses

1. Atomic punk

   February 11th, 2010 at 5:28 am

   Yes, but it won’t happen overnite. The springs are or should be spring steele and in time they will tend to loose their springiness if compressed for long periods of time or even over use. You should load half a magazine to take off some of the tension of the spring if you are not going to be cycling rounds through it.

2. Jennifer

   February 11th, 2010 at 5:28 am

   Nope

3. A&G is #1

   February 11th, 2010 at 5:28 am

   always wondered this myself. gave u a star

4. 123456789

   February 11th, 2010 at 5:28 am

   nope. shouldnt do any damage at all. just make sure u keep them in a cool dry place.

5. Arrogant Bastard Ale (Oneeye)

   February 11th, 2010 at 5:28 am

   No…..

6. Badkharma

   February 11th, 2010 at 5:28 am

   The only springs under tension in the loaded condition would be magazine springs, whether in your pistol mag, your shotgun or rifle tube.

   The actual answer to your question is "yes", although the "damage" is more like "wear" and it’s very negligible and not something you should concern yourself with. Replacement springs for all of these weapons are available, I’m sure (even though you haven’t specified models). Wolf makes excellent springs for many facets and forms of firearms.

   A few aftermarket pistol magazines (as well as some OEM, although they are typically recalled and perfected in a short time) suffer the most from extended tension on the spring, but those problems are few and far between.

   In summation, keep your guns loaded and don’t sweat the springs.

7. akluis

   February 11th, 2010 at 5:28 am

   It’s an old wive’s tale that springs will take a set. Provided there is no rusting involved, what wears a spring out is a compression OR a decompression action. Once that action takes place, the spring doesn’t really care if it stays compressed or depressed.

   I think the false information started when people noticed the magazines in their carry guns started to not be so good. However, this is because the ammo wasn’t held perfectly tight, so if you were running and jumping (like police chasing a criminal, or in the army) the magazine would shake up and down, and the ammo inside would move a bit, causing compression/decompression of the spring. Carry a magazine for a year, it may go through a few thousand of those cycles, and that is how a spring would wear out.

   Moral of this story? When the gun is sitting at home keeping it loaded won’t cause a problem, but for your carry gun, make sure you get to the range and fire off a few magazine loads to make sure the spring is still strong, and consider either replacing the magspring or the entire magazine after 5 or 10 years

8. The Deadliest Mushroom

   February 11th, 2010 at 5:28 am

   Not at all. Case in point: law enforcement officers and soldiers have magazines loaded all day, every day. Many of the magazines in the military are 30+ years old and still work fine.

9. hankredwons

   February 11th, 2010 at 5:28 am

   better to have them loaded and not worry about the wear it my do .

10. Bronson

    February 11th, 2010 at 5:28 am

    I kept shotguns & semi auto pistols mags loaded for months at a time with no problem. If you’re really worried then leave the mag one round short to ease tension. Overall you should have no problem.

11. randy

    February 11th, 2010 at 5:28 am

    older firearms that used magazine feed had a problem with the magazine springs taking a "set" and losing power. Modern firearms and their magazines use a much better grade of steel, and there would not be a problem leaving them loaded for even a year. BUT, most gun owners with experience, will rotate loaded mags monthly. For instance, I carry a compact .45acp daily. On the first of each month, I remove the magazine from the pistol and the loaded spare mag, and empty them, then load two fresh mags out of my supply and replace them with the empties. Same goes for any magazine fed rifle I keep loaded in the gunsafe. Firearms that use an under barrel magazine tube can be left loaded, but I prefer not too, just doesn’t sit well with me. I prefer to keep them unloaded, but a box of shells is handy at all times. Leave the "keep it loaded for self defense" for the magazine fed firearms. I do keep a shotgun out at night, I take it from the safe, load the tube but leave the chamber empty, safety off, and trigger pulled, so all I have to do is rack it to be ready to go. Next morning, it gets unloaded and placed back in the locker.
    shoot safe
    shoot safe

12. Bill

    February 11th, 2010 at 5:28 am

    You should be cycling ammunition through all of your guns with regular practice. Having a spare magazine or two for your pistol is always a good idea. I have at least two spare magazines for every pistol I own. I keep one empty and two loaded and cycle though them with each trip to the range so each gets a turn to be empty. In the 40 years since I bought my first gun, I have never had any trouble with magazine springs.

13. J

    February 11th, 2010 at 5:28 am

    YES. If you leave them loaded ALL the time. However even several months or a year at a time will not damage them. The pistol and shotgun are the easiest to remedy though. Just swap out magazines for the pistol from time to time and it won’t be an issue. With the shotgun, assuming you have a Remington 870 or Mossberg 500 or similar popular shotgun, buying a spare magazine spring is easy. Just swap the springs out every few months. Not with a brand new spring, just have 2 and swap them back and forth to rest. As for the rifle, just load it with 1 less round and it should leave enough slack in the spring to not damage it. I usually unload my pistol magazines on my days off just to let the springs relax. In the Army we loaded our 30 round M-16 magazines with 28 rounds. We do the same thing with our patrol rifles in the police department. I’ve never had a problem with any of my guns but I’ve been careful to avoid it. I did know a guy who went to fire off a magazine he had kept loaded for a few years and the first few rounds fed then the magazine spring just didn’t have enough power to force the other rounds up.

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