Is It Okay to Store Magazines Loaded?

A question that comes up often is whether you should store your gun magazines loaded or not. We recommend both. It’s always good to have pre-loaded magazines on hand as well as unloaded magazines ready to use as needed.

Will Loaded Magazines Wear Out the Springs?

When it comes to keeping your magazines loaded, the big question that people are concerned about is whether loaded magazines will wear out the springs. Loading and unloading your magazines frequently wears out the springs much quicker than just keeping them fully loaded. But it may be a negligible difference. Remember, they are meant to be loaded and unloaded many times. 

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The best thing you can do is invest in high-quality magazines like Glock, Magpul, Okay SureFeed, Lancer, and others. The quality of magazines and springs today is much better than they were many years ago. 

If you’re going to keep them loaded, be sure to store them someplace cool, dark, dry, and, preferably, in airtight ammo cans or containers. That’s not only to protect the magazine (especially metal or hybrid magazines that may rust) but also to protect your ammo and keep it dry. Humidity and water will damage your ammo quickly; rendering it less effective or ineffective.

Today’s magazines are quite durable and will last a long time with proper care whether you keep them loaded or unloaded. Even if you use them often at the range or for training purposes, the springs are meant to hold up under repeated loading and unloading.

You can always change the springs in your magazines if they do wear out (and the magazine itself is in good condition). However, with the low cost of most high-quality magazines these days, it may be easier and cost-efficient to just replace the entire magazine with something new.

This is What We Recommend You Do.

A good rule of thumb is to rotate your magazines every few months from loaded to unloaded. This gives the ammo and springs time to “rest,” and it also gives you a chance to inspect the magazine and the springs to make sure everything is functioning properly.

Some people rotate their personal carry magazines every couple of weeks. Others recommend every six months. Law enforcement typically recommends every 90 days. As long as you rotate and inspect your magazines every 3-6 months, they should serve you for a long time.

Springs do wear out and are often blamed as the culprit for failures when it could be a result of deformed followers, bad ammunition, problematic firearms, or user error. The best way to avoid issues is to carefully clean, inspect, and rotate your firearms, magazines, and ammo every few months (or more often).

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