I'll bet "compression/decompression cycles" is closer to the way my buddy in the industrial spring business phrased it. Even though I use Maglula's UpLULAs to charge just about all my magazines (except the dinky calibers), I've always figured it takes a lot longer to charge a mag than it does to swap in a charged one in an emergency, so I always have several extra, charged magazines for most everything, whether in the range bag, safe, nightstand, or MTM Caseguard box. I've never had a magazine fail due to a spring...at least as far as I know. Dirt in a mag, damaged feed lips, base plates popping off...yep. And of course some guns just don't particularly like some brands of magazines. I have changed out springs in mags just because I'd decided it was maybe time for their 100,000-mile service, but not because the springs no longer sprang.The Annoyed Man wrote: ↑Sun May 14, 2023 5:28 pmIt’s the number of compression/decompression cycles and not storing them under compression that eventually sacks a spring. But the number of cycles it takes to do that is probably beyond the experience of most shooters. I’m sure that some competition shooters fire enough rounds during practice and matches to eventually wear out magazine springs…maybe even some on this board. But I myself haven’t ever had a spring sack out in any kind of magazine, including a couple of WW2 era 1911 and M1 Carbine mags.
That said, I also avoid cheap magazines. Had a humbling experience years ago in an "urban rifle" course I'd traveled to where a cheap, stamped-metal AR mag caused a FTF that bent the feed lips and jammed that thing in the rifle good and tight. I had to finish the CoF with sidearm only and was nailing friendly targets, whiffing the bad guys, and then running out of ammo before the CoF was finished.
It took two of us afterward to successfully get the magazine and the stuck round out of there. After that, I stayed with Magpul for the ARs, Wilson Elite for the 1911s, and generally original manufacturer for things like Glock and Springfield. I figured saving a couple of bucks with a knock-off magazine didn't balance on the ol' risk/reward meter.On topic, I was going to reply that I have milsurp 5.56 that was 30 years old and stored in unknown conditions that ran just fine...then I saw all you guys talking about stuff manufactured 80 years ago.
