worn out magazine springs

Question
Hi

I have a Heckler & Koch USP that has lately developed the habit of jamming on the last round in a magazine.  I replaced the magazine springs and this seems to have done the trick.  The old springs were about an inch shorter than the new ones.  I believe this was caused because I leave my magazines loaded at all times, although I have spoken to several police officers who say they do the same thing and have never had any similar trouble. Can you tell me if keeping magazines loaded is generally a bad practice in terms of wear and tear?  Any advice on getting beefed-up springs or some way to deal with it?  Possibly something the H&K is notorious for?  Thanks for any advice you can give!  Josh

Answer
Josh,

The H&K USP is an excellent gun, and I have not heard reports of problems with their spings.

Keep in mind a few things.  Springs are not manufactured by gun mfg - they are usually farmed out, and often to the lowest bidder.  They do have quality assurance tests, but it is possible that your particular spring was not heat treated properly, etc., and so took a "set."

Taking a set was much more of a problem in springs in the 1940's and 50's.  By the 80's metalurgy had come a long way, and this was much less of a problem.

Still, knowing that springs are the weak link in the mfg process, I make it a practice to replace all critical springs with Wolffe springs (www.gunsprings.com).  Wolffe magazine springs typically come in +5% and +10% ratings.  I generally like to keep springs to the factory designed spec, but I've never had any trouble with (and have had much benefit from) the Wolff +5% springs.

I think it is a good idea to replace all magazine springs once a year.  It is like an aviation mechanic, who replaces perfectly good parts with new ones, because the systems he is dealing with are critical, and they simply must work.

Springs are cheap, and I would rather replace one that didn't need it, than wait for one to go bad before I did anything about it (Murphy's law - would choose to go bad the day I needed it to save my life).

Hope this helps.