The spring in the magazine

Question
Dear GCH:

  I have a CZ-85 B 9mm, my question is more of a curiousity type. How long can a handgun magazine sustain being compressed by the bullets and not be damaged? Any thoughts on this?
Any input appreciated.

Sincerely,

JG

Answer
Jay,

Before the advent of modern metalurgy, this was a real issue.  There were reported instances of 1911 pistols, the magazines of which had been loaded for a year or more, and in which the magazine springs took a "set."  They lost their "springiness" and would not feed any longer.

This is a lot less of an issue with modern springs.  I have left a 13 round Glock magazine (factory spring replaced with a Wolff spring) constantly loaded for three years now to see what would happen and it still feeds.

Generally, there are two things that effect firearms springs.  The first is the design of the spring.  For example, Beretta springs are notorious for going bad due to design, and even Beretta reps admit that all springs in their guns should be replaced once a year.  

The other factor is the quality of the spring itself.  Generally, springs are farmed out to the lowest bidder.  I I will generally replace all coil-type springs with Wolff springs in any firearms that may be called on for self defense.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1)  Go to www.gunsprings.com (Wolff's site).  It is cheap insurance to replace your magazine springs and your recoil spring every year.  You can liken it to an aviation mechanic, who after such and such and interval will take out and replace perfectly good parts, because the airplane simply CAN'T fail.

2)  Other springs that can go bad are your trigger return spring and your hammer spring.  If the trigger begins to feel "sluggish" on the reset, or you get light primer strikes, you may want to replace these springs as well.

3)  Some people like to regularly replace the firing pin spring, which holds the pin off the primer until the hammer strikes it.

Hope this helps.