Do you load your mags to full capacity?

[ham385]

I was always taught to load 1 less than capacity to save the mag springs. Anyone else ever heard this? Is it an old wives tale? I tried searching for this, but no luck.

[dc dalton]

Never heard any such thing, all my mags are maxed out and I've never seen any problems .. sounds like a wives tale to me, let me go ask the wife ;-)

[knight0334]

What wears springs out is the act of compression and decompressing. That one less round thing is a hoax. You can load that mag to full capacity and leave it for 10-20 years and that spring will be pretty much the same. Now if you work that spring back and forth - thats what will weaken it.

[Agent Smith]

EDIT: I'm the slow. Knight beat me to it.

[str8shooter]

Originally Posted by ham385

I was always taught to load 1 less than capacity to save the mag springs. Anyone else ever heard this? Is it an old wives tale? I tried searching for this, but no luck.

No one ever suggested I do it, but I do put in one less than the mag capacity because I've found I don't need to use as much force to insert the mag as well as rack the slide. I don't know if it's just me, my gun, the model (Glock 30), or the mags (all Glock, no after market) but that's the way it is.

But as others have said, spring life isn't affected by compression.

[General Geoff]

Always load to full capacity, unless the range prohibits it or if I don't have enough rounds left.

[gf45acp]

Full cap..

[338winmag]

loaded full at all times

[edstephan]

Full Cap and 1 up the pipe and an extra full cap mag

[Emptymag]

Someone told me that when he was in the army(Somalia/Iraq)they were instructed not to put 30 rds in the mag. I don't recall exactly how many he said they left out... one or two?

As for me, I load them all the way. (rifle AND handgun mags)