Mags...how many...and how often do you rotate?

[CarlCyrus]

I've got a PM9 and an MK9 and 6 mags between them (4 6-round, and 2 7-round).

I carry the PM9 and leave it on the night stand at night. I rotate the mags about every two weeks.

What is best?

How many mags do you have and how often do you rotate them?

How often do you replace mag springs?

Carl

[Bawanna]

Whenever possible I have 3 for my belt gun which is in recent times some sort of 1911 or LDA Para. So for each belt gun I try to have 6 mags, 3 working and 3 resting. I used to swap quarterly give or take. I think with modern day better materials resting mags isn't nearly as important as it used to be.
I got a bit lax after I received my duffle bag Colt 1911 that had been in the bag since WWII until the guy gave it to me, still loaded to capacity with a spare mag loaded to capacity. I left it as it was, didn't unload the mags and took it to the range with only a basic look over. Basically no maintenance or lube for over 50 years. All round fed and fired without missing a beat.
My PM45 that resides on my ankle will take my Wilson mags so I carry no extras for it. Usually when I only have the PM 45 by itself, quick trips or around the house I carry no spares.
I've never replaced a mag spring on my own guns. Replace a few for officer duty guns. I don't think they needed it but they felt better so it was worth it.

[BuckeyeBlast]

I've only got 2 mags. One maintains my carry ammo, the other is used for the range and spare carry mag. I want to get a 3rd mag to better practice mag changes at the range, but I still typically do it at home over my bed. I don't unload the mag w/ the carry ammo, keeping it under tension and not repeatedly unloading and reloading it is better for the spring.

[rwblue01]

Why rotate? Maybe I am spoiled by shooting Glocks and Beretta and Colts. I load my mags after getting home from the range and unload them by shooting them. Sometimes it is every week. Sometimes I don't shoot a gun for years. I have never had an issue with a mag being compressed and not functioning.

I did have a shotgun tube mag spring fail. It was cheap. I was unhappy and bought a good spring.

I have talked to guys with x-military mags that needed to have mags rebuilt.


Now how many mags you have for a gun is very personal. I came to a conclusion that I was unhappy with anything less than 10. (I know what you are thinking :der:) I was around during the mag ban. I have to pay for my range time. I don't get to the range as often as I like so while there, I like to spend all my time shooting or analyzing my targets.

[Bawanna]

10 mags per gun is good. I try to attain about that many given time. I'm successful with most. One reason I like the 1911 platform 10 mags can work equally well for 10 different guns or 12 or 26 or however many you can get.

[Longitude Zero]

I agree that mag rotation is becoming a thing of the past. Eventhough I still rotate every 4 months.

[TucsonMTB]

10 mags per gun is good. I try to attain about that many given time. I'm successful with most. One reason I like the 1911 platform 10 mags can work equally well for 10 different guns or 12 or 26 or however many you can get.
+1 on 1911 mags, although my Ultra Carry has only six short ones.

Kahr mags are limited to 3 carry mags for each with an additional long one for the PM40, only because it came with the gun.

I have already replaced the springs in the PM40 mags with +5% Wolff springs. Most of my OEM 1911 mags contain Wolff or Tripp springs and often Tripp kits, which include new followers. After the original OEM spring change out process, I haven't replaced springs in years.

If you number you mags, as many of us do, you can simply set aside any that malfunction and replace springs as needed. For me, seldom does more than one (the most used as a rule) magazine in a set develop problems during any given range session. YMMV :rolleyes:

[SmokingGun]

The need to "rotate" mags is an old wives tale (no offense ladies). There is however a requirement that you shoot-up your ammo and buy more :D

[CJB]

I got a bit lax after I received my duffle bag Colt 1911 that had been in the bag since WWII until the guy gave it to me, still loaded to capacity with a spare mag loaded to capacity. I left it as it was, didn't unload the mags and took it to the range with only a basic look over. Basically no maintenance or lube for over 50 years. All round fed and fired without missing a beat.


Glad you said that Jocko. Its not the constant tension on springs, but the tensioning/release of springs that weakens them. What is why, for the most part, storing a pistol with its slide back doesn't help "that stiff recoil spring" anywhere near as much as shooting the gun.

[Willieboy]

Good questions me thinks. I have five seventeen round and two fifteen round mags for my G19/G26, five ten round mags for the G26.

I have four six rounders for the PM9 and two seven round magazines for the K9. I plan to get one more six rounder for the PM9 and three seven rounders for the K9. Then I'll have five magazines for each Kahr.

I try to have five mags for each of my carry/self defense guns.

Regarding frequency of rotation, I always start out with good intentions but never change magazines on a regular basis. In my forty plus years of shooting I've never changed a magazine spring or experienced a failure that suggested the spring should be changed. I must be really lucky or really dumb.