How Should You Store Your Magazines

Years ago I wrote about How Should You Store Your Magazines? In it, I debated whether storing loaded or unloaded was best. Three years later I have not changed my stance on that debate. When I’m asked, “should I keep my AR Mags loaded?” I answer Yes. Then I go on to explain the nuances. I felt like it was time to freshen up that article with a new presentation. Same info. Now that It has been turned into an infographic even a caveman can understand it.

Being Ready Vs. Spring Failure

The magazine storage debate stems from being ready vs spring failure. If you took the possibility of magazine failure off the table everyone would load all their magazines and store them loaded. How should you store your magazines would be a nonissue.

Having magazines loaded means that you are ready to use them in an instant. Even using stripper clips it’s still going to take you precious time to load just one magazine. Do you really want to be dicking around stuffing in ammo during an emergency?

The other side of the argument is spring failure. Metal under tension will weaken over time. So It is possible that if you left your magazines loaded over a long time you could have spring failure. And I’m sure someone will chime in with their mother’s, brother’s, sister’s, cousin’s, auntie’s, Uncle Barney’s, father’s, brother had a cousin from Killarney that left their magazines loaded and the spring went bad. Yes, it could happen. But it probably won’t.

The solution you’ll see explained in the How Should You Store Your Magazines Infographic. Enjoy and share with all your buddies so you can start arguments on the best way to store magazines.