Will I wear out the spring in my AK Magazine by leaving it loaded to full capacity, all the time? Would it be better on the spring to only load it half way? What do you say?

Red,

I'm going to assume that the springs in an AK are the same or similar to the ones in my Colt 1911, 45 ACP. I've still got the original magazine in the pistol, and its been fully loaded for more than 20 years, along with the spares I purchased. I've never had a feeding problem that might be caused by a bad spring.

Lobo in West Virginia

Will I wear out the spring in my AK Magazine by leaving it loaded to full capacity, all the time? Would it be better on the spring to only load it half way? What do you say?
Thank You Lobo! Your answer makes sense.
I will load up without worry.

Thank You Lobo! Your answer makes sense.
I will load up without worry.

I was working a gunshop in 1984. Little old man (somehwere between 80 and 500years old) comes in with his brother's 1911 (a 1911..not an A1 or a commercail). Magazine rusted into the mag. well, but did come free.

Was loaded with 7 rounds of 1917 dated ammo. We cleaned the magazine up, and replaced the spring. Just for fun, we decided to see if the original spring would still work...yep it worked, but we replaced it with a new one anyway.

He didn't know when his brother last loaded the pistol, had never shot it as far as he knew...so those 1917 rouns could have been in there from WWI.

BUT, I do tend to alternate mags. Have had some springs take a set...usually the first sign is that they get lazy with the last rounds or won't operate the slidestop/bolt stop. So It's not a real big problem to keep one empty and just alternate the loaded ones in turn.
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BTW: charge was $5 and we kept the 1917 ammo. Two rounds for collections, and five rounds fired...all five went "boom".

Consider the quality of the spring steel used. Other countries may not have the rigorous standards of the US Military.

I was working a gunshop in 1984. Little old man (somehwere between 80 and 500years old) comes in with his brother's 1911 (a 1911..not an A1 or a commercail). Magazine rusted into the mag. well, but did come free.

Was loaded with 7 rounds of 1917 dated ammo. We cleaned the magazine up, and replaced the spring. Just for fun, we decided to see if the original spring would still work...yep it worked, but we replaced it with a new one anyway.

He didn't know when his brother last loaded the pistol, had never shot it as far as he knew...so those 1917 rouns could have been in there from WWI.

BUT, I do tend to alternate mags. Have had some springs take a set...usually the first sign is that they get lazy with the last rounds or won't operate the slidestop/bolt stop. So It's not a real big problem to keep one empty and just alternate the loaded ones in turn.
------
BTW: charge was $5 and we kept the 1917 ammo. Two rounds for collections, and five rounds fired...all five went "boom".
Alternating Mags every few months sounds like the safe way to go, Thanks, my fellow american.

Consider the quality of the spring steel used. Other countries may not have the rigorous standards of the US Military.
Thanks for the good advise, hopefully the springs in the clips are as dependable as the rifle itself.

You shouldn't run into any problems leaving it loaded. What wears magazine springs is constant loading and unloading. Properly tempered springs should be good for around 1000 compressions (30x1000=30,000rds through that one mag). Have keep some AK mags loaded here for the last 6 months and no problem earlier this week firing two of them.

CD

Good springs stay springs for a long time (may 200 year old springs work just fine even after being cocked and on display for 50 or 60 years). A bad spring won't.

How do you know if a spring is "good" or "bad"? The bad ones are the ones that break or "let down" over a short time, they LOOK the same as the others, but only use will let you know it's life span. As we rely on these springs, it's proably beter NOT to keep magaznes loaded for years and years...stacking the odds in your favor is ALWAYS a good idea.
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BTW: so far, have not replace non-broken leaf springs in any gun...either they are springs are they are broken scrap. Coil springs are another matter. Long ones get kinked, or partially collapse...the spacing of the coils is measurably differenet along one section...they shorten with time and use.

Now if they kink or shorten, then they don't supply the required force at the end of their travel..the kink usually rubs on something losing force through frictio and a short spring can't push as hard at the end of it's travel as it once did.

Good designs take this into account and the springs are made strong enough to corect this tendency.

Long term I put in 90% of the magazine's capacity.
27 on a 30 rounder.