Okay, so everyones wonders about leaving mags loaded for weeks/months/years and how it will effect the spring. Of course, constant compression/release is worse than just leaving it compressed but excuse me if this math is wrong, but if it isnt, it REALLY puts it into perspective. I'm going to use the recoil spring for example.

 

Glock 18 fires at 1200 RPM. Thats 20 rounds per second (using this stat to figgure out how long the slides in movement). So for every 20 rounds fired, there is 1 second of spring compression. Now, alot of people say that after anywhere from 20-50k rounds you need to replace the recoil spring. Let's go for the high number, 50k rounds. By that time, most will agree that that spring will be shot out. So according to this... 2,500 seconds of spring compression = 50,000 rounds fired. That's 41 minutes of spring compression for 50,000 rounds fired.

 

So, if I lock my slide back for 41 minutes, will my spring wear out?

You're talking applaes and oranges here. The Glock 18 will have been compressed and released 50,000 times. If you lock back your slide for an hour and reease it its only been compressed and released once.

To expand a tiny bit on what Griz said, you can look up metal fatigue to see how number of compression and decompression cycles is different than total compression time.

To expand a tiny bit on what Griz said, you can look up metal fatigue to see how number of compression and decompression cycles is different than total compression time.

 

NOoooo your bringing back memories of Mech Engineering school

GRIZ, thats exactly what im saying. Its a little bit of math that can disprove someone saying that leaving a mag loaded for X amount of time is bad. Its not leaving it compressed that wears it out, its the cycles of compress, decompress etc.