If you buy from reputable sources and don’t try home fixes, you can be sure any problems will be resolved quickly—just be sure to test any mags that were replaced or repaired.

Once you’ve assured yourself that you have all the dependable, working magazines you need or want, how do you keep them in tip-top shape? There are a few issues we should get out of the way first. The first one, a biggie, is that springs do not take a set in a loaded magazine. Magazines are simple: a coil spring in a tube, lifting a platform that pushes the cartridges. Kept loaded (and assuming it is a good magazine) that spring does not lose strength.

A widow of a gunnery sergeant once brought in some magazines to the gun shop where I worked. While I don’t know how long before his death the gunny had loaded those magazines, I do know the widow hadn’t touched them in the 17 years since his passing. All the magazines worked just fine.

The moral? If you buy good-quality magazines, yours will work as well no matter how long you leave them loaded. So don’t sweat leaving magazines loaded.

Now that we’ve answered that question, there are a few things you must do to ensure your magazines won’t fail you in a shooting session, a big match or, God forbid, a defensive situation.

Rule 1:
Keep oil away from them. The only thing oil can do for your magazines is attract dirt, grit, lint and other debris. Some people use oil to “keep the springs from rusting” or to “smooth up the follower.” Look, springs are going to rust. They’re steel; it’s in their nature. Unless you work (and carry) in a chemical plant that is making acids, the springs aren’t going to rust enough to be weakened. (And if the plant has that much acid leaking, you really should find another job before you rust, too.)

Lubing up the follower isn’t going to make it do its job any better and will simply attract the grit and junk I mentioned before. That stuff will gum up the follower-to-tube fit and cause the very malfunction you were trying to avoid. I wince every time I see someone spraying oil into a magazine tube.

If your spring is short due to use or age, do not stretch it. Springs are cheap. Buy a new one, install it and do not save the old spring.

Rule 2:
Don’t stretch your springs. Some people like to pull the springs out and stretch them to “restore” their strength. Like applying oil, this practice is counterproductive. Springs work for a long time--as long as the amount of bend you impart to the steel stays inside the designed tension limits of the part.

Basically, if you compress or stretch it only within the limits it was designed for, it will last a long time. Bend it past its limit and it takes a more-or-less permanent set. Which is what you’re doing if you stretch that spring. You’re overworking it and reducing its strength and service life.

Stretched springs “die” faster. To no great surprise except those doing it, the guys you see stretching springs seem to always have to do it to keep their magazines running. Just ask them; they’ll tell you their tales of woe in keeping magazines running.

Rule 3:
Leave the lips alone. Yes, there are special magazine tuners like Beven Gram who will adjust magazine lips. High-volume competition shooters will sometimes measure, record, check and adjust magazine lips. However, you only get a few tries at bending each tube to get it right. The pro tuners have experimented on other magazines long before they adjust yours. Once you’ve had a pro work on your mags (if they really needed it), you should leave them alone.