Henry Rifle Forums

Do y'all leave rounds in the magazine tube? Will doing so weaken the tube spring?

Can't speak for the Henry mag tube, but I've left pistol mags loaded for very long periods of time with no weakening of the spring.

Won't hurt the spring, but some ammo types will deform, especially with a full tube. JHP will deform around the bullet cavity in a few days, and the Hornady LeveRevolution tip will flatten out a bit after a couple of weeks. Theoretically this could effect accuracy or terminal performance. These are the only 2 I have experience with in centerfire, but I've also seen deformation of bullet tips in rimfire LRN & HP.

The springs in my revolver never seem to be affected.

historically, while in a hunting camp, the chambers in the rifles and/or shotguns I hunted with would be empty while the magazines would be full .... my revolvers would be full and kept in a holster with the hammer secured by a snapped down safety strap ..... under normal circumstances, my big game hunts would last a few days at a time and I never had an issue with deformed bullets .... when transporting to and from the hunting camp, they are empty .... I've kept home defense rounds in detachable magazines for extended periods without issue, with that exception I store mine empty

Longest I have rounds in the mag tube on my 1860 would be 6 or 8 hours when riding in back country so doubtful that would do anything.

Cofisher wrote:The springs in my revolver never seem to be affected.

love it!

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cute.

Cofisher wrote:The springs in my revolver never seem to be affected.

North Country Gal wrote:Can't speak for the Henry mag tube, but I've left pistol mags loaded for very long periods of time with no weakening of the spring.

Agreed, my pistol mags are always full and have never had a feeding problem. Will treat my Henry the same. If spring ever gets weak, I will simply replace it.

Here is a good YouTube on the subject INHO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pch0J9-7i2k

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That video does a decent job of explaining.
Key variable takeaways:

1. Spring design type
   Quality of spring steel used
   Who made it
   Under full compression, partial or not for extended period of time.

Also in non-firearm applications I have experienced weakened springs. So no reason to expect firearm springs to be any different. May take longer but I would expect them to eventually weaken too.

I also have a 1913 .32 Colt and 1935 Mauser (both fully loaded when inherited). Springs in the magazines of these are quite weak and unable to lift the last rounds.

Henry88 wrote:Here is a good YouTube on the subject INHO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pch0J9-7i2k