Loading Magazines - Max or No?

I had a rifle class and the instructor suggested that we should load 28 rounds of the max 30 on a standard AR-15 magazine. Reliability seemed to be the biggest reason for that recommendation. I have 6 AR-15 mags in my safe loaded and they’re all at 30-rounds each. Do you think the 28 rounds is a good suggestion or not?

1 Like

There was a time after reading an article I loaded to 28! Personally I didn’t want the stress on the springs. However, that’s a myth. Springs lose tension when constantly used. I’ve never had a reliability issue when my mags were at max capacity! The round count is easier, 6 mags on hand = 180 rounds. 6 @ 28 = 168.
I call my shots, count and account for my rounds. It’s a personal thing, but if I’m ever asked during a self defense moment, how many rounds I fired, I can tell you where and how many I placed. It just the way I practice. Anatomy targets.
From late 2018 and for the duration this undeclared war, every magazine topped off at 30 rounds for rifle and eight for handgun, locked, loaded and staged in condition one.

5 Likes

Agreed. Compressed or relaxed, springs will do what springs do for many, many years.

Stay safe out there.

4 Likes

As long as the gun functions with a fully loaded magazine, mine are fully loaded. Any gun that will not function with a full mag is fixed, sold, or relegated to range use only.

Springs are cheap, not a bad idea to change them in your carry mags all along.

2 Likes

According to some, including Jon Lovell (warrior poet society), the reasoning is to assure that the magazine is fully seated. It seems sometimes its harder to get the mag to seat in the mag well with 30 rounds. I’ve never had that problem and load to capacity.

7 Likes

@Jason148 WPS provides the best explanation of this

7 Likes

I base my choice on reliability. 30 works in all of my mags so 30 it is. One of my smaller toys struggles with number 7 so she only gets 6, again reliability rules over capacity.

6 Likes

definitely check Warrior Poet’s video that @ScottH linked above.

The reason for downloading is purely to do with loading a full mag onto a closed bolt (which presumably has a round chambered) for example when doing a tactical reload. Swapping mags on an open bolt (slide lock) is a non-issue.

On many (?) ARs loading a full mag on a closed bolt may cause some issues… It may not seat properly (and then fall out). It may seat, but then put a lot of drag on the bolt causing FTFeed or FTE. I don’t think it’s a guarantee it will cause issues (several folks in this thread seem to have not had the issue) since there is some variance among lowers, mags, spring strength and the right/wrong combination may not work right.

As always, you should test in YOUR rifle with YOUR mags using YOUR ammo (especially if loaded for HD/SD) to see how they work or don’t.

9 Likes

It’s called tap/tug where I come from. If you’re loading a magazine into your rifle and can’t tug on it afterwards I don’t know what to say.

Stay safe out there.

2 Likes

He makes a great argument for gun control advocates for the 10 round magazine here. I love WPS, but in my time in LE, we inserted the magazine with a firm tap and then gave it a tug.

He should delete this video in my opinion. All I heard was “Who needs 30 rounds?”

Stay safe out there.

3 Likes

Well, not really cuz then you’d still need to download it to 8 or 9 :rofl:

3 Likes

Time to invent the 31 round mag! :thinking:

5 Likes

I load 28 as I learned the reason was as @Harvey stated. 2 rounds may matter in a single stack weapon but not so much in an AR. I’m also in favor of some of my AR mags being bound together. Just me.

2 Likes

Not, springs are designed for 30+.

Daniel Defense makes a 32 rounder!

4 Likes

What they said in the class was it’s basically for feeding not health of the springs.

4 Likes

Nice, Daniel Defense is on it!!:+1:

1 Like

I’m actually a fan of this (loading 29/28). I’ve had it happen to me too many times where you chamber a round of a full mag then swap the mag for another mag to get that extra round. Yes I tugged the mag. The gun goes bang then “click”. The mag is still in the gun but not seated is the worst case since you now tap and rack and may or may not get the mag to seat. Then you have to lock the slide back, tap and rack. Best case is the magazine falls out of the gun on firing.

My solution is I quit counting rounds into the mag. If you are struggling to get the last round in the mag, it doesn’t need to be there.

Cheers,

Craig6

10 Likes

The trick is to bang the magazine primer side down to set the rounds all in line. This sets the rounds so you should not have an insertion problem or even a loading problem. It is when the bullet is not set back to where the bolt will not pick it up properly that problems accrue.

5 Likes

I have tapped my mags, as you have, since Basic training. Years ago I was watching Apocalypse Now with my then Bro in-law during the Chopper scene when he tapped his mag on his helmet.
He turned and asked me if it was a good luck thing, I explained it to him and he said “huh well I thought it was for luck”. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I only load my XDM one short because if the slide is closed as it is really hard to ram it in.
12 instead of 13. :man_shrugging: :us:

3 Likes