A lot of us grew up around firearms and most of us did know that a core part of firearms ownership is not just buying, feeding, and shooting the things, but also properly maintaining them. Firearms can range from being ultra simple to ultra complex machines. Depending on what type of firearm and what type of shooting you’re doing you may or may not have to routinely replace parts that start to wear and today we’re going to talk about when and why you might want to change out your factory magazine springs, and swap in some aftermarket and possibly higher-power magazines.
Semi-automatic handguns feed from very simple box magazines powered by springs. Magazine springs can be made from a fairly wide variety of spring materials and are typically compression or torsion springs. Despite being made from durable wear-resistant metals, magazine springs do wear out through frequent and harsh use which will eventually lead to firearm unreliability. However, this first scenario for replacement is quite rare for the “average” gun owner, and typically magazine spring changes are only required for people who do a lot of high-volume shooting. Magazines can be stored either empty or full without them wearing so replacing the spring in your carry gun due to wear might not happen for many years.
Another reason to swap out your magazine springs in either your pistol or your rifle includes changes to the firearm itself. Some firearms might require stronger magazine springs to aid the pistol in gaining that extra bit of reliability with aftermarket parts like compensators, increased power recoil springs, and hotter ammunition. In these situations, it's best to run magazine springs with a tiny power boost to keep things reliable when shooting spicy ammo.
In a lot of cases, replacing your magazine spring in a failing or malfunctioning magazine is the easiest and best way to determine if your stock pistol needs magazine replacement. A good early indicator that your magazine springs specifically are starting to go out is when your firearm fails to lock back after the last round has been shot - when this happens either your follower has been damaged or worn out, or your magazine spring isn’t strong enough anymore to activate the slide stop.
If you’ve got the time and money, routinely replacing your gun’s magazine spring is the safest way to make sure your CCW is always in ready condition. The worst time to have a malfunction would be when you need your gun the most and you can give yourself some extra peace of mind by having better magazine springs in your carry mags. Suppose you don’t constantly drop your magazines on hard surfaces. In that case, the magazine body itself should be in good enough condition for you to simply swap out the spring and possibly the follower (maybe throw in some Tyrant CNC baseplates for good measure too) without the need to spend $30-$60 on an entirely new magazine.
Whatever your reason for replacing your OEM magazines with aftermarket ones, you should always test your firearm with the reassembled magazine before you do anything serious with it. Even though the process is fairly simple and doesn’t require the services of a gunsmith, you’ll want to use the proper tools and follow a guide of some kind till you’re confident you’ve mastered the process. If you’re looking to pick up some new magazine springs, Tyrant CNC now offers 10% extra power springs for some of the most popular handguns out there including SIGs, Glocks, H&Ks, Springfield, and Smith & Wesson M&P pistols. For more information on that, you can check out the “Handgun Upgrades” section on the Tyrant CNC store. In the
