Storing Firearm/Ammo

[Plasma]

So recently their was a thread about the worse way to store a firearm, aka loaded in reach of small children.

Now Don Gwinn, countered by saying "treat your gun like it is loaded all the time because it SHOULD be loaded all the time" . In which I can tend to agree.

However here is a few things. So your firearm should accessable to you in home, however wouldn't that mean it would as accessible to an intruder as well? Maybe seperate the magazine , so it can be loaded if needed?

Is there is a problem keeping a magazine loaded all the time. Should be that ammo be empty and refilled every once in a while?

[MONGO]

A fully loaded magazine can lead to spring compression. I used to cycle the magazines in my home gun (when I lived in the US) and always kept the loaded magazine down one round.

Wolff springs are usually good reliable replacement parts once the stock springs start to go. Keep in mind that the majority of quality weapon malfunctions are magazine related.

I also used to number the floor plate of all my mags so I could keep track of the ones that didn't function so well. This will help you keep track of which ones are starting to weaken and which ones should be used for carry.

[Plasma]

A fully loaded magazine can lead to spring compression. I used to cycle the magazines in my home gun (when I lived in the US) and always kept the loaded magazine down one round.

Wolff springs are usually good reliable replacement parts once the stock springs start to go. Keep in mind that the majority of quality weapon malfunctions are magazine related.

I also used to number the floor plate of all my mags so I could keep track of the ones that didn't function so well. This will help you keep track of which ones are starting to weaken and which ones should be used for carry.

Will 1 round really make a difference when keeping a loaded Magazine?

[MONGO]

It can, I have heard that it is standard procedure for some special operations groups (particularly the SAS) and I do know that my former department had us load our Glock 22 mags with 14 instead of the 15 it could hold because it caused malfunctions in some guns.

Now,(when I was a cop) I never had a problem but I had extra magazines and cycled them every month for street carry. I also shot every weekend and I was intimately familiar with the condition and reliablity factors of my firearms. Most cops don't practice or cycle their mags or even clean their guns that often.

[Don Gwinn]

Actually, that wasn't me. Most of my guns are unloaded at all times. As a matter of fact, the SIG in the Safe is unloaded; at night, I figure if I'm not awake enough to load and charge the weapon, I'm not awake enough to have a loaded gun.

Other people do it other ways, which is fine with me. Some people simply carry the thing all the time, which means it's always under their direct control. Makes more sense to have it loaded if you're going to do that.

[Don Gwinn]

Oops, didn't answer the question. No, my firearm is not as accessible to an intruder as it is to me because he doesn't know the simple four-finger button combination that I practice in the dark to open my quick-access pistol safe. If he thinks he's bright enough to guess it, let him try.