>>I personally get tired of rotating magazines. And shooting up magazines loaded with expensive defense ammunition during regular practice as method of rotating magazines is more extravagant than this non-governmentally-funded shooter can tolerate. <<<br><br>You're allowed to unload the magazine by hand (or more accurately, by thumb) rather than shooting it dry. It's less work than loading one, which you're going to have to do anyway...<br><br>For the relatively brief period that I kept a 1911 loaded, I used a top-brand 8 round competition magazine loaded with 7. Also, when it wasn't carried, to help unload the spring a bit and add a bit more safety, I didn't seat the mag- I had to "bump the butt" to seat the mag (the extra length of the 8 round mag made this easy) before jacking the slide to put one in the chamber. As far as the spring was concerened, this was all probably unnecessary, but I slept better.<br><br>I did the same thing with the tube magazine on a Remington 870 for awhile.. just kept it loaded one less than capacity. For a staggered mag I'd probably go two less- I've had Vietnam vets tell me they never loaded their M16 20-round mags with more than 18.<br><br>The strain on normal coil springs is not linear with compression, they're typically under MUCH more strain at full design compression than they are when just a little relaxed.<br>