Should magazines remain loaded when not in use?

[Merle]

Apparently it's the loading and unloading of a spring that kills it. Leaving a new mag loaded doesn't seem to affect it. One man had a mag that his dad brought home from WW2, a 1911A1 mag, that had been loaded since the war and worked fine. It had been loaded for 60 years.

That being said, my first trip overseas, we rotated our mags regularly. The guys that left them could later take the first two out and pour the rest out.

I leave my mags empty unless about to use them.

So that implies spring quality is a variable & is unknown, thus all bets are off.

This is one of the questions that comes up on a regular basis, but never gets resolved.