Cable locks & Slides

**Pa.Bill** · April 21st, 2008, 10:33 AM

Let say, you are going on vacation for two week.
To safegard a firearm ,simi-auto, ( you will not be taking with you) you lock the slide back and install a saftey cable lock.

Question: Will locking back the slide, for a long peroid of time, do any damage to the spring.

~THANK YOU~
Bill--------------------------->

**schr8er2000** · April 21st, 2008, 10:46 AM

Locking back ANY spring for an extended period of time naturally will compress it and can cause minimal problems.... better to leave in NORMAL relaxed positions if possible.. but dont think that 2 weeks is that bad.

You COULD just give me all your guns to hold for you ( along with ample ammo of course ) and I will take them out and shoot them to keep them in proper working condition for you..... HA HA HA

**LittleRedToyota** · April 21st, 2008, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by schr8er2000

Locking back ANY spring for an extended period of time naturally will compress it and can cause minimal problems....

do you have a source for this?

physics actually tells us that a spring will not "wear out" or become permanently compressed from being in a compressed position literally forever.

only cycling the spring actually causes it to wear out.

see: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...27/ai_99130369

to the OP...i'm a bit paranoid, but whenever i will be away from home for an extended period, i dissassemble the guns i am leaving behind. i leave most of each gun in my safe, but hide one critical component (like the firing pin or, for my glocks, the barrel) somewhere else in my house.

that way, if someone does manage to break in a steal the guns, they will most likely be stealing an unworking gun.

**schr8er2000** · April 21st, 2008, 11:40 AM

Only SOURCE I have for this is ME... I had a Ruger MARK II that I left the slide locked open for an extended period of time ( 3 months ) and when I went to use it again it remained compressed.... Physics or not... it reminded somewhat compressed and ended up getting a new spring.... but that was along time ago... things may have improved since then.. but I just dont do it... feel that the spring in the relaxed state ensures that it will work when I need it too.,.,just MY opinion....

**LittleRedToyota** · April 21st, 2008, 11:51 AM

Originally Posted by schr8er2000

Only SOURCE I have for this is ME... I had a Ruger MARK II that I left the slide locked open for an extended period of time ( 3 months ) and when I went to use it again it remained compressed.... Physics or not... it reminded somewhat compressed and ended up getting a new spring.... but that was along time ago... things may have improved since then.. but I just dont do it... feel that the spring in the relaxed state ensures that it will work when I need it too.,.,just MY opinion....

interesting. thanks for sharing that experience.

i wonder if the design of the gun was such that locking the slide pushed the spring past its elastic limit? just thinking out loud...

**blendingnoise** · April 21st, 2008, 11:57 AM

my experience is that well oiled and taken care of springs will only fail after REPEATED compression and decompressions. Takes a lot. Badly taken care of springs will stop working because of other things like rust or gunk hanging it up for me. Clean up and they work fine again. This is for various springs and not just gun springs I have found.

**Pa.Bill** · April 21st, 2008, 04:15 PM

LittleRedToyota--- Nice article, I enjoyed reading it. Cleared up a few points.

I have always felt as sche8er2000. I am not confortable locking the slide back for long peroids of time, same as longterm mags.

I think back to Military training ( Thats U.S. ) 1911/.45 one round less in mag.
We were told ( USMC & USN ) a memo was sent from mag manufacture that -The mags could fail in temperatures above 104' if they were fully loaded for long periods of time.

But I guess it just one of those things as the Article states.

~BEST TO ALL~
Bill---------------------->

**synergy** · April 22nd, 2008, 12:11 AM

They're still finding loaded magazines for the m3a1 Grease Gun, that were loaded during WWII, and function 100% today.

The only thing I'd be worried about is feed lip creep. This has NOTHING to do with the spring getting worn out.

LRT was spot on. Leaving springs compressed isn't a problem.

You know of any automobile manufacturers that recommend putting a car up on blocks if you're storing it for a long period of time so you don't wear out the shocks?

Most adults can defeat a cable lock in 5 mins or less....most CAN'T put a firing pin back in, though.