Anyone else take their spring out of their CA M249 for storage?
 

I'm curious how common this practice is.

not that I know of. The one guy on our team keeps it in. Though it may be a good idea for over the winter or other long periods between playing.

Why on Earth would you need to? You don't take the spring out of any other AEG, so I'm curious as to why you'd do it with the CA249.

And "because I can" is not a valid argument.

I guess maybe people go a little overboard when they take care of their guns

Meh, why not. For something that takes less than 5mins to do, not a bad idea just for the hell of it if you don't plan to use it for 6 months or so. "Because I can" actually has some worth to it here. Unlike any other AEG that is.

BTW, why you putting it into storage anyways? You are in the USA, and here in the capital of Canuckville, we still have another month of gaming to do anyways. Gmaes planned for the next three weeks. USA is more like a year round kinda airsoft country. Must be nice............... unless you are in Alaska! Lol

Y'gotta consider though, you're right, there's a good month at least left of gaming up here, but if he's in one of the northern states, they get winter just like we do...

I doubt it's necessary, as typically the loss in performance we've seen in airsoft springs, over the long term, is pretty minimal. If it REALLY makes no difference to you, then there's no harm. But it's not going to help you immensely.

Ehm... there are plenty of parts of the continental US that are much colder than Ottawa. Central, northern and mountain states have pretty long stretches of weather where you wouldn't want to play airsoft all that much.

crap, edit lead to a double post.

Considering that AEGs should be fired in semi to put the piston full forward (we all know that shooting in full the piston ends up in different positions when you stop, and that full retracted will cause the spring to weaken.......... proof enough teammates leaving their hot PDI 150% 420+ fps guns to settle down and weaken the spring between games, eventually making them just under 400fps) and the fact the CA M249 has two settings, "Off" and "Fuck Ya!", aside from looking right in the mag loading tube to see where the cylinder's nozzle has rested, removing the spring is the best way to ensure your M249 shoots as good next spring as it did last game. Five minute guarantee, wouldn't you?

CDN_Stalker called it: The saw has no real way of guaranteeing spring/piston location at the end of firing the weapon.

But really, removing the spring is not even a 5 minute operation, more like 30seconds, and no tools are required. Unscrew a cap, pull a pin, tilt the stock, lift the feedtray, press the lever, pull out the spring. Done. Wham, bam, thank you maam. And I mean in between skirmish weekends, not just for over-winter storage (btw- we're playing at least thru the end of November here in Ohio with at least two large events on the schedule).

It also doesnt just help preserve the spring but also for making sure there's no load on the rest of the gears/parts of the mechbox while the gun sits.

It seems to help - I'm still getting about 400-420fps out of a systema M120 and all other parts stock after much firing when by the charts I should be netting 360-390fps on a brand new spring.

:)

Ahh right, now that makes a lot more sense. I hadn't considered the lack of a spring release.

Though one must wonder, what kind of lousy spring steel are manufacturers using that their product can't stay compressed without losing tension? Springs are supposed to wear out from being cycled, not compressed.

Or Kentucky. Ha!

I haven't left the spring in and compressed for a long period of time in order to test spring weakening personally (as measured by my chrono). I may try that though. But it does seem to be the expected behavior for airsoft gun springs (I've seen what Stalker mentioned also: people leaving guns compressed thru the morning skirmishs to chrono under limits in the afternoon). Not that I think I'm safe anyway - the saw cycles the spring ALOT, heh.

Eh. Regardless I like the fact that the gears and whatnot are not under load while stored, helps me sleep better.

I'm not 100% sure but I think the spring weakens a bit because of creep. Constant loading of the metal, even when it's only undergoing elastic deformation, can lead to an eventual plastic deformation.

But feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Actually, one of them used a velocity reducer during the day since they were over the limit (or would borrow a gun and leave the hot gun at home) keeping the spring compressed for a few weeks, and he ran a few thousand BBs through it when he had the chance and it went from around 426fps down to average 10 shots 396fps (couple were just over 400, as in one at 404fps).I noticed this when i had his gun at my place for a tweak, so I shot a 10 shot string. Anyways, it's over the period of time the spring will weaken, very slightly, be it use or leaving it compressed. Besides, we keep our mags unloaded between game days anyways to keep the springs fresh, right? ;-)

I'm not sure to what extent AEG springs weaken due to plastic deformation or metal fatigue from cycling, but the SAW's not safe on either count anyway - since I easily go through 2,000 rounds on the average skirmish. Or in other words, one day's skirmish for the SAW is like a short-burst AEG's entire year's worth of usage. Ugh. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining :) )

It does, but a few of the most extreme examples I've seen were never more than 20ish fps loss (although there are a few flukes out there, in general it's not more than that - and that includes wear from 10's of 1000's of cycles).

However, with no proper spring release - yes, I would absolutely find a way to decompress (all you need to do) or remove (for long periods, may as well) the the spring. Your internals aren't that tough, and they don't need that kind of load on them.