I do remember reading about the British Special Air Service downloading the Browning High Power to 11+1 for reliability and here's a link:
http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=38710
KJT, I read your link. I went to an HK class that was taught by a former SAS operator who then worked for HK in Sterling, VA. He was one of the two operators who are shown in the famous picture of the SAS going through the window of the Iranian embassy in London. He never mentioned doing that at all, but then the BHP never came up as we were dealing with HK weapons. However, SAS aside, I have a small collection of 1911A1's from 1943 to 1945. Total of 4 in descent but used condition with 1 that was obviously issued but virtually never fired much based on condition. I know it was issued because I know where it came from. I also have original magazines for those guns based on the markings on same. I've shot a couple of them at the range with those old mags and they worked just fine, with GI hardball of course.
My experience with mags over the years is that the ones which get spring fatigue are the ones that get loaded and shot and reloaded constantly i.e. in competition like NRA 2700 or IPSC where mags take an additonal beating of being dropped all the time as well as loaded and reloaded. Anyone who has shot IPSC knows you need to take lots of mags to a shoot so that you always have enough for one of the ultimately impractical assault courses. While I do rotate and check my carry magazines whenever I shoot one of my working weapons, I don't spend a lot of practice time shooting and reloading those mags. The weapons that I have that have experience spring fatigue the worst are HK and SIG 9mm's and .45's with German made magazines, identifiable by the zigzag back strip where they are put together. For some reason as good as the Germans seem to be in lots of things from cars and guns to Streudel and beer, their ability to make magazine springs is apparently lagging. I am constantly buying Wolff plus strength kits in paks of 3 from Brownell's to replace them. The HK seems the worst but then when the same exact spring is used in all three calibers of USPc maybe that's an indicator of a problems origin. The oldest USPc I own is from 2002. Interestingly, HK 30 rd AR mags don't seem to suffer from that malady. My son prefers them for combat use and took 10 of them with him to Afghanistan and they stayed loaded all the time and were constantly being emptied and reloaded during the time his team was training and operating with local Afghan national police. The one exception to his use of them occurred whenever he was going to be on foot in mountainous terrain. He told me he would then switch to US contract aluminum mags because they were lighter. The HK AR mags are all steel construction, and are a shade longer than their US counterparts but do fit in the Molle pouches that are issued to SF operators. They also fit in nylon Vietnam era pouches but are tight.
Thanks to Jack F for an excellent article link. But regardless of what the article says, we are all a product of our own mythology, experience and training. I'm still going to load my magazines to capacity and I'm still going to rotate them in the gun periodically. I personally also think that having a mag that is loaded all the time is a little different than having one loaded and not in the gun. When a mag is inserted into a pistol while fully loaded the slide of the weapon when closed exerts some down force upon the top round in the magazine. This may be that slight extra force the article mentions that causes the spring to move past it's elastic limit over time. Who knows.
