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Can a magnet damage a gun? I’ve been asked this question more times than I can remember by perspective gun magnet buyers from all over the US, even more than “how do you hide a gun in a car with a gun magnet” or “how do you hide a gun in your bedroom“?
The classic home protection system: gun and magazines hidden in plain sight by a concealed gun magnet
With the misinformation that floats around about gun magnets and the effect of magnetism on guns, I’ve decided to put together a conclusive answer to this question. With this guide, you’ll be able to make a more informed decision on your gun magnet purchase. And for a more anecdotal take, you can read about my first gun magnet purchase here.
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Table of Contents
- Can a magnet damage a gun by magnetizing the firing pin and preventing it from firing?
- Are gun magnets strong enough magnetize my gun?
- Effect of gun magnets on hammer fired guns vs. striker fired guns
- The Paperclip Test: why induced magnetism is weak
- Can a magnet damage a gun by magnetizing the slide? Will this affect the firearm’s performance in the field?
- Will a gun with a magnetized slide fire?
- What if metal crud sticks to my slide?
- Can a gun magnet cause a gun to accidentally discharge?
- Will putting a gun on my gun magnet make it fire?
- The Gun Control Act of 1968: gun safety mechanisms
- Why your gun magnet won’t fire your Glock
- Conclusion: can a magnet damage a gun?
- Case Study: my SIG that lives on a gun mount
What many gun owners think gun magnets do to their guns
Can a magnet damage a gun by magnetizing the firing pin and prevent it from firing?
The answer to the first part of this question is simple: no.
While many gun magnets today can support well over 25 pounds of weight, the magnetic force of a gun magnet simply isn’t powerful enough to penetrate a gun. Thus, mounting your firearm on a gun magnet will not magnetize your firing pin.
But let’s pretend for a moment that you are dealing with a magnetized firing pin. Will this damage your gun and/or affect its ability to fire?
To start, let’s first take a look at hammer fired guns (check out Youtuber Skallagrim’s breakdownvideo on how a hammer fired gun operates).
How a hammer strike gun works
As Skallagrim explains, a hammer fired gun depends on the force of the hammer striking the firing pin in order to fire. And being a gun owner, you are likely familiar with the force behind a hammer. It’s strong – not where you want fingers to be after pulling the trigger.
This being said, even if your gun magnet did slightly magnetize the firing pin, the force of the hammer striking it would negate any magnetism. Remember,induced magnetism is very weak.
Who did this as a kid?
Let’s test this theory.
Find two paper clips and magnetize one of them by rubbing it for two minutes with a magnet. Once the paper clip is magnetized, use it to pick up the non-magnetized paper clip.
Hold the two linked paperclips the air and try to break the magnetic connection by blowing on the non-magnetized paper clip or by flicking it lightly.
See how easy they separated? Same concept here.
With a striker fired gun, the concept is also similar (take a look at YouTuber Christian Chavez’s animation of how a Glock 17 fires).
A look inside the most sold gun in America
As seen in Chavez’s video, a striker fired gun fires when the tension in the pulled back firing pin spring is released and the firing pin strikes the primer of the bullet. This force behind the firing pin would be strong enough to negate any hypothetical magnetism on the firing pin.
Can a magnet damage a gun by magnetizing the slide? Will this affect the firearm’s performance in the field?
If you:
- Rub the ferrous metal parts of the slide against a gun magnet repeatedly for a prolonged period of time
OR - Leave your gun mounted on a gun magnet for a prolonged period of time
Then yes, the gun magnet will slightly magnetize the slide through induced magnetism.However, this slight bit of magnetism would not affect damage your firearm or affect its performance, both in terms of racking and firing. Any induced magnetism caused by a gun magnet would be very weak, and would not impede the movement of the slide or magnetize the inner components of the gun.
In this circ*mstance, the only thing to worry about would be having small pieces of metal sticking to the slide itself. This would not affect the gun’s operationbut potentially could cause scratches on the slide from back and forth scraping of the metal pieces.
However, this issue can be easily solved: don’t keep or use your firearm in places with lots of loose, light pieces of scrap metal laying around.
Can a gun magnet cause a gun to accidentally discharge?
For this case, let’s imagine you installed a gun magnet on your wall and mounted a SIG Sauer P938 on it.
In order for us to consider the possibility of the gun magnet causing the SIG to accidentally discharge, you’d have to first mount it on the gun magnet, racked with a bullet in the chamber (please don’t ever do this).
The magnetic pull of the gun magnet would then have to be strong enough to pull the trigger of the gun OR somehow release the sear independently of the trigger.
Luckily, this scenario is impossible because:
- As shown earlier, gun magnets are not strong enough to magnetically move the components of a gun
- Almost every modern firearm has safety mechanisms as per the Gun Control Act of 1968 to prevent accidental discharge under these circ*mstances
These safety mechanisms would prevent accidental discharge under these circ*mstances for striker fired guns as well.
And for Glock owners, a gun magnet-caused accidental discharge would be even more impossible due to the Glock’s “Safe Action”® system. This system prevents any Glock from firing unless the secondary trigger safety is first pulled with the primary trigger. Since the Glock’s trigger safety is made of non-magnetic material, even the strongest magnet in the world wouldn’t affect it.
Either way, these aren’t situations to consider because you, as a responsible firearm owner, would never mount a racked firearm on a gun magnet.
Right?
Conclusion: can a magnet damage a gun?
A gun mount in action. Look ma, no hands! Sort of.
No – a gun magnet CANNOT damage your gun. I’ve mounted my SIG on a gun magnet under my home office’s desk for the past year, and it works as well as the day I bought it. Don’t buy into the myths: your gun magnet will hold your gun securely in whatever location you choose, and will notdamage your gun.
