Whats the purpose of upgrading your magazine and buying so many?

The purpose of keeping your mags upgraded is just like keeping your firearm functioning with new springs. You have to remember that your magazine inside the gun is nothing less than a simple machine, if all of the parts are not up to spec then it won't work properly. Look at just about any malfuntion that happens inside a semi-automatic pistol most of these failures can be linked back to the magazine or to the shooter themselves. You train yourself "or at least you should" on how to clear these failures on the range so in the event that there is a failure when you need your sidearm the most you will know how to clear this problem instantly. I always keep my magazines loaded for the emegency in the future but every 4 months I switch out all of my mags with another set of mags. I don't buy brand new mags 3 time a year, I just switch them out with empty mags that I have at home. I do believe that in the next few months I will be purhasing new mags for both my long guns and my hand guns because of the election situation coming up this year. Remember that the saying "he who dies with the most stuff wins" is not a truthful statement because he still dies the proverb should say "he who lives with the most stuff that works, lives". You should buy the most amount of everything that you still "legally" can but if the massive amount of equipment you buy doesn't work then it is just simply waisted money and most likely endangering your life. Live long and prosper but remember prosperity is only your responsibility.

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and buying so many

Zombies, vltnolia916, zombies.

How often do they fail?

Without a mag your semiauto is a single shot. Depending on how you keep/care for them & use them, a mag will last almost as long as the pistol. How many do you need, well most shooters panic buy & want 10-30 mags for each firearm. Unless you are going to war tomorrow, how many do you need? Even in a serious SHTF situation, you can only carry so many. A min. to me is 3 for a range gun & 5 for a carry gun. Many have more invested in their mags than their firearm.

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Originally posted by vltnolia916:
How often do they fail?

Each mag is different, you have to test the springs to see if they are strong enough in order to reliably feed the next round into the chamber of the gun. I change my mags every 4 months and put new springs in them every year. I also will not buy junk mags for my gun, I will only use factory mags or at least an aftermarket mag that I know will work well in my gun like MEC-GAR. I actually go a step further I will have mags that I will only use for on the range. I do this for two reasons. (1) It allows me to beat up on mags that I know I will not be using for self defense "train like you fight". (2) It assures me that if I am in a hurry to get back home or someplace else I won't be worried about switching my ammo and load up SD ammo, I will already have a couple of mags preloaded with the correct ammo. Just some advice form a village idiot...

Reloading magazines takes up your shooting time. More loaded mags = more shooting time

When your thumb starts bleeding that is a sign to stop shooting or buy more magazines, I prefer to still shoot.

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Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
Reloading magazines takes up your shooting time. More loaded mags = more shooting time

In some states, like Kalif., transporting a loaded mag within the same space as the empty pistol is considered loaded & requires a CCW. Something to keep in mind when you transport all those loaded mags to the range.