Blockheads

[Mary Ann]

If that is a concern, pretty easy to remove the springs if it's a long transit.

[MikeS]

I can certainly see the benefit to having the springs compressed during transit. I wonder if there is any long term negative effect on spring rebound/life if left in a compressed state for an extended amount of time.

Material science says that, yes, staying under constant stress will deform a spring (it’s called creep). The questions in this case are how much and will it be noticeable. My answers are not much, and no. As @kingrob76 pointed out, my euphonium fourth valve spring spends 95% of its life compressed. I can’t notice any difference between it and the other three.

If you want to go down a rabbit hole with this, research gun forums. There are lots of strongly held opinions on whether you should load fewer rounds in a magazine that will remain loaded for a while. Some folk believe that fully compressing the magazine spring for long periods will weaken the spring and make loading less reliable. Some don’t. Asking questions about this will receive similar reactions to asking a trombone forum if Lemon Pledge is a good slide lubricant.

[gocsick]

Material science says that, yes, staying under constant stress will deform a spring (it’s called creep). The questions in this case are how much and will it be noticeable. My answers are not much, and no. As @kingrob76 pointed out, my euphonium fourth valve spring spends 95% of its life compressed. I can’t notice any difference between it and the other three.

[/quote]

Creep rates for spring steel at moderate elastic loads and room temperature is around 1x10^(-12) per second, so as long as you don't leave it compressed for more than about 10 million years you should be good.