Magazines and Clips

History, Development, Mechanics, and Practical Considerations Ian McCollum www.ForgottenWeapons.com

What is the Difference?

Magazine: Has a feed spring Clip: Does not

Magazine

A magazine both holds cartridges and provides the force to feed them up so they may be chambered.

If it has a spring pushing cartridges up, it is a magazine.

Two Types of Clip

Stripper clip (aka charger clip) En-bloc clip (aka Mannlicher clip) Used to load a magazine Inserted wholly into firearm

Clip Development

En bloc clips invented by Ferdinand Mannlicher in 1885 Stripper clips invented by Mauser in 1889

Ferdinand Mannlicher

 Blow-forward pistol  Short recoil pistol  Straight-pull rifle  Turnbolt rifle  En-bloc clip  Arguably Europe's greatest gun designer

Mannlicher 1886 clip

Mannlicher 1886 clip

Mannlicher System

 Steyr-Mannlicher 1886/1888/1890  Steyr-Mannlicher 1895  Italian Mannlicher-Carcano M1891/1938  Dutch M1895 Mannlicher  Pedersen Self-Loader  M1 Garand  Commission-Gewehr 1888  French Berthier 1890/1907/1916  Hungarian 35M  1895 Lee Navy (sort of)

Mannlicher System

PRO  Cheap  Light and compact  Quick to load  Very little to go wrong CON Gun single-shot without clip Some not reversible Difficult to “top off”

Mannlicher clip functions

 Holds cartridges  Provides feed lips  Automatically discarded when empty

Common Mannlicher or en-bloc clips

Steyr M95 straight-pull

Italian Carcano

German Gewehr 88

M1 Garand

Pedersen Selfloader

1895 Lee Navy

 Hybrid clip, sort of  Fed whole and loaded into action  Wire spring disengages as soon as loaded; clip falls out  Not necessary for rifle use, just speeds reloading

Mauser stripper clips

Developed in conjunction with the Belgian M1889 Mauser rifle.

Mauser-style clips are a reloading aid, not a necessity.

Mauser M1889

Mauser Clip System

PRO  Cheap  Light & compact  Disposable  Rifle can be used without clip  No feed lips or catches to be damaged CON Slower to load

Common Stripper Clips

5 Round for rifles

Common Stripper Clips

10-15 Round for rifles

Common Stripper Clips

6, 8, and 10 Round for early automatic pistols

Tension in Stripper Clips

Tabs at the ends of the clip

Tension in Stripper Clips

Flat spring along inside of clip

Tension in Stripper Clips

Bent tabs on the bottom of the clip

Tension in Stripper Clips

Tabs acting on cartridge case bodies

How about some strange clips?

Remington Model 8

Experimental German Clip

Experimental German Clip

Horseshoe clips

Japanese Type 11

Type 11 & Breda 30

Experimental Bren Clip

Avoiding a scope

Roth-Steyr Clip

Swiss Solution

Canadian Experiments

Questions about clips?

Detachable Magazines

 First invented and patented by James Paris Lee in 1879  Before either type of clip  Design has not changed much since 1879

Box Magazine

Basic principles  Holds multiple cartridges  Provides motive force to push cartridges into the bolt's path to feed  Usually includes feed lips to control cartridge  Self-contained and generally removable from firearm

Remington-Lee Rifle

1879 Remington-Lee Magazine

Loading and Shooting

 Body  Follower  Spring  Floorplate

Box Magazine

Component Parts

Box Magazine

Materials  Usually steel (strongest)  Sometimes aluminum (lighter but fragile)  Polymer (lighter and stronger)  Sometimes a mix, like steel-reinforced polymer

Bakelite?

Nope, not bakelite, despite some mags being commonly described that way.

Mag Characteristics

 Feed position – single or double?

 Number of columns – 1, 2, 4?

 Curvature?

 Feed angle?

Feed Position

 Single easier to design bolt  Double loads much more easily Most pistols are single Most rifles are double

Number of Columns

Typically, single or double stack.

Number of Columns

Occasionally, quadruple stack  Russian RPK-74  Surefire AR  Finnish Suomi SMG  Italian Spectre

Number of Columns

An unusual 4-column mag: Vesely V42

Another Odd Quad-Column Mag

1964 Springfield SPIW Prototype

Another Odd Quad-Column Mag

Curvature

Magazine curvature is determined by cartridge taper (mostly)

CSRG “Chauchat”

Magazine Comparison

Feed Angle

Two factors: grip/magwell angle and cartridge rim  Luger – steep angle  AR15 – virtually no angle  Rimmed straight-wall cartridges must be staggered in the magazine

Avoiding Rimlock

If the top rim is hooked behind the rim below, a feed failure will result.

Another Rimlock Solution

KelTec PMR-30

Drum Magazines

 Large capacity  Noisy  Slow to load  No longer typically used  Often fragile and/or unreliable

Luger Snail Drum

Luger Snail Drum

Lewis “Drum”

AK Drums

Common Magazine Failure Points

 Bent feed lips  Weak feed spring  Dented magazine body

Failure Modes

Deformed feed lips can have several effects:  Bullet nose too low; jams into feed ramp or front of magazine body  Bullet nose too high; extractor does not seat  Case head not controlled; cartridge jumps loose entirely  Case head held too low;bolt rides over top of cartridge case

Failure Modes

 Feed lip geometry is critical to proper function, and is the primary cause of malfunctions in self-loading firearms.

 Often cheap 3rd-party magazines have tolerances greater than allowable for reliability.

 Even different factory models of the same gun can have this trouble – like Ruby pistols.

Ruby Pistols

Failure Modes

 A dented magazine body will prevent follower travel. Often magazine remains functions but with limited capacity.

 A weak feed spring will fail to raise a cartridge fast enough to be fed by the bolt on a semiauto. Problem often presents on the last few rounds in the mag.

Some Unusual Magazines

Madsen LMG Feed lips in receiver, not magazine

Some Unusual Magazines

Johnson LMG Same thing – feed lips not on mag

Fiat-Revelli 1914 Magazine

Fiat-Revelli 1914

Feed Strips

Breda Model 38

Some Unusual Magazines

Gabbett-Fairfax Mars Cartridges pulled out of magazine base-first

Boberg XRS-9

Unusual Mag and Malfunction

Converted ZB-26 Magazine