Magazine (firearms)

The magazine functions by holding several cartridges within itself and sequentially pushing each one into a position where it may be readily loaded into the barrel chamber by the firearm's moving action.

Although the term "clip" is often used to refer to detachable (never fixed) magazines, this usage remains a point of strong contention.

It was adopted in small quantities by the Union Army in the American Civil War and was favored for its greater firepower than the standard issue carbine.

Many later found their way Westward and was famed both for its use at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and being the basis for the iconic Winchester lever-action repeating rifle, which is still in production to the present day.

[11] The second magazine-fed firearm to achieve widespread success was the Spencer repeating rifle, which saw service in the American Civil War.

Modifications had to be made to the centerfire case to prevent the spitzer point from igniting the primer of the next cartridge inline in the magazine through recoil or simply rough handling.

[17] James Paris Lee patented a box magazine which held rounds stacked vertically in 1875,[18] 1879 and 1882 and it was first adopted by Austria in the form of an 11mm straight-pull bolt-action rifle, the Mannlicher M1886.

[20][21][22] James Paris Lee is sometimes claimed to have invented the double-stack, staggered-feed detachable box magazine but he didn't design one until 1892 for the Mark II Lee-Metford, three years after the Schmidt-Rubin.

The first detachable double-stack, single-feed magazine for pistols was probably the one patented by the American Elbert H. Searle in 1904 and adopted by Arthur Savage though he didn't apply it in practice to his designs until much later.

[23][24] One of the first double-stack, single-feed box magazines was patented in November 1888 by an English inventor called Joseph James Speed of Waltham Cross.

Several different types of clips exist, most of which are made of inexpensive metal stampings that are designed to be disposable, though they are often re-used.

The Germans used this system for their Model 1888 Commission Rifle, featuring a 5-round en bloc clip-fed internal box magazine.

He would continue to make improved models of rifles that took advantage of this new clip design from 1889 through 1898 in various calibers that proved enormously successful, and were adopted by a wide range of national militaries.

What made the Nagant stand out was that it combined all the earlier features in a form that was to last virtually unchanged from its issue by Russia in 1894 through World War II and with its sniper rifle variants still in use today.

A feature of many late 19th and early 20th century bolt-action rifles was the magazine cut-off, sometimes called a feed interrupter.

It was rendered obsolete for military use almost immediately by the 1947 introduction of the magazine-fed AK-47 assault rifle, though it remained in service for many years in Soviet Bloc nations alongside the AK-47.

[33] The Swiss Army evaluated the Luger pistol using a detachable box magazine in 7.65×21mm Parabellum and adopted it in 1900 as its standard sidearm.

The first reliable high-capacity double-stack, staggered-feed box magazine was developed by an American designer called Oscar V. Payne for the Thompson submachine gun around the same time as Schmeisser's Cone.

Other designs, like the Breda Modello 30, had a fixed protruding magazine from the right side that resembled a conventional detachable box, but it was non-detachable and only reloaded by using 20 round stripper clips.

The magazine sits parallel to the barrel, fitting flush with the top of the receiver, and the ammunition is rotated 90 degrees by a spiral feed ramp before being chambered.

The Heckler & Koch G11, an experimental assault rifle that implements caseless ammunition, also functions similarly with the magazine aligned horizontally over the barrel.

Rotary magazines may be fixed or detachable, and are usually of low capacity, generally 5 to 10 rounds, depending on the caliber used.

The Krag-Jorgensen bolt-action rifle is the only firearm to use this type of magazine and it was adopted by the militaries of Denmark, Norway, and the United States in the late 19th century.

In one type, a moving partition within a cylindrical chamber forces loose rounds into an exit slot, with the cartridges being stored parallel to the axis of rotation.

The downside of a drum magazine's extra capacity is its added weight that, combined with the gun, can affect handling and prolonged use.

The ammunition was fed by a spring force, with rounds alternating from each side of the double drum so that the gun would not become unbalanced.

This light machine gun was fed by standard 6.5×50mmSR Arisaka stripper clips that were used by riflemen armed with the Type 38 bolt action rifle.

The hopper magazine was designed with a series of mechanical teeth activated by a cam track on the gas piston to pull cartridges off each clip and into the action.

There is a spring-loaded follower that applied pressure on top of the clips to hold them in place so they would not fall out while the weapon was being transported or fired.

[76] High-capacity or large-capacity magazines are generally those defined by statute to be capable of holding more than 10 to 15 rounds, although the definitions will vary by state.