Double column magazine
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A double column magazine (also referred to as double stack magazine) is a magazine in which cartridges are stored in two side-by-side stacks, offset by half a cartridge height and resting against one another.
Because cartridges rest against one another this magazine configuration is suitable only for rimless cartridges.
Firearms which are older or designed to be smaller may use the simpler single column magazine where cartridges are stored in a single column in the magazine box.
Double column magazines can store roughly twice the number of rounds in the same vertical height of magazine space of a single column magazine and are roughly twice the width. For semi-automatic pistols, this means that the handgrip with the magazine inside it is significantly wider as well. These larger handgrips are a factor in user comfort, and ability to safely hold and properly operate larger double column magazine handguns.
There are two types of double column magazines. The first has the feed terminated in the same double stack, with the next cartridge to be fed alternating from the left and right columns. This is typically used with most modern magazines for assault rifles and submachineguns.
The second terminates the feed with a single cartridge. This is typically found in semi-automatic pistols. Hugo Schmeisser was the first to invent such a magazine for use with his MP18 and MP28 designs. This arrangement turned out to be an unhappy one. The magazine was prone to misfeed the cartridge since the lips deformed from the stresses of holding back so many rounds due to the tight springs required to exert enough force to overcome the friction generated by the guide walls. The tight spring also resulted in the requirement of a magazine loading tool to assist the user in overcoming these forces.[1]
Double column magazines are more prone to jam than single column magazines, partly because more force is exerted outwards against the magazine wall by the ammunition cartridges in the two-column geometry.
Double-double-stack (four column) 50 round magazines are available for the Suomi M-31 and Spectre M4 submachine guns.
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[edit] References
- ^ Smith, Kevin. "The Owen Gun Files". Turton and Armstrong, 1994
