1. History, Development, Mechanics, and Practical Considerations
Magazines and Clips
History, Development, Mechanics, and Practical Considerations
Ian McCollum

2. Magazine: Has a feed spring
What is the Difference?
Magazine: Has a feed spring
Clip: Does not

3. 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.

4. Two Types of Clip Stripper clip (aka charger clip)
Used to load a magazine
En-bloc clip
(aka Mannlicher clip)
Inserted wholly into firearm

5. Clip Development
En bloc clips invented by Ferdinand Mannlicher in 1885
Stripper clips invented by Mauser in 1889

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

7. Mannlicher 1886 clip

8. Mannlicher 1886 clip

9. Mannlicher System Steyr-Mannlicher 1886/1888/1890
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)

10. 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”

11. Mannlicher clip functions
Holds cartridges
Provides feed lips
Automatically discarded when empty

12. Common Mannlicher or en-bloc clips

13. Steyr M95 straight-pull

14. Italian Carcano

15. German Gewehr 88

16. M1 Garand

18. Pedersen Selfloader

19. 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

20. Mauser stripper clips
Developed in conjunction with the Belgian M1889 Mauser rifle.
Mauser-style clips are a reloading aid, not a necessity.

21. Mauser M1889

22. 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

23. Common Stripper Clips
5 Round for rifles

24. Common Stripper Clips
10-15 Round for rifles

25. 6, 8, and 10 Round for early automatic pistols
Common Stripper Clips
6, 8, and 10 Round for early automatic pistols

26. Tension in Stripper Clips
Tabs at the ends of the clip

27. Tension in Stripper Clips
Flat spring along inside of clip

28. Tension in Stripper Clips
Bent tabs on the bottom of the clip

29. Tension in Stripper Clips
Tabs acting on cartridge case bodies

30. How about some strange clips?

31. Remington Model 8

32. Experimental German Clip

33. Experimental German Clip

34. Horseshoe clips

35. Japanese Type 11

37. Type 11 & Breda 30

38. Experimental Bren Clip

39. Avoiding a scope

40. Roth-Steyr Clip

41. Swiss Solution

42. Canadian Experiments

44. Questions about clips?

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

46. 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

47. Remington-Lee Rifle

48. 1879 Remington-Lee Magazine

49. Loading and Shooting

50. Box Magazine
Component Parts
Body
Follower
Spring
Floorplate

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

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

53. Mag Characteristics Feed position – single or double?
Number of columns – 1, 2, 4?
Curvature?
Feed angle?

54. Feed Position Single easier to design bolt
Double loads much more easily
Most pistols are single
Most rifles are double

55. Typically, single or double stack.
Number of Columns
Typically, single or double stack.

56. Occasionally, quadruple stack
Number of Columns
Occasionally, quadruple stack
Russian RPK-74
Surefire AR
Finnish Suomi SMG
Italian Spectre

57. An unusual 4-column mag: Vesely V42
Number of Columns
An unusual 4-column mag: Vesely V42

59. Another Odd Quad-Column Mag
1964 Springfield SPIW Prototype

60. Another Odd Quad-Column Mag

61. Magazine curvature is determined by cartridge taper (mostly)

62. CSRG “Chauchat”

63. Magazine Comparison

64. 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

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

66. Another Rimlock Solution
KelTec PMR-30

67. Drum Magazines Large capacity Noisy Slow to load
No longer typically used
Often fragile and/or unreliable

68. Luger Snail Drum

69. Luger Snail Drum

70. Lewis “Drum”

71. AK Drums

72. Common Magazine Failure Points
Bent feed lips
Weak feed spring
Dented magazine body

73. 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

74. 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.

75. Ruby Pistols

76. 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.

77. Some Unusual Magazines
Madsen LMG
Feed lips in receiver,
not magazine

78. Some Unusual Magazines
Johnson LMG
Same thing – feed
lips not on mag

79. Fiat-Revelli 1914 Magazine

80. Fiat-Revelli 1914

81. Feed Strips

82. Breda Model 38

83. Some Unusual Magazines
Gabbett-Fairfax Mars
Cartridges pulled out
of magazine base-first

84. Boberg XRS-9

85. Unusual Mag and Malfunction

86. Converted ZB-26 Magazine