rifle vs pistol magazine design

[greyling22]

this question is poorly worded but hopefully you can get the gist of it:

rifle mags are easy to load. the follower has a big bump on one side to stagger the rounds and you just press them in from the top. pistol mags, be they single or double stack require you to press the follower down, then slide the bullet back. is there any real reason that all pistol mags are designed different than rifle mags? why can't they all share the rifle mag design?

the best answer I can come up with is maybe it allows for a narrower receiver if you reduce the double stack mag to single stack at the top.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Yes.

First of all, there are really very few pistols that have true double column magazines (as most centerfire rifles do.) Almost all high-capacity pistol magazines are double column/single feed -- they transition into single feed at the top. This requires you to press the top cartridge down, instead of pressing it aside and down as in a rifle.

 

[greyling22]

so why don't they have true double column magazines? was I right on the narrow receiver bit?

 

[Avenger29]

so why don't they have true double column magazines? was I right on the narrow receiver bit?

Yep. You want to keep the slide narrow. Giving it two feedramps would make it wide and bulky. Fine for rifles or submachine guns, not so good for pistols.

Double stack, single feed is a compromise to keep the pistol as narrow as possible.

I've seen the X-ray pics of a 9mm double column magazine loaded. It looks very jumbled and unreliable, due to the nature of the round and magazine, but it works well.

 

[akodo]

Here's one for you...Desert Eagle can make an 8 round 357 and 7 round 44 mag magazine that are straight and appear to feed reliably...but no one can take that same technology and make a 10 or 12 round magazine to pair with a semiauto carbine in those two calibers, why is that?

Alteratively, why not simply create a very curved magazine?

 

[wally]

Desert Eagle can make an 8 round 357 and 7 round 44 mag magazine that are straight and appear to feed reliably...but no one can take that same technology and make a 10 or 12 round magazine to pair with a semiauto carbine in those two calibers, why is that?

The rims cause problems, rimmed rifle rounds have bottleneck cases and body tapers which help feeding -- even then 10 rounds seems to be the practical maximum (PSL, Enfield). The rim, lack of case taper, and blunt bullets all combine to make it impossible to get reliablity under field conditions. Lets face it the DE is a cool toy, mine only works when clean and will fail after a couple of hundred rounds without cleaning.

Alteratively, why not simply create a very curved magazine?

They do for the AK-47, The extreme body taper of the 7.62x39 round (intensional to help feed reliability) needs a very curved magazine, which in turn forces a shallow magwell meaning the receiver gives the magazine very little support. Hence the strength and heft of the AK mag and why the commercial clones of it are usually unreliable.

Guns like the AR have good magazine support, but can't deal with much of a curve. C-Products 30 round 7.62x39 AR mags try to solve the problem with a straight section on top of the curved part, but in my experience they don't really work well enough for serious use.

--wally.

 

[REAPER4206969]

Here is a pistol you will like!

http://www.impactguns.com/store/MPA930T-A.html