Universal Pistol Magazines

[HisStigness]

I bought an FN FNS last month and it got me thinking. Why are pistol magazines so expensive and sometimes hard to find? The answer is obvious: just about every pistol on the market uses a unique magazine. So I'm wondering: why don't a bunch of pistol manufacturers get together and use the same magazines in their guns? If you think about 9mm handguns their magazines are broadly similar. They are double stack, hold 17 rounds, have holes in the back to see how many rounds are loaded, and have similar dimensions. I know manufacturers make a decent amount of money on magazines, but I think having widely available and inexpensive magazines would make a good selling point.

Why didn't NATO decide to design a 9mm magazine that could be used in the sidearms of all its forces? They already had STANAG for use in all the 5.56mm assault rifles, so why didn't they just expand it to cover handguns as well?

I'm sure some companies have patents on their magazines, but surely not all of them. I just heard about the new Citadel 9mm M1 Carbine that utilizes Beretta 92 magazines. Why aren't more companies doing this???

 

[Jim Watson]

Because they haven't been required to.
Because it would lose them captive customers.

 

[2wheels]

NATO probably never viewed sidearm magazine interchangeability as a priority, sidearms simply aren't as important as rifles in a war.

Why didn't manufacturers take it upon themselves to standardize? Plenty of reasons I'm sure, number one being they simply didn't have to.

 

[tarosean]

should have bought a 1911... Its about the closest thing you will find, tons of magazine manufactures from cheap to expensive.

 

[Billy Shears]

I doubt you ever will see a universal pistol magazine. There's really no impetus for the gun companies to make one. The STANAG magazine was relatively easier to develop for a rifle, but a pistol's mag well is in the grip of the gun itself, and has to share space with trigger linkages and various other components. I imagine it would take a pretty extensive redesign of most modern pistols to accommodate them all to a universal magazine.

 

[RX-79G]

I'm glad my Sig and HK came with Sig and HK magazines - they work. 1911 magazines often don't - even ones from trusted companies like MecGar.

I certainly don't mind when a small company uses an existing mag design, but forcing a manufacturer to adopt someone else's design is a compromise that would not be good for either reliability or proprietary features - like lever mag releases vs. button.

Hell, we can't even get manufacturers to use existing ammunition. .40 S&W, .45GAP, .357Sig.

 

[mgmorden]

I don't think there should be any mandated compatibility, but such things are good practices in general.

I really wish that even amongst their own product lines they could stay the same.

The Ruger SR9 should have been designed to take P95 magazines. The S&W 3rd gen auto, Sigma/SD and M&P should all take the same mags. Beretta 92 and Beretta PX4 mags should be interchangeable.

So long as they won't keep them consistent amongst their own product lines getting them to standardize across companies just won't happen.

I also think that you'd pretty much just have to write off the older designs as incompatible. If you wanted to do something like this you'd come up with a standard and just expect new products to adopt it rather than retro fitting old designs.

You see Kel-tec doing this some. The Sub-200 is available in several different versions that will take mags from different companies. IIRC the Kel-tec P-11 also could take 3rd gen S&W 9mm magazines.

 

[RUT]

That would be like Gillette calling for a universal razor blade. There's money to be made in magazines, and nobody's really ready to give that up.

 

[mgmorden]

That would be like Gillette calling for a universal razor blade. There's money to be made in magazines, and nobody's really ready to give that up.

I don't know - I don't think most of the manufacturer's like dealing with them. Half of them sub-contract out to MecGar to make them these days.

 

[RUT]

I didn't say they have to make them, but they do want to reap the profits from them.

 

[gc70]

Standardize pistol magazines? No problem if you are willing to accept the resulting standardization of pistol specifications like grip angle, grip length, and mag release location.

 

[RUT]

And we all know that ain't gonna happen.

 

[RX-79G]

The NATO thing reminds me of the things that have been standardized.

I wonder if any nation feels that .308, the M-16 (disposable) magazine design, 1:7 rifling with a 62 gr. 5.56 round or Picatinny rails represent the best of anything. By that example, nothing could be worse than standardization.

 

[19-3Ben]

Different guns have different grip angles, feed ramp positions/steepness, etc…

With a rifle, it's easy since the mag doesn't go in the grip, as mentioned above.

But when a magazine has to fit into a particular grip, which is at a particular angle, it's going to feed rounds into a chamber at the angle for which it's designed. Throw it in another pistol and you'll get failures to feed. No way would the same mag work in both a Steyr M9 and a S&W model 59, just as one example.

Also, different companies go for different capacities and grip width. Ruger SR9 has the same capacity as a Glock 17 but the grip is is narrower and longer. Each gun has its own feel, but if you standardize magazines, at least to some extent, you standardize the grip/gun around the mag.
Capitalism likes options. Standardizing to the point where we have only one choice is no bueno.

 

[ferges99]

Impossible, to many different styles of guns.

 

[Onmilo]

Beretta produces some great guns.
Beretta routinely drops guns from their line.
Finding spare magazines and spare parts for these otherwise excellent guns becomes an exercise in futility.
Owners give up in frustration, retire gun, and go buy new Beretta to replace the old.
Been doing it for years,,,

 

[Hometeached1]

I know a cylinder is not a magazine, but just another reason to love revolvers and no magazine springs to wear out!

 

[dogtown tom]

Onmilo Beretta produces some great guns.
Beretta routinely drops guns from their line.
Finding spare magazines and spare parts for these otherwise excellent guns becomes an exercise in futility.
Owners give up in frustration, retire gun, and go buy new Beretta to replace the old.
Been doing it for years,,,

You could add:
Quit buying Beretta due to lack of support for older models.

 

[el Godfather]

I will be more than happy if only H&K make magazine interchangeable among the same caliber pistol like Glock.

 

[HammsBeer]

Just the variations in the mag catch location and shape between different pistols would make interchageability impossible.

 

[Onmilo]

dogtown tom.
Much as I like Beretta guns i only own one.
A Beretta M9 Service pistol.
Wanna guess why?