AUSCC

A magazine is the storage area and feeding device for ammunition in a firearm which is attached to a repeating firearm. When a firearm holder fires a gun, the magazine operates by relocating the cartridges stored inside into a position where they may be loaded into the chamber to create impact. A removable magazine is normally called a ‘clip’ and are heavily monitored by gun control laws because it is an important piece of most repeating firearm.

Gun magazines are made in many shapes and sizes ranging from bolt action express rifles, that hold only a minimum amount of rounds to machine guns that contain hundreds of rounds. The guns that accept a wide variety of magazine usually use a box or drum magazine and some handguns can even feed from both magazines and belts. The most commonly used of magazine in modern guns are the detachable box type magazines. This cartridge in this magazine is located in either the column in a staggered zig zag manner or with each bullet placed one above the other. When the firearm starts to fire, then the cartridges are moved to the top of the magazine by another follower driven by spring tension to either a side by side or a single feed position.

Certain gun magazines like single or multiple tubular magazine are used in most lever action rifles, and pump action shotguns whether round or flat nose. These magazines hold cartridges end to end inside of a spring loaded tube, running parallel to the barrel or in the buttstock and is normally fixed to the firearm when being fired. The main issue with tubular magazines was that when the bullet tip makes impact with the primer of the cartridge ahead of it during recoil, it would often times catch fire which made it very dangerous to use so the military eventually stopped using these magazines when the pointed ‘splitzer’ bullets were introduced.

There are also cylindrical shaped magazines like drum and rotary magazines that let you put more bullets inside than box magazines. Drum magazines are placed mainly in light machines guns like the Heckler & Koch MG36, however these magazines are more unreliable and complicated. In some drum magazines, the cylindrical chamber pushes the loose rounds into an exit slot while the cartridge is stored parallel to the axis of rotation. When the magazine is loaded, then a wound spring forces the partition on the rounds. A single staggered column is forced by a follower through a curved path. From there the rounds enter the vertical riser either from a single or dual drums. Other types of magazines include, Pan and Helical. There are also exceptionally high capacity magazines that were made to hold way more cartridges that the regular size but those magazines are usually banned. Magazine capacity is often limited by the design of the firearm, like for example internal, tubular, or rotary ones. Many pistols and rifle magazines classified as “high capacity” by gun regulatory laws are in fact the factory standard magazines were initially designed for use with their respective firearms.