What goes on inside your double-stack magazines

[AJMD429]

I happened across a clear polymer Glock magazine from ETS, and after loading it was amazed to see the 'disarray' in the tapering part of the magazine. It functions flawlessly, and I suppose this is the way all double-stack pistol magazines probably look inside.

Sort of glad I didn't know how much jostling and changes in angle has to occur to get the cartridges up to the feed position.













I guess pistol magazines are kind of like sausage - the insides are best left unseen if you don't want to worry...!!!


https://www.etsgroup.us/ETS-Group-Glock ... s/1823.htm

[Chuck 100 yd]

As long as they shoot , I dont worry about neatness. My double stack mags are all 9mm and .223/5.56.

[AJMD429]

...and I thought the FN ones were weird....

https://youtu.be/RuSkNq7JZLo

At least the FN ones seem more defined geometrically.

[Sixgun]

It does not look normal. That may be the way it is but I doubt it. Don't mean to look down upon your mag Doc but I have quite a bit of experience why myself and the guys I shoot with only use mags that are made by the same manufacturer as the gun they came with. The lone exception is Mag Pul for my AR's. I have a box in the gunroom that is near full of mags from Triple K, Chinese manufactured and others I don't know who made them. M-1 Carbines, M1-A, 1911, Ruger, on and on. Government guns get government mags, especially M-1 Car. This also goes for manually operated guns with detachable mags.------Mr Mould.

[Bulldozer]

Very interesting pictures !
For my part I see four parts in that magazine:
- A compressed spring which gives the energy needed
- An organized stockpile of cartridges
- A transition part (the most unbelievable, but if it works…)
- A cartridge to be feed (right position, right angle)

[Sixgun]

Very interesting pictures !
For my part I see four parts in that magazine:
- A compressed spring which gives the energy needed
- An organized stockpile of cartridges
- A transition part (the most unbelievable, but if it works…)
- A cartridge to be feed (right position, right angle)

Come on Julien....tell us.......you know these things better than anyone.........is that how engineering works? I slept on it and I do believe that is the way it is supposed to be......it just don't look the way I always envisioned it.------6------Mr. Mould

[Catshooter]

I have gone through the era of factory parts/mags only too. Some of those mags were incredible in their lousy construction, weren't they?

But, for many products now, those day are gone. I've used the ETS mags extensively and they are as good or better than Glock. Far, far cheaper too. MagPul, the same. Much improved product, lower prices.

They sure do look funny though!


Cat

[Ysabel Kid]

That's a cool look inside! Kind of like how sausage is made though - you don't want to know!

[AJMD429]

Took apart a factory Glock magazine and one of the ETS ones, and from all I can tell, the inside geometry is the same.

We just get spared seeing what happens inside the opaque ones...

[Griff]

Organized chaos!

[JOHNNY WACKO]

sort of like a vagina better off using it and not knowing what all is in there.

[Bulldozer]

Very interesting pictures !
For my part I see four parts in that magazine:
- A compressed spring which gives the energy needed
- An organized stockpile of cartridges
- A transition part (the most unbelievable, but if it works…)
- A cartridge to be feed (right position, right angle)

Come on Julien....tell us.......you know these things better than anyone.........is that how engineering works? I slept on it and I do believe that is the way it is supposed to be......it just don't look the way I always envisioned it.------6------Mr. Mould

Hi six,

The fact is: I do not know!

I am sure, a (very good) mathematician would certainly be able to demonstrate the relationship between:

- The geometry of the inner wall of the magazine
- The outside wall of the case.
- The position of the barycenter of cartridge
- The angle of the cartridge referring to a geometric reference.

And he would put it into equations, and we (you and me) would find it just marvelous. But we are not skilled mathematicians, so better to think up on something else....

My guess is, that there is an empiric relation-ship between the angle of the magazine and the caliber you choose. As you may see on the attached picture, that angle is around 15°.

Certainly the first genius who succeded to build the first double stack magazine should have done as follow:

- First: choose the caliber. It gives you the larger diameter of the case (10 mm for the 9mm luger)
- Second: how many bullet will you put in that magazine? 15? Ok!
- Third: it gives you the size needed to stock pile your 15 cartridges (here 80mm * 18.7 mm)
- Four: Take a spring. Compress it. It give you 34 mm. Your magazine is 80 + 34 mm height inside, minimum.
- Five: Build a fake magazine with walls that can vary in angle (see picture).
- Six: Be patient, look carefully at what happen, and be smart! As I can guess : if you take too much angle, the ammunitions will block with each other. If you take too low, you magazine will be too long (and perhaps it won’t work).

To conclude:
How it works? I do not know! But it works!
How did they manage to build the first one? Did they calculate it? I doubt it!
Did they make several try before succeded? I bet!



Julien.

[AJMD429]

The tricky part is getting the nose of the bullet UP - not only it has to go from being perpendicular to the magazine body, then (depending on the grip angle) tipping up enough to be parallel to the bolt/slide, but most guns seem to require a bit more tip-up than that, so the nose ramps more easily into the chamber.

All that has to happen while the cartridges transition from double-stack to single-file....!

[Bulldozer]

The tricky part is getting the nose of the bullet UP - not only it has to go from being perpendicular to the magazine body, then (depending on the grip angle) tipping up enough to be parallel to the bolt/slide, but most guns seem to require a bit more tip-up than that, so the nose ramps more easily into the chamber.

All that has to happen while the cartridges transition from double-stack to single-file....!

I did not noticed it on first look but it looks like there is a round wall on the front side. It seems to pinches the bullet, just to force them to go one over each other and at the very end to rotate an angle 26°. Ready to ramps to the chamber, just as you said!

Very nice design.
It must have taken time to discover it!

[Sixgun]

Julien,
Amazing! The regular guy takes items for granted never realizes the thought and smarts that goes into them. Mathematics? I can barely spell the word.

Thanks bud----6

[Bulldozer]

Julien,
Amazing! The regular guy takes items for granted never realizes the thought and smarts that goes into them. Mathematics? I can barely spell the word.

Thanks bud----6

Jack,

No needs of mathematic to understand the following:

Take two cartridges in your hand (M1 would be nice). Put them side by side. Pinch them slightly by the bullet. You may reproduce what happen in the “transition portion” of that magazine: One bullet tends to go over the other one.

So the more you pinch it, the more angle you will have between two cartridges. As a consequence, if you look carefully to the magazine (forward portion) you may see that the width between two inner wall (the curved part) controls the angle between two cartridges.

I am sur it will help you to fall asleep that night !

Julien.

[Sixgun]

Yea, maybe Julien.....on the sleeping part......I just don't "have it".......I passed algebra 1 and geometry easily but fell apart on algebra 2....over my head.........I figured it's easier to let you smart guys make the stuff and I'll enjoy it. -----6

[Bulldozer]

Yea, maybe Julien.....on the sleeping part......I just don't "have it".......I passed algebra 1 and geometry easily but fell apart on algebra 2....over my head.........I figured it's easier to let you smart guys make the stuff and I'll enjoy it. -----6

Yeah ! Fire at will!

[Blaine]

Remember how you could pour about a million BBs into your Red Ryder and it would pick them up one at a time and shoot them? No springs in that mag....That's some crazy pelosi, eh?

[Sixgun]

Blaine,
Magnet
---6

[AJMD429]

Blaine,
Magnet
---6

....and all these years I thought it was the Magic BB Faeries....!!!!

[Ysabel Kid]

sort of like a vagina better off using it and not knowing what all is in there.

Darn it. There goes another keyboard!

[JOHNNY WACKO]

[piller]

Julien,
Amazing! The regular guy takes items for granted never realizes the thought and smarts that goes into them. Mathematics? I can barely spell the word.

Thanks bud----6

Even Mauser lost an eye to a firearm failure. Knowing the math and knowing how to build them is still not enough sometimes.

[JOHNNY WACKO]

some times if you don,t know you should stay out of the inside. Like a guy i know who files every trigger in every gun he owns with out any type of gig to keep him straight. I tell him you just don't file off steel without making sure your straight or true in line with the other parts that meet to the trigger. and people bring him there guns to do trigger jobs to. I would not let him touch 1 of my guns for any reason.

I go to his house and he has a guys super blackhawk took apart and his pot belly pig had knocked over the bench and was laying on it in a pile of hay on the floor parts everywhere. i bet there still laying there.
he upset me off about 2 years ago and i stopped talking to him.fixed 3 rifles for him that people had gave him to fix and he never paid me my 1/2 and i did all the work and then i here what a great gunsmith he is from those guys buddy's and how he fixed there guns they thought were un fixable.
I sent him a email asking for the $200 he owed me and never have herd back 2 years this January. but i think im better off since i was always mad with him when he was around.

[marlinman93]

I happened across a clear polymer Glock magazine from ETS, and after loading it was amazed to see the 'disarray' in the tapering part of the magazine. It functions flawlessly, and I suppose this is the way all double-stack pistol magazines probably look inside.

So that's what a double stack magazine looks like? All mine are old single stacks.

[GunnyMack]

All I know is my Glock mags are FULL of 180 grain BLACK TALONS that I got for a song years ago!