We've been saying for a long time that so called "high-capacity" magazines are merely standard capacity.
There's a great deal of justification for that feeling, because most of the guns we're talking about were designed for the higher capacity magazines and not the limited size ten-rounders.
The conundrum lies with the AR-15.
It was not designed for no thirty round magazine. The earliest mag was, in fact, a 25 rounder. The standard issue magazine was a 20 rounder from about 1961 until 1971 or so. The thirty rounder that's standard today was developed for the gun!
So a thirty round magazine for an AR is, indeed, a high capacity magazine compared to the "standard" capacity twenty rounder!
The stopped clock is presently correct! Who knew?
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It doesn't matter what was designed for the AR, the leftest's don't care, it's a long scary thing that holds lots of bullets. The 20 rounder was indeed issued with the AR, but that probably was to slow the waste of ammo. You must remember, our batterers must deidiotize everything before putting it out on the field ........
ReplyDeleteThe 20 rounder for the AR is a miraculous case where the Army's predereliction towards conserving ammo didn't determine the capacity. Because the Air Force was the first big purchase!
ReplyDeleteThe prototype guns were made with a few 25 rounders and those were found to be wanting. 20 was felt to be sufficient and well suited to the straight magazine well. So that's what they went with! The only complaint about those early 20's was the "waffle" pattern of reinforcing ribs was causing failures. Vertical only ribs were introduced in short order and it's now the go-to magazine to this day for maximum reliability. Colt still makes them (or has them made)!
The 30 rounder comes from a perception that our troops were undergunned against the 30 round magazine of the AKM. So a massive project to make a longer magazine began. The first fruit was just to make the magazine longer. They rediscovered the issues with a straight magazine and going past 20 rounds with 5.56. The next design was a constant curved body that was reliable and well liked. The problem was that the specified magazine dimensions were not being held by Colt and the constant curve magazine would not fit into a significant portion of the existing inventory. Thus we get the straight and curved design we have today.
Interestingly, the magazine well dimensions were copied for the STANAG specification and both Enfield and H&K adhered to them, causing troubles down the road for Magpul and leading to the development of the E-Mag. This problem surfaces AGAIN for the USMC M27 IAR and causes them to try banning the use of P-Mags.
Very good, you sir AR very well informed .......;)
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