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Up Close and Personal
Part 3: Magazines
©
2000 by John L. Marshall
Magazines. Each
pistol uses a different type of magazine.
The Springfield and Smith & Wesson offerings are similar in
that they both use single-stack 7-round magazines.
The Smith & Wesson mag, however, is equipped with a flared,
extended base plate which gives a better purchase on the pistol.
The grip area of the S&W is not as long as that of the
Springfield, and would leave the pinky finger to curl under the pistol
were the magazine not extended a bit with the base plate.
Thus, the S&W mag is about a quarter of an inch longer than
its Springfield/Wilson cousin. This
difference in grip depth, by the way, is caused by a fairly deep frame
area on the Smith to accommodate its particular double-action design.
The result is a bit higher line of recoil.
More about that later. The
Glock magazine is unique in that it uses a staggered-column mag which
is polymer, surrounding a steel interior frame.
While it’s the widest magazine used in these four pistols, it
does give an overwhelming firepower advantage – 10 rounds in the mag
versus 8 for the H&K and 7 each for the Springfield and S&W
designs. The Glock’s
polymer frame allows for a thin grip area (there are no add-on grips),
and so Glock can get away with a double-column magazine. The result is that the Glock grip is only 1/10 of an inch
wider than the H&K, 2/10 of an inch wider than the S&W, and
matches the width of the Springfield.
The H&K magazine is a bit of a compromise, using a
semi-staggered design to cram 8 rounds into the height of a normal
7-round magazine. The downside is only a 1/10 of an inch increase in width over
the slimmest grip of the four, the Smith & Wesson. While the
H&K has a polymer frame like the Glock, it is noticeably slimmer
and less “clunky” in the hand than the Glock.
The company simply chose increased slimness over increased
magazine capacity. One
could make a good argument that using a .45 obviates the need for high
magazine capacity, and this is the argument that H&K apparently
bought into, as did Smith and Springfield to an even greater degree.
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