Steyr Magazine Patent
Steyr Mannlicher has just been awarded a patent (US7698844) for an innovative rifle box magazine design. The patent application was first published by the USTPO back in 2008, so it may be already being used in some of the newer Steyr rifles (in the future I must start examining the magazines on new rifles).
The design allows for multiple cartridges to be fed from the same base magazine. A clip is inserted into the front of the mag which changes the feeding angle. This allows for cheaper manufacturing because one magazine can be produced instead of one type per cartridge offered.
Clip indicated by arrow.
I glanced over the patent (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7698844.PN.&OS=PN/7698844&RS=PN/7698844), and perhaps someone with more time and knowledge of patent law will correct me but…
It looks like the feed lip geometry will have to be changed for different body diameters and taper rates anyway. Mostly this seems to provide a mechanism for feeding cartridges with different neck sizes (.243 Win, .308 Win, .358 Win); which I didn’t know was a real problem to begin with.
I know magazine design is a *lot* harder than most people give it credit for; but could someone with experience in magazine design explain the utility of this to me?