20 round clip for Thompson?

[pvt. Allen]

Originally Posted by Bikewer

Lets get that military terminology right....Someone will take your head off for calling that magazine a "clip"...

I always wanted to fire a thompson with the big drum magazine. Our department actually had several when I joined in '68, but they were rapidly phased out in favor of more modern weapons.

I recall from shooting the M3 "grease gun" while in the army that the 30-round magazine was a bear to load with 30. You had to use a mechanical loading device to apply enough pressure to get the last rounds in. This may explain why GIs in the field only loaded 20; easier to carry a few extra magazines that try to stuff 'em full.

Yes, sorry in this moment I recalled that clip is for egzample a M1 Garand magazine, just a mistake.

I doubt they were prone to falling out. The drum magazine was alot heavier and I've never heard of it falling it.

Soldiers could carry what they want when it came to ammo. I'm guessing many would pop a 30 round mag in the gun when stocking up at a depot but then carry all 20 rounders if they weren't going to be able to reach a depot for awhile.

I assure you that 30 round magazines were falling out of the weapon, mechanism handeling Thompson's magazine wasn't enough strong to prevent this from happening. But I don't know what was happening to drum magazines.

[Bikewer]

I imagine that the drum magazine didn't see much military use due to it's complexity. To load, you had to remove the cover, load the cartridges into little slots, replace the cover, and then wind the powerful spring with an attached lever.
Doing this in combat in mud, sand, etc. would have been interesting, to say the least. Very popular on the streets of Chicago, however.

[Artie Bucco]

Originally Posted by Bikewer

I imagine that the drum magazine didn't see much military use due to it's complexity. To load, you had to remove the cover, load the cartridges into little slots, replace the cover, and then wind the powerful spring with an attached lever.
Doing this in combat in mud, sand, etc. would have been interesting, to say the least. Very popular on the streets of Chicago, however.

photographic evidence sugggest otherwise. They were common throughout most of the Africa campaign and the early pacific.

[cc.]

go for 20. realism first in my opinion.

[pvt. Allen]

It would be nice if there would be possibility to load your 30 round magazine with 20 rounds wich would be safe or with 30 rounds and 60% chance of falling out while moving, more when jumping, etc...