Multi-stack cartridge magazine for firearms

A cartridge magazine for firearms, of the type comprising an elongate container with an end opening for the passage of a cartridge and an elevator member movable in the container under the action of resilient means, said container being intended to hold a plurality of cartridges in a staggered side-by-side arrangement with their longitudinal axes substantially perpendicular to the direction of movement of the elevator member, wherein the improvements consist in:

• said container having at least one longitudinal median partition which extends throughout the greater part of the length of the container and divides it internally into first and second housings for said cartridges, each said housing having a first longitudinal portion remote from said opening of the container for holding respectively two stacks of cartridges staggered by half a cartridge diameter, and a second longitudinal portion close to said opening and having a width which decreases gradually towards said opening to terminate with a width slightly greater than a cartridge diameter, said first and second portions of said first housing being connected at a zone which is staggered by half a cartridge diameter in the direction of the opening relative to the connecting zone between the corresponding portions of the said second housing;
• said container having an end portion adjacent said opening, into which said second housing portions open, said end portion having a width which decreases gradually towards the opening, and
• said elevator member being comprised of a single rigid body having first and second surfaces located in each housing on which the respective stacks of cartridges in said first and second housings rest, said first surface in each housing being staggered by half a cartridge diameter in the longitudinal direction of the container towards said opening relative to said second surface in each housing,
• said housings each having internal guide ribs in said second portions and said end portion and said elevator member having complementary recesses on opposite sides thereof for receiving said ribs as said elevator rides so that said elevator may rise the full length of said magazine without undue frictional contact with the walls of said housings.