Magizine capacity vs accuracy

[Harter66]

Having not had a magizine fed rifle before and still looking for a load I've no means to compare at this point.

Will a rifle like an AR produce better groups with a 5 round mag w/o any chance of bump or loading or with the heavier i.e. 30 round full ?

What about an sks where you might ,probably will ,have stock loading.

Maybe someone has dabbled with this in a Mini 14/30 or an M1 30 carb?

[MtGun44]

I have noticed no difference in accy with an AR with different mags, but I only have 20 and
30 rd mags. I rarely shoot the 30s off of the bench because they are too long to be
convenient.

ARs in general are extremely accurate rifles, so if there was some effect, I would think it
might be seen there. The shorter mags work for bench shooting because the long ones
hit the bench.



Bill

[Calamity Jake]

Having not had a magizine fed rifle before and still looking for a load I've no means to compare at this point.

Will a rifle like an AR produce better groups with a 5 round mag w/o any chance of bump or loading or with the heavier i.e. 30 round full ?

What about an sks where you might ,probably will ,have stock loading.

Maybe someone has dabbled with this in a Mini 14/30 or an M1 30 carb?

Go to any highpower match and you will see a lot of ARs being shot to 600 yards with 10 round mags, accuracy is there.

The other rifles mentioned, you couldn't tell the differenance anyway.

[btroj]

600 yards at high-power matches are single load only. You must have a magazine in place but the rounds are to be single loaded only.
That is the rule but even more so is the fact most 600 yard ammo is way to long to feed thru a magazine in an AR. Seat an 80 gr bullet out and it is easily too long for the magazine.

As for the others, don't know. Doubt it is any problem. Then again, these rifles were only expected to give a certain level of accuracy and the magazine won't affect that at all. My guess is that mag capacity outweighed any potential negative effect on accuracy.

Brad

[Harter66]

Any experiance with the magizine kits for the Mausers ?

All I have for the sks is a 30rd that came with it i'd rather have a 10rd or 2 for it but no luck finding them so far.

[Larry Gibson]

I've shot all the mentioned and never discerned any accuracy difference due to the magazine, regardless of capacity.

However, some magazine fed rifles are adversly affected accuracy wise with loaded magazines vs single loading. Tube fed Winchesters and Marlins are prime examples. The tension of a highly compressed mag spring or as the barrel heats up are the main reasons. Doesn't always happen but often a 7 shot group single loaded is always better that the 7 shot group shot from the magazine. I have for a long time shortened the mag springs in such so not so much tension is pushing forward on the magazine and putting undue pressure on the barrel. I also reduce the screw tension that holds the magazine cap in as many times it puts too much pressure on the barrel also.

I have 2 three rond mags (Gibbs I think) that replace the floor plate, spring and follower in M98 Mausers. I've not notice any inaccuracy cause by their use. I mostly use them on a very accurate 6.5-280 and with or without the mags the accuracy remains the same.

Larry Gibson

[akajun]

600 yards at high-power matches are single load only. You must have a magazine in place but the rounds are to be single loaded only.
That is the rule but even more so is the fact most 600 yard ammo is way to long to feed thru a magazine in an AR. Seat an 80 gr bullet out and it is easily too long for the magazine.

As for the others, don't know. Doubt it is any problem. Then again, these rifles were only expected to give a certain level of accuracy and the magazine won't affect that at all. My guess is that mag capacity outweighed any potential negative effect on accuracy.

Brad

I know a few High Masters that shoot 77gr SMK's loaded to Mag length accross the course. They do if for simplicity. I really dont think they are giving up anything in terms of accuracy on paper.

I personally shoot 80gr smks extended length just because its what I have always done, but I may be changing soon.

That said, I dont think any ar mag would affect accuracy, unless you rested the rifle on the ground on the mag while shooting.