Help with a pic... Magazine position?

[Son]

Here's a pic that was posted elsewhere and I chipped in to comment it was not locked all the way into the receiver and would not feed from there. A quick reply said " Either that or it's one of the prototype mags that held more rounds " to which I answered that the only bigger mag was trialled and scrapped back in WW1. Anyway, to appease the man who refused to give a book reference, but insisted I was smart enough to find it on the internet, I am throwing it out to those better versed on the No4 than I... was there a large capacity magazine for the No4, and if so, would it look like the one hanging limply from this rifle?

Consensus so far is a standard mag about to fall out
TIA for any and all comments

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[Peter Laidler]

No there was never a large capacity magazine developed for the No4 rifle.

As a matter of interest, all of the large capacity SMLE magazines were given to Vickers when they were developing their version of the Lewis replacement. They wanted to ustilise a No1 mag interface. Look at one next time you see one. these magazines were going to become a bit of a trade off when/if we purchased their machine gun. We were about to until a new interloper came on the scene.

The mighty Bren.................. And we never looked back

[Alan de Enfield]

Not an answer to the question - but maybe an interesting diversion :-



Picture from the :- Historical Breechloaders Smallarms Association

[Beerhunter]

The magazine has not been pushed fully home. As it is obviously a posed photo, that it would not work is of no consequence.

As to it being a bigger magazine, sniper doctrine in the British Army at the time was that a sniper fires only one shot, two at most, before moving position. So a bigger capacity was not needed for sniping. Extra ammunition was not needed for self-defence either because the No.2 carries a Sten for that purpose.

From a practical view, the No.4T with scope shipped already weighs a good deal and so one would not want to add superfluous (see above) extra weight. Beside which one has to load the No.4T with individual rounds which is a time consuming waste, bearing in mind the sniper doctrine.

[Eaglelord17]

That 20rd magazine is neat reminds me of the 25? rounder German Trench Magazines.

[Peter Laidler]

Yep, that's the magazine (pic 3) we had a small box of them for use on the Vickers Berthiers that were presented for the trials against the Bren. This was probably the first bit of forward thinking that the 'new' section machine gunners could use the same magazines as the riflemen - as we did on the old L4 Bren and L1A1 rifles.

What did the adopted Vickers Berthier eventualklky use as a magazine? Anyone know?

[Colonel Enfield]

According to the pics of one I found on the IMA website, it looks similar to the Bren gun magazine, but doesn't appear to be interchangeable.

[CINDERS]

The WWI 20 rounder for the SMLE was a failure with the troops for obvious reasons and the German army thought the same about there ones, its brown and stinks and is a waste product from the human body.
To bulky, got snagged, filled up with mud, troops only loaded them up to 15 rounds really just the thing you needed in a trench situation!
A Winchester 97 trench gun & bayonet with SG's far better to clear a trench when you are down in it.

[Bindi2]

Yep, that's the magazine (pic 3) we had a small box of them for use on the Vickers Berthiers that were presented for the trials against the Bren. This was probably the first bit of forward thinking that the 'new' section machine gunners could use the same magazines as the riflemen - as we did on the old L4 Bren and L1A1 rifles.

What did the adopted Vickers Berthier eventualklky use as a magazine? Anyone know?

Am I allowed to answer sir

[Peter Laidler]

But of course Bindi - be my guest!