1800s In 1853, the first revolving drum magazine was patented by Charles N. Tyler, and the first modern one by
William H. Elliot, better known as the inventor of the
Remington Double Derringer, in 1871.
1900s Pistols and rifles A drum magazine was built for the
Luger (Pistole 1908) pistol; although the Luger usually used an 8-cartridge box magazine, the optional 32-cartridge
Schneckenmagazine ("snail magazine") was also sometimes used. Moubray G. Farquhar and Arthur H. Hill applied for a British patent for "A New or Improved Cartridge Magazine for Small Arms and Machine Guns" in 1915 for their
Farquhar–Hill rifle, and it was accepted in 1919.
Submachine guns used a drum magazine (incorporating a linked belt) and a water-cooled barrel. In 1915, the
Standschütze Hellriegel M1915 (German:
Maschinengewehr des Standschützen Hellriegel, "Machine gun from reservist Hellriegel"), an
Austro-Hungarian water-cooled submachine gun, was produced during
World War I in very limited prototype numbers. soldier armed with a drum-equipped PPSh-41 marches a German soldier into captivity after the
Battle of Stalingrad, 1943. The Soviet
PPD submachine gun originally designed in 1934 by
Vasily Degtyaryov could use either a 35-round
box magazine, or a 71-round drum magazine copied from the Finnish
Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun that however used
9x19mm Parabellum instead, and the latter magazine was most common. The Soviet
PPSh-41 submachine gun and
PPS-43 which replaced the PPD were cheaper and more reliable weapons designed in 1941 and 1943, respectively. They too used
7.62×25mm Tokarev ammunition, could use either a 35-round
box magazine or a 71-round drum magazine, and the latter was most common. The
Thompson submachine gun ("Tommy gun") used a drum magazine in its classic form, but the drum magazines for this weapon were abandoned on the
World War II models. The M1921 Thompsons could accommodate either 20-round box magazines or 50-round cylindrical drum magazines; the latter were known as "L drums" because "L" is the
Latin numeral for 50. A 100-round "C drum" magazine (the letter standing for the Roman numeral for 100) was available, but weighed more than eight pounds and pushed the total weight of the gun to almost . The M1928 Navy and M1928A1 variants, used by the
US Navy and
US Marine Corps, could also accept drum magazines, but standard box magazines were more popular due to the drum magazines' weight and tendency to jam.
Machine guns soldier from 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend" with a belt drum-equipped
MG-42 machine gun. An example of a machine gun with an optional belt drum magazine, containing a starter tab and 50-round length coil of ammunition belt, is the
MG 42 (shortened from German:
Maschinengewehr 42, or "machine gun 42"), a
7.92×57mm Mauser general-purpose machine gun designed in
Nazi Germany and used extensively by the
Wehrmacht and the
Waffen-SS during the second half of
World War II. The 50-round
Gurttrommel (belt drum) was also used by the preceding
MG 34 general purpose machine gun. Designed to be low-cost and easy to build, the MG 42 proved to be highly reliable and easy to operate. It is most notable for its very high cyclic rate for a gun using full power service cartridges, averaging about 1,200 rounds per minute compared to around 850 for the MG 34, and perhaps 450 to 600 for other common machine guns like the
M1919 Browning or
Bren.
Pan magazines Pan magazines (also called "disc magazines") are also often referred to as a drum magazine. The pan magazine differs from other drum magazines in that the cartridges are stored perpendicular to the axis of rotation, rather than parallel, and are usually mounted on top of the firearm. This type is used on the
Lewis gun,
Vickers K,
Bren gun (only used in anti-aircraft mountings),
Degtyaryov light machine gun, and
American-180 submachine gun. A highly unusual example was found on the
Type 89 machine gun fed from two 45-round quadrant-shaped pan magazines (each magazine had a place for nine 5-round stripper clips).
2000s In the 2010s, drum magazines are manufactured for a variety of firearm platforms, including, among others, the
Ruger Mini-14 in
.223 caliber; the
Kalashnikov rifle (AK) and its
variants; firearms using
STANAG magazines, and the
H&K MP-5. Drum magazines once had a reputation for unreliability issues such as feed jams, but technological improvements resulted in better performance, while also reducing their cost. As a result, drum magazines became more common in the civilian market in the United States, although they are far less common than standard, lower-capacity box magazines. As of 2019, about six manufacturers produced drum magazines in the United States, retailing for about $100 each. Manufacturers include KCI USA and
Magpul Industries; the latter produces the same drum magazines for both civilian and military use. ==Notes==