Quad Stacked mags...why haven't they caught on?

[LonePathfinder]

There are only a handful of quad stacked mags developed over the years, and none in the US.

Italy's M4 Spectre SMG had a 50rd quad stacked 9mm mag.

I believe there was a Finnish SMG with a quad stacked mag, and I believe the Fins also developed a Quad stacked AK mag.

I did read a thread recently on arfcom on the ak board where a guy was trying to set up to manufacture quad stacked mags. He even had some working prototypes.

Question is why didn't they catch on sooner? We have had detachable bax magazine weapons for closing in on a 100 years. Given the US civilian "tacticool" market for weapon, you would think this would have happened long ago. Even for LE use, were a lot of patrol men, when depolying with a rifle, just grab it and go with just the one mag in the gun and possibly a spare on the buttstock. It makes sense if you could have a 60 round magazine that is no longer than a 30 rounder.

The AR platform does have somewhat of a long magwell and I'd imagine a quad stacked AR mag (the same length as a 30 rounder) would only hold 45 to 50 rounds because of this. But for the AK (in progress by at least one guy), the Mini-14, M1A and others, it seems this idea should work.

The idea is simple enough, two side by side double stack wells that have ramps moving them into a single double stack at the top for use in exsisting rifles.

Would seem like a nice balance between a fully loaded C-mag which is a bit heavy and a 20 or 30 round mag. Or a M1A with 40 or 50 round mags.

Obviously for zombies, but would be cool non-the-less.

Thoughts?

[tri70]

... that's alot of weight to carry!;)

[LonePathfinder]

Yea but is it really more than a rifle with a 30 round mag and a 30 round mag in a butstock pouch?

Not really all that much considering al the other stuff hanging off tactical rifles these days.

[tri70]

I like to hunt 'yotes with my mini 14 and have taken it p-dog hunting. When I hunt 'yotes I carry the gun for 300yrd minimum and sometimes a mile or so, it would not be very practical to carry more than a 30 rd mag. When I took it p-dog shooting it would not be to bad because I was shooting off the hood of the truck and just changing directions. When I stick the 30 mag in fully loaded and hold for a minute and it feels heavy.

just my 2 cents, tri

[Tailgunner]

If you understand the useage of those funny looking things on the barrel (there called sights BTW) than you don't need more than 2-3 rounds (just one will do if your using a real cartridge, not some mouse round).
The last I looked, there wasn't a shooting war going on inside of the US borders, so the military argument (and even than "spray & pray" is a weak argument) dosn't apply.

[Len414]

There are only a handful of quad stacked mags developed over the years, and none in the US. ....Question is why didn't they catch on sooner? .....The AR platform does have somewhat of a long magwell and I'd imagine a quad stacked AR mag (the same length as a 30 rounder) would only hold 45 to 50 rounds because of this. .....Thoughts?
-Well you just said it really.
It would be difficult to do to great advantage on a AR15-type, and quite honestly that is the dominant type of survival/military/tactical civilian rifle sold in the US.
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