Yes, in general it is not a good idea for the magazine to be moved around by your hand. The welrod does this, but it is manually operated, so the reliability of the magazine is not really a concern:
It is presumably for this reason the wartime manual for the Sten gun specifically instructs soldiers not to use the magazine as a support grip:
Hmm. If you have enough support around it I don’t see why not. I don’t know how ergonomic it would end up being, though.
A quick search indicates it’s been done. Obviously modern pistols are like this, but also mentioned are the Sten gun, MAT 49 and most eye-catchingly the TKB 022.
I’ve always wondered about the logistics of making the magazine the actual handle.
Would that be possible? Would it cause issues?
My thought process is your hand is right there already if you need to reload.
Yes, in general it is not a good idea for the magazine to be moved around by your hand. The welrod does this, but it is manually operated, so the reliability of the magazine is not really a concern:
It is presumably for this reason the wartime manual for the Sten gun specifically instructs soldiers not to use the magazine as a support grip:
Hmm. If you have enough support around it I don’t see why not. I don’t know how ergonomic it would end up being, though.
A quick search indicates it’s been done. Obviously modern pistols are like this, but also mentioned are the Sten gun, MAT 49 and most eye-catchingly the TKB 022.
The Sten, famously, had no reliability issues related to the magazine feeding.