Tubular Magazines

Tubular Magazines

- Brian Pearce

The most common rifles fitted with tubular magazines are lever actions, but can also include pump actions and select autoloaders chambered in centerfire cartridges that have traditionally been used with ammunition containing flat point bullets. These bullets can help prevent possible primer detonation of cartridges in the magazine. Nonetheless, this potentially dangerous scenario still occurs from time to time. Let’s consider a few cartridge, bullet and rifle combinations that have either proven to be, or can be, potentially problematic.

Many years ago I witnessed a Winchester Model 1894 .38-55 WCF magazine tube split from a cartridge being set off. The old cowboy that owned it was prone to neglecting the rifle and allowed it to get extremely dirty. But just a few days prior it had fallen from the scabbard and had been submerged into river sand. In determining the cause, it seems that small rocks and sand had found their way into the tube, which ultimately lead to indenting a primer during recoil and caused the mishap.

In digging through samplings of .30-30 Winchester factory ammunition produced over many decades, it is surprising how many different bullet profiles have been used. Some have featured very flat points, others were rounded and others have been nearly a spitzer configuration. I even have some of the old Remington 55-grain Accelerator loads that contained a sabot and a semi-spitzer .22-caliber bullet. In spite of some of these loads being comparatively pointed rather than flat, there is usually not enough recoil energy to cause a cartridge to ignite in the magazine. Nonetheless, it is strongly suggested to