Single column magazine

In a single column magazine, the rounds are stacked one on top of the other.

Early semiautomatic pistols (e.g. the Luger, M1911) had single-column magazines, which were easier to manufacture with early pistol technology than double-column magazines, which came into vogue in the 1930s with Dieudonne Saive's Browning Hi-Power design. Since then, most combat pistols have had double-column magazines, which afford greater capacity or rounds fired before reloading. One benefit of single-column magazines, however, is that they allow a handgun to be designed more narrowly than double-column designs. This is particularly evident in the M1911, which despite its large overall size and weight, has a flat profile, even by today's standards, making the gun easy to conceal for discrete carry. Many modern pistols designed for concealed carry use single stack magazines (e.g. the Kel-Tec P3AT, Kahr PM9,GLOCK 36 and many others).