One of the first proposals concerning the non-standard location of the magazine was the project of the Italian gunsmith Giulio Sosso, who worked for the FNA (Fabrica Nationale D’Armi) company. In the late thirties, he developed an original submachine gun in which the functions of the magazine were performed by a special channel inside the wooden stock. It was proposed to place the cartridges in this channel at a slight angle to the vertical
Such a magazine could hold several dozen cartridges without affecting the ease of use of the weapon. Unfortunately, information about the Sosso submachine gun is extremely scarce. However, the available information and images allow us to get a general idea of the proposed ammunition supply system for the weapon. The double-row magazine was to be located inside the stock, extending from the butt plate to the mechanism for feeding cartridges into the chamber. From the butt plate side, the cartridges were to be pressed by a spring-loaded feeder. The available drawing with the general diagram of the Sosso submachine gun shows a magazine with two rows of 47 pistol cartridges each. Probably, the ammunition load of this weapon, depending on the size of the stock and butt, could actually exceed 70-80 cartridges. Under the pressure of the feed spring, the cartridges from the magazine were to move to the mechanics responsible for lifting them to the feed line. The lifting mechanism consisted of a tube and a pusher. The latter was mechanically connected to the bolt. By turning, the pusher had to send the cartridge into a curved tube and move it along it. After exiting the upper edge of the tube, the cartridge was in a horizontal position and could be fed into the chamber by the bolt
After the shot, the cycle was supposed to repeat. The characteristics of this system are unknown. Apparently, the project of J. Sosso remained on paper, in the form of drawings and a patent. For this reason, the rate of fire of the proposed automation, as well as the fact of its operability, remain in question
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Would be a pretty neat weapon! Shame we don’t know it’s rate of fire though
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