Why were there so many automatic weapons with magazines loaded

>>34719689
They were designed around trench warfare

>>34719689
concerns about troops not being able to go prone, gravity assists feeding which lets you cheap out a bit on the spring, downward ejects shells away from faces, no one knew what the best way to do things was, youre a faggot

>>34719689
More reliable feeding when they hadn't perfected magazine design yet

>>34719718
>>34719705
This.

Magazine design is the hardest part of building a functional automatic weapon. SMGs (where you see it most) are really simple in operation but reliable feeding is 90% of what separates a good SMG from a bad one.