I figured an illustration would be helpful.
To elaborate a bit more and show illustrations, here\'s the link to a site that shows how to build your kid their own wooden toy machine gun.
This article is obviously from the early 20th century since the toy machine gun appears to resemble the Colt model 1895 \"potato digger\" only
instead of belt fed, it\'s gravity fed. The gravity feed hopper magazine for the toy bullets (wooden dowels) is what is at interest here to illustrate
better what I was talking about regarding a hopper fed magazine with a weight on top of the cartridges, but with a slit down the side of the mag
so that most of the bulk of the weight can fit outside the mag riding down the slot in the mag, while still the full weight is on top of the cartridges.
See how in this illustration there is a slot in the side of the toy gravity fed hopper mag (that\'s made out of a tin can)? Now in this case that slot is
mainly just so you can see how many toy wooden dowels bullets are left, but still. it also shows a weight on top of the toy bullets. What it doesn\'t show,
but you can easily visualize from the illustration, is that weight COULD mostly be on the SIDE of the mag with just a thin arm going over the top of the toy bullets
to keep them weighted down, with the 90 degree angle of that thin arm riding in the mag slot. See what I mean?
The same principle is the same for a real gun\'s gravity fed hopper type magazine.
And here\'s the link to the entire article just in case anyone wants to build one of these for their kids (or for themselves to play with). It\'s actually very simple to make and pretty cool.
It\'s same operation could be adapted to almost any style of machine gun to make a toy out of. I could see a Maxim or Browning easily.
http://chestofbooks.com/home-improvement/woodworking/Carpentry-and-Mechanics-For-Boys/Chapter-XVII-A-Toy-Machine-Gun.html#.VKcGeDHF8nv\'>http://chestofbooks.com/home-improvement/woodworking/Carpentry-and-Mechanics-For-Boys/Chapter-XVII-A-Toy-Machine-Gun.html#.VKcGeDHF8nv
.