Tokarev/Zastava M70a 9mm question

[JeeperCreeper]

This might be stupid but I am going to ask anyways because I always learn something.

I was reading comments on a review of the Zastava M70a, the new Tokarev clone in 9mm imported by Century. One of the comments claims that the Tokarev family of pistols are more jam-proof than other pistols because the magazine sits higher into the slide of the pistol, therefore the rounds do not need to travel up a long feed ramp to get into the chamber. They simple just get pushed horizontally into the chamber, eliminating any failure to feeds.

My immediate reaction was to call B.S. Wouldn't that cause failure to eject as spent cartridges would just run right into the cartridge behind it? Was this pistol not a rip off of the Browning's shot-recoil dropping-barrel system, and none of those guns have "horizontal feeding" actions?

Someone please learn me sumthin'!!!

 

[Shear_stress]

Until the cartridge is ejected, the breech face of the slide is the only thing directly behind it. As the slide travels backward, it pushes down on the next cartridge in the magazine. I don't know about Browning actions, but guns like the Beretta 92 (which doesn't have a tilting barrel) get pretty close to "horizontal feeding."

 

[tark]

I am looking at my M-70 as I write this. I still see a feed ramp on both the frame and the barrel, and the round in the mag still has to travel significantly "upward" to reach the chamber; so I would discount the theory that a Tokarev feeds "almost horizontally "

But they DO feed quite reliably, no one will argue that!