The classification of the firearm does not affect the maximum capacity of its magazines. Non-Restricted or Restricted makes no difference. What determines the capacity of the magazine is the action type of the firearm it was designed and intended for.
•Magazines designed for handguns have a maximum capacity of 10 of whatever cartridge they are designed for, regardless of what firearm they are actually used in. This is why the LAR-15 magazines can be used in an AR-15, because they are pistol magazines being used in a semi-auto centerfire rifle.
•Magazines designed for semi-auto centerfire firearms have a maximum capacity of 5 of whatever cartridge they are designed to hold. This is why we have the Mossberg MVP, which is a bolt action rifle and thus should have no maximum capacity, but since it was designed to use AR-15 magazines any magazines designed for it are considered to be designed for a semi-auto centerfire and are thus limited to 5.
•Magazines designed for rimfire and manually operated centerfire(such as pump action, bolt action, lever action, etc) have no maximum capacity of whatever cartridge they were designed to hold.
You might have heard of the Lee-Enfield AIA 10 round magazines that are popular with the M14 and M1A crowd, they can legally hold more than 5 cartridges because the mag was designed for use in a manually-operated firearm, and not the semi-auto M14s that they happen to fit in.
A question that comes up commonly is in regards to rimfire or manually operated handguns, they are still handguns and as such can only hold ten of whatever cartridge they are designed for. This is why we don't have rimfire handguns with 30 round magazines.
The specific firearm that a magazine is used in does not change the inherent nature of what it was designed for. A handgun mag used in a rifle is still a handgun mag. A manually operated centerfire magazine used in a semi-auto centerfire firearm is still a manually operated magazine, and as such does not have a macimum capacity of 5.
Furthermore, these limits are in regards to the cartridge the magazine is designed to hold, not whatever you decide to stick in there. This is why we have some people shooting 12 or 13 cartridges of 9x19 out of .40 S&W magazines, and it is perfectly legal as long as the magazine cannot hold more than 10 cartridges of .40 S&W because that is what it was designed for. So, you can use a magazine designed for a semi-auto centerfire firearm intended to hold 5 cartridges of .50 Beowulf, and then stuff 13 or more cartridges of .223 Remington in it and use it in a handgun. What you put in it, and what you put it in, does not change what it is.
Because the question has come up before, WHAT THE MAGAZINE WAS INTENDED FOR CANNOT BE CHANGED. If you have a PMag for your AR-15 and then re-rivet it to hold 10 cartridges, with the idea in your mind that it will match the 10 round pistol mags, you are breaking the law. The magazine can only ever be considered designed and intended for use in a semi-auto centerfire firearm. Such a magazine is an illegal prohibited device. You can only change the nature of a magazine by destroying it and using the material to build something else.
You can put lipstick on a pig, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still a pig.
Clear as mud, eh? Who was the instructor for your CFSC course, if you don't mind me asking? Sounds like he could use some pointers on the fine print.
