Gun magazine with reduced collapsed spring height

A novel spring and follower design for a firearm magazine that produce a reduced height when the magazine is fully loaded. The preferred embodiments of the magazine spring include a triple-nested bottom three coils, followed by an alternating succession of double-nested pairs of coils. The bottom three coils and the alternating pairs are configured to remain within a double stack portion of the magazine. The magazine spring also includes a transition portion-comprising elongated coils-configured to extend into the upper portion of the magazine when the magazine is nearly empty. The follower is preferably configured to receive the transition portion of the magazine spring into a lower receiver when the magazine spring is fully compressed.