Maine has no magazine capacity limit. State law places no cap on how many rounds a firearm magazine can hold, and you can legally buy, own, carry, sell, and transfer magazines of any size within the state. That applies to detachable box magazines, drums, and any other feeding device, regardless of the firearm.
No Cap at the State Level
As of 2026, nothing in Maine law restricts magazine capacity. The state sits with roughly 36 others that have declined to regulate the size of feeding devices. About 14 states and the District of Columbia have gone the other way, most capping capacity at 10 rounds.
Maine has also been a constitutional carry state since October 2015, letting residents and visitors 21 and older carry concealed handguns without a permit. That statute did not touch magazines, but it fits the broader pattern: Maine concentrates its firearm restrictions on who can possess a gun rather than on the equipment attached to it.
Cities and Towns Cannot Set Their Own Limit
If a Maine municipality wanted to impose a capacity restriction locally, it could not. Maine’s firearms preemption statute reserves all regulation of firearms, components, ammunition, and supplies to the state legislature. No city, county, township, or village corporation can adopt any ordinance governing the sale, purchase, transfer, ownership, possession, or transportation of firearms or their components. A local rule attempting to do so is void.1Maine Legislature. Maine Code Title 25-2011 – State Preemption
The preemption language reaches “components, ammunition and supplies,” which plainly covers magazines. So the rule is the same in Portland as it is in Presque Isle: no capacity limit anywhere in the state.
Bills That Have Tried To Change This
The Maine Legislature has looked at magazine capacity restrictions more than once. None have passed, but the proposals keep coming back, so they are worth knowing about.
LD 1071
Introduced in the 129th Legislature, LD 1071 would have made it a Class D crime to knowingly sell or supply a high-capacity magazine, defined as any feeding device capable of holding more than 10 rounds. The bill targeted sales and transfers only; it would not have criminalized simple possession, so existing owners could have kept what they had. It did not pass.2Maine State Legislature. Maine Code HP0794 LD 1071 – An Act To Prohibit the Sale of High-Capacity Magazines
LD 1109
LD 1109, introduced in the 132nd Legislature in 2025, went further and proposed prohibiting possession of large-capacity ammunition feeding devices outright. The bill went to the Judiciary Committee in March 2025, received a divided report in June, and the legislature accepted an “Ought Not To Pass” recommendation on June 13, 2025.3Maine State Legislature. Maine Code LD 1109 HP 728 – Text and Status, 132nd Legislature
LD 1109 came after the October 2023 Lewiston shooting, which killed 18 people and wounded 13. That tragedy produced several gun-related bills in Augusta, including waiting period and background check proposals, but the magazine restriction could not find the votes.
Traveling Out of State With Maine-Legal Magazines
This is where Maine owners most often get into trouble. A 30-round magazine that is lawful in Bangor can be a crime to possess in Massachusetts or New York. Roughly 14 states cap capacity, most at 10 rounds, with a few allowing 15 or 17.
Federal law gives you a limited safe-passage right. Under the Firearm Owners Protection Act, you can transport an unloaded firearm between two places where you may legally possess it, even through a stricter state, so long as the firearm and ammunition are not readily accessible from the passenger compartment.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 926A – Interstate Transportation of Firearms
The statute covers “a firearm” and “any ammunition being transported,” but it does not name magazines or feeding devices specifically. Whether a detached magazine qualifies as a protected component or as a separately regulated item under the destination state’s law has produced inconsistent results. The safe approach: if you are traveling through or into a state with a capacity limit, leave the restricted magazines in Maine, or ship them separately to a destination that allows them.
Federal Law on Capacity
There is no active federal ban on high-capacity magazines. The 1994 federal assault weapons ban included one, but it expired in 2004 and Congress has not renewed it. ATF regulations still carry a definition of a “large capacity ammunition feeding device,” referring to a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device manufactured after September 13, 1994 that can accept more than 10 rounds, excluding tubular .22 rimfire devices and fixed devices on manually operated firearms.5ATF eRegulations. Search of 478 for Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device The definition sits on the books but imposes no possession ban on ordinary owners.
Court Cases That Could Change the Picture
Magazine bans in other states are being challenged in federal court, and the outcomes could affect whether a Maine ban is even legally possible in the future.
The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen changed the test. A firearms regulation now stands only if the government can show it fits within the historical tradition of firearms regulation in the United States, with courts looking for analogous laws from the founding or Reconstruction eras rather than weighing modern safety benefits against burdens on gun owners.
Duncan v. Bonta, challenging California’s 10-round cap, has reached the certiorari stage at the Supreme Court after nearly a decade of litigation. Similar challenges are advancing against New Jersey’s law in ANJRPC v. Platkin and against Illinois’s in Barnett v. Raoul, where the Department of Justice has filed a brief supporting the challenge.6NRA-ILA. 2025 Litigation Update
If the Supreme Court takes one of these cases and strikes down capacity limits, future Maine proposals become harder to defend. If the Court upholds them, states like Maine have a clearer path to enact one. Either outcome would reshape the debate in Augusta.
Where That Leaves You
Inside Maine, you face no capacity restriction and no local government can create one. The real exposure is interstate travel, especially into southern New England and New York, where a magazine that is routine here can be a serious charge there. The law in Maine could change in a future session, so if you want to stay current, the Maine Legislature’s bill tracker is the place to watch.