Magazine or Clip?

[the jeff]

Which is the correct term, that refers to the detachable feeding device to all modern firearms? What is the difference, I always referred to them as a magazine?

 

[Raoul Duke]

Magazines go in your gun; clips held your tie on at the junior high prom.

 

[drumenigma]

Magazines go in your gun; clips held your tie on at the junior high prom.

You also read magazines so maybe there should be a new term like "thing that holds bullets".

 

[vicpinto]

...clips held your tie on at the junior high prom.

... and go great with nipples...

 

[Raoul Duke]

... and go great with nipples...

Touche!

 

[Firetarr]

Magazines go in your gun; clips held your tie on at the junior high prom.

Don't forget the "Enbloc Clip" for the M1 Garand.

 

[glockguy17]

Someone once told me that the way to diffarentiate between the two is that one has springs, the other doesn't.

Example: Removable AR-15 magazine or the tube magazine of a shotgun.

The clip that holds the rounds on a M1 Garand which is then inserted into the internal magazine of the rifle; or the "moon clip" which holds revolver rounds which is then inserted into the cylinder.

 

[Half Cocked]

Correct...A magazine has a spring and a clip does not.

 

[OnTheRoad]

Stripper clips have leaf springs.

 

[jdubois]

Clip:

Magazine:

 

[KMaurer]

The term "magazine" originally meant a storehouse. From that origin, the term pretty much dropped out of common usage with a few specific exceptions. The one closest to the original is the magazine on a ship, a place for storing ammunition, or more broadly any military supplies. It also morphed into its current usage for a particular class of publications, magazines, originally touted as storehouses of information. The final one is for the part of a firearm in which ammunition is stored. Ammunition is not stored in clips, which are simple mechanical devices to hold cartridges together to facilitate their loading into a magazine (including the cylinder of a revolver which combines the function of magazine and chambers). They include en bloc clips, stripper clips and moon or half-moon clips. The closest surviving example of it's original usage of which I'm aware isn't in English, but Russian. The name of the huge department store/shopping mall opposite Red Square in Moscow, is Главный Универсальный Магазин, usually abbreviated ГУМ(GUM). The last word, Магазин, transliterates as "magazine" and means "shop" or "store".

Ken

 

[strangenh]

Isn't the term magazine like that for a ship or fort? A magazine for a firearm is the part that holds ammunition within the firearm. A REMOVABLE magazine is the part of the firearm that holds ammunition... and can be removed. Some firearms have fixed magazines, some have removable ones. Some magazines are tubular, and some are vertical stacks or rotary. Some magazines are both magazines and chambers (revolvers). Some firearms have no magazine. A clip is just something that holds some rounds together ready for use. It might get inserted in a magazine; it might be part of a magazine.

If someone made a gravity-feed magazine it wouldn't have a spring. I don't think a spring makes a magazine.


...ETA - and Maurer gets there first! D'OH!

 

[JGreen]

A magazine has 4 sides, base, spring and follower.

A clip is one piece of spring steel.

 

[Scrivener]

A clip feeds ammunition into a magazine.

A magazine stores ammunition IN the gun and feeds it into the action.

Now can we address the moronic term "bullet heads?"

 

[jdubois]

Now can we address the moronic term "bullet heads?"

I thought that's what everybody called all of us.

 

[Half Cocked]

Now can we address the moronic term "bullet heads?"

Isn't that a band?

 

[LoginName]

Clip:

Magazine:

Banana clip:

 

[highlander]

Banana clip:

 

[Blitz1]

I'm not touching this thread. Oops.

 

[MarkM]

A clip feeds ammunition into a magazine.

A magazine stores ammunition IN the gun and feeds it into the action.

Ding ding. We have a winner!

 

[dreppucci007]

 

[otasan]

Terminology is Important

Clips/bullets are what the anti-gun leftist mainstream media calls magazines/cartridges.

I DO NOT ant to be in league with the leftists media on ANYTHING - especially our beloved sport and gun rights.

 

[MassMark]

Ahhhh...I have never heard this debate before... The terminologies certainly have their roots, but like time and tides - all things tend to mix.

My grandfather was on the first stick into France and also trained young men to go into battle in Korea. No matter what the gun - he referred to them as "clips" and I think he earned the right to call them whatever the hell he wanted. My guess is, that he trained on an M1 Garand with the "enbloc clips", but in Normandy, he carried a Thompson M1 and an M2 Carbine in Korea, so the "clip" terminology stuck with him and he trained his men with "clips" - no matter the weapon. Funny thing is, the US Army never saw fit to correct his horrible error - apparently having better things to do than argue the rights and wrongs of referring to something that feeds bullets into a gun as one in the same. The last time I saw my grandfather with one of his comrades in arms, his Lieutenant was talking about the time my grandfather: "threw a full goddamned Thompson clip at that kraut and hit him square in the forehead". He was referring to a time when they were clearing out a barn and a german soldier rushed my grandfather with a bayonet. His Thompson had jammed and the first thing he grabbed for was a "clip" and he threw it at this guy from across the room - striking him in the noggin and knocking him out cold. If my grandfather were still alive, I'd hate to be the guy who argued this point with this tough old Irishman.

In the end, who really cares? Is it that big of a deal - really? If someone asks me at an NES Members Shoot if they can try a "clip" out of my M1A/Troy MCS, NES AR-15 M4 or my Uzi, I'm going to: (A) Know what the hell they're talking about (B) Hand them a 20, 30 or 32rd "mag" from my ammo can (C) Ask them if they want another "clip" after they're finished and grinning and (C) Not be so snobbish as to correct them as I hand them another "mag", "clip" or "bulletholderfeederthingy".

Oy....

PS: Picture #5 is a catalog - not a magazine... Anyone have a Kleenex?

 

[FalArAk]

A clip is that thing that flips up to make killing people easier,correct ?

 

[theGringo]

A clip is that thing that flips up to make killing people easier,correct ?

Yeah. You use it when you spray bullets into a crowd.

 

[C-pher]

I was hoping that Dave would put that up.. I love that damn picture.

 

[Mike-Mike]

OMG Say clip again I and I am going to smack you!

 

[drumenigma]

OMG Say clip again I and I am going to smack you!

Clippity clip clip cliperoo!

Sorry my tourettes kicked in.

 

[Mike-Mike]

Clippity clip clip cliperoo!

Sorry my tourettes kicked in.

SMACK!

 

[bpm990d]

In my experience GIs used the term bullet heads and clips more often than any other group I've known.

B

From the Army FMs.

M1903. Interesting because it is referred to as a magazine rifle.

M1

M-14

M-16