What is the difference between magazine and clip?

F

freebird72

New member
I hope I am in the right area for posting this. :D

What is the difference between magazine and clip? I have always used the word magazine for anything that holds rounds and has a spring. For example I would use the word magazine for the thing you put rounds into that goes inside a 1911.

However, I have no idea what a clip is or is not. I know clips are used for M1s and such, but what is the difference, just one has a spring and one does not? I am so confused, please help me understand better.
 
ClipMagazineLesson.jpg


Boooyaaaaa.
 
The clip is basically a strip, which grips the extraction groove or case of a round.

If the rounds are contained inside, and there is a spring, you're looking at a magazine.
 
Every stripper clip I own has a spring and the enbloc clip for a M1 IS a spring. Without a spring the rounds would fall out.

A clip is used to load a magazine.
 
You mean all these years we should have been calling those loading thing-ma-gings for the M1 Garand, 'clip springs' or 'spring-clips'? Dang!
 
Don't be silly. "Clip" is fine.

Do you call paper clips, paper 'spring-clips'? :rolleyes:

Just having fun, as you suggested. :)
 
Are you using the word, "Spring," as a verb or a noun? Spring steel maybe?

Last time I checked my M1 Garand external loading device, I didn't see anything resembling a spring, and it, the 'clip', was loaded with eight tighted secured rounds that defied gravity quite nicely.

I am no expert on office supplies so you may have there. But I am almost certain that 'spring' and 'clip' are not synonymous. And not only are they not the same words, 'clip' and 'magazine are different devices and perform seperate functions. I think RBin posted a visual clue. In either case, I'll stick with what Sergeant Striker's Marines called 'them' in the movie, 'The Sands of Okinawa, clip(s). I am certain that John Wayne would never stear me wrong.
 
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Some clips have springs; some magazines don't. Some clips go entirely inside a firearm; some magazines do not enter inside a firearm at all. Feel free to call that thing with the cartridges that goes inside your .45 auto (it isn't called a .45 semi-auto) a clip and I'm fine with that. Others worry too much about it.
 
A magazine holds ammunition to be fed into the chamber. Some are removable, some are built in.
A clip holds ammunition to be fed into a magazine.
The exception being the Garand which uses a clip to feed the chanber, the magazine holding the spring (and clip) being built into the firearm.
 
A magazine holds ammunition to be fed into the chamber. Some are removable, some are built in.
A clip holds ammunition to be fed into a magazine.
The exception being the Garand which uses a clip to feed the chanber, the magazine holding the spring (and clip) being built into the firearm.
Click to expand...

There are at least two other exceptions to the "A clip holds ammunition to be fed into a magazine" statement. An early Mannlicher rifle (I forget the model, circa 1890) and the Carcano use in-line clips similar to the Garand clip to hold cartridges in the magazine, when the last round is stripped from the clip/magazine into the chamber, the empty clip falls out the bottom of the magazine. In these designs, as in the Garand, the clip is an integral part of the magazine system.
There may be other exceptions which I am not aware of.
 
"The exception being the Garand which uses a clip to feed the chanber, the magazine holding the spring (and clip) being built into the firearm."

There are a considerable number of exceptions.

After the Garand, probably the most notable is the Italian Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, which used a 6-round packet clip.

Another exception are the French Betherier rifles, which used a Mannlicher-style packet clip.

Another example is the Japanese Type 11 light machine gun, which was fed by Mauser-style stripper clips that were dropped into a hopper-style magazine.

And then we have both the French, Japanese, and Italian machine guns that used stamped metal strip clips and which, technically, didn't have magazines.

The same could be said about just about every belt-fed machine gun, as well. The belt (material, plastic, or metal) is really an elongated clip, and the guns may, or may not, be considered to have magazines depending on how you classify the box that holds the belt. The box certainly isn't absolutely necessary to the function of the gun, it just makes it easier to deal with.

And I'm sure that the list is a lot longer than those examples.
 
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Wow I didn't expect to get as many replies as I did. Thanks for the input fellows. Even though you all have told me the difference between a clip and magazine, does it bother you if someone use both words interchangeably?


P.S. Did a mod delete some of my post?:confused:
 
"does it bother you if someone use both words interchangeably?"

Not particularly.

"Did a mod delete some of my post?"

Yes. If you have any questions regarding that, PM me.
 
So, let me make sure I am on the same page as everyone else. A magazine is feed to the chamber itself(for the most part), while a clip is feed into a magazine(for the most part). Is that the basics, or am I still lost? :p








Mike Irwin I just wanted to know what happened to my post, because I knew I had posted something else. I only get on these forums when I have questions or feel like reading others opinions on things I know less about. I was not trying to cause an Internet slap fight:rolleyes:....but I will leave it at that.
 
The usual answer is that a magazine has a follower and a follower spring; a clip has neither. And a few magazines have a follower but no follower spring, being gravity fed.

Jim
 
And Jim provides the most important word in all of this... "usually."

No single definition adequately covers all of the systems that have been employed over the years for feeding guns.
 
A clip holds ammo making it easier to feed them into a magazine. But many people use the terms interechangeably. I would prefer people to understand the difference and use correct terminology, but have decided it is a losing battle.
 
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