What is the difference between magazine and clip?

Originally posted by Mike Irwin
It's also interesting that you say the mechanism would put the empty cases back in the feed strip, and that that little nuance was apparently adopted only on the Breda 1937, another Italian design.


" An easy way to differentiate a magazine from a clip or charger is that, with the exception of a revolver, a magazine may or may not be used in conjuction with a clip/charger but a clip/charger is always used in conjuction with a magazine (revolvers are the exception as their cylinder replaces the magazine and can be used in conjuction with a clip)."

I'm just not at all sure that I agree with that when you bring the Hotchkiss-style strip fed guns into the equation.

George Chinn, author of "The Machine Gun," (written for the US Navy's Bureau of Ordnance) refers to the Hotchkiss-style strips as "clips," and no where does he mention the word magazine in reference to the Hotchkiss.
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If you consider the Hotchkiss strip a clip, then yes I suppose you're right. I didn't think of it because, honestly, I've never heard of the Hotchkiss feed strips referred to as a clip before.

Originally posted by Blue Train
Well, here's another question. Do drum magazines as used on Lewis guns (and Japanese copies), Soviet DP and DT machine guns and one or two others, have any springs inside? I do know that Thompson-style submachine guns have springs but the other kind are entirely different, as you know. I just never saw the inside of one, at least not within living memory.
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I need to make a correction to my previous post because, upon researching further, it appears that Lewis magazines do not have springs or a follower. In the video I watched which included a tutorial on how to load the magazine, Lewis magazines are little more that a sheet metal shell with a rotating spriral ramp not unlike a large screw in the middle (the magazine is actually open on the bottom). When loaded into the gun, the outer portion of the magazine rotates while the "screw" in the middle remains stationary thus allowing one round at a time to be picked up by the gun's feeding mechanism. The Lewis is truly a unique and fascinating design.

DP-28 magazines, on the other hand, do indeed have springs inside them as they do not rotate when the gun is fired like the Lewis Magazines do. I do not know for sure if the DP magazines have a follower or not as I've not been able to find any pictures or videos of the magazines disassembled. Apparently, the spring in a DP-28 magazine is under quite a bit of tension and disassembling the magazine presents two problems: the spring is liable to launch itself with enough force to cause injury and the magazines are quite difficult to get back together again. The recommendations from people "in the know" about the DP-28 is to avoid disassembling the magazine if at all possible.

Also, as Mike Irwin pointed out, original Gatling Guns had gravity feed magazines that lacked a spring. In almost every picture or video that I've seen of a Gatling being fired, someone applies hand pressure to the follower in order to keep the magazine feeding. As I understand it, the gravity feed magazines of the Gatling were not particularly reliable which is probably the reason that gravity-feed magazines were abandoned in future gun designs.

So, to amend my previous statement, Most magazines will consist of, at the least, a magazine body, spring, and follower.
 
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