What is the difference between a magazine and a clip?

Answer 1

When refering to ammunition containment devices:

A 'clip' has NO moving parts.(M-1 Garand, AK-47 & SKS 'stripper clip')

A 'magazine', whether a part of the weapon, or a separate device HAS moving parts. (M-1 Garand & SKS rifles: 'magazine well") (ALL semi- and full-automatic self-loading weapons)

Answer 2

A magazine is a spring loaded device that holds the cartridges and feeds them to the action.
A clip just holds the rounds and other means must be used to feed the action. The M1 Garand had a follower in the action to feed the rounds from the clip to the chamber.
Other types are stripper clips, which hold the magazine capacity of the weapon they were made for. Example is the Enfield rifles. 5 rounds are clipped together at the rim and inserted into the action with the bolt open. Press down firmly on the top round and the rounds are loaded into the magazine much faster than pulling the magazine out and loading each round separately.

Answer 3

Wow LGM asked a question. I hope you're going to refer that kid to this... The only firearms I'm familiar with in there are the M-1, the mauser, the AR-15, and the Galil. M-1 uses a clip that pops out when it's out of rounds. The Mauser is fed from an internal magazine (not the same as a detachable magazine). The AR-15 is fed from a detachable magazine. The Galil is also fed from a detachable magazine. A clip is used to load a magazine or sometimes an internal magazine. It is not what holds the rounds to be chambered. Exception is the M-1. A magazine is what holds the rounds to be chambered. If they were an honest person who will accept that they are wrong and it is a magazine and not a clip, I wouldn't mind them at all.

Answer 4

Magazine
1) A ammunition feeding device that holds the cartridges just prior to them being put in the chamber of the firearm by the operation of a mechanism on the firearm. This mechanism may be operated manually as in a bolt action or semi-automatically when the gun fires after pulling the trigger.
The magazine may be detachable or part of the gun (as in a tubular magazine common with lever action rifles and most semi-auto and pump shotguns). The detachable ones are what Hollywood, the media in general, and many shooters refer to as a clip. This is wrong. A clip is different from a magazine.

2) A storage area for explosives.



Clip
A device that holds cartridges in place prior to be put into a magazine of a firearm. On some rifles, notably the US M1 Garand and Italian Carcano, the clip stays in the magazine and becomes part of the feeding mechanism to be ejected when empty.

Hollywood, the media in general, and even a lot of shooters get this wrong. A clip is not the same as a magazine.

Answer 5

a clip is a peice of metal that holds cartridges. it has no moving parts. there are 3 kinds of clips
stripper clip-holds 10 rounds by the rim
moon clip-holds rimless cartridges in revolvers.
en bloc clip-holds several rounds together, as in the M1 garand rifle

magazines have some moving part that allows cartridges to be fed into a chamber. the moving part is usually a spring. again, there are a few different kinds.
box magazine-common. used in most weapons, including pistols, rifles, assault rifles.
tube magazine-the bullets line up inside. used in shotguns and lever action rifles.
cylinder-not really a magazine, but several separate chambers in a revolver.
integral magazine-permanently attached inside the firearm. usually seen on bolt action hunting rifles.

generally, if its a peice designed to fit inside a firearm and it has moving parts its a magazine.

Answer 6

The terms are commonly used interchangably. However, technically, a clip is a device that holds the cartridges while the magazine is the part of the gun where the clip goes.

Answer 7

If you have seen the clip that holds 8 rounds for the M1...it
looks like a rather fancy capital U : just a fold of metal.
The magazine for the GI 45 is a hollow metal box with a spring
inside pushing on a plate . As each round is fired, the plate and spring push up the next round.

Answer 8

Thanks to the overabundance of information we now have at our fingertips and the sifting through same we have to do I think you could probably say that the difference in the here and now is that clip has four letters and magazine has eight letters; other than that the terms seem to be used interechangably. Too many words and too little time to worry about the differnce anymore.

Answer 9

A magazine is somting you read and a clip is somting that holds things together.
They are the same thing when I was in the ARMY we said magazine the DIs would get mad if you called ot a clip.In the civilian world its anything you want to call it.

Answer 10

Clips feed magazines, magazines feed the rifle.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QzmVJ1rXD9U

This link will explain it in detail with examples.