References to cartridges as "bullets"

If someone doesn't know better, it's no big deal.

If someone really should know better, like most posters here, I find it mildly amusing.

It bothers me about as much as someone calling a Jalapeno a vegetable.

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What is a jalapeno?

Fine, fine!

Let's just mark that up to language evolution and current distinction, shall we? To me, a 'pistol' is essentially any handgun but a revolver.

And I am, technically, not completely wrong.

And I am, technically, not completely wrong.

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Well, I guess if you are going to base your conclusion on this statment:

To me, a 'pistol' is essentially any handgun but a revolver.

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I wish the world worked that way for me.

So I guess there is no such thing is dueling pistols...just banjos.

I typically refer to it as the "pill" when I am discussing the individual reloading component of the bullet itself.

I've actually had a man correct me on the revolver vs pistol nomenclature at the range. I called the model 10 my friend was shooting a sweet pistol, to which this guy took offense and tried to correct me. Tell me, how does a term exist before the item it describes is invented?

cbrgator said:

On the other hand, when I hear someone say clip instead of magazine, it's like nails on a chalkboard. Don't know why I care so much, but I really cannot stand it.

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It bothers me a lot more, too, but I know exactly why--whereas terms such as bullet, round, and cartridge are commonly used to refer to ammunition in general or the supply thereof, and in particular bullets are at least a component of cartridges, the terms "magazine" and "clip" refer to very different things in English, not just firearms jargon.

Magazines are containers or compartments that enclose (except for some sort of opening) supplies, while clips are, well, like paperclips or hair clips--minimal devices that grip a part of a number of items at once. In the sense that they both keep things together, they can serve similar functions, but nobody in their right mind would confuse a clip with a box, and that's fairly analogous to clips versus magazines.

That's really as specific as we need to get. Sometimes clips are used to feed ammunition into magazines (whether integral or detachable) or are even placed inside magazines while still holding ammunition such as with the M1 Garand, but this does not define either term. Other types of clips can even be used to hold detachable magazines together, but a clip is always a clip and a magazine is always a magazine, no matter how they're used in conjunction with firearms. I say this because people always try to get fancy with definitions (e.g. a "magazine" must be spring-loaded and must feed directly into the chamber), which inevitably leads to confusion (and it's incorrect anyway).

I think this whole confusing mess started with the similar function of detachable magazines and the M1 Garand's en bloc clips. To me, it's so simple--to load an M1, you insert the clip holding ammo into the rifle's integral magazine, while on an M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle, for example, you attach a detachable magazine containing ammo. Somewhere along the way, perhaps because "clip" is a shorter, easier word to use (although "mag" is just as convenient), people started calling detachable magazines "clips" even though they are clearly NOT clips--they are boxes that enclose supplies, you know, magazines! :banghead: This just makes NO sense, which the linguist in me finds quite offensive, to tell you the truth (language evolution in this case be damned!).

While I don't bother correcting people for what has become a common and widely accepted usage of terminology, every so often I do like to vent about it in these threads.

Plus let's be honest, what is the first image that pops into your head when someone is calling magazines clips? Maybe the willfully ignorant youth who throws around terms like "clip" and "gat" to try to sound cool. Whose interest in firearms goes only as far as to try to seem gangsta and for the power and means of destruction they provide; a very childish view of firearms.

That's how it is for me anyway.

longdayjake said:

What is a jalapeno?

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It holds the plant's seeds and attracts animals to help distribute them with edible flesh (in this case mostly birds because they aren't irritated by the capsaicin, or humans because we're weird and enjoy some forms of pain), so it's a fruit like an apple or tomato. But that's not important right now....

My Model of 1917 S&W Pistol - the Revolving Magazine is charged with Ammunition using a 'Clip'.

And, it is fun to mention it in this context, too.


Technically, the Cartridige Case is part of the Firearm, even if a transient part.


Good mention on the Japapeno ( being a Fruit ).


Tomatoes, Squashes/Zuccinni/Cucumbers, Avacados, similarly of course.

Overall, generally, if it proceeds from a Flower, and is in effect, a mature and exteriorized Ovary of a Plant, containing 'Seeds' - it is a Fruit.

If is a Plant Body-component otherwise, or if it is Leaves or a Root, it is a Vegetable.




People calling 'Stocks' Grips...is one which I regret also, especially as it is so easy to understand what is a Grip, and, what is a Stock, and to be able to tell them apart.

Old krow said:

It bothers me about as much as someone calling a Jalapeno a vegetable.

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I was always bothered by people calling a tomato a vegetable. It's a fruit, dang it! It may be used like a vegetable, but it's still a fruit.

Oyeboten said:

My Model of 1917 S&W Pistol - the Revolving Magazine is charged with Ammunition using a 'Clip'.

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That's perfectly correct, proper, valid, and all that good stuff, although the magazine in this case (i.e. the cylinder) actually rotates rather than revolves. That said, I believe that linguistically the distinction between rotation and revolution is a more recent (and positive) development, probably due to physics, and that "revolve" was frequently used to describe both types of motion in the past (and may still be by some, which I guess isn't necessarily incorrect, especially in the context of firearms, where this is traditional).

Plus let's be honest, what is the first image that pops into your head when someone is calling magazines clips? Maybe the willfully ignorant youth who throws around terms like "clip" and "gat" to try to sound cool. Whose interest in firearms goes only as far as to try to seem gangsta and for the power and means of destruction they provide; a very childish view of firearms.

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Actually I just see them as plain ignorant, not necessarily trying to sound like cool kid. Someone who likely got their gun education from TV shows and movies. You know... those incredibly accurate Hollywood depictions - Like in the shootout scenes where the clips never run out of bullets.

I thought he was talking about journalist
hell I'm happy when they hold up something close to the actual ammo (nothing like some 40 MM MK19 grenades still lock into a belt being held up as an example of 'pistol' ammo...)

Honestly, if one of the talking head started spouting that he feeds his 1911 Kibbles and Bits I wouldn't be the least bit surprised. Personally I just be glad he has a gun, even if he does confuse it with mans best friend.

So bullets ammo cartridges, Until you are discussing exact parts, or functions or components, it doesn't really matter and even the OP would understand.

Old krow has it down cold

I,ve been around guns for over 40 years , and I know the terms BUT if there is someone who,s really anal about it, I can,t help pushing their button
Like one guy at my old range, he would get so mad he would just turn red in the face if someone did not use the right words,
so of course when I was shooting close to him I had to say loudly to my wife ( let me get the bullets & load up the clips then we,ll start

To me the bullet is the projectile that leaves the cartridge when fired,cartridge is 1 loaded round and the empties are cases. As far as the term pistol,I've used the term to describe a revolver,semi auto and/or single shot as in a T/C Contender or Encore. Of all my rifles and handguns I have only 3 that use a clip 2 625s and a 610,everything else uses a magazine or is a single shot.

Only when there is a long, slow-motion closeup of an entire cartridge flying through the air on its way to the target. Likewise, I don't get bent out of shape when someone confuses a clip with a magazine.

bullets, cartridge.......clip, magazine.........i dont really care......just so long as i know what you are talking about....

im not that much of a snob where im going to get on your case for using the wrong terminology....because i probably do the same thing on occasion myself.

Manco said:

I think this whole confusing mess started with the similar function of detachable magazines and the M1 Garand's en bloc clips. To me, it's so simple--to load an M1, you insert the clip holding ammo into the rifle's integral magazine, while on an M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle, for example, you attach a detachable magazine containing ammo. Somewhere along the way, perhaps because "clip" is a shorter, easier word to use (although "mag" is just as convenient), people started calling detachable magazines "clips" even though they are clearly NOT clips--they are boxes that enclose supplies, you know, magazines!

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Perhaps this "confusion" was aided by certain rifles that had a protruding, fixed compartment under the receiver that resembled a detachable magazine, that was "fed" by "stripper clips?"

All you people who take great exception to what you perceive to be the misuse of words might ask yourselves if you know all the inside lingo in other sports. Every term used in golf? Everything detail of skiing? Every part of a sailboat?

No one knows everything.

I do take exception to folks who take it upon themselves to write gun laws without learning even the basics.

when some smart aleck starts having a fit because me or someone else doesn't use the exact proper term i kindly remind them that my girlfriend is younger and better looking than theirs and that makes me the winner and i can call carbines rifles, revolvers pistols, mags clips, bullets cartridges and all other sorts of things that annoy shooting nazi's

Nothing said by the uninformed gets to me, its not their fault that they do not know the correct term. What does get to me is bullets as "boolits", "tips", or "heads" by those that should know better.

It holds the plant's seeds and attracts animals to help distribute them with edible flesh (in this case mostly birds because they aren't irritated by the capsaicin, or humans because we're weird and enjoy some forms of pain), so it's a fruit like an apple or tomato. But that's not important right now....

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I'm sorry but your logic is flawed. If your statement were true then peas and string beans would be fruit.

Back to being gun related; my favorite thing that anti-gunners are saying right now are "assault clips."