Clip vs Mag : terminology review

[J_Dillinger]

Ok, recently I was 'critiqued' for using the word 'clip' in reference to a magazine that can be inserted into a pistol (or rifle).

Now, I'm a civilian and have always been a civilian though I'm definitely aware of a variance with military personnel such as a rifle is not a gun, etc.
Perhaps this is one of 'those' where a 'clip' is not a clip but a 'mag......

Really, if everyone knows what I'm discussing, then who cares, right ?
I've shot firearms for nearly 20 years and whatever I choose to call my gun parts is my business and I really don't like lip such as ......."I knew this post was from a newbie because......" Well, I ain't old but I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday neither.

ANYHOW ~ here's a definition to 'chew' on for the firearm language correct think you know everything types......(extreme sarcasm)

cartridge clip
n.
A metal container or frame for holding cartridges to be loaded into an automatic rifle or pistol. Also called ammunition clip.

So when I type 'clip' this is exactly what I'm referring to and what I choose to call this hunk a metal with a spring that holds my bullets......saavy ?

 

[JohnKSa]

This one has gotten overblown somewhere along the line.

I've seen Charles Askins refer to magazines as "clips" in writing and I've yet to see anyone claim he didn't know guns.

 

[Bobarino]

clip:

Magazine:

a simple definition of a clip is that is what's used to load an internal or external magazine.

Bobby

 

[Noxx]

So when I type 'clip' this is exactly what I'm referring to and what I choose to call this hunk a metal with a spring that holds my bullets......saavy ?

Hey you can call it a ham sammich if you want, no skin off my tuchus.

 

[pinstripe]

clip or mag

It really doesn't matter which term you use. Anyone familiar with firearms will know what you are talking about. Some folks just like to be anal about terminology.

 

[Claude Clay]

mag is what holds live rounds and is inserted. clip feeds an existing internal device and or may not not be retained till the 'ping'

 

[Kor]

clip n. 2: a device to hold cartridges for charging the magazines of some rifles; also: a magazine from which ammunition is fed into the chamber of a firearm

magazine n. 5: a supply chamber as a: a holder in or on a gun for cartridges to be fed into the gun chamber automatically.

I understand it's annoying to you, but sometimes, us gun curmudgeons actually have reasons for making fine technical distinctions like "clip vs. magazine" - if you check the definitions(mine come from Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary), the difference is that ALL magazines are an integral part of the cartridge-feeding mechanism of single-chamber repeating firearms, whether they be fixed(i.e. bolt-rifle, lever-rifle, shotgun) or detachable(pistol, "Evil Black Rifle). Although SOME clips are actually part of the cartridge feeding mechanism(i.e. for M1 Garand & Mannlicher/Carcano rifles), SOME clips ARE NOT involved in cartridge feeding, but only in the process of loading MAGAZINES(i.e. stripper/charger clips for military bolt-action rifles, or for loading detachable magazines for M14/FAL/M16/AK rifles).

Consider this, if you will: In WWII, a GI armed with an M1 carbine might run out of ammo in a firefight, and call for his buddy to "throw me an M1 clip!" If his buddy was armed with an M1 Garand, the "M1 clip" he would have in his ammo belt pocket would be totally incompatible with his buddy's carbine. That's why drill sergeants would beat the distinction into recruits, so that imprecise terminology/nomenclature wouldn't cause potentially fatal problems like this.

So now you know - and knowing is half the battle.

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

You're right that we know what you're talking about when you say clip instead of magazine. And you might be right saying "why say mag when you can say clip and everyone still knows what you're talking about?"

But I counter with, why not just say magazine? It's just changing one word, and it's a little more accurate. Why not just get yourself to call a clip a clip and a magazine a magazine.

The term "clip" is popularized in media as a slang term for a magazine. They have the excuse(a poor one) of not knowing what a clip really is. But since we do, why not stand above the ignorant and use real terms for real things? Why let ourselves use inaccurate slang? Bottom line, it's easy to use one or the other, and it's just one simple word. But we all know better, so why not just put that little extra effort in and be that much more accurate?

 

[tasco 74]

Ham Sammich???????

???????????????????????????

 

[230RN]

And how many of you mispronounce Garand?

Es tut mir veh.

English is one of the most evocative, powerful, and flexible languages in the world... and it evolves constantly.

I personally am used to calling a magazine a clip --from almost sixty years of shooting, although I avoid it on this board to deter buckets of wasteful posts about its "misuse."

I am also used to calling complete pistol and rifle cartridges "shells," even though I know that a "shell" is the empty cartridge case. "Give me another clip. I ran out of shells" may grate on you, but in twenty years, who knows what phrases you use will grate on future shooters?

And, after all, is not a shotgun "shell" a complete cartridge?

Those who were indoctrinated in military terminology are of course aware that precision is necessary to avoid supply and logistics and contracting problems. Hence so much "odd" military terminology.

And there's the old poem about this is my rifle and what is for fun. To my mind, this is merely an indoctrination technique and not based on any realistic differentiation.

And even military terminology changes.

Oh... you remember that old poem, don't you?

"This is my rifle, this is my gonne"... and so forth.

So. Now we will hear allll about how a gun is a naval rifle, and that "caliber" is really the barrel length divided by the diameter of the shell.

And, again, in twenty years, who knows what phrases you presently use "correctly" will grate on future shooters?

Give it a rest.

I'm going to go clean my gonne now.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

.....

 

[TX1911fan]

JDillinger, I would analogize this to someone calling the fuel injector in their car a carburetor. Sure, we'd know what he was talking about, but that doesn't make the terminology correct. The only reason you use "clip" is that you've heard it used improperly in movies and books so much. What's the big deal with changing, now that you know the correct usage? Before I got into guns, I would have called a magazine a clip, but once I learned the proper term, I changed.

 

[El Tejon]

J Dillinger, you do realize that there is a distinction between a "clip" and a "magazine", right? The definition you cite is the definition of a "clip" that one would use to load an automatic rifle, M1 Garand, or an automatic pistol, Mauser C96. A "magazine" has a spring that pushes cartridges topside, a "clip" does not.

You can call a horse an orange, but that does not make it so. Calling things by their proper names is the foundation of learning. This is The High Road; we strive to get it right.

 

[Jim Watson]

I have quit worrying about "clip" versus "magazine". What irks me is the expert who will tell you the difference and then proceed to load his ammunition feeding device with "bullets." Or "boolits."

 

[RevolvingCylinder]

What irks me is the expert who will tell you the difference and then proceed to load his ammunition feeding device with "bullets." Or "boolits."

I'm always correcting people on that. They give me the usual "same difference"(contradictory phrase I might add) crap. I also got someone on mentioning a "rim" on a rimless cartridge.

 

[Hawk]

Watching the language grow less precise is seldom a fun pastime. However, I tend to smile benignly on a gunnie scrambling the use of "clip" vs "magazine" and don't recall ever posting a correction. But I will get pedantic when the likes of Schumer, McCarthy or the like confuse the terms - when they state they want to ban 11 round clips it has an unfortunate tendency to spill over onto my magazines.

But give the board pedants a break on the magazine thing, they've taken a number of hits recently. First, Colt goes and legitimatizes ".45 Long Colt" thus choking off the fun of pointing out that the round doesn't exist.

As if that wasn't bad enough, numerous historical texts refer to "pistol whipping" in the 19th century (presumably "revolver whipping" being a term that does not flow trippingly from the tongue) thus casting the "pistols are not revolvers" claim as a diagnosable symptom of OCD.

Still, even those of us that don't correct internet posts on the "magazine" vs "clip" issue are silently gratified when the terms are used correctly. Claiming that confusion is harmless due only to its incorporation in a dictionary rings hollow. Dictionary definitions now include "ain't" and "irregardless" the latter apparently a mutant love-child of "irrespective" and "regardless". Languages change over time. Sometimes it's evolution; other times it's devolution. Calling "magazines" "clips" is most assuredly the latter.

 

[Scorpiusdeus]

Though I too think it's over blown I've instructed my girlfriend in the proper manner to describe these two items. I do it simply so some old codger doesn't make a snide remark and piss her off. She's a Redhead and I'm only thinking of the safety and welfare of the old codger.

Still, this isn't half as bad as the youngsters who call every handgun a Glock or worse a gat. I guess to the little "G"s I'm the old codger.

I knew the cause was lost when I heard a Newscaster say: My Bad!

 

[Kentak]

Words and their meanings matter.

When I'm wheeled into the operating room, and the surgeon asks the nurse, "What's this guy here for?" And, she says, "He's having his 'stones' removed," I want the doc to know she's talking about gall stones!

K

 

[Stump Water]

And how many of you mispronounce Garand?

Well... you made me look it up.

In all my years I've never heard it pronounced, GAR-ind (accent on the first syllable).

 

[J_Dillinger]

EXHIBIT 'A'



Notice the word 'clip' used on the diagram above (2nd from the top on the left). This illustration is part of the analysis behind the Valentine Massacre (Al Capone's gang). We're talking about pre-WWII terminology here folks.

 

[eliphalet]

itdonmatter either word the device seems ta work and be understood with the same end result.
Getoverit

 

[J_Dillinger]

J Dillinger, you do realize that there is a distinction between a "clip" and a "magazine", right? The definition you cite is the definition of a "clip" that one would use to load an automatic rifle, M1 Garand, or an automatic pistol, Mauser C96. A "magazine" has a spring that pushes cartridges topside, a "clip" does not.

Explain the Thompson SMG then. ......it's CLIP has a spring.

 

[El Tejon]

Its magazine has a spring. The Thompson does not use clips.

Is that a police book?

 

[J_Dillinger]

Its magazine has a spring. The Thompson does not use clips.

Sir (I presume), Thompsons used box CLIPS before you were born.

EXHIBIT 'B'

Figure II.

Thompson Sub-Machine Gun, Model 1921AC, fitted with Cutts Compensator,
20-shot clip magazine and detachable stock.

and

With the loaded clip of 20 rounds of service ammunition another pound was added.

and

Equipment for the Thompson gun includes four types of magazines. There is available a 20-shot clip, a fifty-shot drum and a 100- [Page 1111] shot drum for ball ammunition, plus the 18-shot box magazine or clip for the shot cartridge.

Source : American Inst. of Crim. L.
23 (1932-33): 1098.

http://www.saf.org/LawReviews/PSharpe1.html

 

[1911Tuner]

Personally, I use both terms in a technically correct sense, but gettin' my panties in a wad because somebody calls a magazine a clip isn't worth the time and elevated blood pressure, and it could well alienate a new shooter or even a potential new best friend. Same goes for saying that "The bullet'll go in the barrel but it won't go off." as opposed to the technically correct "The cartridge will chamber, but won't fire." He knows what he means, and I know what he means...so why waste time quibblin' over silly things?