Stripper Clips and AR Magazines

[Scoutdog99]

223 rounds on stripper clips will fit perfectly inside a 12ga 2.75" shotgun shell box for storage/transport. You can get 120 rounds in a box with a spoon. I put a label on the top and sides of the box to note the contents/avoid confusion with regular shotgun shells.

 

[Caliper_Mi]

Biggest issue with reusing strippers is that the little brass tab on the end of the brass "spring" that holds the ammo secure in the clip tend to break off and then drop off.

As long as you're on a one-way range, the brass tabs on the ends aren't needed. The brass piece across the bottom has enough friction to hold the rounds in place until needed.

In terms of speed on the range:
preloaded mags > strippers + spoon > Loose ammo + Maglula

 

[1911 guy]

All because of you guys, I'm having a nail biting crisis over here. My OCD is getting all twitchy. My last order from PSA came in and I'm 70 rounds short of filling another ammo can with 5.56.

70 rounds. You cannot buy 70 rounds of M193. Maybe I can calm the OCD by imagining that bandolier is for 20 round magazines.

But back on topic. I still say that the clips are the most convenient storage, load very quickly with just a bit of practice and don't cost an arm and a leg. In fact, Federal is clipping their ammo and selling it for 30 cents a round. I look at it as getting the clips for free.

 

[MistWolf]

My OCD is getting all twitchy

Don't worry. The affliction you call "OCD" is, in your case, very minor and being 70 rounds short will soon stop bothering you. Otherwise, you'd know that properly alphabetized, it's CDO

 

[herrwalther]

I only found the stripper clips useful when I had to keep track of a large amount of ammo and magazines. Range work detail. Qualification is 40 rounds. That is 4 stripper clips. 3 stripper clips to a box. 4 clips and 3 magazines handed over, rinse and repeat. Have done range detail enough that I have close to a dozen stripper guides hidden in various cranny's in my gear.

It is important to note that they only work on metal magazines made by one of the "GI" manufactures. They do not work on polymer magazines unless you want to invest in much more swearing.

Probably not doing it right but loading a mag with stripper clips and spoon is more tedious for me than just loading a single round in the mag at a time.

Everyone has their own way of doing it and everyone seems to think their way is best. The method that works best for me is place the magazine in my right hand, put the feeder on, slide in a clip. Push the rounds against a hard wood table and it feeds the rounds in. With practice you can load a full magazine in about half the time as hand loading it.

 

[HJ857]

For those that like stripper clips, themolds are available too and they work exceptionally well with the Lula. I load rounds in a turret and after I get 10 done I load them into a clip. It adds a bit more time up front but at the range or at a competition it saves a ton of time.

http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.c...ripper-Clip-and-Emergency-Fuel-Stick-(10-Pack)

 

[kBob]

I have always wondered about the Thermolds use as emergency fuel. Can you boil water or heat soup with it without poisoning your self or making things taste so bad as to be inedible? DO the Thermolds require a different clip guide than the GI magazines?

Talk to us of these things.

BTW I meantioned the broken tabs because in my experience rounds DO NOT stay in more than about half the time if you are pulling the clips from bandoleers if the tab is broken. Usually only one round, but it is a pain. One cheap buddy would use a center punch to slightly bend the lip of the guide on the broken end but he had to notice which way the clip was oriented then. He eventually stuck a bit of Duck Tape on the crimped end sort of like the indicators on older Manlicher design clips that only go in one way.

Still seemed more of a pain than it was worth.

When I was a kid I saved my K98 strippers and reloaded any ammo I had on them and stored it in M-1 Garand bandoleers......just in case those Cuban Paratroopers showed up.

In high school JROTC we had M-1 Garands which on arrival were fully functional. To make the world safe from teenagers on drill day we removed the extractor and spring, ejector and spring and firing pin from all but 20 or so rifles and those were left not gelded. We used blanks for training but those at the time only came in 20 round boxes. Occassionally we would get a "chicken box" the wire and flimsy wood case two or four ammo cans came in full of loose M-1 clips. We would load the clips with blanks and at least tried to keep track of them in the woods when training. When we got M-14s I got a few stripper clips for them as typically they only gave us one magazine on excercises but two or three boxes of blanks. I had one clip guide but actually liked using the one on the rifle to load the one magazine. A 15 year old with an M-14 with blank firing attachment trying to emulate an LMG through trigger "Fanning" is a frightening thing that can result in smoking barrels.

Sorry, just trying to imagine 20 boys dashing about a high school today with functional M-14s.......

-kBob

 

[bfoosh006]

IMHO, the main advantage to stripper clips is very rapid magazine re-charging, especially with a StripLula.

If the SHTF ever.. these will allow you to re-charge your mags faster then anything else. Period.

The smaller than 30 round mag size of them will also be far easier to sling and carry in a bandolero then a bunch of 30 or 20 rd mags.

While many will argue that you could just carry a bunch of mags... with stripper clips you don't ever need to worry about possible mag lip spread or cracking and or mag spring issues from LONG term storage.

The only drawback is .... re-filling the stripper clips with ammo. Lol.... which can be boring and tedious.... even while sitting on your sofa watching TV.

You do not need to bend over the brass end tabs after filling them unless you want to make sure the edge round doesn't "fall out" under a hasty reload environment.