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We can’t speak for all shooters, but it seems most of us share a pet peeve: people who call magazines “clips.” That’s why we’re here to teach you the difference between clip vs magazine. It will save you from annoying a touchy enthusiast – or, worse, letting your drill sergeant overhear you misnaming your gear.

Clips and magazines are completely different animals, although it is understandable why they’re so often confused with one another. Both serve the same purpose. But once you understand how they operate, you’ll never mistake a clip for a magazine again. In a nutshell, clips load ammo into magazines, while magazines hold ammo and feed it into a firearm’s chamber. 

What Is a Clip?

A clip is a device that holds cartridges by “clipping” them in place. Cartridges are generally stored in a clip in a vertical alignment. It makes it easier to load a firearm or a magazine (which we will now begin calling a “mag”).

Some clips help you reload revolvers more quickly. Moon clips are disc-shaped with indentations that hold cartridges at the correct position to allow fast loading of a revolver’s cylinder. Each round goes straight into a chamber, with the moon clip centered on the cylinder. Half-moon clips are exactly what they sound like – half the circle. 

Clip Variations & Uses

For certain types of semi-automatic firearms, users load them directly with clips. The M1 Garand rifle is the most famous of them. Once its eighth and final round is fired, the M1 Garand automatically ejects an En bloc style clip from its internal mag so you can insert a full one instead.

The Mauser C96 is a clip-fed pistol. The shooter feeds a long, flat metal strip containing cartridges into the C96’s internal mag to load it. This type of clip is known as a “stripper clip” despite her never being found dancing for tips inside seedy bars.

Nowadays, stripper clips are mainly for loading mags, not firearms. M16 rifles, M4 carbines, and AR-style guns chambered for 5.56×45 all feature mags that users feed with clips. Once the shooter inserts a little metal piece (known as a “spoon”) into the mag, it’s easy to insert 10-round stripper clips quickly.

A clip is a minimalistic accessory. Its only purpose is to hold cartridges in a specific position – the position that makes them easy to load in a cylinder, internal mag, or detachable mag.

What Is a Magazine?

There are technically two types of magazines: detachable and integrated. A gun may have an integrated mag, as with the Mosin Nagant, and the Remington 700 series. Pump-action shotguns and lever-action rifles often have long, tubular integral mags. But most of the time, when someone says “mag,” they are specifically referring to a detachable box mag.

A detachable box mag serves the same function as an integral mag. It holds the cartridges in position so the semi-automatic can feed them directly into its chamber after each time it fires. A detachable box mag allows much quicker loading of a semi-auto. Eject the empty mag, insert a full one, rack the slide, or pull back the charging handle, and presto – a fresh round chambered, with several more rounds waiting to follow it.

A detachable mag is a far more sophisticated device than a clip. A clip contains the bare minimum amount of metal to hold cartridges in position. A mag includes a protective metal or polymer shell, a spring that pushes the cartridges toward the mag’s feed lips, a follower that promotes optimal alignment with the firearm’s chamber, and one or more plates.

Magazine Variations & Uses

The most common detachable magazine is the box mag. This rectangular design is used with semiauto pistols and rifles. For the AR-15 rifle platform, companies like Magpul have designed polymer box magazines of various capacities to be universally compatible. Note that “box” refers to the shape of the mag. You can also have a detachable drum mag. For example, consider the large, drum-shaped device protruding from the bottom of a Tommy gun.

Drum magazines are generally high-capacity storage devices for ammunition. The capacity depends on the caliber and size of the magazine. There are different designs, but the most common work by storing rounds in a spiral shape, with a rotary spring forcing the rounds upward, and into a double-stack pattern. Some drum magazines must be disassembled to be loaded, while others may be loaded externally using the feed lips. 

Handgun magazines generally utilize a single or double-stack design. A single-stack magazine holds ammunition in a single column, while a double-stack holds cartridges in a zigzag pattern. Double-stack magazines allow for higher capacities, however, they are larger and heavier than single-stack magazines. Most modern rifle magazines employ a double-stack design for capacity and efficiency. 

Speed Loader VS Moon Clip

The revolver speed loader serves the same purpose as a clip. It also guides rounds straight into the chambers, but it detaches from them with the press of a button, or twist of a knob before it separates from the cylinder. Unlike a moon clip, the speed loader must be removed before firing the revolver. They are designed for traditional rimmed revolvers and hold the bullets securely in the base of the body.

Moon clips are thin metal rings, that hold cartridges in the shape of a revolver’s cylinder. The rim of the casing snaps into the openings on the moon clip, and the clip goes into the cylinder of the gun with the ammo attached. Which option is faster for reloads? Most competitors prefer to use moon clips. Both options are faster than trying to reload bullets individually by hand. Keep in mind that not all revolvers are compatible with moon clips.

There are also speed strips for revolvers, which look and perform like clips for rifles. They hold ammo in a vertical orientation, with the rim of the case clamped into a groove. The ammo is loaded by bending the strip until the bullet slides out into the cylinder. Speed strips are generally flexible and bend easily for one-handed loading. They must be removed before firing the revolver.

The Takeaway: Clip VS Magazine

Mags and clips have a similar purpose, but their names aren’t interchangeable. You can correctly use the word “clip” to refer to a simple device that feeds ammo into a revolver’s chambers, a semi-auto’s internal mag, or a detachable mag. But when you’re talking about the boxy, removable devices that store and feed ammo for Glocks, S&W Shields, Ruger 10/22s, M16s, AR-15s, AR-12s, AK-47s, and a wide range of other modern semi-auto firearms, you want to use the word “magazine.” Otherwise, you’ll sound like a yokel.

Guest writer Gideon Zielinski is a nationally registered paramedic.