magazine / clips

[George Anderson]

Originally posted by policeluger
lets take a pole....

That's what Schickelgruber said in 1939 and it resulted in alot of these Lugers ending up over here.

In early military usage a magazine is a storage area for ammunition for an artillery piece either on a ship or in a casement, and it feeds ammunition to the gun. With the advent of repeater firearms in the ninteenth century the word magazine described the area that fed ammo to the weapon. The things used to feed the magazine were called clips. Stripper clips fed the magazines on such weapons as the C96, GEW98, Model 1903, etc.

As a kid growing up on Army posts and surrounded by guns, I called them all clips. Whether for a .22 cal rifle, a Nambu or an M1, they were all clips. Of course they all fed ammo into guns and I called them all guns. A little later in life a drill sergeant at Ft Bragg persuaded me to differentiate between the several firearms. He actually did this with a quaint little rhyme and a boot in the ass. The same sergeant may also have taught me the difference between a clip and a magazine. Can't remember now.