The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

- Leonardo da Vinci -

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Watching movies with me is usually enjoyable but when the movie has guns or military stuff in it...maybe not so much. You see, I understand guns and military things and it's abundantly clear that those who make movies [usually] do not. There's exceptions of course, some really excellent and realistic movies that depict the aspects I mention above accurately, but they are few and far between.

So, I sit there watching and say things like:

"That wouldn't happen."
"Umm...nope, not even close to how it is."
"Who even says that?"
"Where's the recoil?"
"Seriously, you only had three bullets in a gun that holds 19?"
"You have 37 bullets in a handgun that only holds 17?"

I think you get the idea. It can be frustrating watching movies that just don't get it right, and probably frustrating for the person sitting there with me having to listen to my scoffing, derision, laughter and scorn dished out to those nutbags on the screen and the nutbags who made the movie and didn't get it right.

One of my pet hates I didn't mention above and is the focus of this post today...The misuse of the term clip.

I'm sure you've heard someone in a movie or TV show say, I've only got one clip left, throw me another! His mate throws over a magazine and the scene keeps going. Dick heads.

Below you can see what is generally referred to as a clip and a magazine. The clip is the thing that holds the row of .303 rifle rounds and the magazine is the container [for lack of a better word] that holds the rounds inside it. The magazine is inserted into the rifle and stays there and the clip is used to load the rounds into the rifle and is then discarded.

The video below is me demonstrating the use of each with the first showing me loading rounds into both the clip and the magazine and the second showing how the clip is used when operating the rifle. Not all rifles have a clip-feed method of loading and not all rifles or handguns have removable magazines. To keep this post short, and digestible, I've not gotten technical but these two videos clearly demonstrate the difference between a clip and a magazine.

You will note in the video above that the clip and magazine hold the rounds differently. The clip is designed simply to hold the rounds and make it easy and fast to load them into the rifle when needed as they slide right in. Some pressure is required, but it's generally quite easy. You'll note the five round capacity on this particular clip also.

The magazine has a ten round capacity and is fitted up into the rifle so, with each shot and cycle of the bolt, a spent case is ejected and a new round pushed up and into the chamber. Magazines are reusable, as are clips, although due to the small nature of clips they are often lost. Also, in combat one doesn't go around dropping expended magazines then collecting them, nor does one care too much about what happens when the clip is emptied as it is a very cheap, mass-produced item...And when being shot at there's other things to worry about.

Generally clips are not used these days. One would typically have multiple magazines, all loaded, and swap them out as required. Having said that, I know people who still use clips when hunting as it's a legitimate method of storing rounds in a convenient way and loading quickly.

As you can see in the video I made above both are reasonably easy items to use and just about as fast as each other to operate. Of course, the clip in this video only loads five rounds to the magazine's ten. Please also keep in mind this is a rifle from the First World War, [decommissioned in 1918] and is not in use in modern militaries today. There's better systems now, although you can see the effectiveness of this magazine or clip system pretty clearly I guess.

Anyway, that's about it...The basic differences between a clip and a magazine. I've purposely not gotten too technical in this post as there's little need to do so, it's not a training document, but now you should know enough about clips and magazines to sit and watch movies and TV shows and call them out for their nutbaggery when they get it wrong!

That's about it. if you have any questions or comments please feel free to ask in the comments section below.