The difference between a clip and a magazine
For those who are familiar with guns the difference between a clip and a magazine is immediately apparent, but those who are not knowledgeable about guns may not be able to tell the difference.
What is a clip?
The clip of a gun is what holds the bullets together. You insert the bullets into the clip, but this part of the device does not feed the bullets one at a time into the firearm itself because there is no spring in the clip to move them forward towards the barrel.
What is a magazine?
When you put the bullets into a clip, you then place the clip into the magazine of the gun. It is a storage compartment, but it is also the firing instrument. There is a spring in the magazine that will launch the bullets.
The magazine of a firearm can be detachable or it can be built-in. It is shaped like a box in which the bullets are stored but it does create pressure on them so that they can be fired. There are different names for this part of a gun, such as casket, rotary, drum and pan.
The difference between clip and magazine
A clip and a magazine are two different parts of a firearm. If it has a spring, then it is a magazine because a clip is a storage compartment that holds the bullets together. It doesn’t have any shooting capacity because of the absence of a spring.
The magazine pushes the bullets out of the clip. It does have the dual function of being the storage chamber and the firing mechanism, which means that there is no need for a separate clip in some firearms.
Summary
- The clip of a firearm holds the ammunition. It does not have a spring and it cannot push the bullet forward. A clip fits into the magazine.
- The magazine of a firearm stores the ammunition and feeds it to the firing mechanism because it does contain a spring.