All repeating single-chamber non-belt-fed firearms(*) have a magazine. It's a box, tube, drum, Calico helix or whatever and it stops the rounds falling on the floor. Some of these magazines are fixed in place, some are replaceable for rapid loading (Bren, SLR, M-16, AK), others are generally issued as one-offs attached to a specific weapon but they're removable for either cleaning or (slow) re-loading.
(*) Exceptions to this are few. The crazy WW2 French LMG with the horizontal feed tray had no magazine (and suffered because). There were also crazy open hopper-fed LMGs (Japanese and I think French). Some heavy calibre repeaters and semi-autos (Bofors, Rarden) use a robust clip that needs no additional magazine. A horizontal drum / pan magazine (Lewis, Vickers K or various Soviet LMGs) has some possible claim to being a "clip with a lid" instead of a magazine.
There are also clips. Not all weapons use these. Some are (as you term it) en bloc and the rounds are fed from this clip. Others are stripper clips that are only used for re-loading into another magazine.
Inside a magazine is a mechanism for moving the rounds around (this is a crucial distinction from most clips other than strippers). The next round to be fired feeds from only one position in the magazine and the rest of them are shuffled up behind it. Clips retain their rounds in position and the clip moves relative to the feed mechanism.
I've never seen a clip that had springs or feed lips. There are retainer springs etc. but nothing like a magazine's follower spring or lips for feeding the next round axially. Every clip I've ever seen or heard of either doesn't feed (the round comes straight out of the clip from whatever position in the clip it was loaded into), or it feeds radially. Even the original Mannlicher design pops the round upwards out of the clip, then starts to move it forwards as a separate action.
As to the distinction that magazines are toppable, clips aren't, then that's just arbitrary and irrelevant. A clip-loaded weapon is unlikely to be toppable, but then so are the majority of magazine loaders too. Historical ideas of squad infantryman contributing the odd round to keep the LMG firing turned out to be very bad ideas in practice (I think the Japanese and the Italians both got bitten by this). It's fine to say "Any round is better than a clean round you don't have" when it's you in the foxhole, but the big picture turned out to be the other way round. Keeping rounds clean matters, and that's why pretty much everything these days uses dry rounds stored in well-sealed magazines (do issue M-16 magazines still come in snap-open plastic bags?). No-one cares about topping-off when the resultant consequence is stoppages.
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Date: 2007-05-09 10:50 am (UTC)All repeating single-chamber non-belt-fed firearms(*) have a magazine. It's a box, tube, drum, Calico helix or whatever and it stops the rounds falling on the floor. Some of these magazines are fixed in place, some are replaceable for rapid loading (Bren, SLR, M-16, AK), others are generally issued as one-offs attached to a specific weapon but they're removable for either cleaning or (slow) re-loading.
(*) Exceptions to this are few. The crazy WW2 French LMG with the horizontal feed tray had no magazine (and suffered because). There were also crazy open hopper-fed LMGs (Japanese and I think French). Some heavy calibre repeaters and semi-autos (Bofors, Rarden) use a robust clip that needs no additional magazine. A horizontal drum / pan magazine (Lewis, Vickers K or various Soviet LMGs) has some possible claim to being a "clip with a lid" instead of a magazine.
There are also clips. Not all weapons use these. Some are (as you term it) en bloc and the rounds are fed from this clip. Others are stripper clips that are only used for re-loading into another magazine.
Inside a magazine is a mechanism for moving the rounds around (this is a crucial distinction from most clips other than strippers). The next round to be fired feeds from only one position in the magazine and the rest of them are shuffled up behind it. Clips retain their rounds in position and the clip moves relative to the feed mechanism.
I've never seen a clip that had springs or feed lips. There are retainer springs etc. but nothing like a magazine's follower spring or lips for feeding the next round axially. Every clip I've ever seen or heard of either doesn't feed (the round comes straight out of the clip from whatever position in the clip it was loaded into), or it feeds radially. Even the original Mannlicher design pops the round upwards out of the clip, then starts to move it forwards as a separate action.
As to the distinction that magazines are toppable, clips aren't, then that's just arbitrary and irrelevant. A clip-loaded weapon is unlikely to be toppable, but then so are the majority of magazine loaders too. Historical ideas of squad infantryman contributing the odd round to keep the LMG firing turned out to be very bad ideas in practice (I think the Japanese and the Italians both got bitten by this). It's fine to say "Any round is better than a clean round you don't have" when it's you in the foxhole, but the big picture turned out to be the other way round. Keeping rounds clean matters, and that's why pretty much everything these days uses dry rounds stored in well-sealed magazines (do issue M-16 magazines still come in snap-open plastic bags?). No-one cares about topping-off when the resultant consequence is stoppages.