Don’t get confused about the terms clip, magazine, or stripper clip. Though many people refer to clips and magazines interchangeably, they are not the same. A magazine stores and holds rounds of ammunition, feeding it into the chamber via the mechanism of the action. A magazine can either be fixed and integral to the firearm, such as a tube magazine, or it can be removable, as in the case of a box mag.
Clips are devices, similar to magazines that are used to temporarily hold rounds of ammunition and facilitate the loading of the mag itself. Stripper clips, specifically, are used to hold and transport ammunition, making it easier to “strip” the rounds off and into a magazine, making loading of the magazine quick, easy, and efficient. Stripper clips, sort of like speedloaders and other magloaders, make it easier to load magazines. What they also do, unlike magloaders, is make it easy to transport and handle larger quantities of ammo, as opposed to carrying ammo in a box or loose in a bucket or ammo can.
Some firearms, like M1 Garands, with their fixed internal magazines, are much easier to load via the aid of En Bloc clips which were fed into the internal magazine and were ejected by the action after the last round was fired. Others, like modern AR-15s, have detachable mags that can be loaded more quickly and efficiently via stripper clips. Check out our collection of stripper clips - these devices still deserve a place in the range bags of shooters that carry weapons platforms that are compatible with them - especially if you want to spend more time shooting and less time loading!