I never knew….

[sipowicz]

Why is it called a magazine?

Magazine comes from an Arabic word meaning 'storeroom,' so the usage of the word to refer to a place where bullets are held for a gun or where ammunition is kept in a battleship makes complete sense.

 

[Kanewpadle]

Why is it called a magazine?

Magazine comes from an Arabic word meaning 'storeroom,' so the usage of the word to refer to a place where bullets are held for a gun or where ammunition is kept in a battleship makes complete sense.

Okay smart guy. Then why do some people call it a "clip"?

 

[Rustyt1953]

My dad carried a Garand in the ETO. To his dying day he called all magazines "clips".

I knew what he meant.

 

[tops]

Why is it called a magazine?

Magazine comes from an Arabic word meaning 'storeroom,' so the usage of the word to refer to a place where bullets are held for a gun or where ammunition is kept in a battleship makes complete sense.

So why are those book like things with pages of pictures and words that we get every month called "magazines"? Larry

 

[Kevin J.]

So why are those book like things with pages of pictures and words that we get every month called "magazines"? Larry

Because all of them are gun "magazines". At least mine are.

 

[Llance]

So why are those book like things with pages of pictures and words that we get every month called "magazines"?

Because they are storerooms of words, to which you spend money (sometimes), so that you may read the words stored therein.

 

[Kevin J.]

^^^ Deep thoughts. .
Said it before and saying it again, the cool stuff I learn hear.

 

[CajunBass]

My dad carried a Garand in the ETO. To his dying day he called all magazines "clips".

I knew what he meant.

One of my high school teachers, "Mr. Mac", was a WWII Marine. He too called them "clips." Didn't matter what kind of gun it was.

You could tell Mr. Mac he was wrong, but I sure wasn't going to.

 

[Alpo]

I know maybe a dozen words in Russian. The Russian word for store - magazine.


When they invented firearms that took a detachable box magazine, everybody knew what a magazine was. It was at tube that ran along underneath the barrel. This little sheet metal box - that wasn't a magazine. And it clipped into the bottom of the gun butt. So it became a clip.


Why is a stripper clip a clip? It doesn't clip into anything. Nothing clips into it. So why is it a clip?

 

[MsRuth]

In a manner of speaking, the individual cartridges are "clipped" into a clip. In Mauser, SKS, Bianchi, and other single-row clips "cliip" to and grip the cartridges by the rim. GIs used to "clip" Garand double-row clips to their webbing or sling by running the fabric in-between the two rows of cartridges.

 

[AJ]

Long ago anywhere that powder and shot were stored were called magazines, be they on land or on a ship.

Clips are a device that hold ammo so it can be insrted directly into a weapon, such as a stripper clip for a Sringfield 1903 30.06, a Mauser 1898 8 MM and most every bolt action military rifle. Anyone that has used a U.S.Garand knows it has a 8 round enbloc clip. That is why the "Old Timers" call them clips.

Clip or magazine it is just a case of symantics.

 

[MsRuth]

Semantics:

When I was young, my grandfather took me to a big MODEL railroad at the old Frisco Depot in Webster Groves (outside St. Louis Missouri). As he was explaining what the model locomotive on one train was doing in a yard a club member came over and corrected the "old man's" nomenclature.

He said that on real railroads the rails were "bent" to allow access to different tracks with "turnouts" not "switches."

Grandpa smiled and the man went away.

Then we chuckled. Grandpa had started his career on the Terminal Railway as a SWITCHman, walking alongside the cars and manually throwing switches for them and the locomotives SWITCHing them in the yard.

 

[gwpercle]

One of my high school teachers, "Mr. Mac", was a WWII Marine. He too called them "clips." Didn't matter what kind of gun it was.

You could tell Mr. Mac he was wrong, but I sure wasn't going to.

If I have my Terminolgy correct ... the M-1 Garand does use a clip, on the last shot it is ejected and not refilled or used again .
It made the M-1 "Ping" on the last shot supposedly giving away your position and telling the enemy " I'm outta ammo and inserting another ...thing that holds more ammo ...whatever you call it "
Gary

 

[MsRuth]

If I have my Terminolgy correct ... the M-1 Garand does use a clip...
Gary

Except for the ones we gave the "New" (1943) Italian Army. After the war they had Beretta modify them for a box magazine.

 

[Greyman50]

IIRC, a magazine is a device cartridges are inserted into, stacked INSIDE, A clip only aligns, holds cartridges for use, thus stripper clip for 03's ECT. is correct as is the M-1 clip. By chance one has ever been on a US Army shooting team you never forget get the command," load a 5 round Magazine…….Ready on the Right, ready on the Left….

 

[AJ]

Except for the ones we gave the "New" (1943) Italian Army. After the war they had Beretta modify them for a box magazine.

The Italian Army was issued a "New" Garand in 1943? Are you possibly confusing a Beretta BM-58 Beretta BM 59 - Wikipedia with something else?

Italy: Used by the army from 1945. Beretta license-built 100,000 M1s from 1950 until the adoption of the BM59 in 1959.[87] Also received 232,000 M1s from the U.S. government between 1950 and 1970.[80] The M1 Garand was known in the Italian Army as the Fucile «Garand» M1 cal. 7,62.[

 

[MsRuth]

One of my high school teachers, "Mr. Mac", was a WWII Marine. He too called them "clips." Didn't matter what kind of gun it was.

You could tell Mr. Mac he was wrong, but I sure wasn't going to.

Quote from the movie Gettysburg:
Major General George E. Pickett (Stephen Lang): "Sirs, perhaps there are those among you who believe you are descended from an ape. I suppose there may even be those among you who believe that I am descended from an ape. But I challenge the man to step forward who believes that General Robert E. Lee is descended from an ape."

 

[MsRuth]

The Italian Army was issued a "New" Garand in 1943? Are you possibly confusing a Beretta BM-58 Beretta BM 59 - Wikipedia with something else?

Italy: Used by the army from 1945. Beretta license-built 100,000 M1s from 1950 until the adoption of the BM59 in 1959.[87] Also received 232,000 M1s from the U.S. government between 1950 and 1970.[80] The M1 Garand was known in the Italian Army as the Fucile «Garand» M1 cal. 7,62.[

When Italy surrendered in 1943 most of the peninsula was in German / Fascist hands. This included all of the industrial north. As much as a political move as a military one, the US began to supply the "New" (1943) Italian Army with equipment. This included (new to the Italian Army) Garands and .30-06 ammunition.

Rome fell the same day as D-Day began, June 5th 1944, just hours before the 101st and 82d parachuted into France. But parts of northern Italy, Bologna, Milan, Genoa, Venice, Trieste, did not fall until the Spring Offensive of April 9--May 2, 1945.

Like the Free French troops that participated in the Liberation of France, the Italian troops that took part in the Liberation of Italy used Sherman Tanks, GMC trucks, Winchester Carbines, and Garands.

Communist cells had organized sporadic opposition to the Fascists and had stockpiled arms and ammunition. After the north was recaptured / liberated there was a great fear of a Communist revolt in Italy (as well as in France and Greece). The Italian Army continued to receive US weaponry to update its equipment and replace all of its German made items.

Famously this led to the retirement and sale of their 6.5×52 Mannlicher-Carcano rifles.

On a "we treat former enemies better than our allies" note, the weapons we supplied to Great Britain through lend-lease had to be returned or destroyed after the war. So-- a sad sound*-- literal tons of classic firearms including S&W revolvers were dumped into the ocean. But France and Italy kept what they received.

The French sold some of their Garands to Israel. The Italians had Baretta convert theirs to use box magazines. The original Baretta conversion on a US produced Garand led to all-- or almost all, it is dangerous to ever say "all / every" or "no / none"-- Garands in their stocks being converted.

Baretta also produced Garands from new under license.

* The software edited out my first word choice. I guess that word, the sound of someone crying, was mistaken for an acronym. Proof that humans will never be competently replaced by AI.

 

[glenwolde]

So why are those book like things with pages of pictures and words that we get every month called "magazines"?

Because they are storerooms of words, to which you spend money (sometimes), so that you may read the words stored therein.

So why aren't "books" called "magazines"???

 

[MsRuth]

Wikipedia is a modern version of World Book. In school the Word Book Encyclopedia took up 28" of shelf space, while Americana and Britannica occupied six feet apiece.

I'm not knocking Wikipedia, it's quick and most people just want the basics.

I've corrected a few of their entries here and there, and have conversed with content editors-- who are all volunteers, by the way-- they value "mostly correct and easy to understand" over "accurate and complex" because it better suits their audience.

Something that led to my discontinuing interacting with them is their "academic" over-reliance on what they consider to be accurately sourced material, which is often contradictory. As a result many of their entries directly contradict other entries or contain information that is simply not possibly true due to the linear nature of time, or physics.