A clip is a device that is used to store multiple rounds of ammunition together as a unit, ready for insertion into the magazine or cylinder of a firearm

Firearm

A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...

. This speeds up the process of loading and reloading the firearm as several rounds can be loaded at once, rather than one round being loaded at a time. Several different types of clips exist, most of which are made of inexpensive metal stampings that are designed to be disposable, though they are often re-used.

The term clip is commonly used to describe a firearm magazine, though this usage is technically incorrect. In the correct usage, a clip is used to feed a magazine or revolving cylinder, while a magazine or a belt is used to load cartridges into the chamber of a firearm.

Stripper

A stripper clip or charger is a speedloader that holds several cartridges together in a single unit for easier loading of a firearm's magazine. A stripper clip is used only for loading the magazine and is not necessary for the firearm to function. It is called a 'stripper' clip because, after the bolt is opened and the stripper clip is placed in position (generally by placing it in a slot on either the receiver or bolt), the cartridges are pressed down, thereby 'stripping' them off of the stripper clip and into the magazine.

En bloc

Several rifle

Rifle

A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...

 designs utilize an en bloc clip to load the firearm. With this design, both the cartridges and the clip are inserted as a unit into a fixed magazine within the rifle, and the clip is usually ejected or falls from the rifle upon firing or chambering of the last round. The en bloc clip was invented by two firearms inventors working on parallel lines, James Paris Lee

James Paris Lee

James Paris Lee was a Scottish-Canadian and later American inventor and arms designer, best known for inventing the bolt action that led to the Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield series of rifles.-Early Life and Career:...

 for his Lee rifle of 1890, and Ferdinand Mannlicher

Ferdinand Mannlicher

Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher was an engineer and small armaments designer. Along with James Paris Lee, Mannlicher was particularly noted for inventing the en-bloc clip charger-loading magazine system...

 for use in his M1885 rifle.

Other rifles utilizing a frequently improved en-bloc clip include the German 1888 Commission Rifle, the French 1890 Berthier Cavalry Carbine

Berthier carbine

The Berthier carbine was a French service rifle adopted in 1892, which was widely used during the First and Second World War....

 and later models (upgraded to 5 rounds in 1916), the Italian M1870/87 Vetterli-Vitali and M91 Carcano

Carcano

Carcano is the frequently used name for a series of Italian bolt-action military rifles and carbines. Introduced in 1891, this rifle was chambered for the rimless 6.5x52mm Mannlicher-Carcano Cartuccia Modello 1895 cartridge. It was developed by the chief technician Salvatore Carcano at the Turin...

, the various (Romanian, Dutch, Portuguese) turnbolt Mannlichers, the Austro-Hungarian straight-pull Steyr-Mannlicher M1895

Steyr-Mannlicher M1895

The Steyr-Mannlicher M1895 rifle is a bolt-action rifle, designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher that used a refined version of his revolutionary straight-pull action. It was nicknamed the "Ruck-Zuck" by Landsers...

, the M1895 Lee Navy

M1895 Lee Navy

The Lee Model 1895 was a straight-pull, cam-action magazine rifle adopted in limited numbers by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps in 1895 as a first-line infantry rifle...

, the Hungarian 35M Mannlicher, and the US M1 Garand

M1 Garand

The M1 Garand , was the first semi-automatic rifle to be generally issued to the infantry of any nation. Called "the greatest battle implement ever devised" by General George S...

. Original Austrian Mannlicher clips were often uni-directional, but already the German 1888 Commission Rifle and subsequently the M 91 Carcano employed symmetrical clips, and much later John Pedersen

John Pedersen

John Douglas Pedersen was a prolific arms designer who worked for Remington Arms, and later for the United States Government. Famed gun designer John Moses Browning told Maj. Gen. Julian S. Hatcher of U.S...

 developed an invertible, double-stacked clip for his rifle

Pedersen rifle

The Pedersen Rifle, officially known in final form as the T1E3 rifle, was a United States semi-automatic rifle designed by John Pedersen that was made in small numbers for testing by the United States Army during the 1920s as part of a program to standardize and adopt a replacement for the M1903...

. This design was also utilized for the competing design

M1 Garand

The M1 Garand , was the first semi-automatic rifle to be generally issued to the infantry of any nation. Called "the greatest battle implement ever devised" by General George S...

 by John Garand

John Garand

John Cantius Garand was a designer of firearms best known for creating the first successful semi-automatic rifle to be widely used in active military service, the M1 Garand....

.

Moon and half-moon

A moon clip is a ring-shaped or stellate piece of metal

Metal

A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...

 designed to hold a full cylinder of ammunition for a revolver

Revolver

A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...

(generally six rounds) together as a unit. Therefore, instead of loading or extracting one round at a time, a full cylinder of ammunition or spent cases can be loaded or extracted at once, speeding the loading process. A similar device known as the half-moon clip is semi-circular and designed to hold a half cylinder of ammunition (generally three rounds)—in which case two clips are necessary to fully load the cylinder. Such devices have most often been used to chamber rimless semi-automatic pistol cartridges in a revolver.