Magazine (firearms) facts for kids

An external box magazine. This type of shape is sometimes called a "banana" clip.

A magazine is a place for keeping ammunition. For artillery it can be a special warehouse or a special room in a warship.

In firearms, a magazine (often incorrectly called a "clip") is a container that holds ammunition for a firearm. An external magazine is pushed into the firearm, which is called loading. An Internal magazine(common in bolt action rifles) is built into the gun and cannot be easily taken out, these are usually reloaded individually or via a stripper clip. Taking an empty magazine out of a firearm and putting in a full one is known as reloading the gun, but putting more bullets inside the magazine is known as reloading the magazine.

A top down view of a single and double stack magazine showing how the bullets are loaded into them

The most common type of magazine is a box magazine, which holds the bullets in columns. There are also other types of magazines such as drum, pan and helix that hold more bullets that a normal box magazine.

The most common type of ammo used with magazines is bullets. Most modern guns that shoot bullets use magazines for loading ammo (with the notable exception of revolvers). Some kinds of shotguns use shotgun shell speed-loader magazines for faster reloading.

Most magazines use a spring and follower inside to push the ammunition into the gun. Magazines may be made out of metal or plastic. Metal magazines are more common, but some plastic magazines can be partly see-through so that the user can see how much ammo is left inside.

Images for kids

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  A staggered-column 9×19mm Browning Hi-Power pistol box magazine. The top image shows the magazine loaded and ready for use, while the lower image shows it unloaded and disassembled

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  Loading sleeve open, three Henry Flat cartridges, compare with .44 WCF round

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  Diagram of the Spencer rifle showing the tubular magazine in the butt

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  En bloc clip and 8mm ammo for the Gewehr 88

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  (left to right) M1 Garand 8-round en bloc clip, M14 20-round magazine, M16 STANAG 20- and 30-round magazines

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  SKS internal box magazine.

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  Detachable box magazine for a SIG SG 550 with studs for stacking multiple magazines together.

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  Ruger 10/22's BX-1CLR rotary magazine

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  50- and 100-round drum magazines plus 20- and 30-round box magazines for Thompson SMG

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  Pan magazine as used on a 7.92mm Lewis Gun.

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  Calico pioneered the helical magazine design. Pictured is the company's M960 carbine.

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  Two STANAG-compliant magazines: A 20-round Colt-manufactured magazine, and a 30-round Heckler & Koch "high reliability" magazine.

See also

In Spanish: Cargador (arma) para niños