Stripper Karabiner 98k rifle with a five-round stripper clip. A stripper clip (
American English) or charger clip (
Commonwealth English) is a speedloader that holds several pistol or rifle cartridges as a unit for easier loading into a firearm's
internal box magazine. After the bolt is opened and the stripper clip is placed in position (generally in a slot on the receiver or bolt), the cartridges are pressed down, removing or "stripping" them off the clip and into the magazine. The clip is then either removed and tossed away, or the bolt is thrown forward, expelling the clip automatically. However, some weapons, such as the
Mosin–Nagant, require the operator to manually remove the empty clip. Some weapons designed for stripper clip use include the
Mannlicher M1894,
Mauser C96,
Roth–Steyr M1907,
Lee-Enfield,
Mosin–Nagant,
Gewehr 98,
M1903 Springfield,
SKS,
Vz. 58 and
T48 rifle. Detachable magazines may also be loaded with stripper clips provided they have a special guide attached, as in the
M14 rifle or
M16 rifle.
En bloc is inserted into a
Steyr M95 carbine. Several
rifle designs utilize an
en bloc clip for loading. With this design, both the cartridges and 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
Ferdinand Mannlicher for use in his Model 1885,
Model 1886, and
1888 rifles. Other rifles utilizing
en bloc clips include the German
Gewehr 88 (since 1905 replaced by
stripper clips), the Mexican
Mondragón, the French
Berthier Mle 1890 and
RSC Mle 1917, the Italian
M1870/87 Vetterli-Vitali, and
M1891 Carcano, the various (Romanian, Dutch, and Portuguese) turn-bolt Mannlichers, the Austro-Hungarian straight-pull
Steyr-Mannlicher M1895, the Hungarian
FÉG 35M, and the American
M1895 Lee Navy,
M1 Garand, and
Pedersen T1E3. Original Austrian Mannlicher clips were often uni-directional, but already the Gewehr 88 and subsequently the M1891 Carcano used symmetrical clips.
John Pedersen at first developed a irreversible clip for his rifle, later he redesigned the clip to be reversible. This design was also utilized for the competing
designs by
John Garand.
Moon and half-moon revolvers. The
.45 Auto Rim cartridge may be used in a revolver's cylinder without the clips. A moon clip is a ring-shaped or stellate piece of metal designed to hold a full cylinder of ammunition for a
revolver (commonly 6 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 a "half-moon clip" is semi-circular and designed to hold a half cylinder of ammunition (commonly 3 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 into a revolver, but they can also be used with rimmed cartridges to allow for the faster loading and/or unloading of a revolver. ==See also==