Help me out with weapon terminology please

[Aristus]

21. To add to the confusion, when we trained with the M-16 in the Army,

we used what are called stripper clips to load the magazines which we then inserted into the rifle.

A stripper clip holds a set number of rounds in a manner that brings button candy to mind. One places a slotted piece of metal onto the top of the magazine, slips a stripper clip of ammunition on it, then uses his thumb to push all of the rounds into the magazine in very short time, instead of click-clacking each round into the magazine individually. One can quickly load a large number of magazines this way.

This was because we trained, not only for a high degree of marksmanship, but also to see how fast we could remove an empty magazine, replace it with a full one, then resume firing at the pop-up targets.

So clips and magazines are different from one another, but serve a similar purpose: the rapid re-loading of a rifle.

Full disclosure: I left the use of military weaponry behind when I got out of the military. The only reason to own a rifle like this is in order to kill large numbers of people very rapidly.