I remember seeing I believe it was like bolt action and whatnot rifles where the bullets were in that piece of metal that held them together. Then the guy would open his rifle and just push them in. Did he put the whole metal piece in with it? If so how did it fire? I don’t think he did but then again I am not sure myself hence this question. I know in the midst of battle it must be pretty intense if they didn’t put the metal in did they have to line it up so it went in right or was that just so they had the right amount of ammo in a grab and didn’t have to count out or grab a handful of rounds?
In my limited knowledge - the rounds were on a clip that was loaded into the rifle. When the rifle was cocked, the top round was taken from the clip into the breech. When the clip had been fired, the metal strip was ejected.
I think that’s right - I’m sure someone will put me back in my box if I’m wrong.
Interesting, thanks 8) never knew that before.
You are talking about a charger (in US American English stripper clip).
There were different designs.
With those of the Lee Enfield or Mauser based designs (also the Mosin-Nagant), the cartridges were pushed into the magazine with the thumb, and the charger then discarded.
The Mannlicher rifles (like the Mannlicher-Caracano used by the Italians) used a charger, which would stay inside the magazine until the last round was fired and then drop out through a hole in the magazine floor.
The Garand M1 Rifle used 8 round block chargers, which would go completely into the magazine. When the last round was fired, the empty charger would be ejected with a typical sound, very bad since the Fritz or Tomoyuki would then know that the Yank just ran out of ammo.
Jan[/img]
I could never understand why the Garand had that odd internal charger (which used a relatively large amount of metal) arrangement when the Lee-Enfield had been using a detachable box magazine and cheap stripper-clips for years.
The biggest problem with the Garand magazine is that you cannot top up a half emptied magazine during a break in fighting. You have to empty the clip first, before you can insert a full new one. This might cost you your life in a combat situation, together with the distinctive “clink” of the empty clip being ejected, telling every enemy around that your rifle was out of ammo.
This was one item rectified with the introduction of the M14, which had a 20 round detachable box magazine.
Jan
Edit for typo
But I remember reading that the US soldiers replicated the ping sound I think by throwing empty holdings on the ground; following the the enemy would get up to pick them off then they’d shoot em’.
The Karabiner 98k doesn’t keep the clip in the magazine, it is taken out of the rifle. But I do know that with the 1888 Commission Rifle, the clip was held inside the magazine, and then when the last round was fired, it was dropped. I don’t know if the Germans liked this or not because they didn’t carry it over to the Gewehr 1898.
Nice post and correct once again Walther, the only part I’ve never quite understood the idea that the noise of the ejected clip gave away the state of the firer’s weapon.
Contacts, by their very nature, tend to be quite noisy affairs and the lack of hearing protection does mean that one’s ears tend to ring for some time after ‘last round downrange.’
Having fired Garands on very many occassions the noise is slightly noticeable on the ranges, but it’s the actual ejection from the weapon rather than the clip hitting the ground, although that would of course increase if it landed on a rocky or metal surface.
I’ve spoken to a number of American and British combat veterans who had used M1s in WWII and/or Korea, and on being posed the question of the clip they’ve all said that it was immaterial.
Perhaps it’s a myth that started on a range or somewhere in Hollywood and has grown with the telling, or perhaps these vets were all part of a secret conspiracy to play tricks on those that weren’t with them ! 
The 1888 uses a Mannlicher type magazine, and the clip system you mention is common to all of these.
The Mauser system of the G98 is a very strong one and still the basis of most accurate rifles over one hundred years later.
TERMINOLOGY NOTE:
If the cartridges are pushed out of the little metal thing into the magazine & the little metal thing stays outside, it’s called a “Charger”, “Charger clip”, or “STRIPPER CLIP”. E.g. Mauser, Enfield, Mosin-Nagant etc.
If the cartridges AND the little metal thing are pushed in one lump into the magazine, it’s called simply a “clip”, “en-bloc clip”, or “Mannlicher-type clip”. E.g. Mannlicher, Garand.
NEVER call a “charger” just a “clip”, and NEVER EVER call an “en-bloc clip” a “charger”. In fact, the worst thing in the world ever is calling a normal magazine a “clip” - this is sloppy terminology which came about due to the Garand using an en-bloc clip & then when the m14 came out, soldiers kept on calling the thing that holds the ammo & goes in the gun a “clip”.
See the ARRSEPEDIA:
http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Charger_loading
http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Clip_loading
Oh, and the apocryphal thing about the PING giving people away - if only 1 guy goes “ping”, there’s loads of other guys around him who haven’t.
Invention of hollywood, methinks.
Stoatman,
Thanks ffor the clarification!
Jan
No probs, Walther.
I’m reading Smith & Smith’s Small Arms Of The World at the moment and they actually use the term “clip feed” as a generic term to refer to almost anything that’s not a belt or a drum (including Hotchkiss strips). It does always clarify it though in each particular case.