223 clips

[Super Sneaky Steve]

So, my neighbor passed away and left me a bunch of stuff. Some of that stuff are some metal clips. I'm not sure what they are used for but .223 Rem cartridges fit in them perfectly.

Is there a rifle in that caliber that uses clips?

 

[trigger643]

The AR15.

 

[Panfisher]

Sounds like stripper clips which trigger643 posted the photo of. Used to speed load mags.

 

[Super Sneaky Steve]

Mystery solved. I didn't know people did that. I guess carrying clips saves space and weight over carrying mags?

 

[9x19]

I don't know what the current practice is, but when I retired, when issued an M16 we carried six spare mags, but ammo for reloading those mags came in cheap cotton bandoliers with 30 rounds in each pocket (3 clips of ten).

 

[globemaster3]

@9x19, now instead of cloth, they just hand me boxes with the 3 strippers of 10 each.

 

[kostner]

Guess you were never in the Army in combat. But this is the way we would get re supplied ammo on bandolier. But this is back in the mid 60's in the jungles of SVN. I still use them with my reloads weekly and they still work well when oiled.

 

[SVTCobra306]

Those little boxes are what comes in the bandolier now. If you buy a case of Lake City M855 (full case, 840 round can), they are packaged exactly how they came every time I opened a full crate when I was in the Army-excluding SAW cases. This was from 99 to 09. All are in bandoliers, in stripper clips, in a little cardboard box, and included a little speed loader to adapt the stripper clips to the magazine, as shown above.

Tracers sometimes came in bandoliers, but sometimes came in boxes of 20.

 

[globemaster3]

@kostner, nope, never in the Army. Went Air Force instead with tours in AFG and IRQ. My last AFG ammo issue was in a gallon ziplock baggie with mixed ball, tracer, and some funky Marine issued stuff...

To the OP, I missed your question. The purpose of the strippers is as trigger's picture represents. You can load a 30 rounder pretty quick with one of those spoons included in the ammo pack, versus jamming single rounds. I rarely saw spare mags down range for issue, but then, I never needed them.

 

[marine6680]

You carry loaded mags... You refill those mags with stripper clips.

The clips are just used to make loading empty mags quicker.

 

[SVTCobra306]

My last AFG ammo issue was in a gallon ziplock baggie with mixed ball, tracer, and some funky Marine issued stuff...

I always wondered what they did with the ammo we turned in.. sounds to me like they bagged it up and issued it to the Air Force

 

[globemaster3]

Yep, probably so! Excepting I was working for the Army on that one.

 

[FrankenMauser]

I always wondered what they did with the ammo we turned in.. sounds to me like they bagged it up and issued it to the Air Force

It seemed that way.

Whenever I was issued ammo, it was brand new, in the box, on stripper clips.

But whenever I had range time, and especially when we had "extra" ammo to 'dispose of', it was a random assortment of crap that the ammo guys usually told us came from the Army and Marines. (Beyond its service life... So lets give it to the Air Force! )

 

[rootbeer62]

Stripper clips. USAF SPS/SP ABGD. M-16 posted with 6-30 rd mags. 1966-1970.

 

[medalguy]

Normal combat issue of ammo is on stripper clips, in cardboard sleeves, and in cloth bandoleers. In order to save money, ammo used in the CONUS is now usually supplied on stripper clips and in cardboard sleeves, but they don't use the cloth bandoleers. Also a lot of training ammo is now supplied in fiberboard cartons instead of the usual metal ammo cans. There's really no point in stuffing the bandoleers just to have guys throw them away during annual qual.