How dilligent are you when loading your gun?

Well here is the skinny on what could have been a really bad day at the range.
I am in a shooting league at my local range.
We shoot 10 rounds at 10 targets for a total of 100 rounds.
So I normally by my Win white box at wall mart.
But they have been out the last two weeks. So I by my box at the range today.
Start shooting an not all that bad.
Start loading my 3rd clip.
That is when the round I picked up did not look right nor feel right. Yep was not a 9mm round that was for sure. Am not sure what it was. was a tad longer then a 9mm, the case was necked down a bit as well for the bullet.
So any ways take it in to the store an show it to the guys.
Turn out they had had a few diff calibers spill together an then had to sort them all out.
:what:
Really nice guys an all but if I had not paid attention to loading because I was counting out 10 rounds I might have not caught it. :banghead:
An if that had happened An I had fired it I am sure my gun would have gone boom in a bad way.
So the question
Have any of you ever had a simmilar instance.
You are loading your clip mad or cylinder an caught at the last minute a round that was close to what you were shooting but not.

I suspect that you were loading magazines and not clips. If that's the case then I'd be willing to bet that if the 'stray' round's OAL was longer than a 9mm round then it would not have even fit in the magazine.

It was probably a .357 Sig; I doubt they'd be stocking 7.62x25.

I'm only buying .22LR and sealed cans of milsurp ammo these days, so I don't have that problem...

my gun is a SW9Ve Sigma
Shoots great.
Magazine ..............Clip all the same to me.
all hold amo an all funnel it in to the gun in the right place

Have any of you ever had a similar instance.
You are loading your clip mad or cylinder an caught at the last minute a round that was close to what you were shooting but not.

I haven't discovered the wrong round out of a box or bag of ammo, but I have had several rounds that I wasn't comfortable shooting. They had significant dents or gouges or some other defect that caused me to decide, "I'm not risking putting that through my gun" and I handed it over to the range officer.

I always pay attention to the rounds as I load them. If I see or feel anything that is out of the ordinary, I don't take any chances. Not firing one suspicious round from time to time is far cheaper AND safer than the alternative.

Magazine ..............Clip all the same to me.
all hold amo an all funnel it in to the gun in the right place

Even though organizations like the NRA have deemed them interchangeable, someone will always chime in to tell you you are wrong. ;)

Kind of like the safety instructor that constantly corrects you when you call it a gun. "It is not a gun, it is a firearm". Annoying...

When one says clip, very few assume a machine gun-style clip. Everyone knows what he means. :rolleyes:

-Polish

My family owns 2 calibers of autoloading pistols: .22LR and .45ACP. Not much risk of mixing those up. We own a pair of .22's and a pair of .45's. The revolvers are .38 and .357, and being a rimmed round there's no real risk there, either. If it's short and fat, it's a .45 round. If it's thin and long, it's .22LR.

I learned the hard way to quickly inspect a cartridge before loading. It had a crumpled case which I did not notice, and it not only failed to chamber, but was wedged in tight. The advice often given to hit the back of the slide only made it worse.

Folks, proper terminology is important.

An "Assault rifle" isn't a "sporting rifle", but folks call their AR15s the former all the time.

Please think before you give the antis more ammo.

Sounds like a .357 Sig, was the case larger than a 9mm at the base end of it, with the bullet the same diameter and looking just like a 9mm bullet? If so it was definitely a.357, and it wouldn't have fully chambered in your pistol. The bullet and neck would have gone into the chamber, and the body of the case would have gotten stuck.

When one says clip, very few assume a machine gun-style clip. Everyone knows what he means.
"Chiming in" here:
When one says "ain't" when he means "isn't", everyone knows what he means but that doesn't make it proper. As nalioth pointed out, "proper terminology is important".

More to the point, loading the wrong round in the magazine can mean trouble. At best a jam, at worst a 9mm in a .40 barrel resulting in a blown barrel.

In one case where a BG fired at a cop, the BGs gun jammed. The police found he had put a round in the magazine backwards. So maybe some good can come of such an error.

Jim

I think NV GI is probably right about the round being a .357 SIG- it's about the only cartridge I know that is a "tad longer than a 9mm" with the case being "necked down a bit".

Always make the clip in your gat has the caps in it. Lol

How sad that we have those who have nothing better to do than "snipe" at others over a very minor terminology "issue".

We are, afterall, on the same side, as firearms and the associated Right to them are our interest. With all those whom seek to destroy us and the firearms that we so value, it would be nice to see the "High Road" taken in regard to this petty issue and have our number save the "attacks" for those whom are so against us.

I am an optimist. Hoping the thought "takes".

:)

How sad that we have those who have nothing better to do than "snipe" at others over a very minor terminology "issue".



Personaly i would not be offended if someone corrected me for improperly using firearm terminology, dont look at it as sniping, but a chance to enlighten someone, i know my m1 Garand uses clips, and my colt 1911 45 uses magazines, two totaly different things that do the same job.

I suspect that you were loading magazines and not clips.

I usually GET loaded then read magazines, and maybe restock my CLIPS

I'm guilty of loading 9mm in a .40. The first one fired, but didn't chamber another. Popped the mag, and saw that round nose 9mm vs the flat .40. No harm, no foul. I wasn't used to having XDs at the range in both calibers. Now I make sure.

I was just thinking about the M-1 clip. Shouldn't it have been called a magazine? It gets inserted all the way into the weapon, and when it is empty it is ejected. A Springfield 1903 clip, now there is a clip. You stick its tang in the slot, shove the cartridges down into the magazine (yup), toss the clip and chamber a round.

All this time we've been wrong . . .

Cordially, Jack

I was just thinking about the M-1 clip. Shouldn't it have been called a magazine? It gets inserted all the way into the weapon, and when it is empty it is ejected. A Springfield 1903 clip, now there is a clip. You stick its tang in the slot, shove the cartridges down into the magazine (yup), toss the clip and chamber a round.
The M1's magazine is internal. The enbloc clip has no spring, so it is not a magazine. It is retained within the gun, but the clip and mag are 2 separate parts.

lol, i'm like *** is he shooting that he's loading 9mm onto a clip?

you meant a magazine.

I crammed some .38 super into my Tokarev clip. It didn't feel right and I realized I'd grabbed the wrong clip.

An "Assault rifle" isn't a "sporting rifle", but folks call their AR15s the former all the time.

Sure about that? In my experience, people who own ARs call them "sporting rifles". It's everyone else (ANTIs and the MEDIA) that calls them "assault rifles".

An "Assault rifle" isn't a "sporting rifle", but folks call their AR15s the former all the time.
Sure about that? In my experience, people who own ARs call them "sporting rifles". It's everyone else (ANTIs and the MEDIA) that calls them "assault rifles". I sure am.

It's happened on this forum more than once.

Personaly i would not be offended if someone corrected me for improperly using firearm terminology, dont look at it as sniping, but a chance to enlighten someone, i know my m1 Garand uses clips, and my colt 1911 45 uses magazines, two totaly different things that do the same job.

colt Colt
Personaly Personally
totaly totally
i I
m1 M1
45 .45
, .


thehighroad.org - A website for learning more about English and firearms.

thehighroad.org - A website for learning more about English and firearms.

...and both pursuits are worthwhile.

Les

I posted this before at the range a shooter had a contender in 44mag .put a 38.special in by accident .went to load a 44mag.in it stopped .he stopped and looked :eek: could have been a disaster .this happens when you share the same lane.

Folks, proper terminology is important.


Clip and magazine are not feeding the antis anything.

Clip and magazine are not feeding the antis anything.

Finally, a common sense response.

+1

Kind of like the safety instructor that constantly corrects you when you call it a gun. "It is not a gun, it is a firearm". Annoying...


It's not a firearm, it's a WEAPON!
<<<just kidding>>>

Quote:
Originally Posted by ljnowell:
Clip and magazine are not feeding the antis anything.

Finally, a common sense response.

+1


No kidding. Some people here are like Nazis when it comes to what you say EXACTLY. As long as you are careful how you use "assauly rifle" around people, it doesn't really matter. It's just an easy term for describing what style firearm you have. When you say "sporting rifle", it leaves a lot of questions.

Now that is an ORIGINAL name for it!:)

back on track-

very dilligent. I shot 45 acp, a friend of mine has a GAP, and another has a 10mm.

If we're out at the same time I keep very close watch on what's going in the gun, even if I KNOW my box of ammo hasn't been out of my possession.

Also comes into play during reloading- in case I accidentally got one of their pieces of brass.

If you had been in the Army in 1957 you would know the difference between a Rifle, a Gun ,and a Firearm.
You would have been sent runing around the parade ground holding your private part with one hand and your rifle with the other shouting "this is my rifle, this is my gun, one is for shooting and one is for fun". A gun is 55mm or over.
Damn I miss the good old days.
Frank

You are either paying attention or not. Most reloaders of any experience are good at paying attention.

Some people just don't pay attention well, they don't listen well, etc. They "can't see the forest for the trees" because they don't "see" what they are looking at. Those are the folks that put 9MM or .357 Sig in .40 mags. They are "looking" at it, but they don't "see" it.

runing around the parade ground holding your private part with one hand ................."this is my rifle, this is my gun, one is for shooting and one is for fun"..................Damn I miss the good old days.

Do a lot of running around with your "fun gun" did ya? :evil: :D :)

Welcome to THR, where we like to have fun.

BTW I could find all sorts of misused words and grammatically incorrect phrases in the posts of nearly everyone on this board. The "pet peeve" nature of the magazine / clip controversy seems pretty hollow coming from a board where all sorts of innaccuracies are accepted. I don't want to single anyone out so I won't prove my point. I will just say that I was a journalism major in college and that I know how language works. I think everyone here recognizes that this is hardly the place where perfect English is demanded or even expected. So why the pet peeve over this one term?
I thought one was supposed to use a comma before a conjunction. Of course, I wasn't a journalism major, so I may be totally wrong. ;)

noun 1. a metal frame or container holding cartridges; can be inserted into an automatic gun

You'll notice there is no differentiation between a clip and a magazine. A "container" implies more than a strip of metal that doesn't surround the cartridges.
Main Entry: assault rifle
Function:
noun
Date:
1972

: any of various automatic or semiautomatic rifles with large capacity magazines designed for military use
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assault%20rifle)
assault rifle
 
–noun
1. a military rifle capable of both automatic and semiautomatic fire, utilizing an intermediate-power cartridge.
2. a nonmilitary weapon modeled on the military assault rifle, usu. modified to allow only semiautomatic fire. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/assault%20rifle)

As can be seen from the examples above, civilian dictionaries are hardly the authorities on weapon nomenclature.

WOW Um did not mean to spark such a argument. :banghead::cuss:
My original question still stands an I would like to get back on topic.
I will be back at the range later this week an I will ask them exactly what the round was.
later:neener:

The only reason I picked up on this

Was the entire lack of the word "Carbine."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbine

http://www.colt.com/mil/M4.asp

Which then kinda led me to the word magazine...........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magazine_(firearms)

Other than what shows up in your mailbox

On a monthly basis...........



So, as my mother is fond of saying,

"You pays your money and you takes your choice."

This applies equally to whiskey, women, firearms, and

Of course,

Lingo.


isher

Then there are those of us, used clips to load our magazines.

A drop dead gorgeous Florida State Trooper I used to know, while I was working with the Sheriff's Dept back in my home town in Florida, did that with her Beretta 96, firing 9mm in her 40 chamber. I told her to get it checked out by their Armorer. I doubt she did.

At least she was practicing with her service pistol. She wasn't a very good shot, and did not take to me helping her very well. She was more self conscious and embarrassed about it than wanting to get better. The girl just wouldn't listen.

Go figure.

Fred

My question would be, why would a range have the boxes of factory open? Also, why would more than one caliber be opened at once for the ammo to fall and mix?

IMO, it sounds like the range is buying bulk ammo and repackaging it as factory ammo or even worse, reloading their own and passing it off as factory ammo.

IMO this is a very bad thing and should be checked into. (especially since they could have hurt you badly)

I like to line up the ammo that I'm going to load into a magazine to see if they're the same height. Then as I load each one, I inspect it again to see if there is anything strange about it. I've also standardized on just a few calibers that are very different so that also makes mixed caliber problems like the OP told about almost non-existent.

So not to stray from the original question... i have never had an issue with the wrong caliber cartridge, however, with cheap target ammo i have on occasion caught a "bad" round before i loaded it. I have seen a bullet that was barely held in by the casing, and I've seen warped casings and a round that was even missing a primer! Granted these are rare but notable occurrences. Never had an issue with my "carry" ammo.

Crushpup said: The M1's magazine is internal. The enbloc clip has no spring, so it is not a magazine. It is retained within the gun, but the clip and mag are 2 separate parts.

Excellent! That is the first definitive explanation of the difference between a magazine and a clip that I have ever seen.

Cordially, Jack

So why the pet peeves over this one term?

After several paragraphs of defending the right to misuse words and argue context to excuse poor grammar, it would seem you have found a pretext for airing out your own "pet peeve".