Sometimes in the little snapshots of eternity we call our lifespans, we forget that many went before us who used different terms for the same things.
Language evolves, changes, grows, shrinks.
And it's the same thing with gonne terminology.
What disturbs me about this clip v magazine "debate" is the passion involved.
Fifty years and more ago, clip was right, or at least not wrong. Bullet was right or at least not wrong. And they still appear on some manufacturers' and suppliers' websites and literature.
It's changing, viz the remarks about the decorated veterans, whose clips for their 1911s served well in holding seven bullets. When they served, clip and bullet were OK. They're not intrinsically wrong, just dated.
I used to use clip all the time. Now, more to avoid controversy than anything else, I am more scrupulous about differentiating clip from magazine and using bullet for cartridge.
And I no longer use "riffling" for the little spiral riffles that are cut into the bore of a gonne.
Free Example (Exempli Gratia, E.g.):
Riffle
Rif"fle\, n. [CF. G. riffeln, riefeln, to groove. Cf. Rifle a gun.] (Mining) A trough or sluice having cleats, grooves, or steps across the bottom for holding quicksilver and catching particles of gold when auriferous earth is washed; also, one of the cleats, grooves, or steps in such a trough. Also called ripple.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc