I ' m talking right now . <| sep |> A clip groups rounds together from the rear and is used to load a magazine . The magazine is a box that holds the rounds and uses a spring to push them up to the chamber as each round is fired . Magazines are sometimes fixed in a gun and at other times removable . A clip isn ' t part of the gun and isn ' t needed once the magazine is loaded there are rare exceptions . In fact it ' s not needed at all if you want to load rounds one at a time . This video UoSNHe 413 rY shows the difference . He starts repeating himself after about 4 minutes , so you don ' t have to watch the whole thing . He uses a clip to load rounds into a rifle with a fixed magazine at the beginning of the video and then tosses the clip aside . At 205 there is a close up of him using a clip to load a removable magazine . TLDR Here ' s a car analogy . The rounds are like gasoline . A magazine is like a car ' s gas tank . A clip would be the hose and nozzle that you use to put gas into the car at the gas station .