Reuse stripper clips?

[Lumber_Jack]

Anyone reuse stripper clips. I have shot up all of my XM855 and now have an ammo can and 42 stripper clips. Just wondered if anyone reuses them or is it a wash - loading mags and loading strip clips

[Garufa]

I reuse SKS stripper clips all the time.

Just the other day I loaded a PMAG with those same strippers your'e talking about and will be reusing those in the future. It's definitely faster to reload the mags from strippers and the clips are much easier to load by hand without something getting hung up.

Haven't done any serious time/motion studies on the process but the clips definitely have the advantage and time-wise may actually take less time.

Edited March 14, 2012 by Garufa

[gjohnsoniv]

I save mine. Makes loading magazines much, much easier.

[Guest Nunya]

Yep. Load the stripper clips while you watch TV at home so you can spend more time going "boom" at the range!

[Caster]

Not for .223 A Maglula is faster in the long run. Almost as fast loading the magazine, but you don't have to sit down and load the stripper clips.

I use them for ANY bolt action rifle though. They're a Godsend for mil-surp bolt actions.

[mikegideon]

I use a Strip Lula for .223. Fast with loose ammo, and blazing fast with stripper clips. I have some empty clips that I plan to reuse at some point.

[peejman]

I've used the same 5 stripper clips for my SKS for years. If you don't have a bunch of magazines, it's certainly easier to keep the stripper clips full for faster mag reloads.

[Lumber_Jack]

My thoughts were similar, although after looking at the Maglula and StipLula. They seem to be the way to go. I loaded 120 rounds onto stripper clips in about 20 mins. So for now that seems to be quicker than straight mag reloads. And if nothing else saves sore thumbs

[frankmako]

yes i re-use them. watch tv and load them up. makes mag loading easy.

[Mike.357]

I reload my SKS stripper clips.. 38 of them fit fine in a .30 cal ammo can. I have stripper clips for my .30 carbine. I reload them if I use them to reload mags. Not sure if it is faster or not. But its what I do. I do not use stripper clips for my bolt milsurps. I find it more therapeutic to just shove them in the mag one at a time.

[Oh Shoot]

Garufa and I were just talking about this yesterday.

I can see using stripper clips in fixed magwell guns like SKS, Garand, whatever.

If they're already on them, makes sense in AR/AK, too. But can't see any gain in utility reloading them for mag fed guns unless you were having to do mag reloads under fire. Then again, high stress ain't real conducive to getting that guide spoon out and into place either, would seem to me.

Seems to take me just as long to load the clips then load the mags as to just load the mags, but then I'm a mag freak and generally show up at range with all I'm gonna shoot already loaded up, so I don't need to save time just at that one venue either.

- OS

Edited March 15, 2012 by OhShoot

[gjohnsoniv]

They're great when you need to load up your mags before shooting. Personally I don't like keeping ammo in my mags for long periods of time because I'm afraid the fatigue on the springs. Not sure if that is just a random fear of mine or if you actually have to worry about it. In any case that's my reasoning.

[mikegideon]

They're great when you need to load up your mags before shooting. Personally I don't like keeping ammo in my mags for long periods of time because I'm afraid the fatigue on the springs. Not sure if that is just a random fear of mine or if you actually have to worry about it. In any case that's my reasoning.

Lose that fear. It's just plain wrong. I DO snap the dust caps on my PMAGS for long term storage, but not for the benefit of the springs. Metal fatigue requires movement.

[Caster]

Lose that fear. It's just plain wrong. I DO snap the dust caps on my PMAGS for long term storage, but not for the benefit of the springs. Metal fatigue requires movement.

Yes, it took me a while to come to grips with this but it's the God's honest truth. Everyone is always looking for a handy place to store ammo.....magazines are a great place! The Pm will develop feed lip issues if left loaded so they put those fancy dust caps on there. Wow, I'm not sure people lIke Mikegideon and myself ever made it through the day before Magpul came along.

[mikegideon]

Actually, Magpul says it takes some ridiculous amount of time to distort the feed lips on a fully loaded PMAG. I believe them. My real reason is to keep dust bunnies out of the mags. There's also a possibility that some of my mags could reach the time limit. I have a bunch of PMAGS, and some never get used. They're still loaded.

Edited March 15, 2012 by mikegideon

[gjohnsoniv]

Well now I know. I guess I have that fear because I was always told not to leave the springs compressed on rifles/shotguns/mags or whatever else.

[Garufa]

I have one Glock magazine that was fully loaded for over 15 years. Still works great.

[mikegideon]

Don't know if the same applies to some rifle springs. I never leave the bolt back on my rifles, except for my Mini 14. The gas piston will rust shut on it if it hasn't been cleaned. Gotta do a Garand stomp on it to break it loose.

[gjohnsoniv]

Haha I had a friend that had to do that with his Remington 1100. Thing wouldn't cycle and would jam itself shut and then rust.

[mikegideon]

Mine will do it over a period of a few days. Self cleaning piston, my ass.

[gjohnsoniv]

It was always funny when we shot in competitions because the first ten rounds or so would be fine, but none of the others. He would be standing there kicking the charging handle while the ref just stared.

[peejman]

Being one who used to design springs... spring design is as much art as science. There's a lot of variables. Some springs can be designed for "infinite" life, sometimes its physically not possible. It depends mainly on the geometry of the spring, how it's cycled, and what it's made of.

Simply leaving a spring compressed can damage it, but that's rare. The vast majority of spring damage occurs from over-compression. That's why you find bump stops in some magazines that only let the follower go down so far. If you remove the spring and mash it flat... you may have ruined it, though it might not appear any different. That said, leaving a magazine from any sort of modern firearm fully loaded for a very long time will not damage the spring as long as it's protected from corrosion.

Edited March 15, 2012 by peejman