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Has anyone considered the value of clip loaded combat rifles, as per an SKS or M1 Garand?

The value of clips when loading magazines is clear, to your thumb at least, but what about the value of never needing a magazine, ever?

The more ammo you have, the more valuable the clip-loaded rifle becomes.

Suppose you have a big stash of ammo, over 1000 rounds. WIth a magazine-fed rifle, how much of your ammo do you pre-load into magazines, ie, how many mags do you need? How long do you leave those magazines loaded?

With clip fed rifles, your ammo is always ready.

Is someone really going to load 1200 rounds of bulk ammo into 40 x 30 round magazines and leave it stashed indefinately? Not likely.

Is someone really going to have 1200 rounds of ammo in pre-loaded clips for their SKS or Garand? Sure, and why the hell not? It's not like clips are prohibitively expensive, and it's especially convenient if the ammo is pre-loaded into clips.

BTW, a "mini Garand" with clip-fed, top-loaded internal magazine that fires .223, perhaps from 10 or 12 round clips, would be the ultimate Guerrilla warfare combat rifle.

Edit: I never even mentioned the issue of bad magazines, which are very common. If you have dozens of magazines loaded up, have you tested them before hand? What do you do with magazines that "sorta" jam? Seriously, anyone dissing my argument on the grounds that magazines are automatically superior is a knucklehead at best.

Has anyone considered the value of clip loaded combat rifles, as per an SKS or M1 Garand? The value of clips when loading magazines is clear, to your thumb at least, but what about the value of never needing a magazine, ever? The more ammo you have, the more valuable the clip-loaded rifle becomes. Suppose you have a big stash of ammo, over 1000 rounds. WIth a magazine-fed rifle, how much of your ammo do you pre-load into magazines, ie, how many mags do you need? How long do you leave those magazines loaded? With clip fed rifles, your ammo is always ready. Is someone really going to load 1200 rounds of bulk ammo into 40 x 30 round magazines and leave it stashed indefinately? Not likely. Is someone really going to have 1200 rounds of ammo in pre-loaded clips for their SKS or Garand? Sure, and why the hell not? It's not like clips are prohibitively expensive, and it's especially convenient if the ammo is pre-loaded into clips. BTW, a "mini Garand" with clip-fed, top-loaded internal magazine that fires .223, perhaps from 10 or 12 round clips, would be the ultimate Guerrilla warfare combat rifle. Edit: I never even mentioned the issue of bad magazines, which are very common. If you have dozens of magazines loaded up, have you tested them before hand? What do you do with magazines that "sorta" jam? Seriously, anyone dissing my argument on the grounds that magazines are automatically superior is a knucklehead at best.

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[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

You can get 24 AR-15 magazines for less than $300. My Del-Ton AR was $400 on sale. You don't need to have your entire ammo supply in clips or mags, there's no point.

[–] • 0 pt

You can get a whole M4 clone for less than $500 afaik, but I haven't checked recent prices. You're saying the empty magazines cost nearly as much as the rifle itself? You're also not suggesting testing the magazines beforehand, which isn't cheap either. Fully loaded & pre-tested, the ammo storage winds up costing more than the rifle in some cases. Surely there's a better way, and there is, but it's not "cool" in the gun community. It's not something promoted by known "experts", so I can expect the sort of response I get. Like I said in one of my comments, if Rambo had used a clip-fed, 50-round machine gun, there would be no debate unless I switched my argument and advocated for box magazines instead.

[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

Clips are cool. Cooler than box mags, in my opinion. Revolvers are cool, too. Revolvers even have advantages over semi-auto pistols. But those advantages aren't enough to justify using a revolver instead of a semi-auto, just like the advantages of clips aren't enough to justify using them.

[–] • 0 pt (edited )

I agree clip-based rifles aren't normally viable options, but only because the Garand & SKS are the only two options. Neither rifle is awful, and in the right (non mobile) scenario they could be ideal.

However, it's possible to design and build a modern clip-based rifle with en-bloc clips, and there's no reason it couldn't hold more than 8 rounds, especially with .223 ammo. An en-bloc clip-based platform with a 20 shot capacity would easily be a viable option vs. storing 10+ loaded 30-round box magazines.

Box magazines are expensive and heavy compared to clips. Metal magazines can corrode over time. In a scarcity scenario, box magazines become extremely valuable, while box-magazine fed rifles are nigh useless without the right magazines.

Even 12-16 shots would be enough for me. The Garand was originally designed to hold 10 rounds of 7mm, but the US Army wanted .30-06. A .223 version of Garand's clip could hold maybe12 rounds and still be smaller. A bigger clip with more rounds could easily be designed, especially for .223, but .30 caliber too.

Clip fed rifle can potentially be reloaded very quickly. Besides a .223 version, some "modern" improvements on the old Garand platform could be an easy means of topping off the internal magazine with loose rounds (like on a lever action or shotgun), an easier "thumb free" way to load & charge the damn thing, loading without a clip, and possibly a way to select if the clip is ejected after the last round, or otherwise removed manually.