Spent clips and magazines. Pick them up, or drop and go?

[4md]

i agree with steve theres a difference between stripper clips and a magazine....... for example the lee enfield rifle, although the magazine can be removed it was only meant to be removed when cleaning. The rifle was loaded with stripper clips which i doubt were ever picked up religiously

[Danger]

Hey.
As far as I know, when you ran dry all you had to do was slide back the bolt and feed new rounds in the top.
Thus leaving the mag on and using clips of x5 rounds.
Just put the clip into the feeder and force the rounds down with your thumb.
I do this with my 1940 303.
I think M1's can do it too?
As for Machine guns, It would've been wise to keep hold of you mags and fix bayonet when you ran out and run like hell for more ammo.
Will ask Dad and Grandad what they did.

[Datrus]

I think we should put this question into a WW2 battle scenario, as asked. I think there is no absolute answer to this question though. For a soldier it is always a question to adjust and adapt. If one is a German soldier on the Eastern front, far from supply lines(no fresh mags), he might think twice of dropping his mag for his MP40 or STG. He might also choose to use captured enemy weapons, if the possibilities for resupplying ammo is good and stable. It was not uncommon practice. In general i think they held on to their mags as long as possible in both variants, but if you run from cover to cover under heavy fire, you just have to drop a mag now and then.

[GIZMO8Z]

I know it's kind of stupid, but the whole reason I asked this question was because of my paintball days...

I played tournament paintball, and we would often reload our "markers" and just toss the reload pods on the ground and continue on. The whole reason we did this was because it would be better to toss the tubes and find them later instead of fumbling with them putting them back into our packs and risk getting "eliminated" while we couldn't defend ourselves. Of course we weren't dodging real bullets, and could always go back after the game to pick up our empty tubes... Hence, I always wondered what real soldiers under life and death conditions did...