moon clip ??

toad67

How do the moon clips come into play with the S&W revolvers? I'm wanting an older 625 and see that some mention moon clips and others don't. Thinking it has something to do with the 45LC vs 45ACP, but not sure. Thanks Fellas!

Todd

charliemeyer007

Rimless cases don't extract well in a revolver design. 45 ACP connect by half moon clip (3 rounds) 2 clips per cylinder made for extraction. Extra thick with rims on the 45 Auto Rim, made the use of half moon clips unnecessary. There are 2 round versions and full moon 6 round versions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.45_Auto_Rim

rufe-snow

There are 2/3? different versions of the 625. According to the, "Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson". They are denoted by the number, after the hyphen. The 625-5 & 625-7, are 45 Colts. The 625-6 & 625-10, are 45 ACP's. The 625-11 version, can be chambered for either cartridge.

ruger41

If you get a 625 in .45acp and don't want to use moon clips you can just use .45 Auto Rim (just has a thicker rim to engage the ejector rod).

Laredo Lefty

The .45 colt cartridge does not need moon clips, the .45Acp does use them.

I have a Smith 625 in .45 acp and 2 627 8 shots in .357/.38spl. Both can be used with or without moon clips. I have used my 625 plinking without clips and just used my fingers to remove the brass, not a big deal.

I use my 627 mostly for competition and use full 8 shot moon clips for that. I load .38 Short Colt for quicker loading and unloading.




I have friends who have had older Smith K-38's machined to accept moon clips so they could use them for competition. A good gunsmith can modify almost any Smith to accept moon clips. The only problem is it pretty much wrecks the collector value.

beantownshootah

quote:Originally posted by toad67
How do the moon clips come into play with the S&W revolvers? I'm wanting an older 625 and see that some mention moon clips and others don't. Thinking it has something to do with the 45LC vs 45ACP, but not sure. Thanks Fellas!

Todd


Moon clips have two purposes:

They hold a bunch of rounds together, making it fastest to reload (and unload) a revolver. IE, with the clip holding them all together, you can drop in a full cylinder worth of fresh cartridges at once. People involved in speed-type revolver competitions usually use these. Some people like them for defensive use.

Second purpose is that moon clips let you use rimless semi-automatic type cartridges in conventional revolvers designed to accept only rimmed cartridge. The moon clip, in effect, acts as the rim so the revolver ejector can eject the spent cartridges.

This is what's coming into play with your Smith 625. .45 ACP ("automatic colt pistol") is an automatic cartridge, never designed for use in revolvers. Having a cylinder cut for moon clips lets you use this auto cartridge in the revolver then easily eject it after firing. There are certain other cartridges where this applies too (eg, you can have certain revolvers cut for clips to fire 9mm luger, for example).

Can you fire .45s without a clip? Yes, in three ways:

-You can just drop the .45 into the cylinder without a clip. It should fire, but reloading is really slow, because you have to manually poke out each spent cartridge to clear it for the next one.

-You can buy "auto rim" .45s, which are basically just what they sound like: 45 ACP rounds with rimmed cases specifically designed to be run in revolvers. Unfortunately commercially loaded auto rim cartridges tend to be pretty pricey. This is a good option if you're willing to reload your own ammo.

-You can (depending on the gun in question) fire .45 Long Colt in the revolver. Note that .45LC ballistics are highly similar to .45ACP. . .in fact the 45ACP round itself was specifically designed to emulate 45LC ballistics. They aren't quite as expensive nor obscure as auto-rims, but unfortunately, 45LC rounds still typically cost more than 45ACP and you (probably) aren't going to find them on the shelf at most "big box" or sporting goods stores.