Machining Cylinder for Moon Clips

[ColColt]

Has anyone ever had a cylinder cut to accept full moon clips? I was considering this for my SP-101 from TKCustoms. It appears to be a much faster way of reloading over other methods.

http://www.moonclips.com/content/machine.asp

[Kraschenbirn]

At one time, I had a S&W M66 with one of Tom's moon clip conversions and it worked just fine. Also know an upper tier IDPA shooter who uses one for competition and one of my regular shooting partners has a "moon-clipped" Smith M340 he packs when he's on the road.

I've known Tom K. for close to twenty-five years and, during that time, he's done a half-dozen custom revolvers for me without a single gripe.

Bill

[Love Life]

I have and it is fast, but I prefer speed loaders.

Moon clips can be a bit fragile, but then again I could have quit being a cheap-o and bought moon clip holders instead of sticking them in my pockets.

[Lloyd Smale]

i had a 454 ruger alaskan moon clipped it would shoot 454s or 45 colts with or without clips and shoot 45acps with smith model 25 clips.

[imashooter2]

I have had a 686 7 shot cut for use in ICORE and on Steel. The conversion is reasonably inexpensive and you only need to send the cylinder to get cut so shipping isn't outrageous.

.38 / .357 moons are brass sensitive. The Hearthco 6 shot moons like Remington or Federal brass. Winchester will likely be too tight to insert in the clips.

Moons are really not any faster loading than using Comp IIIs or Jet loaders. What they do provide is positive extraction. You will never get a single case hung up or a rim under the extractor using moons.

The downside is, as stated above, moon clips are fragile as compared to speed loaders. They can be easily bent during the rigors of daily carry. If only subtly bent, they will still insert and allow the cylinder to close, but the cartridges will drag on the recoil shield and tie up the gun.

I love my moon clipped revolvers for games, but speed loaders only for serious use. Nothing wrong with having the initial load moon clipped to take advantage of the positive extraction though...

[Love Life]

Moon clips do provide for positive extraction. They are good for competition or just BSing at the range, but like ImaShooter I use speed loaders for business.

A great place to get moon clips is a company called Ranch Products. I think it was $30.00 for 100 steel moonclips for my 625-8 back in 2007. I believe the company makes the 7 and 8 shot moonclips for the 357 magnums now.

[Naphtali]

Has anyone ever had a cylinder cut to accept full moon clips? I was considering this for my SP-101 from TKCustoms. It appears to be a much faster way of reloading over other methods.

http://www.moonclips.com/content/machine.aspSomething to consider in addition to mechanical questions: What happens to any factory warranty and factory willingness to service a revolver that has been altered to accept moon clips?

I strongly considered having one of my SRH 480s altered to accept moon clips. I decided upon 5 Star's speed loader instead. Although it might be slower to complete its reload, my ability to have Ruger service the SRH, were servicing needed, more than offset the possible reload speed difference.

Hope this helps.

[35remington]

With any modification to a revolver of this sort, downsides occur.

A moonclipped revolver loses some of the reliability inherent to that type of arm.

Should the moon clip be somewhat slack in the cylinder, with some of the rounds less than seated fully, the firing pin must drag the adjacent rounds forward before the firing pin can deliver its full blow. Misfires result.

This happens on occasion, most especially if the revolver is held muzzle up even slightly before the gun is fired. Bent clips will of course misfire.

I would give serious thought to this before I modified anything. In my own moon clip using revolvers, which are ACP/Auto Rims, when the round simply must go off reliabiy, which is most of the time, Auto Rim cases are used.

Not moonclips. Moon clipped revolvers also suffer disproportionately when they are allowed to get dirty, or if the clips have bullet lube and crud on them.

Adding a headspace "loosening", easily bendable piece of metal to the firing cycle of a revolver does have its drawbacks.

[Lee W]

I had my Dan Wesson 45LC cut for moonclips many years ago. It did null the warranty, but that is a choice I could live with.
As far as the head space, it will be the same since the far outside of the cylinder is not machined. You can still use it without moonclips if you wish.

[dragonrider]

Yes I had a GP-100 machined for moon clips. Turned out to be a big mistake, from then on it would not fire reloaded ammo, 2-3 FTF's in every cylinder full. Factory rounds yes, but not reloads. I was able to find another cylinder and once again it is a great shooter.

[williamwaco]

Many years ago I had Smith and Wesson .45ACP revolver.

I don't remember the model number. It was designed for use with moon clips.
It was very accurate and shot beautifully. BUT:

I have very unhappy memories of fooling with those clips. It was a nightmare.

No way would I ever buy a revolver that used them, let alone convert a perfectly good revolver to use them.

[imashooter2]

A proper machine job on .38 /.357 revolvers still has the cartridges headspacing on the rim, not the moon and the gun can be single loaded without any reliability problems whatsoever.

[dragonrider]

Key phrase "A proper machine job ", exactly correct. I am not sure that I still have that cylinder, I may have sold it, haven't seen it in years. I'll poke around for it and get a picture up if I find it.

[bobthenailer]

I have 2- S&W 627 s that can be fired with or without the use of full moon clips as stated by the factory manual and in pratice not so for my 625 with 45 acp being used but you can use 45 auto rim without the moon clips.

[Multigunner]

I've used old Mauser stripper clips to carry spare revolver ammo.
The .45 ACP should fit these without modification but for .38 Special and .32 S&W Long I first remove the sring and grind down the protrusions on either side then squeeze rgw clip in a vice too narrow the track.
These clips will hold 5 .38 or six .32.

Its easy to chamber a round then pull the clip back to let it go all the way, and with six rounds in the .32 clip I can load two chambers at a time.
Much more compact than the more common speed loaders. Three or four of these loaded clip fit neatly in a shirt or jacket pocket.

[ColColt]

You guys are just about to talk me out of this. I thought they were the next best thing to sliced bread when I saw Jerry Miculik in these videos. You know he must put them through more stress than we ever would. I don't know...just seemed like a good thing to do to aid in extraction and quickness of reloads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLk1v5bSFPw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsLx5ISBXw4

[imashooter2]

Jerry is the best in the world and has been for a long time. He's lightning with a speed loader too.

I shot the ICORE International Postal Match 2 weekends ago with Dave Olhaso another grand master. Dave chamber checks his moons before every stage. I buy them by the hundred , load a whole match and check them all before I leave home. Drop a half empty moon running between ports and they bend on a pretty regular basis. That's with .38s mind you, .45s are much stouter.

[Love Life]

I wasn't trying to sell you against a getting the cylinder machined for moonclips, but here are my personal thoughts. The 45 ACP has stout moonclips. The 357/38 special moonclips can be a little flimsy depending who you get them from and the number of rounds they hold. Also they can be finicky towards brass headstamp.

I always found moonclips as something for the range or a competition. Get them all loaded up the day prior, and then go blast away because demooning and remooning is not a fast proposition. Speed loaders are much faster to recharge to continue doing reloads and keep shooting. Speed loaders are also alot more rugged.

I wouldn't not buy a gun because it was machined for moonclips, but I wouldn't send off a cylinder to have it done. That is just my personal preference. YMMV.

[ColColt]

According to TK Customs website, the SS clips for the 357 are .025" thick and he recommends Starline brass for them. No big problem there as that's what I use 90% of the time. He indicates Winchester brass will not work at all since the rim width is too tight and small.

I don't know-I think I'd have to hear more positives than this to justify doing it. Of course, You can always still use speed loaders if you desire.

[sargenv]

TK Custom does the work as does cylinder and slide and apex tactical.. any of these shops are well known in the revolver competition circuit.. I personally own 6 moon clip guns.. 2 of which are moon clip or not (a pair of 627-5's). 610's are cut for moons out of the box, and the 627-4 in 38 super may as well use full moons since they are only semi-rimmed... Federal Nickel is all I use for the 627-5's and the moons I use work fine with them (TK custom or Hearthco's). For the 610, I use the all polymer RIMZ moons, but that comes from trying to fire bent steel clips quickly.. it doesn't work.. People say that comp III's are as fast as moons.. for the top shooters this is true, for the rest of us, moons tend to be faster and are not as prone to a screwup under pressure.. (I've seen people screw up a reload with comp-III's and have ammo everywhere except for into the cylinder.. not going to happen with a full moon).

[jrayborn]

I cut three of my revolvers to accept the full moon clips that TK Custom sells. Its very easy to do and i can shoot with or without the clips.

The best thing I have found about using the clips is that it is so much easier to eject the empty shells from the cylinder. They pop right out. The tough part is its really not easy to carry a spare loaded clip in a way that will insure it does not get bent. I'm still carrying strips or speed loaders for that.

Jon