Quote Originally Posted by Dale53 View Post
One thing that is NOT mentioned in this long thread and NEEDS to be:

NOTE: Most of the 1917 revolvers (with the exception of some early Colt revolvers whose chambers were bored straight thru without the ledge that the ACP case mouth headspaces on) work perfectly fine using ACP cases without the moon clips. When used in that manner the ejector does not work but you can punch out the empties with a pencil or generally just use your finger tips. HOWEVER, some of the late issue S&W Model 625’s do not have the headspacing ledge that the earlier revolvers did. The newer one have the ball seats like the other caliber
Smith revolvers do. If you have one of the later Smith’s you MUST use moonclips for .45 ACP’s to properly headspace. Brian Pearce in a couple of Handloader Magazines discussed this at some length.

Some people are upset at this state of affairs and some not.

Me, I do not EVER try to use .45 ACP’s in either of my 625’s without moonclips so it has no effect on me. However, I mention this for those that may not know this. I, personally, checked my two 625’s and one has “the original cylinder throats and the other revolver has the NEW design ball seat.

FWIW
Dale 53
I have a 625 PC purchased new in 2019 that fires fine without moons.

It’s chambers are a hair more generous than my 25-2. Some full wadcutters rounds I loaded a few months ago functioned fine in the 625, but wouldn’t chamber fully in the 25-2.