M25 S&W 45 ACP..... moon or none?

[Lavan]

I....just....tried no moons at all. Shot just fine.

Kinda surprised me. Now whadda I do with all the RIMZ clips?

NO, I will not sell them!

Did need a poker-outer.

[gwpercle]

Originally Posted by Lavan

I....just....tried no moons at all. Shot just fine.

Kinda surprised me. Now whadda I do with all the RIMZ clips?

NO, I will not sell them!

Did need a poker-outer.

Shooting the 1917 S&W without moon clips works ... when in high school my best buddy's father had a case of 45 acp ammo a 1917 S&W that he let us shoot we had no moon clips , carried a pencil to poke em out with ... no finger nails to speak of either ...
But ... a Colt 1917 was bored straight through ... if you didn't have 1/2 moon clips you didn't shoot the Colt ... why Colt did this I don't know ... But I always liked the S&W way / design better !
Gary

[Webleymkv]

Originally posted by gwpercle
But ... a Colt 1917 was bored straight through ... if you didn't have 1/2 moon clips you didn't shoot the Colt ... why Colt did this I don't know

Colt actually had a history of boring their chambers straight through. I have read that it is actually possible to chamber .38 Special and even .357 Magnum in a Colt New Army or New Navy revolver chambered in .38 Long Colt though obviously firing the higher pressure cartridges in such a gun would be very unsafe.

Many of Colt's older revolvers had bored-through cylinders because they were originally chambered for cartridges which used heel-based bullets like .38 Short Colt or .41 Long Colt. When it became clear that cartridges with inside lubricated bullets like .44 Russian were superior, Colt elected to keep the case diameters and bore diameters the same but decrease the bullet diameter and use an inside-lubricated, hollow-base bullet in the hopes that the hollow base would obturate enough when fired to deliver acceptable accuracy (it often didn't which is why the practice was eventually abandoned). Because of this, Colt continued to bore the chambers of many of their revolvers straight through so that ammunition with both the older heel-based bullets and newer inside-lubricated bullets could be used interchangeably.

When one considers that the early Colt 1917 revolvers were only a few decades removed from their earlier Wild West era revolvers and the need for wartime expediency, it really isn't all that surprising that they'd choose to bore their chambers straight through though this obviously wasn't the best solution as evidenced by the fact that the great majority of such revolvers were retrofitted with the later-style cylinders.

Speaking of revolvers which had their chambers altered after the fact, I once came across an interesting if not particularly well done conversion of a S&W Second Model Hand Ejector to .45 Long Colt. The gun had British proof marks which leads me to believe that it had started life as a WWI Brit contract gun in .455 Webley. While the barrel had been shortened to about 3 1/2" (and not done all that well) and the gun nickel-plated, the interesting bit was how they rechambered it to .45 Long Colt. Not only did they bore the chambers deeper to allow for the longer cartridge, but they also slightly recessed the chambers to allow for the thicker rim of .45 LC with the effect being that the cartridge rims did sit down into the cylinder counterbore, but not far enough to be completely flush with the rear face of the cylinder as would be the case with a factory recessed S&W. I found it interesting that such detailed machining had been done to the cylinder when it would have probably been easier to just mill down the entire face of the cylinder to account for the thicker rims as was done with Webley revolvers that were "shaved" to shoot .45 ACP in moon clips, particularly when the rest of the gun had been hacked up so poorly.

[stuckinthe60s]

the clips are to keep you from having to poke them out.
I assume you aren't using your gun in a situation where speed is crucial.

[Jim Watson]

how they rechambered it to .45 Long Colt. Not only did they bore the chambers deeper to allow for the longer cartridge, but they also slightly recessed the chambers to allow for the thicker rim of .45 LC with the effect being that the cartridge rims did sit down into the cylinder counterbore, but not far enough to be completely flush with the rear face of the cylinder as would be the case with a factory recessed S&W. I found it interesting that such detailed machining had been done to the cylinder when it would have probably been easier to just mill down the entire face of the cylinder to account for the thicker rims

I read of a very refined version of that, the LC rim recess just large enough for Colt cartridges, letting the wider but thinner .455s headspace as originally made.

I don't know what would be easier, setting up to face off the rear of the cylinder or just having a chamber reamer ground to cut the rim recess in one pass.

In my youth, I snapped up a .455 -> .45 LC conversion without realizing that it was a particularly crude effort, the standing breech filed to accept LC rims. I later sold it to a collector who just wanted the type to display, no interest in shooting and more interested in price than strict originality.

[stuckinthe60s]

a lot of people talk about full moon and 1/2 moons....but not too many talk about what I used, 1/3 moons.
are they still around? they loaded real easily and were easier to handle.

[Pumpkin]

They also go nice and flat in a leather tobacco pouch.
Unless you have a tool, full moons are a real bugger.

[stuckinthe60s]

and, they allow the bullets to go back in the box they came in.

[Jim Watson]

I use them all for IDPA.
Full moons for fast reloads, 1/3 and AR for the occasional downloaded start.

[stuckinthe60s]

I can assure you that it would be the day I buy a classic modern revolver....and shoot it like a muzzle loader every 6 shots. lol.

[Lavan]

The RIMZ moons are VERY easy to use.

[Pumpkin]

My 625 JM will allow you to grab the cases with your finger nails.
No great amount of effort is needed, at least with standard pressure ammo.