Would you rather have a semi auto handgun in 357 Mag, or a revolver in 45 Acp?

That question on this forum is likely to get you a lot of "45ACP revolver" replies. I'll be the first, give me a 625 and a handful of moon clips any day.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

Why would you want to choose?

This is America, get both

Of the two, a revolver chambered for .45 ACP please.

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-John

I've never had an interest in a semi auto in .357, just seems like to much of a hassle in the reliability department. My 625 MG runs like a champ with or without moon clips. Couldn't be happier!

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Yes, I'm with colt_saa - have both! I own a Coonan .357 auto and any number of .45ACP revolvers.

I have a S&W M&P that takes 357 Sig. Also barrels for .40 S&W and 9 mm.

.45 acp revolver, hands down.

I don't have one. nor wan't one.

I'll vote for a .357 Magnum double action revolver. A rimmed case in an auto and a rimless case in a revolver are both doable, but just add complications. Either can be done, but one must ask why?

Revolver in .45ACP every day of the week...

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Some Might Say.

ABSOLUTELY reasons to do both, and I'm happy to explain reasons from my angle if anyone cares.

In the mean time, I find the subject funny to me personally. Shortly after my marriage ended and I was in the emotional *******, I bought a clean used 5-inch Model 625 and I was all hyped on the idea UNTIL the day I had to dealnwith moon clips. I had spent all my disposable cash on the gun, the idea of spending more money on a tool to make moonclips less awful was absurd. But make no mistake, pulling brass out of those (basic, low-buck) moon clips I had was a day wrecker. Loading them was not much fun either.

If I had decent cash flow at the time, I would have sat on that 625 and given it an honest chance. But cash was horrendously tight at that time and when I had a chance to get a lightly used Coonan, the 625 was dropped like 3rd period French to help fund it.

If I recall, I had the 625 for less than two months. I didn't lose even a buck on it, but I never gave it a fair shake. But zero regrets and my Coonan is a rolling riot and it gets shot a LOT.

Neither is on my short list, so either would be fine coming from the Gift Horse.

I shoot my 4 inch 625 .45 acp Mountain Gun as well as any handgun I own.
Or is it that my 625 shoots better than any handgun I own?
Either way, I'm planning to sell a few....but not the 625.

I've owned a couple of 45 acp revolvers. Can't say I cared for either, so they went on down the road.

I've never had any interest at all in a 357 (or 44) semi-auto.

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John 3:16 .

I have a 1937 Brazilian Contract and a 625 of '89! (Along with five 1911's and three sig 220's! and a Marlin Camp 45) I am a 45 kind of guy! I'm down from 12 or 13 1911's, I'm beginning to feel a little weak!

In 357 I have a 686, a 28-2, a couple of SAA clones and a stainless Rossi 92 Carbine

The only 357 auto I would consider is the Desert Eagle, but only if I could get the Israeli 170 grain anti-terrorist ammo! Shoot through the car door and the passenger and kills the suicidal driver! It may be a single purpose gun, but a handy one to have when you need it!

There is one other option, and I play with that. It is my Sig 229 in 357Sig. Shoots real good, and doesn't pull your pants down when belt carried!

Ivan

I already voted multiple times
45acp revolvers 8 357 automatics 0

This

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Bill

Since the 357 is a rimmed cartridge, for absolute functioning I would select the revolver in 45. My main goals would be accuracy and reliability.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I don't care for autos that are chambered for revolver cartridges, especially high pressure cartridges.
Just my 2 cents, which is probably only worth a penny these days.

Having owned both (a wish I had it back, at what I sold it for, Desert Eagle .357), and the 625-6 3" 45 acp I have now (and will continue to keep), my choice remains with the 45 revolver.

That Desert Eagle tried to pull my britches down anytime it was on my hip. It is the softest shooting .357 magnum handgun I've ever fired, but not as accurate as the 625 is, even at 3"s.

I have both and am not a big fan of either. But between the two I'd have to go with the .357 auto. Putting the .45acp cartridge in a revolver was an act of desperation and should have died away years ago. I do shoot mine but always use AR brass instead of ACP, that "moon clip" idea must have come from the enemy.

I bet you I can go through 10 reloads much faster than you with my moon clips.

I like a couple of 45 acp's I own, but if only one of the calibers was available to me, it would be 357 in either platform.

I have a .357mag semi auto. It's called a XDM 10mm. It shoots 16 rounds.

45 ACP revolver has it over any semi auto 357......

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Only difference Fool/Mule-ears

The only semiautomatic pistols I know of chambered in .357 Magnum are the Coonan 1911 and Magnum Research Desert Eagle, neither of which do I have any interest in.

However, I can think of at least 3 Revolvers chambered in .45 ACP that I would love to own, the Smith & Wesson 625, Governor, and Ruger Redhawk.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

For the last 1 1/2 years or so of my police career, I carried a 3" M625 in .45 ACP. I had a N frame double speed loader pouch and I had two full moon clips, bullet points down, topped by two more full moon clips, bullet points up, for a total of 24 rounds.

During police qualifications, I could outshoot and reload as fast or FASTER than most of my fellow officers who were armed with semi autos.

I really wanted a 4" M625 .45 ACP Mountain Gun, but couldn't find one and S&W didn't have any 4" Mountain Gun barrels either. So, I found the 3" barrel and swapped it onto my 5" M625.

IMNSHO, the M625 is the best fighting revolver ever built.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

The model 25 45 acps. Same recoil as a 357, big bullets, quicker reloads, no bulky speed loaders, no twist, pull off or drop speed loader. 10 moon clips cost lest than 1 speed loader. No single rounds of brass to round up.

With a semi auto your highest rate of fire is held in check by the need for gun to empty chamber and reload it. With a revolver the only limit is trigger finger speed. Nobody with an auto can get 6 on target in 1/2 a second.

Want light and easy to carry a 325 PD is the gun.

I'll take a 1911 in 45acp and a Blackhawk in 357.

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Riding, Shooting, and Truth

Revolver in 45 ACP for me. Loading and unloading full moon clips has never been as issue for me but to each their own.

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BCCI Life Member #2068

The wheelgun, so I can have a big-bore snubby to back up the 1911 with ammo commonality.

I have read many articles on using moon clips in revolvers. Almost everyone of them mentions making a demooner by grinding down a piece of metal tubing. I bought one from Brownells that looks like a nut driver. It works quick and easy. I load my moon clips by laying the rounds on a table and then pressing them into the lips. The best way to take your .45 ACP wheel gun shooting is to load your clips before going to the range.

I'll bet a dozen full moon clips are cheaper than a dozen Coonan magazines.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

You are forgetting about the Grizzly from LAR Manufacturing

Mine is pictured above

I have also owned a DE, but never a Coonan

I had exactly that tool, grabbed it at a gun show, I think it was $10 or under. It was perfect for what it was intended, without a specialty rig (that costs far more), nobody could make the simple tube and grip any better than the one I had, but I still absolutely did not like it whatsoever. And honestly, loading the rounds in the to moon clips was worse, in my opinion, than de-mooning the brass. And I'll give you another nod... chasing .357 brass from a Coonan is a short nightmare while a bag full of moon-clipped .45 empties is FAR easier to drag home at the end of the shooting session, no doubt whatsoever.

I completely understand that while some don't mind certain things, others definitely do. That's human nature. Moon clips just aren't my thing. I'll bet the more pricey Ranch Product ones or the Moonz (are they still around?) would have made the whole experience much more enjoyable.

Agree, the Coonan magazines are not, nor have they ever been inexpensive. But that isn't a deal breaker for me and if we are going to set up at a gun range with a 625 and a Coonan, I know for certain which one is going to be more enjoyable for me and the race isn't close, nowhere near close.

I also run my Coonan with the accessory 10-pound recoil spring and 125gr .38 Special loads running 1,050 fps. These run my gun 100% of the time and they are a riot, and perfect for use on the steel plates that my particular club will not allow "magnum" ammunition on. I can do the spring change in about 30 seconds when I want to run the hammers. I've clocked 158's at 1,436 (average) and 723 foot-pounds out of my Coonan, and I wasn't even hitting the top end yet. And the fun factor is extremely high, google up pictures or slo-mo video of the Coonan "ring of fire" and watch some of the fun.

I don't need to sell or convince anyone that hasn't the interest, but .357 Magnum from a Coonan is different than most handgun shooting and in my decades at this game... definitely one of the most entertaining things I own and shoot.

As for Coonan magazines being expensive... well, a trivia nugget: Dan Coonan created the magazine before he designed and built the gun. He made the magazine as a project in college and he got the same amount of credit for the gun project afterward that he got for the magazine that he did first.

Let me respond with an analogy:

I love strawberries with whipped cream; I also love chicken-fried steak with sausage gravy.

So if you’re asking me whether I’d rather have strawberries with sausage gravy or chicken-fried steak with whipped cream, I’d say I’ll stick with what I like

That's a fine answer right there.

25-2 for me

When I carried a .45 ACP revolver for a while, (back in the days when there was no concern about carrying reloaded ammo on duty), I carried my own reloads using 45 Auto Rim brass. Spare ammo had to be carried in a loop loader on the uniform duty belt at the time, so the moon clips were consigned to my brief case for additional ammo if needed. I had no problems with the moon clips, but I also had no problem reloading the Auto Rims from my loop loader. They worked very well for me at the time.

I have not fired a semi auto pistol with .357 mag ammo, but because of the high pressure of the loadings and the rimmed cartridge, having one of these just seems to me like the answer to a question that maybe should never have been asked, at least as far as a duty weapon is concerned. Just my opinion of course. I'll take my .357 mags with a revolver, thank you!

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So long ... Ken

Loading with a moon clip may be a little faster than using a speedloader with AR brass, but not enough for me to worry about it.

If I ever worried about capacity and speed of reloading I would have left the revolvers and went to autos, but that was never a concern to me. All the hype by the magazine writers about autos were better than revolvers was based on their "combat competition" experience and not real life combat. Revolvers have their own advantages over autos and everyone has to decide for themselves what is more important to them.

I could shoot faster and load faster with a revolver than any of my fellow officers with autos too, but you can't judge anything by that as none of them could shoot for squat. And they could care less.

I did take a 625 model of 1989 out to qualify once, since the PD had plenty of ACP ammo. Then I got to the part of shooting four rounds and performing a tactical reload, the first time was no problem, nor the second. Then I had to take the four remaining rounds, two from each clip, and put them back in the revolver to finish the course...Trying to stick a partially empty moon clip doesn't work too well, neither does pulling the loaded rounds out, and shooting them and plucking the empties out under a time restriction.

I know moon clips are popular with the competition types, but I've never carried a gun for competition. I went back to my .41 magnum. If I want to shoot a .45 ACP I have plenty of autos that are ideal for that. In my opinion and for my purposes .45ACP autos are fine for range shooting, and that is all I'd ever use one for.

Pass the revolver please.

I think they invented .357 SIG to overcome the inherent difficulty of running .357 Magnum is an automatic pistol BICBW. In any case, I much prefer .45 Colt in a revolver than trying to rely on .357 Magnum in a pistol. I have no issues with .357 Magnum revolvers, either (steel ones, thank you very much! ) .

I would argue with that short assessment of why they invented the .357 Sig. I would instead say that they wanted a FASTER 9mm and it was slick marketing to make it sound like the legendary .357 Magnum and play up the "one shot stop 125 grain .357 Magnum" in marketing. The .357 Sig is a fine cartridge, among an array of fine cartridges, but it isn't any manner of a .357 Magnum in any way, and it doesn't even make use of .358" slugs. This cartridge is a fat, fast bottle-neck 9mm with a catchy name.

Again, folks point to .357 Magnum in a pistol and talk about "reliability" and "function issues." To this I ask to please give examples of all the Desert Eagle .357 Mags, all the Grizzly .357 Mags and the truckloads of Coonan .357 Magnums that all give tons of feed, firing and extraction problems, please?

3,904 documented rounds through the used Coonan Classic that I run with a myriad of handloads and my total count of fails-to-anything can be counted with less fingers than I have on my left hand. This includes "failure to create tremendous grins, laughter and lasting impressions"

Don't get one. I have heard on the internet that a Coonan won't function when the shooter has a closed mind.

I’m in the both camp.

My lar has conversions for 357, 45acp, & 45 winmag. The nice thing about a rimmed case in the auto....I can long load 38 spl cases; so, when the empties are ejected 25 feet into the black hole that grabs all my brass, I don’t care. I have plethora of 38 brass, not so much 357.

On those same lines, would you rather have a m52 in 38 spl, or a 547 in 9mm?

Bwahahahaha, is that a serious question?

I'll take a 52 please.

Hey, whatever floats your boat!

But as for me, I'll take my .357's in revolvers, and my .45's in pistols.

So thanks, but no thanks!

Not really interested in either, but if I had to choose, I'd go with the .45. While I'm not a fan of moon clips, I think I'm less likely to have issues with those than with a .357 Magnum semi-auto.

If I wanted a big-bore revolver, I'd rather get a .44 Special.

If I wanted a "magnum" semi-auto, I'd probably get a .357 Sig.

I had a chance to buy a M52 years ago at a very reasonable price and sort of regret not getting it, but I had no use for such a weapon. I've also seen a couple 547's, although not as reasonably priced and had no problem passing on them as I not only have no use for them but no desire as well.

I look at the long, non-efficient and ancient revolver cartridges as an asset. Along with the wide variety of bullet shapes and weights there have been some interesting ideas for special purpose ammo that can be crammed into them, and fired out of a revolver they can be at a wide variety of velocities and still function just fine. Auto pistols are designed around the ammo they shoot and don't like to stray from the "norm" very far. Not that that's a bad thing, I own a few and they are the ideal platform for that kind of ammo, but I prefer revolvers that shoot revolver ammunition.

if I had to choose, I wouldn’t.
I dont even own a semi-auto anymore.

I tried three different guns that ran with moon clips.
Yeah they are a fast reload, but simply could not abide the time to load and unload the clips. Seemed a poor investment of what little leisure time I have.