While I love my 617 and 686 (with a custom 616 soon to arrive!), I have so much 9mm stocked up and I'm set for reloading. Thoughts on the best 9mm revolver? 986? Ruger Blackhawk?

I have an Old Model Ruger Blackhawk .357/9MM, you do not need moon clips, extraction and ejection is easy.

It would be helpful to list the options.

Charter Arms
Ruger LCR, SP101
S&W
What others?

It depends on what you want to do with the revolver.

I'd take a Smith 940 as an EDC but not as a range gun.

Hands down, 547!

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Mike 2796
SoFo Bunch member

How about a re-chambered Model 15 or 67?

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S&WCA 1729

If you want to have some range fun, a 929 JM is a treat to shoot.

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SWCA 3255 SWHF 615

The Taurus 905 ain't bad, it's easily found and inexpensive. At the other end of the price spectrum is the Korth Sky Marshal, a surprisingly ugly thing due to Picatinny rails on the right side of the barrel and the frame right behind the cylinder.
Besides the SP101, Ruger also has a 9mm/38 Special Blackhawk Convertible single action. And although it's not a revolver, the Ruger PC Carbine looks interesting.

Best for going to the range and shooting or best for something else? For shooting I’d vote for the 929.

If going to the range and shooting I view the moonclips as an advantage - easy reloads.

Manurhin MR 73

I bought this one on a lark, but it turns bout to be one om my more favorite range guns. Can be used without moon clips. The 7 round cylinder makes for that much more fun. Accuracy is excellent.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

[quote=H Richard;140639689]I bought this one on a lark, but it turns bout to be one om my more favorite range guns. Can be used without moon clips. The 7 round cylinder makes for that much more fun. Accuracy is excellent.

My nails aren't long enough to pry them out of the cylinder.
I would recommend one use moonclips on 9mms for a 986.
Or use 38 short colts on it with out. And the ejector pulls them out.

Have they solved the issues on the 986? I read a while back they were using .358 barrels on them instead of .356 and people were having lousy accuracy with off the shelf ammo.

If you like to arrive at the range with a bunch of pre-loaded clips, shoot them up and leave as quickly as possible they are. But those moon clips do not load themselves.

My experience with the 610 I had for many years was it takes a lot longer to load rounds into a moon clip and take the empties out of the clip than it does to just drop the rounds into the cylinder and pluck out the empties, even when using a tool to help get the empties out.

I know people that like to arrive at the range with all their clips and magazines loaded, shoot a couple hundred rounds in ten minutes and leave. But I prefer a slower pace and arrive at the range with empty magazines and load them as I shoot. Nothing wrong with either approach but if you like a slower pace the moon clips are nothing but a pain.

The only time I would use moon clips is for competition or extra ammo for a carry gun. And if I used them for those purposes I would also practice with them.

If someone buys a 9mm revolvers and uses moon clips can they shoot 380s?

One I've looked at that I like is the SP-100 9mm snub.

A LGS had a sale on them for $399 recently -- nearly bought one after examining it carefully.

Maybe I should have because that is a good price, but I already have too many guns.

But it would be worth checking out if you can find one and want a snub for carry.

BMT Mooner. Thank me later.

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Pickpocket

"...with a custom 616.."
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What's a 616? S&W's ability to come up with numbers seems to have exceeded my number of brain cells.

I would assume that it is a stainless K-frame chambered for one of the .32 revolver rounds (.32 S&W Long, .32 H&R Mag or .327 Fed Mag.). Start with a 617 and rebore the cylinder and either re-barrel or rebore the original.

Curious as to who is doing your conversion and the method (rebore or new parts?).

Adios,

Pizza Bob

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NRA Benefactor Member

The moonclips don’t load themselves but loading up 8 rounds is just as quick as loading up a 1911 magazine and you don’t have to scrounge around for brass afterward. Loading the clip might take 5 seconds longer than dropping the rounds into a revolver but I can live with that.

I load up 160 to 200 rounds at home and then go shooting. It’s definitely not a 10 minute affair. I’ve shot dozens if not hundreds of groups at 25 and 50 yards and regularly shoot steel targets at 100 yards with my 929. Just because I can reload faster doesn’t mean I have to blast away.

.380’s have a completely different size case. The base is narrower.

Bowen
66 no dash, 617 barrel, Bowen cylinder.

For the 9mm, 80/20 range/farm

I have been shooting 9MM Parabellum ammunition out of Smith and Wesson revolvers for decades

For range use I would be using a 627 like this two tone

For bowling pins, I want the V-Comp

For concealed carry it would be one of my 940s or perhaps even better, the Korth Sky Marshal

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"Acta non verba"

No love for the 9 mm Ruger Speed Six or Service Six revolvers? Ruger made them from stainless and blued steel with 2 3/4" and 4" barrels.

Ditto on the ruger s/s 9 mm revolver. But I always wanted the ruger blacks in 357/9 mm and in 45LC/45 acp. Something that takes a beating and stays ticking.

Yep - nice guns:


I've got a 4" pinned barrel Model 547 that I like more, buts it's become too collectable to shoot:

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My sgntr is mor thn 30 chrctrs

Taurus 692, comes with two cylinders, one for .38/.357 and the other for 9mm.

Armscor/RIA will be importing a 9mm revolver made in the Czech Republic this year. There have been a couple of YouTube videos about this gun, looks impressive.

I had TK Custom rechamber three for me into .38 Super/9mm...they run well. 3" 66-2, 3" 60-10 and a 649-1. Found extra cylinders for each rather than modify the originals. The modified ones will still run the original .38 Special and or .357 Magnum but the cases will bulge just slightly.

Accuracy has been as good with 9mm and .38 Super as it was with .38 and .357.

Ruger has also just announced a 9mm Super GP-100..

Ruger(R) Super GP100(R) * Double-Action Revolver Models

Bob

The best revolver for 9mm ? That has to be a Ruger Blackhawk convertible in 357 mag./38 spcl./9mm Luger. no extraction problems what so ever and think about all the different ammo you can fire in one .
Full moon clips , in truth , kinda suck rocks and DA revolvers that don't use them have extraction difficulties ... it's just the nature of the extractor used (it drags ) .
Go the Ruger BH convertible .
Gary

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Certified Cajun
NRA Member

Ruger recently announced the 8 shot Super GP100 in 9mm.

Looks like it would be a lot of fun at the range.

No dought, The Smith And Wesson Mod 547. No MOON CLIPS!

and very accurate too!!

I’m leaning towards 986. Looking at the 547 - wonder why the moon lip-less designed was not carried forward to the 986. On the list for the Korten conversion when they become available again

challer, Having had a couple 547s, I have no doubt that extractor with those fingers for extraction was significantly more expensive to produce than a standard extractor. My guns functioned perfectly with that extractor, and I suspect, that if not for the added expense to produce, S&W would be using it on current production 9MM revolvers.

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NRA Life, COTEP 640

I have to disagree about why S&W did not use the 547's extractor again. It would have seriously interfered with the primary use of large 9 mm revolvers, fast competition. Standard speed loaders leave the cartridges standing high in a 547 cylinder. They have to be individually pressed in past the spring loaded extractor tabs. Maybe a spring loaded Safariland III speed loader could over power 7 or 8 of those springs but I doubt it. Even if one could moon clips would still be faster.

To keep machining costs down S&W made 547 extractors out of copper rather than steel. They used an expensive beryllium copper alloy but it still has no where near the strength or durability of steel. Whether it would stand up to the amount of practice it takes to be a top competitor is doubtful.

The standard steel extractor and moon clips is not just less expensive, it is faster to reload and more durable.

K22, You're right. I didn't consider competition. I didn't compete with either of my 547s, but did have HKS speed loaders.The little extractor tabs did require manually pushing in the cartridge that last little bit.

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NRA Life, COTEP 640

It would have been simple to offer both

I have a 986 added a Dawson front sight and an action job, its fun to shoot , I with it was more accurate 2.5-3.0 at 25 yards is about all I can get out of it. I don't want to have to reload to improve the accuracy with a heavier /longer cartridge. My belief is because the cylinder is actually for a 9x21 or something, and I wish they would have left more weight in the barrel, like a regular 686 barrel.

GUYS if you are using anything other than a BMT Mooner/Demooner your wasting a lot of time , do yourself a favor and check them out, Best 100 dollars you will ever spend. I can unload and reload 30 moon clips in 15-20 minutes and best of all, its easy on the hands and casings , please check it out. Makes shooting my 25-2, 625, and 986 really more enjoyable.

I have three 9mm revolvers. A S&W 929 which is an N-frame with 6.5" barrel and Ti 8 round cylinder, an SP101, and an LCR. Obviously, how one intends to use the gun is key. The LCR is a great light CCW gun, the 929 is a good range/competition gun. The 101? Heavy to carry, small for comp. Fun though, all of them.

My 940 was sticky on extraction with aluminum cases and +P rounds. That said, I never should have traded that thing once I customized it to suit me - I practiced with it so much that I could pretty much just throw the moon clips into the cylinder, and I honestly could reload it as fast as I could any semiauto. Loading the moon clips was a hassle, but you can make a tool to help unload them for a couple bucks, so yee-ha. I shouldn't have traded it.

With that in mind, I got one of the (recent - there are different models and you want to pay attention to this because they use different moon clips) SP-101s, figuring the gun is a tank and speedy reloads with clips is great. Well, unfortunately the recent moon clips (while easy to load rouds on and off) just don't hold the rounds as well or as steadily as the old sort, so this doesn't load any faster than any other revolver with a speedloader. Great gun, though, and I got it at a screaming good price (new, under seller's cost on GB) so yee-ha.


Now, for what it's worth: the 547. I liked the niftiness of those when I managed a gun store in the late Eighties, but they never sold for beans. Always kind of wanted one until over the years I saw one too many guys having problems with the flanges . . . neat concept, not for me (I am a shooter not a collector and I don't need more trouble in my fun hobby stuff).

Have fun.

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How God has blessed us!