325 Thunder Ranch will it fire ACP without Moon Clips???

[Z-Man]

I was going to order one, but want to know if it will or will not fire 45 ACP without moon clips. I know without you have to take out 1 by 1 , no biggy, but I want it to fire them without the clips. I would like to here from those who actually have one and tried it. Thanks Z-man

 

[Z-Man]

I was going to order one, but want to know if it will or will not fire 45 ACP without moon clips. I know without you have to take out 1 by 1 , no biggy, but I want it to fire them without the clips. I would like to here from those who actually have one and tried it. Thanks Z-man

 

[Wayne Dobbs]

Z-Man,

The answer is: not reliably. That's been a big internal fight at S&W in the past because the older ACP revolvers will do so, with the attendent mess of removing fired cases (I use a ballpoint or pencil!). However, they stopped milling the headspace ledge in the chambers, I guess to save money and time. Gotta have moonclips or AR brass now. The guns do shoot lights out however, so I would still highly recommend one!

 

[Pepper]

I asked this question of the Performance Center people at the SHOT Show and was told that you MUST use moon clips. I was fondling one at the time. I think the confusion came from Clint Smith. His is the first prototype and does not need moons and this is what he reported. As Wayne said, this changed with the production models.

 

[Chappy]

I bought a new 325TR two months ago. It worked great with clipped ACP ammo. Absolutely would not fire unclipped ACP ammo. NO moon clips were included with pistol. I bought Wilson full moon clips and these work great. Out of the box, the 325 TR misfired occasionally when using 45 Auto Rim ammo in double action mode. I then replaced the firing pin with a Cylinder & Slide extended firing pin and it now fires clipped AND unclipped ACP as well as AR with NO problems. I installed the rail and a surefire X300 LED light - great product. I also replaced the rear sight blade with a white outline blade. S&W website says this revolver comes with this, but mine came with a black one.
The revolver is Very accurate. Expensive but sweet!

Regards, Chappy

 

[Bullseye Smith]

I didn't think any of them done it reliably. Some will and some won't, the first ones was made to use the half moons and they have alway been made for moons. If they could turn them out, you wouldn't need the moons. You are dealing with with a .001 of a inch. Plus if the would go without the moons - why do they have auto rims?

 

[twigs]

Mine will fire unclipped rounds. However, I must admit that I only tried a few cylinders just to see if it would. Getting the brass out is a pain.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

Out of curiosity I just demooned 6 rounds and loaded them into my 3" 625(mdl. of 1989) and walked out on the back deck. Double action the first round fired and twice around the cylinder no more fired. My gun does have the shoulders machined in the cylinder.

 

[ENH]

Since replacing the FP with the C&S long pin I have had no FTF with un-clipped rounds. I don't do it very often, almost never, but still run a cylinder through every once in a while just to check if I still can.

 

[twigs]

Purely in the interest of updating my data

, I went to the range today and tried some loose rounds after a session. All six fired fine, once a little problem was resolved. (To be clear, I'm also using the C&S FP.) However, something else did happen: my gun locked up after the second round until I took a knife blade and pushed the just-fired round forward.

 

[boycan]

I just shot mine Sunday without the moonclips and 2 fired 4 did not and had to knock them out with a pen even the ones that didn't fire, I have not done anything to it straight from the performance center. Shoots fine with the moonclips though.