Troubles with moon clips! UPDATE

[Imaposer]

Hey Ima
pm me your info and I will mail you a couple ranch clips.and lets see how they work for you
Hank

Thanks for the offer, but I already have 100 new moon clips coming. According to USPS tracking, they should be here by Thursday, so I should know how they work by the end of the week.

 

[zonker5]

This may sound silly, but are you absolutely sure the gun is .45 acp? My S&W catalog shows the 625-3 as coming is .45 Colt, if it is this caliber there is not room for the moon clips between the cylinder and frame.

Just a thought....

 

[Imaposer]

Yessir. One way of telling quickly is to just peak in a chamber. The ACP has a shoulder to headspace the ACP cartridge on the case mouth when moon clips aren't used. A .45 Colt won't chamber in one with this shoulder, and the ACP will just drop on in to the throat without it. Also, AFAIK the ACP cylinder is shorter than the .45 Colt and the barrel protrudes further into the frame window to compensate. There are probably other tell-tale signs as well, but just off the top of my head these are two that told me when I first got the salesman to pull it out of the case. It also seems as though the .45 Colt version says so on the right side of the barrel, whereas for some reason the ACP version just says .45 CAL. Woulda thought they would have specified .45 ACP on the barrel to me.

Pics if you haven't seen my other thread;

 

[Maximumbob54]

This may sound silly, but are you absolutely sure the gun is .45 acp? My S&W catalog shows the 625-3 as coming is .45 Colt, if it is this caliber there is not room for the moon clips between the cylinder and frame.

Just a thought....

Mine is a 625-3 as well and is very .45 ACP and not .45 Colt. The one I'm trying to figure is I've read some were machined at the factory for both.

 

[gwpercle]

Don't let the lack of moon clips keep you from shooting your "new " gun on vacation. Shot many a 45 revolver sans clips and used a fingernail to extract them with. A pencil works well to poke em out if your nails are short. It's not a glamorous solution to extracting empties but it will allow you to bring it with you and shoot. Just a thought.....gary

 

[Imaposer]

Yeah, I was planning on that as a last resort. But, the new 0.040" clips should be here before I leave anyway, and the Rimz are being shipped to my destination so I'm all good now.

 

[LOBO]

I reload both .45 AR and .45 acp. I prefer the .45 AR, but when I use the .45 acp they're in Rimz.

 

[carl3989]

I've been using Rimz's for a while with never a problem. Because they are plastic they do wear out however. For carry purposes I use the metal clips which seem to be more secure.

 

[Imaposer]

Ok, so I finally have an update on the moon clip issue...

I ordered 100 new moon clips from The Revolver Supply Company the week before leaving for vacation. Ordered on Friday, and they shipped on Monday with a tracking number that showed they were to be delivered on Thursday, which was perfect because I was planning to leave on Saturday. Well, Thursday can and went, and the USPS tracking showed them never moving past the origin sorting facility. I waited until the mail ran on Saturday, and NADA!. :-(

Well, at least I had also ordered the Rimz and had them shipped to my vacation address just in case.

On a more positive note, the BMT moon clip loader tool did arrive before I left. I tried it on some of the Old Sarge's clips just to see how it worked, and I was IMPRESSED! Very handy tool and well worth the money to me.

Ok, so after arriving at my vacation location I contacted TRSC Moon Clips, These are the full moon clips sold by The Revolver Supply Company via email and asked them to check into the shipping status of the clips I had ordered from them. I requested that if they decided to reship, that they ship the new batch to my vacation location. Even though I sent the email after they had closed I received a reply, after hours, that they would check into it. Then, the next morning I received another email from them saying that they had shipped another 100 clips to me where I am, and just requested that I return the first ones if they were to show up. I like doing business with companies like that!

I received the new clips a few days later and finally had a chance to get to the range today. I only opened and used one pack of 10 of the .45 moon clips from The Revolver Supply Company, but I did run a bit over 100 rounds through my new 625-3, using the new clips. I'm very pleased to say that with these new 0.040" clips the gun ran perfectly!

I also did fire a few using the Rimz. While they worked perfectly too, and were easy to load by hand (seem to be a good product), the BMT loading tool worked so easily and quickly that it was easier and quicker to just use the steel clips.

As a side note to my experience with my new 625, I tried a few rounds without clips just to test for function. Again, all worked perfectly! No misfires or any other issues. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that even without clips, the spent cases were easily removed, even with the +P's. Some of them would just fall free and the rest could easily be plucked out with just the flick of a short fingernail.

So, in the end, as I suspected, it was just a matter of getting the correct thickness clips, and 0.040" seems to be correct, for my gun at least. I also can't recommend TRSC enough. The clips appear to be of very good quality and the way they handled the shipping issue, even though it was purely a USPS mistake and not their fault, says a lot about them to me. They shipped the original order immediately, responded to my emails after hours, and then shipped the second order just as fast, no questions asked. Good people!

And as we all know, every good thread requires at least one gratuitous picute. Here's a shot I took at the range today, of the gun in question with its new Ahrends cordia Retro Bananas, and the BMT loading tool.

 

[snubbyfan]

Glad to hear it all turned out well.

 

[blackcloud45]

The BMT really is awesome. I had trouble getting mine to unload a clip the other day but I think it was because the clip was slightly bent. Otherwise, mine has been indispensable.

 

[Imaposer]

Yes, I highly recommend it! Not exactly cheap, but really good equipment seldom is, and the added convenience is worth what it cost over the other loading tools. To me at least, and I tend to be a cheap skate, so that's saying a lot coming from me.