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

L

Lavan

New member
I just read on another forum :o that the big 45 ACP Smiths will fire with no moon clip.

If that's correct, I'm gonna try it just for kicks.

They said if the chambers have a step in them, it will fire raw cartridges.
Poke out with a pencil.

Not ideal but just to see if it works. :)
 
I can easily pick the empties out with my finger nails.
Clips and good for speed and if your going to use it for self defense.
 
For one-upmanship, use a No.1 Red Coca Cola pecil, one with the eraser on one end, and has never been sharpened nor had the eraser used.

Bob Wright
 
625 here, it is chambered correctly for shooting 45 ACP without clips.
I have heard that some of the Colt 1917’s are not, they must have clips.
 
I have heard that some of the Colt 1917’s are not, they must have clips.
Click to expand...

That WAS the case, with the very first production batch of Colt 1917 .45ACP revolvers. Half moon clips (the only kind, at the time) were required to use the gun.

The S&W 1917 revolvers had the headspace "ledge" in the cylinder and would chamber and fire .45ACP rounds without any clips. Clips were needed for simultaneous extraction and ejection, but not for firing. Empties could be poked out with a pencil, cleaning rod, or any small enough stick.

AFTER the first production batch of Colts, all following production runs had the chamber ledge and so could be fired without clips, the same as the S&W.

After WWI all the initial batch of Colts were reworked, and the cylinders were replaced with ones that have the headspace ledge.

IF you find a 1917 Colt .45ACP with a bored straight through cylinder, it is an extremely rare thing, and would indicate a gun that "left the service" before the rework in the early 20s.
 
I guess a bored through 1917 Colt MIGHT be more common than a 1903 or 1905 Springfield, but the Army was pretty good about upgrades.
 
44 AMP said:
The S&W 1917 revolvers had the headspace "ledge" in the cylinder and would chamber and fire .45ACP rounds without any clips. Clips were needed for simultaneous extraction and ejection, but not for firing. Empties could be poked out with a pencil, cleaning rod, or any small enough stick.
Click to expand...

https://youtu.be/eTcuAktkT1U?si=Sn3UF5sdnV9QrijX

Watch at around the 4 minute mark… S&Ws have been encountered with bored thru cylinders.
 
S&Ws have been encountered with bored thru cylinders.
Click to expand...

Yep, friend of mine had one. A loaded .45ACP would pass completely through the cylinder and fall out the front! :eek:

But the gun didn't leave the S&W factory that way.

At some point in time, someone bored out the cylinder to take .45 Colt rounds, and didn't mark the gun in any way that this had been done.

.45ACP in clips still worked, and worked normally though the cases swelled a bit more than normal. Unclipped (single rounds) of .45auto could not be used, at all, they just fell out.

All kinds of examples of things can be encountered, some you hear about but never see, and sometimes one just lands in your lap. Some are factory screwups, and some are guns that have been altered by some previous owner. Sometimes its easy to tell which at a glance, sometimes not.

Back when Colt was still producing Pythons (80s) a friend of mine got one, .38 Special, 8" barrel, a target gun. NEW.

He kind of freaked out when he discovered that the barrel had NO rifling!!
Colt factory screw up, big time!!

I tried to convince him that it would be a valuable collector item, but he wasn't interested in pursuing that route, he was convinced the ATF would kick in his door at any minute, and he returned the gun to Colt ASAP!

I'm sure Colt would have fixed it, but he didn't want it back, all he wanted, and got, was his money back.

Stuff happens, and over the years I've learned to never say "never" about most gun things, because when you do, someone always finds an example that is an exception.
 
There were "snake guns" made by reaming a 1917 cylinder straight and reaming the barrel smooth with a choke for shot loads. After 1935 the feds got huffy about such stuff, though.
 
Will a 45 Colt fire in reamed 45ACP cylinder?

The thickness of the Colt vs a 45 Auto Rim is .031”.

That’s a lot of room for the firing pin to make up.
 
I got 5 M25-2s and 1917s. I hate moons and use 45 auto rim. Been doing it for several decades. The brass lasts forever.
 
"Watch at around the 4 minute mark… S&Ws have been encountered with bored thru cylinders."

Yes. But there's never been consensus as to whether those guns were manufactured like that or whether they were altered after the war.

Some have said that they MAY be original military guns that S&W pushed through in an effort to keep up with US Government demand, which would place them as having been manufactured after S&W devised the half moon clip.

Again, pure speculation, but I think that claim has at least some merit.
 
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