Moonclips?

[Glock Hoss]

Can someone please explain to me exactly what moon clips are and what is their function? All I know is it has something to do with the rim on certain caliber casings and how the rounds are put into and extracted from the cylinder. Pictures would be extremely helpful as I am a visual kinda guy.

The reason I ask. I have the opportunity to pick up a S&W 686-4 + with a 4 inch barrel. This is a 7 shot .357/.38 pre-internal lock. I've been looking for this gun for a very long time. The catch: "The cylinder on this one is machined for moonclips." I was unaware that a .357 could be altered to use moonclips. Again, I have never used moonclips.

Can you guys tell me the advantages and/or disadvantages to this pistol using moonclips? Can I still use speedloaders with this revolver? Since it is altered, will S&W still honor any warranty work? Thanks guys.

Hoss

 

[Brian Williams]

Here is my S&W 65 that has had the cylinder cut for moonclips and it make for some real fast reloads. Yes, you can still use speedloaders but moonclips are smaller and quicker. Besides the empties stay together and after you are done shooting a string you can just walk around and pick up the clipped empties. The moonclips are normally for a rimless round like a 9mm or 45acp.

 

[Tacoma]

Moon clops are flat metal discs that have knotches to hold cartridges by their bases for loading in a revolver. "Full moon" clips are round and hold a full cylinders worth ( 6 in this case) . "HAlf moon" clips are semi circular and hold 1/2 a cyl worth ( 3 rounds). They are mostly used on rimless rounds like the 45 acp, 40 S&W and 9mm but have been adapted to other rounds in semi custom/custom applications. Allot of competition shooters like the concept as it allows for lightening fast reloads and positive ejection of ALL the rounds. They are also smaller to carry than most speedloaders. I have no experience with 38 moon clips but have several revolvers that use MC's in 9mm and 45 ACP.

Here is a couple of pics of a revolvers with moon clips .
hth
http://www.moonclips.com/9x23.htm

http://firearms.smith-wesson.com/store/index.php3

 

[SouthpawShootr]

OK, moonclips are thin pieces of metal that hold autopistol cartridges. The reason you need them for autopistol cartridges is that these are typically "rimless" cases that have no rim outside the case diameter for which the cylinder extractor star to engage to eject the spent shells. S&W did make a 9mm revolver years ago that could extract cases without the clips, but this gun was discontinued and is now somewhat of a rarity (IIRC it was adopted by some French police agency).

The gun you are asking about has been altered to accept clips that are specially made for "rimmed" cases. This is to utilize the chief advantage of the moonclips, which is speed. Far as I know the main disadvantages are that you can accidentally bend the clips making them unusable and it's a bit of a pain to detach the spent cases (although not all that bad once you've done it for a while).

 

[James K]

The idea had its origin in World War I, when the U.S. had a shortage of Model 1911 pistols. The Army asked S&W and Colt to make revolvers that would fire the standard .45 ACP. S&W came up with the "half moon clip", which held 3 rounds. Two of these were used to load the 6-shot revolvers. The revolvers (with a few early exceptions) had chamber shoulders and would fire the .45 ACP safely, but extraction was difficult without the clips. The rear of the cylinder was cut down to allow room for the clip, and later civilian ammunition, called the .45 Auto Rim, was made with an extra thick rim so it could be used without the clips.

In recent years, the idea caught on and several half- and full-moon clip systems have been developed for both rimmless and rimmed ammunition. Since these involve a different clip design that requires only partly cutting away the rear of the cylinder, rimmed cartridges can still be used with no lack of support and with unimpaired extraction.

Jim

 

[rnovi]

From a different perspective...

Moonclips allow one to burn through ammunition at a frightening pace. I have about 39 Ranch metal clips and 10 of the Rimz plastic clips for my 625JM. I load all of the Ranch moonclips at home and keep the Rimz for "on-site reloading".

39 x 6...234 rounds...

Gone in a mere blink of the eye...

It's too much fun!