I say: Spare me.
Revolvers are designed to function with rimmed cartridges. "Half-moon" clips were developed during the First World War as a stop-gap measure. The Army service cartridge was the .45 ACP round, but the Army needed far more automatic pistols than Colt could make. Both Smith & Wesson and Colt made large revolvers, but with a rimmless cartridge, like the .45 ACP, there was nothing for the extractor star of a revolver to push against. For the .45 ACP to work in a revolver, something had to be developed to adapt a rimless round to weapons designed to fire rimmed cartridges.
Hence, a kludge was developed that came to be known as the "half-moon" clip.
Full-moon clips look more like stars, because they hold all the cartridges and are there for the revolver's extractor star to push against:
What you lose is the ability to single-load a cartridge. Even if the chambers are cut so the cartridge's rim rests on a little ledge to headspace the round, you still can't reliably extract the cartridge, unless you use a pencil or something to knock them out from the other end of the cylinder.
So now you have a fiddly little bit that you have to have in order for your revolver to work. Depending on how well they're constructed, they might bend and not be useable. The old M917 GI half-moon clips were a bear to remove the empties from and reload.
In the modern era, there's a reason why revolvers that shoot cartridges designed to function in self-litterers are almost always collector's items: Because they basically suck.
If you want to fire a .36 diameter bullet from a revolver, get a .38 Special or a .357 magnum. If you want to fire a 9mm cartridge, buy the kind of gun that the round was designed for: An automatic.
Moon clips are difficult to load / unload but an easy trick to unload is use a dowel inserted into empty case to pull out - much easier. When loading, push cartridge rim against a hard surface with the clip - works well.
ReplyDeleteWhat these make up in assembly is fantastic when reloading - nearly twice as fast as a speedloader. All the empty brass is contained in clip - easy retrieval. And some speedloader belt cases are large enough to stack a PAIR of full moon clips, doubling your carry capacity.
But loading and unloading - a bit ornery, I will admit.
My only 9mm revolver is a S&W 547, has those weird tabs that don't require clips to load. Pretty much a .38 Special performance, only less accurate :^)
Thank you.
Thing is, it's no big deal to get a .38 revolver modified to accept moon-clips. Smith & Wesson even sells them (the 640/442 Pro). So then you can use moon-clips if you want to, or not.
ReplyDeleteThe 547 reportedly was the most expensive to manufacture revolver that S&W ever made. Those little tab gizmos to engage the extractor grooves were absurdly costly.
Revolvers for autopistol cartridges make sense. They are typically more tolerant of out-of-spec ammo than autos (but, hey, during ammo shortages, no one ever gets hold of dodgy ammo, eh?) & they simplify logistics for those who carry snubbies as a BUG.
ReplyDeleteI like .38s & .357s too. But for some uses, revolvers like this are a better choice.