Demooning

One of the less-fun things of a .45 ACP revolver is dealing with moon clips. They are necessary because automatic cartridges don't have rims and the ejection stars on a revolver won't lift out the cartridges. They were developed when the Army needed more guns in the Great War than Colt could make 1911s. But both Smith & Wesson and Colt had large-framed revolvers that chambered .45 Long Colt cartridges and, well, needs must.

Supposedly the cartridges headspace on a step in the cylinder, which they definately do in a single-action revolver chambered in .45 ACP or 9mm. The moon clips function for loading and unloading double action revolvers.

The Army used half-moon clips.

They, like Garand clips, came loaded and were considered to be single-use items on the battlefield.

For civilian use, full-moon clips are more popular, as there is less handling in reloading,

Removing cartridges from one of these clips is hard on fingers. You can grab them with a pair of needle-nose pliers, but if you want to reload the cartridges, that risks damaging them. It's also easy to twist the moon clips. Bent moon clips with cartridges can jam the fuck out of a revolver.

The remedy is a simple demooning tool.

You insert a cartridge on a clip into the open end, slide it in until the clip touches the lower shoulder, and then twist it right off. The cartridge falls down the hole of the tool and out the bottom.