Half & Full Moon clips

[gasmandave]

Can the old half moon and full moon clips of the old S&W type be used to fire 45ACP in a Redhawk 45LC? If they don't work directly could they be slightly modified to work? I've seen speedloaders that show that they work for S&W Mod 29s and Redhawks for 44 Mag but they have a lot of slop in them.

 

[collector rob]

Scroll down to the Ruger section. With this mod you can still fire 45colt from the same cylinder with or without clips, and 45acp with clips.


http://www.moonclips.com/content/machine.asp

 

[gasmandave]

I did not want to modify my pistol. It seems that the website you linked requires that.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I dunno about the Redhawk, but I can tell you for a fact that S&W revolvers designed to use full moon and half moon clips have about .030 of extra relief from the rear of the cylinder to the recoil shield of the frame. The extra .030 is for the clips. Most revolvers for 45 Colt and similar cartridges have about .060 or so of relief between the rear of the cylinder and the recoil shield, depending on the specific cartridge. The 1917 Smith has about .090 of relief, for the clips when they sit in the 'extractor groove' of the 45ACP round. That's why 45 Auto Rim cartridges have a rim .090 thick, to take up the extra space that was put there for the clips.

For what it's worth, you can actually fire 45 ACP in a 1917 Smith without the clips, the rounds headspace on the case mouths. The clips just give the extractor star something to push against to empty the cylinder.

I suspect the situation is similar with your Redhawk. In order to accommodate the clips, you would probably have to shave .030 off the rear of the cylinder. I knew a guy who did this with a 45 ACP cylinder in a Vaquero so he could shoot 45 Auto Rims in it.

 

[Snake45]

Driftwood is exactly correct. I was trying to figure out how to explain what was needed but he did an excellent job of describing the difference.

 

[Dale53]

gasmandave;
If you want to shoot .45 ACP capacity cases in your RedHawk .45 Colt, just order out some .45 Cowboy Special cases. These have a .45 Colt rim on .45 ACP capacity cases.

They work well. The Cowboy shooters use them to either shoot light smokeless loads or to fill the case with black powder giving considerably less recoil than a full .45 Colt case. It's a pretty ingenious solution.

Here is the whole story:
http://www.cowboy45special.com/cowboy45brass.html

Dale53