cole440

To further confuse, this is what BMT says, which is why I bought this combo. might be hard to read but purple denotes the best fit, green looser, red either too loose or too tight. TK starline clips with starline brass is a purple combination.

That’s what I’m thinking. Even doing these with hand tools, the brass is so tight that I feel like the chances of me bending the clips is very high. Especially since I’m brand new at this I think I should maybe get some more practice with something not so hard to work with.

The response from TK: Hi Cole, The BMT will be very difficult to load Starline. The reason is that the loader tries to load all of the bullets at once. I have looser clips here that will work perfectly with your loader. They are the STD version. I will be happy to exchange them :). Let me know you thoughts. what say the hive mind? Should I try a different type of clip or just resort to loading these very carefully by hand?

That's exactly my feeling, I already typed up an email to TK. I just wasn't sure at first because I have never used moon clips before in any capacity and I don't have any others to compare to. I am super glad to have folks here to ask!

These are nearly impossible to do in the BMT. Getting the last one in takes all my strength. Seems way too tight compared to what I see in videos of other people using them. It's also chewing up the brass some and I am kind of worried about the longevity of the bmt if they're going to be this tight...

I have the stainless clips marketed as starline clips.

You know what, let me try a few other moon clips first. I’ve only clipped and unclipped the same moon clip so far. it seems extraordinarily hard

Another question for you folks, I got my BMT Mooner, along with the starline brass and matching TK clips. It seems awfully hard to moon the brass with the tool, anybody else have experience with this? I only mooned and de-mooned a few yesterday and it left my hands sore today. I wouldn't consider myself to be particularly sensitive either... I did some searching, but didn't find much on the subject, only one old thread...

I’ve done a ton of reading over the last couple days trying to narrow down what people think. You aren’t alone. it seems like it’s pretty dirty when you use it behind conventional lead or any traditional plastic type of coating. Based on what I read people have good luck with plated/jacketed/ and the new coatings like hi tek. the consensus seems to be that it’s just slightly more dirty than clays and more accurate usually. more importantly it’s available. I’m realizing that I don’t have any good fast powders besides some stuff from when I used to load shotgun.

As far as powder goes, it looks like titegroup is going to be the most available thing in the range of powders that people seem to like for minor pf loads. Any thoughts on that from you all?

Well I have tons of goodies on the way. Went with a speed-e-rack BMT Mooner DAA Belt, and got the BE discount which is a nice perk Got some TK starline moon clips and a few hundred starline 38sc cases to start I also picked up some Bayou 145 rn to start with!

As far as the short colt goes, I am a little hesitant to start making up loads on my own. If I did SC, I was thinking a 147 or a 150gn bullet and base it off a 9mm load. Any thoughts on that? I think I read that there are some 147 and 150 grain bullets out there in a 38 size...

After spending tons of time reading the existing threads about equipment, I came to ask what people think in '23. Planning on setting up with a S&W 627 with 38 special brass for the time being. Pistol I purchased comes with a Blade Tech holster so there isn't much issue there. (though if anybody else has recs, feel free to leave them below. It looks like Blade tech no longer makes an N frame holster so I wouldn't mind knowing who else makes a good one) Any recs on a good belt while I have your attention? I have a Kore belt I was going to use for the time being to keep costs down. The biggest thing I am interested in finding out is what is the best way to start on a moon rack? I really like the design of the North Mountain, but based on a thread I saw from 2021 (I think) there is no way to buy those, my own research confirms this. I believe that I am more than capable of making one, but think I would be guessing on it to an extent. My gut feeling is that I don't want the extra parts involved with the one that automatically feeds the moons for you. That leaves some type of magnet holder... Looking for any and all thoughts on this. As far as the clips themselves go, I am planning on picking up 20 of the TK starline clips to begin with. If a magnetic moon rack is the best way to go, anybody have insight to how well these stick to the rack? Any other general insights would be helpful! Thanks, Cole

Ok all, and for future folks who may be reading this. Here is what I have found out so far. Pre lock models (627-4) have the performance center marking on the drivers side while the 357 marking is on the passenger side. It looks like the early models with the lock (627-5) also have this config. Sometime, seemingly very early in the post-lock era this changed and the writing reversed. Furthermore, when this change occurred, the roll mark changed. The early roll mark has a period after 357 mag. while the later one does not. It seems like all of these early ones came in the hard case from the performance center also, I am now off to research when changes were made on that. Based on additional research, it looks like this change happened at the same time that they dropped the aluminum performance center case, It looks like this change happened in 2003 or so.

What kind of grips are you running on that?

Any new info on this?

I like the way you think!

Hi all, after lurking for many, many years, I am here to ask a question! So far I have found all of my questions answered on this forum without ever needing to ask one! I think this is the right place to ask, so please forgive my newness. I am looking at buying a 627. I am looking both new and used, and I am noticing a wide variation in the marking configurations of the available 627's out in the marketplace. It *looks* like the current production guns all have the ".357 Magnum - 8 Times" on the drivers side of the pistol, and have the "Performance Center" roll mark on the passenger side of the pistol. Some of the used ones I have seen (same dash model) have this configuration reversed, where the Performance center is on the driver's side and vise versa. Even more confusing, I have seen one pistol now that has the ".357 Magnum - 8 Times" on the driver's side of the barrel, and had "Smith & Wesson" on the passenger side of the barrel. Keep in mind that it is a performance center gun and has the correct PC roll mark behind the cylinder. My first thought was that this is possibly a PC gun with a barrel from a pro series in it. But! It is a 5 inch barrel which, as far as I know, was never offered on a pro series 627. Any thoughts as to what is going on here, or when/why markings changed. Any more desirable or pick one and go have fun? This will be my first moon clip gun, and first revolver over 6 rounds. I am excited to see what it is all about and might even consider some local revolver matches for fun. Thanks!