SteveHarris Posted March 2, 2004 Share Posted March 2, 2004 Question: Does the S&W 547 9mm revolver use moon clips?? I've only seen a couple of good photos but I couldn't tell If so I would be very interested in buying one for IDPA SSP. If you know anyone who might sell their's for a fair price please let me know! Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougCarden Posted March 2, 2004 Share Posted March 2, 2004 Nope, no moon clips. It used a funky berylium(sp.) spring loaded extractor. It was made in the 70s for an Egyptian contract I think. Kool gun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fibber_Magee Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 The 547 was made in 3" and 4" fixed sight only on the "K" frame. Story I heard was they were made for French police use but were cataloged and sold here in small quanities. Ruger made a similar 9mm revolver (never seen one) that lacked the fancy extractor mechanism and possibly used "moon clips". The drawback to the S&W system was the taper of the 9x19 cartridge. Upon firing the case would "set back" against the recoil shield and impede (or stop) the rotation of the cylinder. This problem was minimized by the use of new factory ammo in a VERY clean gun (note the little plunger located above the firing pin hole, it serves to re-seat the fired case into the cylinder). However, re-loads or aluminium cased ammunition did not work well at all. A 547 in decent shape probably has some collector value (I sold mine for about half-again what I paid for it) but you probably won't take it to more than one or two matches before giving up on the idea. Anyway, buy it and try it! You'll enjoy playing with the thing and showing it off to your friends who refuse to believe that a 9mm revolver exists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcount Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 A number of years ago I knew a guy who converted one of these to take moon clips. He used the gun for NRA Action Pistol shooting (higer velocity of the 9mm cut down the lead on the mover). It seemed to work well in that application but I doubt the IDPA rules would allow the modification. As for the French police story, I wouldn't doubt it. Another Bianchi shooter (held a couple records at one time) used a French 9mm revolver. Can't remember the name of it. Manurin or something like that, maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveHarris Posted March 6, 2004 Author Share Posted March 6, 2004 Xcount, You are correct that, in IDPA, you can only shoot a mooned gun if it was offered to the public as a moon gun. In IPSC and ICORE the cylinder can be modified for moon clips. IDPA trys to keep it simple and less expensive to allow shooters to shoot near stock guns that would best represent the every day carry gun. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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