38superman Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 (edited) I haven't owned any revolvers in quite a while and decided I'd like to start adding a few to my collection. I bought a S&W610 last year and it has been a safe queen since it was purchased. It came with three moon clips but I thought I'd wait to shoot it until I had some tools to load and unload the clips. I finally got around to buying this stuff but when I loaded up the clips I was quite surprised. Back in the deep dark past I used speed loaders but found them impractical. Speedloaders didn't hold the rounds very securely and they danced around making alignment with chambers almost impossible. My expectation was that moons would hold the rounds much more securely. Nothing could be further from the truth, at least with the ammo I tried first. These are TK Custom moon clips with Sig factory rounds. They wobble around like a drunken sailor on a three day liberty. Can this be improved or is this just to be expected? Edited November 29, 2020 by 38superman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mcfoto Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 Welcome to the madness. Moonclips need to be matched to the brass being used. TK has a chart on their website which helps identify what moons work best with which headstamp. In addition, all cylinders can be improved by a chamfer job. Not a job for the casual dremel tool. Again, TK has this dialed. They even have a how-to video that shows how to remove the cylinder to send to them and avoid the “shipping a firearm” drama. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BHBret Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 I had TK chamfer my 625 cylinder and, OH BABY!!!, that makes a huge difference! Prior to having that done the cartridges tended to hang up in the case mouth. Now it’s like a shop vac sucking them into the cylinder (ok, it’s just gravity, but still...)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SGT_Schultz Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 1 hour ago, 38superman said: Back in the deep dark past I used speed loaders but found them impractical. Speedloaders didn't hold the rounds very securely and they danced around making alignment with chambers almost impossible. You must be thinking of the HKS speedloaders with the twist-to-release knob. Yes, they suck. Nobody who's seriously about revolvers uses them. If you do ever need speedloaders again, your only realistic choices are Safariland Comp II, Safariland Comp III, or Jet Loaders Of those three, I've really paired it down to the Comp IIIs and the Jet Loaders. I use them for both competition and carry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatJones Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 8 hours ago, Mcfoto said: Moonclips need to be matched to the brass being used. TK has a chart on their website which helps identify what moons work best with which headstamp. That's only for the 38 caliber stuff. For the big 6 shot guns there's only one flavor of moonclips for each caliber. A bit of movement in the moonclip is fine, especially for the 45's and 40's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatJones Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 7 hours ago, SGT_Schultz said: You must be thinking of the HKS speedloaders with the twist-to-release knob. Yes, they suck. Nobody who's seriously about revolvers uses them. If you shoot anything besides a 38, HKS is often the only game in town. I have a Safariland for the J frame, but I use HKS for the 44 mag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SGT_Schultz Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 10 hours ago, PatJones said: If you shoot anything besides a 38, HKS is often the only game in town. I have a Safariland for the J frame, but I use HKS for the 44 mag. You're right. I should have mentioned that. However, if you look you can still do better. Safariland makes Comp I speedloaders for 44 Magnum/44 Special S&W N frames (I have a few). I believe those will also work for Ruger Redhawks but I am not sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pskys2 Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 Contact Dave Hearth, Hearthco. He is on this forum. He can probably make any moon clip you want, I think? To be truly competitive you need to pick one brand of brass and get moon clips that fit that brass tightly. Why most of us who are shooting a 627 use Starline cases in .38's as they have been consistent on their dimensions. You might talk to some (like Dave or Tom @TK or do a search on 10mm Revolvers on this forum and message the ones who are shooting them) on 10mm brass dimensions to see who is consistent first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggman Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 Using the black TK moonclips for the S&W 610 I have found that Winchester or Speer brass fit them the best . These are the same moonclips that S&W ship with a new 610. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makicjf Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 My first batch of 10 S&W 610 were perfect for starline. They were solid, without the slit. My second ten, which have the slit will almost not even hold starline, but seem to hold other brands ( a mixed bag of once fired) as well as the stock clips. Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
38superman Posted December 1, 2020 Author Share Posted December 1, 2020 The whole moonclip thing is new to me so I guess I didn't realize variances in the brass would make so much difference. Buying components is almost impossible right now so I'll have to stick with what I have, which is Starline and about 150 rounds of Winchester. The first ammo I clipped was some factory Sig. When I'm breaking in a new gun I often chrono some factory rounds just to have a baseline for comparison with my handloads. The Sig stuff is way loose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toolguy Posted December 1, 2020 Share Posted December 1, 2020 I wish everyone would make their clips to fit the smallest brass, but with the slits so it could still clip on the largest brass. It would then be self adjusting and hold every kind firmly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyScuba Posted December 1, 2020 Share Posted December 1, 2020 This won't help with a 610 but it does give you an idea of how much variance there is out there just in .38/357 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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