OK, what is the Moon Clip trick????

Hey 8ring, I don't moonclip and have no idea if your instructions work but they sure seemed thorough, well thought out and delivered.

Thanks JMorris, now I have to figure out how to make it with hardware store parts and no machining or welding.

There are two tools clip shooters must have. A "Moon Tool" that loads all six at once into the clip, and a "Demoon Tool".

California Comp Works has two of the best. They are available from Brownells.

An empty clip can be loaded in about 5 seconds. It takes a bit longer to demon them, but not much. One of the side advantage of purpose made tools is that there is less of a chance of bending the clip.

Insert a bent clip and close a cylinder hard and sometimes it takes a lot of work and many swear words to get the cylinder open again.

Different brass headstamps, fit differently!

I have a 9mm revolver.
Winchester, Starline & Fiocchi brass all fit the same

Remington & PMC brass are a bit smaller so I have clips that I had to reshape, I keep separately & painted them yellow.

I know, it's a bit of a hassel, but it works

OK, what is the Moon Clip trick????

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Trick is it wasn't meant to be done by hand. Use a tool, they are easy to make or not expensive to buy.

I'll add a vote for the BMT tool, pricey as it is.

In my mind, the key to using moon clips is to have a pile of them so I can load/unload them while sitting in my easy chair watching the TV. At the range I don't spend a lot of time unloading and reloading...using my revolver is just like swapping magazines with a semi-auto. Also saves me from having to bend over to pick up my brass...unless I drop the whole clip, which I've been known to do.

Also, if you use quality clips they are not consumable items. They will have an impressively long service life. I use TK Custom stainless steel clips, but like the BMt Mooner, they're expensive, too. Sometimes, however, you do get what you pay for.

Maybe it's just me but I have no trouble at all loading moonclips, the rounds just snap in without too much effort. Demooning them on the other hand.... I made a simple tool using a piece of ~1/2" ID pipe, one end ground down with a tab left sticking up. Similar to some of the commercially available ones. The cases pop off with a twist, and slide down into the tube.

I use a mix of S&W and Wilson Combat clips, with many different brands of brass.