S&W 625-2 without moons

[bikemutt]

I just acquired a nice 625-2 which I can't wait to shoot.

I gathered from online research the revolver can shoot .45acp without moon clips since the head spacing is not determined by the clips. My layman observation says that looks right; a cartridge appears to be no further in the cylinder with, or without, a clip.

I realize that without moon clips ejection of spent casings will be difficult and I'm not so concerned about that right now.

Anyone know if it's possible to chamber, and safely fire, un-clipped .45acp ammo in this gun?

 

[rjrivero]

Yes. You can shoot non-mooned 45 in a 625. Bring a pencil or something to poke the spent casings out of the cylinder.

 

[Axel Larson]

If it was me I would use moon clips but it is probably possible to shoot without them. How much did you get it for? I think they cool guns besides Earl uses one . But really revolvers in pistol cartridges are coll and fun.

 

[glockgod]

If you could find any..........

.45 Auto Rim cases would work I think.

 

[Owen Sparks]

Get online and order some full moon clips. You can probably get them within a week or so. They are not expensive and it is no big deal. In the mean time if you just have to shoot it, simply poke the empties out with a pencil.

 

[The-Reaver]

you may find that some .45 will eject just fine, but others will stick and you will in fact have to push them out with a rod or pencil.

 

[Mick_W]

Order some moon clips from here http://www.ezmoonclip.com/
that is what was recommended to me by a friend who has a .45acp revolver. I get to pick up my 625-8 on tuesday after the 8 day "cooling off" period is done. looking forward to shooting it myself. And yeah you can shoot them fine but ejection is the problem.

 

[RON in PA]

These guns are meant to be shot with moon clips (I prefer full moon) or auto rim cartridges. In my experience the head space will vary from chamber to chamber so that shooting 45 auto rounds without moon clips can be a crap shoot as far as ignition. This is different than the original S&W model 1917 which has the chambers consistent with one another so that ignition is 100% with un-moon clipped rounds.

 

[loadedround]

I purchased a pristine 45-2 several months ago complete with it's original wood S&W box. I didn't have any moon clips at the time so I shot it with some 45 ACP ball ammo I had. It shot fine and I kicked the empties out with a pistol cleaning rod. I now have a dozen full moon clips, plus being fortunate enough to find a 45 AR conversion kit for my Dillon 550B online priced very reasonably and also purchased 200 new 45 AR cases from MidwayUSA. I'm now good to go with my Smith 25-2. Love N-frame Smiths.

 

[DPris]

Older S&Ws will allow reliable ignition without clips, those made within the past six or seven years tend to be erratic in headspacing & ignition without them.
Denis

 

[Drail]

I have a 625-2 from 1988. I have shot and worked on most of the other years. Some will reliably shoot without moonclips and some will not. Some will with one brand of brass but not with others. It really is a crap shoot. I don't understand why so many think that using moonclips is some kind of hassle. The reload makes it worthwhile. Revolvers built to use moonclips are one of the greatest things that's happened to us revolver shooters.

 

[bikemutt]

Thanks for the answers. My chief concern was safety, this gun came without a manual. Tomorrow is range day, I'll see how it does then.

 

[Deaf Smith]

I just acquired a nice 625-2 which I can't wait to shoot.

I gathered from online research the revolver can shoot .45acp without moon clips since the head spacing is not determined by the clips. My layman observation says that looks right; a cartridge appears to be no further in the cylinder with, or without, a clip.

I realize that without moon clips ejection of spent casings will be difficult and I'm not so concerned about that right now.

Anyone know if it's possible to chamber, and safely fire, un-clipped .45acp ammo in this gun?

My 625 works fine without moon clips. If you have the chambers polished well the cases will fall out if you shake the gun abit while pointing it skywards with the cylinder open.

But why not just get .45 Autorim cases and make some REAL .45 loads. See the 625 can be jacked up quite a bit. Jim Clark, of Clark Custom Guns, rechambers 625s to .45 Roland (which is way ahead of .45 Super in power) so you can handload up quite a bit. Say a Speer 250 grain JHP at 1100 fps!

Deaf

 

[Lucky Derby]

I have fired my 625-4 without clips many times, although I prefer to use the clips. FWIW, I rarely have to do the pencil thing unless the gun is dirty.

 

[bikemutt]

If it was me I would use moon clips but it is probably possible to shoot without them. How much did you get it for? I think they cool guns besides Earl uses one . But really revolvers in pistol cartridges are coll and fun.

I forfeited $850 for the gun. I followed a few on gunbroker.com in lesser condition which were cheaper but after adding in shipping, FFL transfer fee and sales tax, this one seemed a decent deal. Besides, I got to fondle the thing before committing

 

[ghitch75]

i like the metal moons better than plastic one's....i tried them and then sold them.....they where just to tight in my 45's......625JM,25-2,22-4....w/o moons you can pick the out with a your finger nail if your chambers are loose enough..

 

[bikemutt]

Well I took her to the range today and had more fun than I deserve. The spent casings just dropped out 90% of the time, any stragglers I could pick out with a fingernail.

Now I have a new problem which is I may have lost yet another gun to my better half I've got to come up with a better plan. She really liked being able to use the same ammo in a revolver as she does in her Glock 21. From what I could tell there was noticeably less muzzle flip with the 625 compared to the G21.

 

[Owen Sparks]

The beauty of the moon clip is that it doubles as a speed loader. They are cheap enough that you can easily have half a dozen or more loaded and ready at all times.