I just got 2 Mountain Guns through a friend I often share a table with at gun shows. From our various talks he knew how much I wanted one in .45 Colt. I'm not used to the hand cannons often discussed on this forum, but I am used to shooting .44 mags in normal weighted revolvers. I found I was way too slow for follow up shots when I tried a .44 Mountain Gun. Hence the .45 Colt. What I had no idea of is they also made a Mountain Gun in .45 ACP. Mine has the smoothest and lightest double action pull I've ever encountered. I thought that either one would be good practice for the other but, the .45 Colt is so much stiffer they are just too different. I went on the Clark Custom Guns web sight to see about a trigger job and I found out they can also convert the .45 Colt to use full moon clips. I had no previous idea that was possible. They say it can still be single loaded. Does anyone have any experiance with this and is there a downside? I wanted it for defense against accidently getting too close to a sow with pigs but it would be a nice bonus to be able to unload the gun in one easy to handle unit and slip in a snake load.

I see no good reason to use moon clips with 45 Colt cartridges, but that's just me. I load 45 Auto Rim cartridges in mine and they work rather well. That allows single loading of different types of loads.

I mostly use full moon clips and I have found that a 230 grain cast bullet is effective on snakes.

I guess my post was too cluttered. I want to use the .45 Colt as my standard outdoor carry gun. I intend to use standard 250 gr. loads for possible feral hog defense. We don't have large bears to worry about. I always thought the full moon clip was the best feature of a .45 ACP revolver. I just never knew it was possible to use a full moon clip with the 45 Colt.

If thats what trips your trigger,do it.How ever if you want an opinion ,I see no advantage to full moon clips on a 45 Colt.If you can`t take care of business with six,it aint gonna matter.

My hands down favorite pistol

G,

I know zip about this, and like you did not know it was possible. In order for the gun to work both ways, the throat or headspace length (rim to throat) sounds like it would have to be modified by at the least the thickness of the clip. Unless the gun has "extra" room as it is currently configured. I would want to have a more detailed discussion with Clark to see how they accomplish this. Especially if the gun shoots to your accuracy requirements right now. If they have to drill deeper to allow the clips, this could mean a little more bullet "jump" with clips v. headspacing on the rim. I guess this could go either way as to good or bad, possibly less accuracy but be able to handle more exotic bullet shapes and lengths?

And if they do have to fiddle with the throats, this could be a good thing if perhaps there is some dimensional differences right now, on the low side. I think I would call and see about picking their brains a bit. Just thinking out loud here, again no experience.

Craig

there's a gunsmith that cuts 45 colt cylinders to accept 45acp on half moon clips, but doesn't affect the use of 45 colt...

my own 645 wears "500 grips" .. and digests 1000fp 250 gr loads all day long... mild and easy and accurate

I never got the reason the 45Colt has a 4" bbl and the 45ACP has a 5". seems backwards to me. and I know about the Classic.

Both of them have 4 inch barrels.

And no, I don't expect a shootout with a feral hog where I have to grab cover to reload.

Congrats! The .45acp Mountain Gun is a rare bird, I believe they were only made for one year. A .45 Colt / .45acp set would be fun to have.

I've got a similar pair of 45colt and 45acp mountain guns. I decided against the acp/moon clip conversion for my 45colt, after reading reports of mediocre accuracy with acp in the converted cylinder due to the jump the acp bullet has to make in the long colt cylinder. I also think these mountain guns are scarce and desirable enough to leave 'em in their original condition.

Regards.

I'm not jacking with my .45 ACP gun at all. I'm also not looking to shoot .45 ACP in my .45 Colt. The conversion is for using moon clips on .45 Colt cartridges.

I'm not familiar with how the full moon clips work with rimmed cartridges like the .45 Colt. If you want the easy, cheap way out, do some separate "revolver only" loads in .45 ACP cases. Simply load in full moon clips and leave them there as speed reloads in your .45 ACP revolver. Sierra provides these loads, easily exceeding standard modern .45 Colt factory loads. I have your two-gun set of 4 inch Mountain Guns, plus the .44 Magnum for good measure. They are all super guns for belt carry.

..."brace" of .41s....







The first one I bought has an EXTREMELY lite SA pull and with the addition of a 13# trigger return spring a 10.5# DA pull. The #2 gun has a very good typical S&W SA pull but when the 13# trigger return spring was added the DA pull went to a glass smooth 8.5#...the best S&W I have ever had.

Several years ago I bought a 629 MG off GunBroker for an original owner. It looked like new when it arrived. Asked the Seller why he had sold it and he stated it was too much for him...he had fired a total of 6 rounds. The reason I bought the gun was I was so impressed by the then recently released Speer .44 Magnum 200 Grain Gold Dot HP Short Barrel load that I wanted a gun to shoot it in. 1080 fps from a 4" barrel and the DEEP made for the .44 Special HP expands EVERY time. Berry's Mfg. had 200 grain plated bullets at the time and I bought a couple of thousand to duplicate a practice load. No sense beating oneself to death with a lightweight .44.

Have also had three of the .45 ACP MGs which is probably the best of all of them. One can also fire .45 Super from Buffalo Bore that will more than equal most .45 Colt rounds...

If I had one Big Bore DA revolver left...a MG would be it...

Bob

ps...as to the question of full moon clips for a rimmed revolver...unless one is a competitor needing all the speed possible to win...it is an answer in search of a question... Use HKS Speed loaders of TUFF Products speed strips...

Love the 57s and their stainless kin... the single MG I have is a NIB 657. It is so pretty I can't bring myself to shoot it! I have several other 41s that get reasonably frequent use, however.

Bob, nice grips. Who makes them? They really make the stainless look good. And what load are you shooting? Do you "roll your own"?

The grips are the standard Jerry Miculek grips... Bought one set from Brownells I think and the other was off the S&W Forums...

Not shooting that 657 MG is a mistake...they just balance and shoot so nice...

Have been "rolling my own" for almost 50 years... 8.0 grains of Unique with almost any 200-230 grain jacketed or cast bullet is very accurate and run 925-975 depending on the bullet...

Bob

I really like the S&W Mountain Guns.

They are just enough lighter that you can notice it after a long day of walking around with one in the Field or City.

The wife and I carry 44 Mag Mountain Guns quite a bit when hunting, or fishing in bear country.

I have carried one as my concealed carry gun quite a bit, usually in a Milt Sparks Summer IWB holster.

AS RJM stated, a 200 to 250 gr bullet from 900 to 1000 fps either in a 41, 44, or a 45 cal Mountian Revolver, can take care of most handgun needs.

And you can always go little more powerful in Big Bear country.

I love my mountain gun in 45 colt! I can also load speer shotshells if needed. Or I can carry my 625 JM or I can carry my Governor...no need to limit yourself to one gun, everybody likes toys.