About 6 years ago I bought a spare cylender and a bunch of moon clips for my 629 from a uy on the forum...Tom??? Work fantastically. Wanted to order some more but the link to his website that I have doesn't work...and I have moved and lost his contact details!!!

Anybody have any ideas..or Tom if you still post on forum!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Ganyana:
About 6 years ago I bought a spare cylender and a bunch of moon clips for my 629 from a uy on the forum...Tom??? Work fantastically. Wanted to order some more but the link to his website that I have doesn't work...and I have moved and lost his contact details!!!

Anybody have any ideas..or Tom if you still post on forum!!!

I Googled

Moon clips for S&W 629

and got a rather long list of places that sell these. If you are committed to finding Tom, he might be on that list. If you are just looking for clips, I suggest you measure yours (especially for outer diameter and thickness) to the .0001 (ten-thousands of an inch, if you can) and talk to anyone on the list.

Good luck.

Lost Sheep

His website still works. Here's a link to the .44 section.

If yours is a bit older you probably want the round center version, but you'll recognize the right one.

Kyler

Thanks!!! That's the man and the shop I am looking for!!!

Probably a dumb question but since I don't know the answer.....can you still fire non-moon clip rounds (that is individually loaded) in a machined cylinder?

Negative. Once you have the cylender cut for full moon clips..you are stuck with using them.

In theory the outer edge of the rim is still suported by the original cylender but ignition would be iffy- probably single action only.

I bought a spare cylender had it cut with the intention of using the modified one in internation competition and using the original in local competitions (where moon clip revolvers are not welcome). As it was, I simply ended up with two identical 629's. One standard and one modified for clips....then I bought a 329 for bush carry...

Also, in .44 with moon clips you cannot reliably get away with using .44 mag brass. Too often the inside case hangs up when you try to dump the clip- particularly if there is still a loaded round or two in the clip....so I shoot .44 special brass only in the modified gun and regular .44 mag brass with wimp loads in the standard one...it is also easier though to produce IPSC 'major' loads in .44 special brass than in .44 mag.

In an ideal world I would have simply bought a 625 for competition and shot .45 ACP in full moon clips- easy to load for, no ejection troubles, easier to throw a loaded clip into the cylender (shorter is quicker) yada yada..unfortunately I live in Africa, so have to make do.

I have 20 new clips coming to me today at shot show.

Ganyana,

Sorry to disagree with you but my experiences with machined cylinders in .44's have been drastically different than yours.

I've had three different 629's machined and a 329.

I regularly single load (shoot without moonclips) and have never had an issue. I don't recall any failure to fire issues with or without moonclips. (But I only use Federal primers).

I only shoot magnum brass, not specials. Some brands (Starline as I recall) seem to work better with the clips because of a slightly larger ring gap but I don't recall any that were a serious problem.

After regularly carrying and shooting S&W .44's with moonclips for the last 10+ years I haven't regreted it once and have only experienced advantages.

Admittedly the clips are a pain to load and unload but as far as the carrying and shooting for hunting purposes its been all positive experiences.

Sorry to hear you've had bad experiences. But for me I'm stunned all S&W revolvers aren't cut for moonclips and since they aren't I don't understand why people don't get it done aftermarket as a common practice.

Kyler

Hi Kyler..

Just re-read my post and a couple of points were not clear...cannot easily use magnum length cases for IPSC competition. Even when I use my standard 629, it is a heck of alot quicker using .44 special brass than magnum brass - both getting the rounds in and dumping the empties. .44 mag ammo works fine in the modified gun...just not as fast when you are running against a stop clock (and even more so as in many local competitions there is no revolver class so I am scored as standard gun and have to directly compete against guys with 16rnd .40's...

I have just bought some different brass, so will try it in the modified gun without the moon clips. I have a bunch of Speer plastic bullets and cases for indoor play on wet days (like once a year) and they worked fine...

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
Probably a dumb question but since I don't know the answer.....can you still fire non-moon clip rounds (that is individually loaded) in a machined cylinder?

You can but have to extract them one by if it is a 9mm, 10mm or a .45 ACP.
This is due to the way they headspace like in a pistol.

When it is a revolver round having a rim, it is possible to machine in a way that you can shoot without the moonclips as well.

Have a look http://www.tkcustom.com/content/machine.asp

Another suggestion is using Ruger half moonclips to shoot .38 Super in any 357 Magnum cylinder that has been reamed and machined.
Great when shooting a pistol in this caliber as well.