I have a new S&W Mod 25 in 45colt. The gun came with full moon clips that will only take a 45apc that will load into the gun but the cyclender will not close. The 45colt round when loaded are loose front to back. Will the gun take a 45apc rimless? HELP!!!!!!!!!
Welcome to the forum. Note that sometimes the forum may be slow to respond and one of the other mods deleted the duplicate posts that ensued.
If it's a .45 Colt gun, a rimless .45 ACP case will probably fall too far into the chamber. How thick are the moon clips? As I recall, the moon clips, plus the normal .45 ACP case rim, should be about 0.090" total. Make sure they aren't bent. Do you have any way to measure the gap between the back of the cylinder and frame?
I believe that, [unless Smith has changed things] you cannot fire 45acp in the 45colt cylinder of a model 25.
I'd call Smith before I dropped the hammer on a live round.
What is the model number stamped in the yoke area on the frame? Originally, Model 25's with no dash number were .45 acp, as were 25-1, 25-2's. Some Model 25-3's were .45 acp some were .45 Colt. Model 25-4's and -5's were .45 Colt only. Model 25-6, 25-8, & 2 25-10's were .45acp. Model 25-7 & 25-9's were .45 Colt. This of course is unless someone has changed the cylinders at some point. A .45acp round will drop in a .45 Colt chamber, but they can't be used with a moon clip because the space between the back of the cylinder and the recoil sheild is too small. The .45 Colt round won't fully chamber in a .45 acp revolver because the chamber is shorter. If chambered for .45 acp your cylinder should be 1.53" total length . A .45 Colt cylinder should be 1.67" in length. I hope this answers and not confuses. Greg
Thanks to all for the info. The S&W I have is a Model 25-15 with 45 COLT stamped on the barrel. The case the gun came in had 5 fullmoon clips that will only take 45 APC. Did thay send them be mistake?
If the pistol is chambered for .45 Colt, it cannot use .45 ACP with full moon clips.
You mentioned that the .45 Colt cartridges were loose; it depends on what you consider loose. If they are factory, then they should slide in (drop in) without any effort, and might be slightly loose (a couple of thousandths, allowing them to noticeably jiggle). That is the headspacing difference.
A quick check, load the cylinder and close it. There should be little or no visible light between the base of the cartridge and the rear of the pistol. If this is really noticeable, then you should have a gunsmith check it for excessive headspace.
I suspect clips were included by mistake.
The 45 Colt cartridges will be loose front to back as you noticed, I can only guess the full moon clips were sent by mistake, there is no way that a 45 ACP will safely seal a 45 Colt chamber.
The .45 Auto Rim will chamber, but the cylinder can't be closed because the headspace is too tight on the .45 Colt. The .45 ACP/Auto Rim cylinder has more space on the rear of the cylinder to accommodate the greater thickness of the .45 acp and a moon clip or the heavier rim on the auto rim case. Greg
You cannot shoot the .45 Auto-rim in a .45 Colt revolver. The rim thickness of the Auto-rim is much larger than the .45 Colt.
The Auto-riim cartridge was developed for shooters who had the WW I vintage revolvers (Colot or S&W), chambered for .45 ACP. The clips were developed to allow the .45 ACP to be extracted from the chamber, as the rimless cases wouldn't work with the normal star extractor of these revolvers. Therefore, the Auto-rim rim thickness duplicates the cilp.
As already mentioned, the easy obstacle to this question is that the revolver cylinder shouldn't close.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Shooters Forum
1.2M posts
51.5K members
Since 2000
A forum community dedicated to Sport shooters, owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about optics, hand casting bullets, hunting, gunsmithing, styles, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!