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Speed loaders


Forty  Rod SASS 3935

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I want some for my Colt Detective Special .38 Special six shot revolver.  Are all 6 shot .38 speed loaders the same for or do I have to find some for that particular gun?

 

Is any one brand better than the others?

 

I'm not a DA revolver guy, but I finally got a Dick Tracy gun like the one that one of my heroes when I was a kid carried.

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HKS is good stuff. I have them for my five shot .45 Colt Taurus 450.

 

There is also another top quality brand that is “push button”, but I don’t the name or know if they’re still available. I gifted my former daughter-in-law with a couple in another time years ago.

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38 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Are all 6 shot .38 speed loaders the same for or do I have to find some for that particular gun?

No they're not all the same, but you don't have to find that particular gun. They are not that picky. You have to find that particular gun group.

 

You've got a Dick Special. That's a Colt D frame. Police Positive, Police Positive Special, Cobra are also all D-frames. So the ones I bought for my Police Positive Special would work with your Detective Special. Basically the same gun. But ones for my Smith & Wesson Model 10 would not work your Colt, and neither Smith nor Colt would work with a Ruger Security Six.

 

 

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HKS are my favorites. Mostly because they last and I am used to how the work. They do make speedloaders for the Colt’s DS. 
 

HKS Series A Speedloader, model DS-A , Black https://a.co/aqjXONz
 

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1015131867/
 

These are Five Star speed loaders. They are good, but the knob direction is reverse of the HKS. 
https://5starfirearms.com/d6-357-38-speed-loader/

 

HKS is clockwise to release rounds. 
5 Star is counter clockwise to release. 

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I don't like the twist knob on an HKS, but I have several.  I prefer the push to release of the Safariland loaders, and I really like the Dade speed loaders (out of business for years).

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Here is an article on HKS, 5 Star and Safariland Comp II speed loaders. 
 

https://www.guns.com/news/review/speedloader-showdown-hks-vs-five-star-vs-safari-comp-ii

 

I thought it interesting how the author more or less berated HKS yet didn’t mention the same issues with the 5 Star. They operate identically. Actually, I would consider the 5 Star beneath the HKS for one reason. The rattly noise they make when being handled. 
 

https://www.guns.com/news/review/speedloader-showdown-hks-vs-five-star-vs-safari-comp-ii
 

I tried Safariland loaders YEARS ago. I liked them but when I decided to carry revolvers over semiautos I could not find Safariland loaders anywhere. The HkS’s were readily available as they are today, in most cases. 

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1 hour ago, Ozark Huckleberry said:

These are the best speed loaders. 
 

 

image.jpeg

Not me, man.

 

Almost all primers are silver, so it's pretty easy to spot reloaded ammo. Those primers are yellow. Either factory ammo or reloaded with Winchester primers. Then there is sealant around the primer, which was done with military ammo, and some people do it with their reloads, but the odds are against it. So when I see brass cases with brass primers with primer sealant, I'm going to go with it being factory. And since the head stamps are dated 1942, those factory primers are corrosive. I know there are many people that shoot corrosive ammo, and tell you that it's no problem as long as you clean it quickly and thoroughly. But with all the non corrosive ammunition out there, if I've got a choice I am not going to put corrosive ammunition in any of my guns.

 

But Moon clips as a general rule - hell yeah.

 

Moon Clip Storage Device, 2.jpg

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Don't revolvers have to be designed to use moon clips? That is, I thought there had to be some milling done on the back of the cylinders to account for the thickness of the moon clip and end of the captured round. Otherwise the cylinder won't close. I don't think you could use moon clips on a Colt DS like the OP was asking about. Could you? 

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I have always preferred the Safariland model. With the SKS there is a possibility that you may dump the rounds early due to the fact that you are grabbing it by the knob that releases them. I had it happen a time or two during qualifications and I switched to the Safariland. You just push it in and the rounds release.

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1 hour ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

Moon clips are strictly for use with rimless cartridges like .45ACP. They will not work with rimmed ammo.

I'm afraid you are incorrect sir.

 

This is a Smith & Wesson Model 60 357, and 357 as we all know is a rimmed cartridge.

 

First we have 357 cartridges loaded into a moon clip.

SW-640-Moonclip-side.jpg.5443538b50cbf447cd2b04f8672aadfc.jpg

 

In the second picture you can see where the face of the cylinder has been machined to accept the moon clip. But it has not been machineD completely away, so there is still room for the roomRIM to sit, and you can load the gun with or without the clips.

SW-640-Pro-Moonclip-Upright.jpg.7c31dd7c9cf1fc0d333e4c391157e6e1.jpg

 

Then the third picture shows the clipped 357s going into the gun.

SW-640-Pro-Moonclip-inserted-rear.jpg.b31e63ed0c2bf41d89e1c0a19ddf3032.jpg

 

 

Over the past 10 or 20 years it has become very popular to machine revolvers designed for remediationRIMMED AMMUNITION to accept Moon clips, because Moon clips are the fastest reload.

 

 

That was all otto's fault. He neglected to look at the head of the cartridges, and therefore calledthem 357s while they were actually 38s.

 

Yeah, it was otto's fault. Along with all the times he used the wrong words.

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1 hour ago, Pariah, SASS #26619 said:

Don't revolvers have to be designed to use moon clips? That is, I thought there had to be some milling done on the back of the cylinders to account for the thickness of the moon clip and end of the captured round. Otherwise the cylinder won't close. I don't think you could use moon clips on a Colt DS like the OP was asking about. Could you? 

 

1 hour ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

Moon clips are strictly for use with rimless cartridges like .45ACP. They will not work with rimmed ammo.


@Alpois correct. And you can have nearly any J, K, L, N frame, GP100, Redhawk, etc. machined to load rimmed cartridges with speedloaders. 
 

Here is a link to a company that will do it for you. 
https://tkcustom.com/

 

There are now quite a few revolvers from S&W and Ruger already set up for moon clips with .38 and .357. Not sure about .44 Special or .44 Magnum. 

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Safariland was the brand I couldn’t remember in my previous post.

 

I’m claiming a temporary case of CRS!!

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There are others, but this is the first one I could think of.

 

https://www.smith-wesson.com/product/governor

 

One cylinder which will shoot 410 shot and 45 Colt - both of which are rimmed cartridges - and 45 ACP using Moon clips.

 

And the Ruger Redhawk comes from the factory with a cylinder that will shoot both rimmed 45 Colt ammunition and rimless 45 ACP ammunition using Moon clips.

 

https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/ruger-redhawk-45-colt45-acp-double-action-revolver

 

With both of these guns, you could take the standard 45ACP moon clip and put 45 Colt ammunition into it, and then load the gun with the clipped 45 Colt ammo. Because the gun does not care whether you have ACP or Colt in the clip. It will work with either.

 

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46 minutes ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

 

Okay then, did any FACTORY ever produce a .38, .357 or .44 revolver that took moon clips? I guess I should've known that some enterprising gunsmith would create a solution to a problem few people knew existed.

Yes.  S&W Offers several revolvers factory cut for moons. J frames in 38/357. S&W 627 38/357. To name a couple.  
as far as the original question safariland is by far the best option for a speed loader.  You will never use another HKS twist loader again after using the Safariland.  Weak hand reload with a HKS is very frustrating at best to accomplish quickly or smoothly. You really need to use 2 hands, the cylinder will want to turn as your trying to turn the release on the HKS. Safariland is push and play, much easier with either hand. Safariland has dominated the shooting sports as the go to loader for years, know one uses the HKS. 

LF. 

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13 hours ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

 

Okay then, did any FACTORY ever produce a .38, .357 or .44 revolver that took moon clips? I guess I should've known that some enterprising gunsmith would create a solution to a problem few people knew existed.

Yes, Ruger and Smith & Wesson

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13 hours ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

 

Okay then, did any FACTORY ever produce a .38, .357 or .44 revolver that took moon clips? I guess I should've known that some enterprising gunsmith would create a solution to a problem few people knew existed.

S&W Custom shop the 357 8 Times and others.

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On 9/22/2022 at 12:30 PM, Pariah, SASS #26619 said:

There is an outfit named Speed Beez that makes expensive, high quality push-release revolver speed loaders. Might want to check out their website, www.speedbeez.com. Same concept as the Safariland loaders, but all metal construction.

 

Useless to me.  They don'r seem to make any for Colts

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On 9/22/2022 at 1:42 PM, Alpo said:

I was thinking this article said that the Dick Special was rated for +P, so I dug it out.

 

Memory was apparently faulty on that part, but still and all, it's a good article.

 

https://gunsmagazine.com/discover/the-trend-setting-detective-special/

click Special. Listen Mack, youse have been readin too many vintage crime novels see? Take a powder, G’wan beat it.

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1 hour ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Useless to me.  They don'r seem to make any for Colts

Just so you know, any speed loader that will work with the Taurus 856 will work with the Colt DS, but Speed Beez doesn’t make any fir that either. 

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