FREE SHIPPING* Through December 15, 2025! Order Now for Christmas Delivery!
FREE SHIPPING* Through December 15, 2025! Order Now for Christmas Delivery!
When you take a look at the title of this blog, you might be wondering “why choose?” After all, speedloaders aren’t really that expensive…for less than $40 you get the best speedloader on the market which brings a major upgrade to your $1000 firearm. And moon clips are so inexpensive that you won’t even mind if you lose a few of them. So for most people, the choice is obvious: have both around for every revolver you own. It just makes sense.
So maybe the title of this blog should be “when should you choose to use a speedloader, and when should you instead use moon clips?” While this might be obvious to some people, others who are new and haven’t used either of them might not know about the reasons to choose one over the other. Let’s take a look at when you might want to use moon clips and when you might instead choose a speed loader.
Speedloaders: Speedloaders tend to hold onto cartridges for one simply reasons: they’re mechanical. There are parts that move in order to physically hold onto each cartridge, so it’s much harder to cause them to let go of your rounds without the press or twist of a button. Like with all products, it’s important to find a high-quality speedloader, because some hold onto the ammo better than others.
Moon Clips: Moon clips tend to hold on pretty well, especially if they’re not just tossed in an ammo bag. But once someone gets in between the cartridges, it often wedges one out, making the next one all the easier to get forced out of the moon clip’s grip.
Final Verdict: Speedloaders. But it has to be good one, like a made-in-the-USA Speed Beez speedloader. While moon clips hold on very well, sometimes well enough to have to be de-mooning tool, they can still get bumped out of their place more easily than when you’re dealing with a high-quality speedloader.
Speedloaders: Let’s say you’ve got your Ruger LCR 5-shot at the range and want to be there for an hour or more. You certainly don’t want to have to hand load every five rounds, because that going to get old really fast. (Not to mention the fact that you’ll probably be dropping spent brass on the floor.) A speed loader and loading block (with case) is a great way to get your ammo to the range. All you have to do is load up the block the night before, snap the case shut, and everything will be in place when you get to the lanes. Pull out that LCR .38 5-shot speedloader and keep reloading over and over.
Moon Clips: When it comes to massive amounts of ammo, you can certainly be ready with moon clips. Instead of reloading your speedloader from a 50-round loading block, you can simply have an LCR 5-shot 9mm moon clip preloaded and waiting for you.
Final Verdict: Speedloaders. While it might be nice to have those moon clips at the ready and lined up, that’s really only an advantage if you’re trying to see how fast you can shoot and make your barrel as hot as possible. What you really have to consider is the time before and after, forcing the cartridges into the moon clips and then de-mooning them after you shoot. In this way, speedloaders simply offer a more clean experience.
Speedloaders: As we were just discussing when spending a long time shooting, speedloaders tend to do better when you’re in a single location. But there are ways to take them with you, and speedloader pouches have been around as long as speedloaders. Think of them as a holster for your speedloader.
Moon Clips: Moon clips can also be transported easily, and in fact there are special moon clip belt racks that can hold up to eight full moon clips at once. That’s a lot of shooting sitting your waste that you can take with you.
Final Verdict: Moon Clips. You can carry around either of them in pouches, but in most cases it’s only practical to carry one or two speedloaders. Not only are speedloaders considerably more expensive than moon clips, but they also take up a lot more space around your waist. Moon clips, on the other hand, aren’t any bigger than the size of the ammo itself, meaning you can fit more of them closer together.
Speedloaders: Speedloaders tend to hold up pretty well. While they can be used again and again, they’re still not under constant use 24 hours a day. They’re also not under the pressure put upon parts of the gun due to perpetual explosions.
Moon Clips: First of all, if you choose moon clips, make sure that they’re metal and not plastic. Second, moon clips hold up as well as you treat them. The can be bent, and if you do it’s a good idea to just toss that one and start using a new one. De-mooning is one of the prime times for these to bend, so you might have to be careful when removing the spent brass.
Final Verdict: It depends. Once again, you have to be careful of the quality of the speedloader that you’re purchasing. Think about it: you can use a moon clip again and again, but if a speedloader breaks the first time you use it then it’s pretty obvious that the moon clip is the better choice. But if you purchase a Speed Beez fast loader then there’s no doubt that it will outlast a moon clip by a decade or more.
Okay, those are the first four comparisons when determining which type of quick loader to consider, but it turns out that we have quite a few more differences between speedloader and moon clips to tackle when we return for our next blog. If you’ve made your decision, head on over and find the right one for your revolver. Otherwise, we’ll see you in the next blog!
