@03RN
Okay, I looked online:
That should work.
If you take a drill and put a dowel in the center it’d be even more stable.
It’d be pretty easy to just fab something up with Home Depot spring steel.
Or a sheet of kydex and a torch.
I don't shoot against a timer but I do use moon clips in a 625. I really like the system. S&W has several models, including a 357, that uses moon clips.
https://www.smith-wesson.com/product/model-327-trr8
If I were going to shoot against a timer I think I would have the cylinder modified to use moon clips. I just don't see any downside to moon clips. You still should clean your brass and your cylinder though. I pop my cyl out of the frame to clean it.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
Some thoughts on the handload aspect- I do all my bulk shooting with handloads and I've seen a tendency for more hiccups in extraction with older cases that have been fired ten or more times with magnum loads. I wonder if the brass gets work hardened over time so that after it expands when fired, it doesn't spring back as much. Another aspect is rate of fire. Rapid fire with magnum loads will heat up the cylinder, especially on a hot day. Metal expands when heated, and the metal in the cylinder expanding around the chamber would tighten things up a bit. I've definitely seen this happen when doing speed drills. And I have noticed that when reloading a hot cylinder, it's not unusual that I have to push a round home, while it's rare with a cold cylinder. Keep in mind that these are all reloads in much fired cases. These are things that I doubt would ever show up with 38 level loads, but with magnum loads they seem to be a fact of life.
Well consider your brass supply if thinking about moons.
.38SP doesn't even have a SAAMI spec for an extractor groove and the different brands are all over the map. That means you have to use clips for the specific brass you run (to an extent anyway). I run Starline and bought Hearthco clips which work well with it. Other brass brands won't go in the clips at all but I don't recall which brands. The cost of the clips are a significant cost for running them with .38 brass. Good clips like Hearthco or TK will hold the rounds with almost no wobble at all which drastically helps your reload speed. I recommend TK Customs for the cutting of your cylinder and they were putting out their own clips which were well received and not quite as pricey. TK did the work on my 686 and did a fine job on it in very little time. I think I had my cylinder back in a week or so. Forgive the pics, the gun was a bit dirty when taken.
So to recap: the clips for .38 ain't cheap for good ones so figure that into your decision. You can get by just fine with cheap clips for .45 but that's a much different story. Just about any clip will let the big fat bullets fall right in those big fat holes.
TK's work:
ETA: One advantage to .38 is you don't even have to use clips at all so your speedloaders will still work.
Eli at TK cut and worked on my 327 night guard and my 929. Did a great job with fast turnaround.
Highly recommend.
Depending on the crimp groove's location, some bullets will protrude more or less from the case than other bullets. Too, if the bullet is .358 or .359, the front driving band may be contacting that part of the chamber that is smaller. Push a couple through the chambers to see if force is needed. There is enough variation in tolerances that would make this event occur in some revolvers and not in others.
But we must not overlook this--that the bases in this worn brass are not being sized down to the extent that new brass would be. If resized brass is dropping freely into chambers, then the brass is not the problem. Also, I don't think that the fact that the brass is dirty is the reason.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TTILBC...47YT02WNXEQT1J
^Easy button answer ^