wildcatter wrote:GN, I received your phone message and you restate here what you are talking about. Yes, for experimental purposes one could definitely use some sort of "C" clip and this is another good idea you've come up with again, one I've also used in the past.
Wheel guns shooting my rimless cases is something I have done for years, the first being a 45win-mag in what was originally a 45 Colt Anaconda, to be a mate for my 45WM; M-1 Carbine Conversions and the C-Clip thing was an eye opener in the experimental phases. After proving the concept, I indeed was able to use the std-military six round 45acp moon clips and still shoot the 45 colt out of the same chambers, talk about versatility!
If you're familier with the concept of loom knitting ( don't ask me how I know this ) - imagine a loom with 5 pegs, and doing the "e" wrap, but with a strong / thin wire instead of yarn. Then perhaps a spot weld where the ends of the wire finally finish a complete go around of the 5 pegs of "e" wraps.
If such wire loops were spring tempered correctly, then squeezing the whole wire affair inward with your hand would cause the individual "e" loops to widen enough to insert rounds into them. Releasing the inward pressure would cause the "e" wraps to constrict into the brass casings extractor grooves. This might be an easy and inexpensive solution to custom moon clips.
Such a spring wire arrangement might even allow the loaded rounds to fit into a speed loader. I imagine the wire loops could just hug the sides of the brass casings until the speed loader pushed the rounds through it and into the cylinder.
Finally, when finished shooting, the ejector would have the "e" wrapped wire to push on for simultaneous extraction of the rounds.
Bill