Bezoar:
A couple of advantages, IMO, which is why I like revolvers in auto cartridges.
1) I like to have several guns, but just a few calibers. Simpler to stock (esp. for people like me, whose stock is generally NOT a basement full of ammo) in that it's more convenient to have 1000 rounds of 9mm (for instance) which will be used in a few autoloaders and a revolver than to have 3 kinds of ammunition in smaller quantities to feed each of them.
If you have a personal bunker, and enough ammo to do complex arbitrage with small South American countries, this argument holds less weight
It would be *nice* in a sense to have plenty of time, money and space to have a dozen or more ammo types well stocked, but I don't at the moment.
2) I like the .45ACP cartridge -- I won't start a religious war over the best ammo type in the world, because it's not that I *dislike* any particular other caliber, there's plenty of love to go around
-- and it's a pleasant intermediate cartridge; more oomph than 9mm or 38sp, noticeably less than a normal or hot .357 load. So, at least in my 625, I think that's a good reason
Btw, you mention the hassle of moonclips. I have some good news to report on that front; my moonclips were a frustrating disaster for the first few times I used them, but they've become just a shade looser (and I've become a shade better at understanding the angles and pressures to actually get cartridges in and cases out) -- the last time I loaded and unloaded it was nearly pleasant
Once they're loaded up, moonclips are really great -- I wish I could reload an autopistol so quickly! I resorted to profanity, violence, and leather gloves the first few times I loaded / unloaded them -- was convinced either my moonclips or my ammo were defective (or at least cursed). Now, I'd say it's about as difficult (that is, the same amount of hand-muscle force) as loading a typical autopistol magazine, but it doesn't get harder with each round, but rather easier.
(There's a gun design I saw the other day, in a book I did not purchase, which reminds me of this a bit; it's an autopistol where one grip panel comes off to reveal the mag area; the cartridges are laid in there, then the spring beneath is tensioned (I think in the process of re-attaching the grip panel), so there's no tedious thumbing-down-pressing-in reloading process.)
Cheers,
timothy
