[Gabe]

Has anyone made 44 Mag cases from cut down 303 British cases? It struck me the case diameter of the 303 is right between the 44 Rem Mag and 444 Marlin and have identical case length with the Marlin. (coincidence?)

The 303 rim would have to be trimmed a little, but should otherwise make a good match.

[Pappy John]

You must have a ton of free .303 brass lying around or waaay too much time on your hands....or both.:D :D

[Jim Watson]

Second Pappy.
I have read of them being used to make cylinder length shotshells, though.

[Mike Irwin]

.303 is also good for a couple of obsolete American calibers of Old West fame.

IIRC one is the .40-60 Winchester...

[Gewehr98]

To make 6.5x53R Dutch Mannlicher brass, too. Lots of work, I went with .30-40 Krag brass later on.

I suppose, if you have the time and money, you could make .44 Magnum brass from .444 Marlin, too. :D

[Rangegod]

This thread reminded me of a time many years ago when both money and 44 Magnum brass were in short supply. But, due to an 8-year involvement with the military, I had plenty of 45 ACP brass. I found it was not too difficult using a Rock Chucker and steel dies to form working 44 cases from the 45 ACPs. Of course these were loaded light but it did provide me with a cheep source of brass.

JAC

[Gewehr98]

How did you put a rim on the .45 ACP brass, and make it .44 Magnum length?:what:

[CMcDermott]

Isn't that how Elgin Gates made the first 445 SuperMag's - cutting 303 brass down to 1.6" case length?

[Edward429451]

I have read of them being used to make cylinder length shotshells, though.

I've not done this with .303 brass but I've made 45 ACP shotshells from cutdown reformed .308 brass. They're actually pretty cool. Something to play around with. The 45ACP SS brass comes out looking just like the CCI SS's they sell but are reloadable. I use a 410 shotgun wad trimmed to the case mouth. The powder charge is pretty critical with mine, too little and it stovepipes, too much and it blows through the wad and distorts the pattern. I'm almost there I think, I only had one stovepipe out of the last batch.

How do they say to do the .44's? Wad? Gaschecks? Data? C'mon man, quit holding out.:D I think the speer plastic cups are a little pricey anyway, and them Ruger cylinders are longer than the plastic cups when seated so it would be even a bigger payload...:)

Kewl.:cool:

[Rangegod]

Gewehr98

When you size the 45 case walls in a 44 die the case rim stays the same size but the body is reduced. This creates a sufficient rim for revolver use. The case was not 44 Magnum length, as I said it was used for light (recreational) loads. Using the short cases was no different then using 44 American/44 Russian/44 Spl in the gun. This worked well in my S&W but I have read that some SA guns of the same time frame had problems with rim thickness causing misfires.

BTW, this was not an entirely original idea. I had read of some of the old timers (OMG I’ve become one!) using this trick to form 41 Mag in the early days of the cartridge when the brass was really hard to come by. They used two case formings 45 to 44 to 41; I just stooped at 44.

The funny thing is, as I get older I fine there are very few “new” ideas but many old tricks that must be relearned.

JAC