.44 Mag Shot Shells?

Speer makes shot capsules in .38/.357, .44 and .45 Colt. They make loading shot in those calibers much easier than the other methods. I've used quite a few of the .38/.357 capsules when I lived in the desert. They were ideal for Mojave Green and Sidewinder rattlesnakes, but the range is very limited.

The smaller the shot, the better your chance of hitting something with a shotshell from a rifled pistol. I used #9 shot in mine and still have a few of them. I've never used them in .44, so I can't really comment on how effective they might be in that caliber, but my guess is they would be better than the .38's.

I've never fired them from a rifle, so I don't know how well they would work. The flat capsule probably wouldn't feed very well and there is always the possibility of the capsule breaking under the pressure of the magazine spring, causing a mess in the magazine tube with all that loose shot. They could be used single shot, but I don't have any idea what kind of pattern you would get. You might order some and find out.

Hope this helps.

Fred

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=292402&t=11082005

There's loading data right on/in the box, all you need is some shot, you're in business.

I always have my 629 in the truck during deer season and stoke it with homebrewed shot loads utilizing gas checks.

I seat one check in the normal fashion on top of a charge of 6.0 of BE, fill the remainder of the case with #9s. (have used shot as large as 7.5 with good results) I then dribble liquid alox on top of the shot and seat an INVERTED cup on top and apply a fairly aggressive crimp to hold the concotion together.

Works like a charm, leading is minimal and it'l smoke a large rattlesnake. As an aside, I had a friend "smoke" a camp destroying black bear with one and he said my loads worked a hulluva lot better than the commercial stuff....go figure!! Personally, I gotta believe he buried one of those gas checks in Mr. Bruins postier!

I never cared much for the plastic shot cups as I had several crack and lose the shot. They work OK but I just like cobbling up my own version.

It's also possible to make shotshells for the .44 by using cut down .303 British brass. I got some in a trade that were done by an old gentleman who was a real tinkerer. You cut them so they're just short of the end of the cylinder and fire form them. Then use gaschecks as noted above. It holds a lot more shot that way.

I've made shotshells for the .41 Magnum by using .30-30 brass cut off. It also works well, but you have to fireform the brass before the first loading with shot. I was able to use .410 shot wads in those.

Hope this helps.

Fred

CCI shot-caps will be the easiest & best route to take. They prevent bore contact with the shot, so leading will not be a problem with them.

They work very well at close range for snakes, etc. out of a short handgun, but patterns will get worse in long barrel handguns, or especially rifles due to the rifling spin throwing the shot charge apart as soon as it exits the muzzle.

Hunting anything with them would not be such a good idea, unless you are hunting rats in a barn or something.


rcmodel

A couple of Interesting Thoughts

Well, actually HUNTING with shot caps in a .44 mag isn't something I'd do for sport - that's sort of a 'survivalist' question. Sure, they're great for snakes that are way too close, and good enough for the occasional rat in the barn where you don't want the 240-grain slug problem, but for "hunting," remember that you're way outgunned by a kid with a .410.

As far as shot is concerned, assuming you want to play with this just for the fun of it (I do stuff like that, many handloaders do ) remember to please use LEAD shot, not steel.... your question about bore damage wasn't answered. Lead may cause "leading," (well... it IS lead) but I wouldn't go trying to use even the mild steel shot in my revolver especially not my favorite M629.

Have fun, stay safe.

I make shells using 44 mag cases. You'll need .429 gas checks, fast powder and small (#9) shot

Prime and drop in a light load of fast powder (I use 5gr of WST).

Using another 44 case (sharpen the mouth edges to get a clean cut), punch wads out of light card stock. Drop the wad on top of the powder

Fill near top with shot. You'll want to fill to the point where you can drop the gas check "cup side up" ontop of the shot and have the mouth and check level. I've also tried this cup down, and they didn't stay together very well.

Next, heavy roll crimp the loaded shell to lock everything together. This takes a bit of practice and wiggling the shot so the gas check stays flat and level. You can also seal the shotshell with some nail polish or wax for use in wet conditions.

Great snake medicine, but have never tried it in a lever gun. Certainly wouldn't load the tube with them as they could come apart. Plastic shells are too brittle for this as well.

I fired a Speer .44 Magnum (factory) shotshell load at the indoor range just last week. Results:

At six feet away, fired from a Model 29 with a six inch barrel, the pattern was six inches across. Density was enough to kill a snake.

Hmmm. I have made .44 shotshells for use in various revolvers for many years. Like dogrunner, I use gas checks, but with a couple of differences.

All handgun shotshells are severely limited in their shot capacity. I wanted to get the maximum shot capacity in the days before the shot containers (Speer and later Thomson/Center) were available. I also wanted to use a shot cup to prevent leading, and no shot container like the Speer, because those sometimes don't break up properly, preventing the shot from spreading. To do that, I made "cylinder length" cases by shortening .30-40 Krag cases and then turning down the rims and the web of the case, just above the rim, so that they would chamber in a standard length .44 cylinder. I also had to thin the rim 0.005" so that the cylinder would close and turn, and that also made the primer pocket 0.005" shallower so that a large pistol primer would fit, rather than a large rifle primer. Since this operation requires a lathe, it isn't for the casual experimenter.

I made the cases about 0.100" shorter than the cylinder length, to leave 0.100" for the top gas check. The top gas check only sticks out about 0.050" beyond the case length when they are loaded as described below, but I leave a bit of a safety factor.

I have two sets of dies for reloading .44 shot shells. The first (and best) is an RCBS set, just labeled on the box, "44 MAG. SHOT SHELL 3 DIE SET." The Part No. is 55000, which doesn't mean much. That is just RCBS's part number that designates any custom made die set, and could refer to many different dies sets, at least as explained to me many years ago. That set works very well, as I will explain its use shortly. I suppose you could still order this die set from RCBS, but I haven't inquired about that.

The second is a "Shooters Accessory Supply shotshell die" which is a single die that performs all of the reloading operations. I can't find any contemporary information about "Shooters Accessory Supply." This die worked, but not as well as the RCBS set.

Long after I started making my own cases from .30-40 Krag cases, the .445 SuperMag was announced. I had to try one of those, and as soon as I saw the case, I thought, "Hey, this looks just like my hand made 'cylinder length' .44 Magnum shot cases!" And it did. So, I tried the .445 SuperMag cases, and they worked almost as well as the custom made cases. They were just a bit shorter, but not enough to matter. Starline still makes .445 SuperMag brass, so that is a good source for extended cases for .44 Magnum shot shells. I have never made cases for the .44 Magnum since the .445 SuperMag became available, although I have made .445 SuperMag cylinder length cases.

Obviously, the .445 SuperMag cases won't fit all the way into the cylinder. They have to be "necked down" at a point just at the length of the regular .44 Magnum case. The RCBS die set does that. After the cases are formed, the reloading die set can even be used to full-length size the cases for reloading, although I have never found such resizing necessary. We are dealing with very low pressures here!

Once you have proper cases, loading the shotshells is quite simple. I use a Redding turret press. First, prime the case, then charge it with your powder charge. (See dogrunners's powder charge above.) I then seat a regular .410 shot cup in the case and press it down on the powder with a dowel. The shot cup petals will extend out of the case by quite a bit. I mark the shot cup petals even with the case mouth with a felt tip marking pen, then pull the shot cup about 1/4" out of the case to trim it. Take a sharp pair of shears and trim the four petals off about 0.1" shorter than the marks. Nothing critical here, but I try to get them about 0.1" short of the mouth of the case. You might have to pull the shot cup up a bit more to make an even cut so that the shot cup petals, when pressed back into the case, will be about 0.1" below the case mouth. Don't spend too much time on this -- the exact length isn't critical. What you want is a shot cup shortened enough that it will contain most of the shot charge, but will not extend above the mouth of the case charged with shot to interfere with the crimp.

Now, fill the case with shot. After I have trimmed the shot cup and pressed it back down on the powder, I take the shell out of the press and place it on an aluminum pan, used to catch the excess shot. Then, just pour shot into the case until it is full and spills over a bit. The spilled shot will be caught in the aluminum pan, and you want a rounded heap on the top of the case mouth. You can't get too much, or it will just fall off. You don't want too little, or the gas check top seal won't seal properly, and will be pushed into the case in the crimping operation.

Once you have your charged case filled to a rounded heap in the case, move it back to the press and seat the top "wad". For a top wad, I use a Lyman 0.375" gas check, placed on top of the rounded shot heap with the open side down (towards the shot). Run the case into the RCBS crimp die, and it will crimp the Lyman gas check firmly on top of the case. You will need to adjust the crimp so that the mouth of the case crimps into the gas check about one-half way down the gas check. That is actually easier than it sounds! The shot column will press against the shot cup to keep it from going deeper into the case (that's why you put the rounded heap of shot in the case), and you can get a nice firm crimp.

I shoot these loads in several revolvers, and the recoil is very minimal. It doesn't force the shot forward in the cases still in the cylinder to loosen the crimp and tie up the cylinder. I do make it a point to never leave a shotshell in the gun while firing a bulleted load. There, the recoil is substantially more, and it would probably force the gas check forward and ruin the shot shell, as well as dumping shot in your gun where you don't want it. If I mix these shot shells with bulleted loads, I always put the shot shells first, and pull any shot loads that I'm not going to fire out of the gun before I shoot loads with bullets.

I also load the same shotshells for the .445 SuperMag, but for those, I still have to use the custom made cases, turned on the lathe, from .30-40 Krag brass. Actually, I haven't had to make cases for many years, because these cases last through many reloadings.

i use card wad cut from cereal boxes on the powder & on the end . i leave a little room 1/6" or less & push a card in then crimp ,then fill with waterproof carpenters glue . its held so far!!!!!
gas checks$$$!!!!!?????

GP100man

I sure see some interesting variations on this thread.....lemme add another.

Years back I acquired a .303 Savage takedown model that came with a mixed lot of cartridges. The shells were obviously as old as the rifle, but a few were a really interesting creation. I took them to be homebrewed, but....who knows. Anyway, the rear end of that long necked round had a deep circumferential narrow groove that acted as a stop for a sort of metal gas check. Shot followed that to the case mouth and it was subsequently fitted with a hard card wad and a heavy crimp. God only knows what the powder was, but it was a light charge with a filler.

Don't ask how they shot, as the primers were copper and likely corrosive and I sure wasn't going to run them thru a pristine bore. The shot charge was quite minimal but I guess it'd do for something like grouse or ptarmigan at very close range.

By the way, as the subject of leading was mentioned, I started using Lee's liquid alox and really reduced it in my gun as opposed to just straight shot alone.