.410 cut shells out of a 45 Colt

[cfullgraf]

In addition to the problem with loading the case, my Judge has just a trace of rifleing, just enough to not be a short-barrel shotgun; it still throws a really crappy pattern. I have heard the pattern described as "bagel shaped". Outside of bad breath distance, it is almost useless. Why bother?

Several years ago, I saw a program reviewing the Judge. The Taurus guys were hitting clay targets on a skeet field. If I remember correctly, they did move the stations in a little but still that would be some bad breath if detected at the distances they were shooting at.

 

[cfullgraf]

I go a different direction. I use .45colt cases to load .410 shells.
Mostly grits or walnut hull to shoot carpenter bees.

All this talk about carpenter bees and that i have my annual bumper crop of them, I decided to try some bee target sport.

Besides experimenting with the various 45 Colt loads, I have some brass .410 hulls. The brass .410 hulls carry twice as much walnut media as the 45 Colt cases.

The brass .410 hulls work well in my Bond Arms 45 Colt/.410 Derringer.

 

[35 Whelen]

Recently picked up a Pietta 1873 in 45 Colt. Been learning about this round, and was wondering if anyone has tried .410 shells, cut to the same length as a 45 Colt? Either with shot buck, or slugs? What would be the safety concerns of attempting this? Am I mistaken the .410 is a little lower psi than a 45 Colt?

I like the way you think...outside the box! But like someone else mentioned, the .410 case, although it would work, wouldn't be the best candidate.

I tote a 45 Colt (Vaquero) quite a bit and since we have quite a healthy population of rattlesnakes, make my own shotshells. (What's the fun in buying them?)

In order to save my 45 Colt brass I reformed some 44-40 brass (don't own one) and use it, but 45 Colt brass works fine too. Seems like I used 5.0 or 6.0 grs. of Bullseye. Midway was out of capsules so I cut over powder discs out of plastic coffee can lids.



I didn't trust the discs to hold the shot in under the recoil of the adjacent bulleted cartridges, so I crimped a round ball over the #9 shot. Win/win!

This target was fired at 20'. As can be seen the ball hit a little low in the center, and the shot spread is plenty ample.



Here's another. I was aiming at the "B":



Have fun looking for a load!

35W

 

[Jim Watson]

Thanks, w. wily. Good to have it confirmed that I have not gone off my rocker as defined by Internet Timidity.

My collection of Handloaders Digest was lost in the Incident and fire of 2010.

 

[joem1945]

I will not be doing that in my Colt SAA, ever!!

 

[35 Whelen]

I will not be doing that in my Colt SAA, ever!!

Doing what?

 

[kBob]

Wow. that bulleted shot load works a LOT better than an undersized ball dumped in with the small shot.

Way to go.

-kBob