ACP Revolver

Status
Not open for further replies.
I skipped reading alot of this just so I could quickly throw out my 2 cents.

If you want a new revolver for shotshells, I'd go .410. Luckily S&W makes one that does 45 ACP, Colt and 410 other than just the Judge's 45/410.

If you want a 45acp revolver, I'd try the Blackhawk 45 convertible. If it locks up, just keep cranking that hammer and it'll turn over. Bad advice, but whatever haha
 
2 1/2" .410 shot shells are plenty for snakes ! There is nothing wronf with any Taurus .410 revolver that I have seen. My two taurus .410s , both stainless ones, one a Public defender 2.5" and one a early Judge 3" I both bought used and they are nice. The Public defender even is real accurate with .45 Long Colt bullets ! I have a friend with the S&W Govenor.410 revolver and frankly I'd rather have the Public Defender. But the .45 Auto Rim cartidge cases with the Speer .45 shot capsule with #6 thru #9 shot work pretty well to 25 feet on rats, gophers or snakes in my 1917s , they don't have the improved bore sizing and treatment of a real shot revolver tho and the patterns get donut shaped at 7 yards.
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/876912761
 
Last edited:
None of the rimless shotshell ammo will run flawlessly in a revolver, which means if you want a revolver for shot, you're stuck with rimmed options only. Unless size/weight is of utmost importance, I would skip .38/.357, not enough shot and stick with the big bore .44 and .45.

You know, if you don't already have a revolver, this is the perfect reason to get a .410 handgun. CCI shotshells aren't cheap and you can get 3 inch .410 shells with literally double the amount of shot for half the price.

Ive got a 45LC/.410 pistol already... But its an American Derringer with a 3" barrel, including chamber and its a beech to shoot accurately, or comfortably. And midway just sold out of 44 spl shotshells dang it.

I may have a contender barrel too. Cant remember. I have like 10 of em. If i could find any 44 hotshot ammo, id use it!

Maybe ill just tote around the stevens 22-410 in rattler country.
 
There is no more .44 Hotshot ammo, for a long time ! If your barrel is rifled- surprise the shorter the better for shot loads ! So your American Derringer .45LC can also shoot .44 special shotshells ? Interesting ! One of those Ammerican Derringers for 2 1/2" .410 shot shells sounds ideal as snake defense. I have one but load it with .45 LC 225 grain hollow points, it is pretty safe to carry with the cross bolt safety , but heavy. They are very well made, I shoot a .38 one in cowboy action .
 
There is no more .44 Hotshot ammo, for a long time ! If your barrel is rifled- surprise the shorter the better for shot loads ! So your American Derringer .45LC can also shoot .44 special shotshells ? Interesting ! One of those Ammerican Derringers for 2 1/2" .410 shot shells sounds ideal as snake defense. I have one but load it with .45 LC 225 grain hollow points, it is pretty safe to carry with the cross bolt safety , but heavy. They are very well made, I shoot a .38 one in cowboy action .

The trigger on my derringer has about a 27lb pull. Its horrendous. And it sure is a pain in the palm to shoot. But it looks cool!

No, the 44spl shotshells were for a M720 Rossi. Thats a perfect snake gun.

Yeah, the hotshot has been gone longer than Ive been shooting... But I have the barrel for my contender, with the screw on straight rifled choke thing. I stared aimlessly at the choke wrench for years until finding a thread here saying the choke could be unscrewed. Then it all clicked and i knew what it was for haha!

If i recall, starline makes a 45 cal case that is basically a super long 45C case. I wonder if I could come up with a way to star crimp those for shot...? A modified .410 shell crimp may work. Hmmm

410 is probably my favorite overall cartridge for the bore's versatility: bird shot, goose shot, or slugs will take care of almost everything in NA and much of the world. But ive never been a fan of the Taurus Judge. I love the concept, but not the end result. Or maybe its that every tom, dick, and harry, has one. Id love a SAA Colt type revolver designed precisely for 410 shotshells with a 5 or so inch smoothbore barrel. This has me thinking maybe a 460sw x frame could be used, though thats a little large for convenient carry. Now if we could get Aguila to make mini 410 shells, we might have something for an average large frame revolver. But alas, im just rambling now!
 
I just looked up the judge for ships and giggles. The public defender looks better than the original, but the Raging Judge looks like what id want in a 410 revolver. Too bad its twice the price... Tempting still, and my birthday was yesterday and I havent bought myself a gift yet... Some beech, did i just talk myself into a trip to cabelas?!
 
The trigger on my derringer has about a 27lb pull. Its horrendous. And it sure is a pain in the palm to shoot. But it looks cool!

No, the 44spl shotshells were for a M720 Rossi. Thats a perfect snake gun.

Yeah, the hotshot has been gone longer than Ive been shooting... But I have the barrel for my contender, with the screw on straight rifled choke thing. I stared aimlessly at the choke wrench for years until finding a thread here saying the choke could be unscrewed. Then it all clicked and i knew what it was for haha!

If i recall, starline makes a 45 cal case that is basically a super long 45C case. I wonder if I could come up with a way to star crimp those for shot...? A modified .410 shell crimp may work. Hmmm

410 is probably my favorite overall cartridge for the bore's versatility: bird shot, goose shot, or slugs will take care of almost everything in NA and much of the world. But ive never been a fan of the Taurus Judge. I love the concept, but not the end result. Or maybe its that every tom, dick, and harry, has one. Id love a SAA Colt type revolver designed precisely for 410 shotshells with a 5 or so inch smoothbore barrel. This has me thinking maybe a 460sw x frame could be used, though thats a little large for convenient carry. Now if we could get Aguila to make mini 410 shells, we might have something for an average large frame revolver. But alas, im just rambling now!

https://www.sagesoutdoors.com/shotwads/
I just ordered a 44 shotshell wad kit from these guys. I got the metal/fiber kit and some #9 shot. They offer several calibers and good prices. Should be here monday, I'll let you know how it works.
 
I found this in an older American Handgunner circa 2011 :
"Shooters of .45 ACP revolvers have available all the vast array of that caliber’s factory ammo, plus the few .45 Auto Rim loads still around. But here’s a tip: CCI’s .45 ACP shotshells warned, “Do Not Fire In Revolvers.” I took that as a personal challenge and did so. A wooden mallet was required to hammer open the cylinder of my rare and valuable Model 1950 Army!"
 
I have a S&W 1917 and only shoot .45 ACP through it. Snake shot might not foul the rifling, but I stick to what the IMG_0232.JPG gun was meant for. If snakes or other critters are a problem the .410/.45 Colt revolver is the way to go.
 
Somewhere around he I have a few shotshells in 45 ACP that are not CCI.
The brass is crimped and it looks like a shotgun shell.
They are probably 40 years old.
If I happen to run across them I'll post a picture

I had a buddy several years ago who made .45acp shot loads from .308 brass.

The base has almost identical dimensions, and the length of the cartridge allows one to cut and crimp up around the charge of shot.

I didn't learn how to do this, but one thing I did learn is that a .45acp revolver is an excellent choice for shot loads because of the un-aggressive rifling profile of the .45acp.
 
I just looked up the judge for ships and giggles. The public defender looks better than the original, but the Raging Judge looks like what id want in a 410 revolver. Too bad its twice the price... Tempting still, and my birthday was yesterday and I havent bought myself a gift yet... Some beech, did i just talk myself into a trip to cabelas?!
The Raging Judge is built to shoot .454 Casull. There's a reason it costs twice as much.
 
Just wanted to update with the info on the 45acp shotshells using 45lc capsules

Snapchat-2016991023.jpg
The shotshell using #8 weighed a little less than 160gns on average. I loaded it over 6.5 gns of Unique at an oal of 1.521" with a CCI 300 primer in Starline brass.

I also loaded some 44 mag shotshells with the wad kit from Sage's Outdoors tonight.
Used 6.8 gns of Unique(per speer manual) with a CCI 300 in Starline brass. The case held ~143.5 gns of #9 shot. Which was pretty much the volume of a 1.6cc Lee dipper.
I loaded 3 with the aluminum gascheck over the shot and 2 with the fiber wads. The aluminum was a little tricky to seat evenly, but are supposed to hold up better under recoil if loaded along with other normal rounds. Both are sealed with clear nail polish. After I test them I'll let you know what kind of performance they have.

Snapchat-1136676027.jpg
 
If you have problems with them coming apart under recoil, apply a roll crimp over the top wad.
Yeah, these have a slight roll crimp applied. I was just reiterating what the manufacturer of the kit said about the aluminum vs fiber top wad. I hope to test them this weekend and see how well they work and hold up.
 
Well I rummaged through the pistol ammo cabinet and found 20 pistol shotshell handloads using the speer capsules. Great! I can carry a pistol on my vacation to rattler country. The bad news... Its for my 2nd largest pistol, an interarms Virginia Dragoon in 44 mag! Nothing like carrying 3 lbs on your hip!

They look like 7.5 shot or so.
 
It looks like the OP found an alternate solution, but I'll just point out that Ruger also makes .45LC/.45ACP convertibles for both the Blackhawk and Vaquero.
 
Tried the Sage Outdoors kit shot shells today. Wasn't really impressed compared to the capsules. Out to about 6-7' they work well enough. I shot a couple of clays and they were pretty much disintegrated. Beyond that the pattern opens considerably. At 10'-12' the clay was peppered and stayed together. gaps in shot were around 1", not dense enough of a pattern in my opinion.
I'm going to play around with them some more and do some better testing, but not really impressed with the first impression.
 
Tried the Sage Outdoors kit shot shells today. Wasn't really impressed compared to the capsules. Out to about 6-7' they work well enough. I shot a couple of clays and they were pretty much disintegrated. Beyond that the pattern opens considerably. At 10'-12' the clay was peppered and stayed together. gaps in shot were around 1", not dense enough of a pattern in my opinion.
I'm going to play around with them some more and do some better testing, but not really impressed with the first impression.

Any idea why? I wonder when the shot actually leaves the capsule and if that has anything to do with pattern. I wonder if chopping up a .410 plastic wad would help with the sage kit.

6-7 feet would be plenty sufficient as a snake killer. If its farther away, I likely don't have a need to shoot it.
 
Any idea why? I wonder when the shot actually leaves the capsule and if that has anything to do with pattern. I wonder if chopping up a .410 plastic wad would help with the sage kit.

6-7 feet would be plenty sufficient as a snake killer. If its farther away, I likely don't have a need to shoot it.
Not sure, i don't know if the fiber wad imparts more spin than the capsule? But I wouldn't think it would.
I agree with the second part. They're plenty for field carry. They'll work in close quarters if you're in a precarious situation or don't have away around. I was just surprised they opened up so fast, out of such a short barrel.
 
v8stang289. Can you
Please advise me on shot cap, I filled them with 7 1/2 shot till they wouldn’t rattle and in thinking how brittle they these capsules are should I take out three bb’s to make room for Swedging process?
 
v8stang289. Can you
Please advise me on shot cap, I filled them with 7 1/2 shot till they wouldn’t rattle and in thinking how brittle they these capsules are should I take out three bb’s to make room for Swedging process?
You should be fine like that, that's basically what I did. But you can take a few out if you want, it shouldnt hurt anything
 
I've shot them with full moon clips, the 1/3rd clips, and without. Same results with all three.

I'm guessing it's the aluminum case that is causing the problem. Years ago I tried shooting some CCI Blaser 357 mag through a Vaquero and the first fired round would lock up the cylinder
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top