Shot loads in Revolver

[Supercracker]

Hi guys,

I have a .44 Colt Navy rep that I got from Cabelas. I was curious, has anyone ever tried to put together a shot load for it. Kind of like black powder rat shot.

I was thinking that would be a fun way to eliminate some of the rats I have running around. Maybe even skwerls, if they're close.

Maybe 20gr of fffg-leather wad-little bit of #8 shot-leather wad

I'm gonna try it later but I wanted to run it by you lot first. See if maybe there's some reason not to do it that I, in my inexperience, don't see.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

After about 8 feet the shot spreads out and swirls in the direction of the rifling. Up really close it works well on pests, that's why CCI makes it for center fire revolvers. You DO have to clean the rifling good though to get all of the soft lead out of it by using a lead remover like Shooters Choice, which is also good on plastics.

Dave

 

[Supercracker]

Yeah. I figured that about the rifling making the pattern ridiculous. I need to figure out what the twist is in the pistol. My rifle is 1/48 and it does pretty good with a shot load. Killed a couple of squirrels yesterday.

Regardless, I'm gonna just try it out soon and see what happens. Would have today but I got in a hurry and forgot the bring shot with me.

 

[rafterob]

It'll pattern as mentioned above, but what I goofed around with...small shot cartridges in cigarette paper. Roll around a dowel, fold over one end and then glue it. Put your shot in and twist the end. Put flat end in against the powder. I would make two out of 1 standard cigarette paper. The 6 shots would make up for a poor pattern :wink:

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Let us know how you do.

Dave

 

[Supercracker]

It'll pattern as mentioned above, but what I goofed around with...small shot cartridges in cigarette paper. Roll around a dowel, fold over one end and then glue it. Put your shot in and twist the end. Put flat end in against the powder. I would make two out of 1 standard cigarette paper. The 6 shots would make up for a poor pattern :wink:

Good idea. I could even roll in the leather wad on the bottom.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

There is not much room in the chamber for powder, wad, shot and top wad or shot container. The shot container would have to be pretty tough and pretty tight to hold up under recoil. Experimenting is always fun but this sounds like an exercise in frustration. :shake:

 

[poordevil]

A long time ago in Guns & Ammo Phil Spangnberger made some shot loads in C&B using the brass/copper gas checks for centerfire revolvers. Powder, gas check, shot, gas check. It seemed to work OK

P

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

I wonder if it's available on the internet?

Old Phil would only write about something if he got it to work :thumbsup:

Dave

 

[bkovire]

this is a option, bbs for 410 shell, divide into 6 equ parts , load 25gr powder, wade, bbs, wade,wax on top,use beeswax.good for snakes, rats, or 10' range, some thing to try, never did this yet in my 44, but when i was out n' about with old friends, that is what we carried with us, did a fine job on snakes,i'm sure it would work on rats. you could also use bore butter too, beeswax was a pain to clean, the felt was 1/8" thick.

 

[m-g willy]

After getting a Walker and looking at that looooong cylinder I had the same idea about testing it with shot.
Cut some leather wads then sealed the load with wax.
Stood about 15 feet from barn door and let er rip!
I think I could have got a better shot pattern if I would have put the load in a plastic bag and hit it with a baseball bat!!
If I could find a extra barrel to drill out to a smooth bore (cheap) I might try shot loads again.
But with the rifled barrel it ain't worth messing with.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

That Walker is just like mine! It's got a 9" barrel, not a 7 1/2 or shorter. The longer the tube, the more rifling gets to play with the test load. Loose shot just spins outta control.

Dave

 

[pargent]

Try lubed wads,one over the powder & another ontop of the shot.

 

[Darkgael]

I'm very curious now about trying this in a BP gun. I have had success with shot loads in cartridge pistols.
I had always been of the opinion that the rifling would disrupt the pattern and make it useless. Such was not the case with loads from my .44.
Here's a picture of one pattern - pretty much representative. It was shot at 5 yards. It is dense enough to be effective at a longer distance.
My little .36 cal BP revolver doesn't hold enough shot to make it worthwhile. But a big .44 might be just the ticket.

Pete

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Decent pattern. How much shot, how much of a charge, what size shot?? Inquiring minds want to know!

Dave

 

[Darkgael]

It was 7 1/2 lead shot in a Speer shot capsule. There were 205 shot in the capsule, about 9/16ths of an ounce.
I am away from my loadbooks and do not recall the powder or the charge. Probably Unique or Red Dot.
Pete

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Yeah, looks like more than half an ounce!

Dave

 

[Supercracker]

Ok, got to try it today. At 8' away the pattern was about 3' wide. lol

Not good for much.

If I could come up with a spare barrel for it I could bore it out to smoothbore and bore a cylinder to match whatever it ended up at. It would have to be a real good deal on the barrel though.

 

[fraungie]

what if you made small paper cylinders and filled them with shot? I made these for my 20 ga shot gun. I used a post it. I wrapped it aroung a dowel rod a little smaller in dia than the bore. It held the shot together too well. It all stayed together as one lump out to about 50 yds then it opened up. Experiment with different types of paper and a different amount of wraps.Blackpowder has so mant facets.

 

[Supercracker]

It's the rifling that messes it up. It spins the load of shot and makes it come out of the muzzle at an angle rather than straight out.

I don't think making a shot pack would help much.