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Old 12-05-2011, 01:17 PM
TSQUARED TSQUARED is offline
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Andy,
The old American Rifleman article used a case shortened from 308 Winchester brass using dies made by RCBS. At that time they stated the loads should not be used in revolvers since there was insufficient pressure to force the fired case back on the recoil shield. The resulting primer portrussion thus tended to jam the revolver. Have you had any similar expereince with your shotshells?
Tony
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy Griffith View Post
I have done it, but not quite the way some people have done it.

The good thing about using a 625 or any revolver is that a case can be made that can hold shot all the way to the front of the cylinder, and no special forming dies are needed, but you will need a .44 mag/special die set in addition to the .45 ACP die set.

Let me see if I can find my pictures.

Ah...here is one, although it is a bit out of focus....


I tried it with .308 brass first, but I've had better luck with .243 brass, as it seems to fit the moonclips much easier. By easier, I mean I could eventually get them in there! Check any of the brass that you may use for fitment on your moonclips first, as most will be very tight, and will make loading later much harder.

Trim back the rifle cases to a length so that they are just shorter than the front of the cylinder- maybe a tenth of an inch. If it's junk brass that won't be used over once, don't anneal it, but if you plan on reloading it again, anneal it. Then run it through the .45ACP sizing die. For the next step, have the cylinder handy from your revolver- you'll have to run it up into the .44 Magnum sizer so that the top part of the case is sized down far enough so that the case will go into the cylinder all the way, and the "shoulder" stops the case from going in any farther.

Once this is done, do all the cases the same and you are ready to load them with powder, wads and shot. I used the same powder load data that is used for the CCI capsules, but I put a .44 caliber wonder wad over the powder, and fill the rest of the case with shot and top it off with a .410 overshot wad that I use for loading .410 brass shells. I use some of the wife's fingernail polish to seal the overshot wad in with. I figure I'm throwing over twice the amount of shot the capsules do, and I have a much more sturdy case too.

If you partner one of the blank forming dies from CH4D and crimp the end so it looks like .22 crimped shot, you'll have a tough shot cartridge indeed!
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