I'm going to try making some .45 acp shotshells. I'm starting with .45 Win Mag brass. I've run some up into a .41 mag die to where they fit just right into my .45 acp case gauge. I have the over powder wads and the over shot wads made. It looks like they will hold right at 140 grains on No. 12 shot. Does anybody know of a good starting load to try. I'm thinking about using bullseye or W231 but have a lot of other powders as well.
Making .45 acp shotshells
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johnnyflake
Member
I hate to make suggestions, on amounts of powder to use, when there is an unknown. However, in my humble opinion, if you proceed, I would think that a low end/starting charge of a standard .45acp load would be safe enough.
I have made my own for .45 Colt and used a low end charge of Trail Boss and it worked out very well.
I have made my own for .45 Colt and used a low end charge of Trail Boss and it worked out very well.
Ed Harris designed this load
Here is a link to a forum where Ed answered this and more about loading 45ACP shotshells:
https://www.shootersforum.com/handgun-cartridges/5366-45-acp-shotshell-loads.html
Here is a link to a forum where Ed answered this and more about loading 45ACP shotshells:
https://www.shootersforum.com/handgun-cartridges/5366-45-acp-shotshell-loads.html
That is some interesting data. Never knew there was such a "load" I gather they will actually cycle a 45 acp slide?
Years ago I made so some with cut down & neck sized .308 cases fitted to fill the cylinder of my 625 in 45 acp & loaded in moon clips. Loaded with with 5 grs. of WW231 and "lots" of #9's with cardboard under wad & gas check over wad.....Wasn't very efficient....Abandoned project.
I've got some I made last year in 44mag,45 colt and 38 spl.Havent seen a rattler since,very effective [emoji1][emoji1]
johnnyflake
Member
I am confused? If it is 45 ACP why do you use other caliber brass? Is the brass longer to take the place of a bullet or the plastic shot shell, like in factory revolver types?
I'm using the longer brass so it will hold more shot. I'm necking it down to mimic a .45 acp with a bullet. A regular .45 acp will hold around 100 grains of shot. This one will hold around 140 grains.
RM Vivas
US Veteran
I've experimented with this quite a bit in my younger days.
First off, an RCBS shotshell die set for .45ACP makes life a lot easier!
You're probably spending to much on the brass by using .45 Win Mag; pretty much anything with a .45ACP sized base will work. that's the vast majority of non-magnum rimless rifle brass: .30-06, .270, .308, .257 Roberts, 8mm Mauser, 7m Mauser, etc. The shorter the parent/donor case is, the thinner the case walls will be at the business end, which is what you want. Most folks use .308 brass.
You're going to be dealing with very low pressure round, so you cane even use brass that would have been scrapped for high pressure stuff. I used to use Israeli .308 blank ammo brass.
I would never encourage you to do anything unlawful but be aware that your patterns will suck because of the rifling However, if you have a shotout barrel with almost no rifling left, you'd get better patterns. You definitely should not take an old worn out shot nearly smooth barrel and run a lap and lapping compound down it to make it smoothbore. That would be a very effective but illegal way to get good groups. Would put you into the sawed off shotgun category.
johnnyflake
Member
That really looks good. Should turn a snake into hamburger at that range!
The pattern is pretty consistent. This was at 10 feet.
It feeds fine from the magazine put did not eject completely. I decided to go with some cut down 410 wads. It holds right at 110 grains of shot.
Very nice, I'm researching this topic at the moment. I saw a couple ways of containing the shots. One with the paper card board cut out and one with the 410 wad. The paper cut out seems to go with the home made method where a 41 magnum die is used to form the top. The 410 wad is used with dedicated shotshell die set. My question is, can the 410 wad be used with the home made method? I suspect the base of the wad is too big to squeeze in the case for the home made method therefore a paper cut out is used. After making my 45acp, I plan to shot a clay target coming out of the station 7 low house on the skeet field. I think given the pattern shown, I believe the 45 acp shotshell will break the target. Any comments are much appreciated.
Thanks in advance
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The .410 wad works just fine with the .41 mag version. You can actually see on the target where the wad hit. It slips right in. I got better patterns with the wad. I tried to crimp with the .45 acp bullet seater die but it was too narrow. I then tried the .500 S&W seater die and it worked perfect. I made the overshot wad out of a gallon plastic water bottle. Using a necked down case that was chucked in my drill press. It cut right through the plastic after putting a heavy chamfer on the case. I did this because I wanted an all weather round without using any type of glue.
I had ejection problems with the case hanging up in the ejection port. Increasing the powder charge slightly didn't make a noticeable difference. I believe it was due to the casing being too long. I may shorten one just a little to see if that helps. They did feed fine from the magazine. Although for my purpose ejection isn't necessary it would be icing on the cake.
I just ordered some 10mm Magnum brass and hope to work on a 10mm shotshell in the next week or so.
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If you're using 45acp Magnum brass, it's 1.20" long, which will work in some guns, but not most. That length causes the case mouth to crash upwardly into the barrel hood and deform. I've trimmed mine to 1.195" and the problem was solved. According to C.E. Harris, 6.2 gr of WW 231 is the ultimate powder charge for this load when using the 410 wads.
Thank you for that information. I will give that a try. I had suspected that might be the problem. I started at 5.0 grains of WW231 and worked up to 6.0 grains. I will try the 6.2 grains.
It's understandable a longer case can cause ejection problem. What is the minimum overall length? Reason I ask is that while waiting for the dies to arrive, I've been cutting up 308 brass. Most of them are in the 1.18 to 1.19 range. I have a few that are1.16.
How about annealing? I think it is a good thing to do. Question is : annealing before or after the neck forming?
Thanks
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Some good reading
Here's the article from Handloader 80 magazine published in 1979. The author, claims a case length of 1.9" is maximum. I guess it's dependant on your individual gun. This will answer many of your questions and helps to get the most from this fun project:
Handloader #80 45 ACP Shot Shell
I have several more articles on this subject but not all are jpgs that I can post. The original by C.E. Harris, a member here, was first printed in the American Rifleman and then added to the NRA's 45 ACP manual. I will try to digitize them for those who are interested,
Arthur
Here's the article from Handloader 80 magazine published in 1979. The author, claims a case length of 1.9" is maximum. I guess it's dependant on your individual gun. This will answer many of your questions and helps to get the most from this fun project:
Handloader #80 45 ACP Shot Shell
I have several more articles on this subject but not all are jpgs that I can post. The original by C.E. Harris, a member here, was first printed in the American Rifleman and then added to the NRA's 45 ACP manual. I will try to digitize them for those who are interested,
Arthur
