Making 45acp shotshells (My Way)

[Seatex]

I'm still working on this, but here is where I'm at so far. The case is bottle-necked with a .400 Corbon sizing die. The .400 Corbon die necked down the .308 case with no problems, but left an outside diameter of .410 on the mouth of the case which probably will not allow a .410 shot wad to be used unless the neck is expanded. The case was trimmed to an overall length of 1.180 and I charged with 4.5 gr. of "Clays" (which is the closest powder on my shelf in burn rate to use). I placed an over powder wad cut from a corrugated shoe box. The case held 112 gr. of 7-1/2 shot. A single over shot wad made from the business card was used and held in place with clear fingernail polish. No roll crimp was used as none of my dies would work for that. The target was shot at a distance of 6 ft with a commander size 4.25" barrel 1911. This round will not cycle the slide, but seemed to pattern well at that distance. I will be picking up a bag of #10 shot so I can increase the grains of shot in the load and improve the pattern.

[Michael J. Spangler]

You guys are really going to make me do this huh?
Maybe next week. These would be cool for my 625 for pests
I wonder how they would work on frogs?

[GRUMPA]

Seatex, When I roll crimped mine I used a RCBS 45acp seater die with the round nose boolit seater, worked very well for me and produced fine results..

[Seatex]

Grumpa, thanks for the info, but all my dies are Lee and the .45 acp die I have wouldn't work. I did increase powder by .5 grains to 5.0 gr. of Clays and sealed with a thick layer of clear nail polish. I ended up with 113 grains of #8 shot and it cycled all 8 rounds in the magazine. As a side note since there is no roll crimp the only mag that worked was a Chip McCormick. I believe the angle of the follower allows the rounds to cycle.

[GRUMPA]

Maybe I should give that shorter length a try when I have the time, yours are almost .100 shorter than mine are.

[Michael J. Spangler]

Just sized a few cases down with an old dillon 38 super seating die. I tried my Hornady 40 cal sizing die and it did not want to go into the die. When I feel resistance with that much pressure I figure the next step is breaking something.

The OD of the sized portion of the case is .385 or so.

I'll have to mess with this more tomorrow. I would love to make a cool load for my revolver.
Has anyone used these in revolvers and make the cases a touch longer for a bigger payload? Maybe you can still use a 410 was but get more in there?

[GRUMPA]

It seems using the 410 shot cup in there takes up more space resulting in a smaller payload. I tried doing that years ago and I would rather have a heavier load without the shot cup myself and came up with forming my own.

[Michael J. Spangler]

Just finished up 2
I used 5 grains of bullseye. Cardboard wad. I fit about 135 grains of #8 shot and crimped a 30 gal gas check in the mouth.
I'm off from work this week so I can hopefully make a few more and try them out.

[freebullet]

This thread is inspiring & should be made a sticky if not already.

[Michael J. Spangler]

Banged out 6 more. They really go fast once you have the set up for them.

They look awesome in a moon clip for the S&W 625. Not the most consistent on the fill. I was just topping them off and crimping. The last 4 were nice. I think I got it right for a nice full and tight fitting gas check.

Woohoo

[smoked turkey]

Very nice work Michael. It looks like it is all business. I'd say the poison snakes best be on the lookout. I am anxious to see how they perform for you. I found as Grumpa did that for me having a bigger shot payload worked out a little better than using the plastic wad. Not by much. The plastic wad did give me a little tighter group. However the additional shot made up for it if that makes sense.

[Michael J. Spangler]

Thank you.

Good to hear on the payload.
When I used to shoot my smoothbore .56 cal I found that a lighter charge of powder and more shot made all the difference in pattern. It was moving a touch slower but you couldn't slip a chickadee in and of the holes in the pattern.

I wonder how much more room I have in the cylinder of the 625 to lengthen the shell a bit?

[Michael J. Spangler]

If anyone is looking to use these rounds with moon clips you should look for Hornady .308 match brass.
They slide into the moon clips as nice as 45 ACP.
I dug through half of my brass and found 7 Hornady 308 and 1 Hornady 270.
Woohoo!

[littlejack]

Hey to all of you snake charmers.
I have been following this thread since its beginning. I did not want to dive in until I had something to realistically add.
I received my lathe last August in 2012. My first pieces of work were the dies to make the 45 acp shot loads.
I got on the, net, and printed me off a copy of the old NRA article with all of the dimensions.
I made my sizer die depriming pin to also take out any crimp that didn't get straightened out from firing, and to bell the case mouth.
I checked the first cases, using some 7 1/2 shot earlier this week. I wasn't satisfied with the amount of pellets in the load.
I requested some #9 shot on the WTB site, and received it on Saturday. There is also a member sending me some #10 shot this week, that I want to test.
So, I loaded my first loads today with my lathe turned custom homemade dies. I haven't shot them, but they look very nice.
My load is as follows.
I used Winchester 45 Magnum brass. I wanted to use this brass, as I reasoned that it would have more inner capacity than the 308 rifle brass. The only problem is that the 45 Magnum brass is as scarce as hens teeth. I did manage to get 64 cases. The extractor groove on this brass is not like the 45 acp, or the 308 brass. One has to turn the case to match the 45 acp extractor groove, or there will be failures to eject.
I used the closest load of 231/HP-38 recommended in the NRA article. I dropped it with my Lil'Dandy and the #10 rotor.
The charge is 6.5 grains.
Next I hand seated a .415 card wad over the powder. This material in equal to the shotgun shell "Nitro" material. Very dense.
Then I dumped in the shot to find what weight fit the best, and left room for the over the shot wad. I came up with 152 grains of #9 shot. This counted out to be 195 pellets.
The over the shot wad I made from a poly screw on lid. The material is .050 thick. These are .410 diameter.
I poured some of the shot into the case, then shook it down to settle, then a little more, then a little more. Then I placed the over shot wad on top. This set flush on top of the case mouth.
When adjusting the set/crimp die, I first used the seat punch in the die to push the osw down into the case, so a crimp could be provided. After seating the osw, I backed out the seat punch, and adjusted the die to the crimp that I wanted, then locked the die nut in place. Then I screwed the seat punch back down to just touch the osw, and everything was adjusted.
After adjusting the dies for the first case, the rest of the loads went very fast.
I am very pleased with the amount of shot in these loads. I did not use any shot cups, for the same reason anyone else didn't. I wanted more shot.
These loads will probably not get shot at snakes too often. There are very few venomous snakes in my area. When I lived in Eastern Oregon, I used to go hunting them up a canyon road in the evening. They would come out and lay on the warm gravel road. But there was no need there either, as you could see them lying there before you got to them. If I lived where some of you fellas live, I would definitely have a 45 acp loaded with a magazine full of these snake loads on my hip.
Regards
Jack

[smoked turkey]

Jack, very good write up. Sounds like you have done well with your lathe and your new dies. I would like to get a range report when available and also see some pictures of your work both on the dies and the loads.

[littlejack]

I will give a range report, but as for the photos, the computer and I are not too compatible. I need to get some instruction on
how to post photos here on the forum.
Jack

[George Tucker]

I make my 45ACP Shotshells with 45 Win Mag cases, I have a set of RCBS Dies for 45ACP Shotshells, I shoot them out of a Glock 21. never have failure to feed or extraction issues, I have tried four diff size of shot, #12 works better than any of the others, goes inside the Snake and rolls around, very effective. Ballistics Products has #12 shot. I bought a bunch of stuff at a Estate Sale, there was a Card board box with Win on it, bought it for $5.00. inside was 4,000 Win factory primed 45 Win Mag cases. If I decide to sell some, I will list them on the Forum, George.

[littlejack]

Thank you George.
If you DO decide to sell some of the 45 Magnum brass, I would appreciate very much letting me know.
Regards
Jack

[Scharfschuetze]

Great tip on using 45 Win Mag brass. I've been making these shot shells since the mid 70s and I never thought of using the magnum brass. Darn as back in the late 70s and early 80s it was probably more readily available. That tip sure would have saved me a lot of sawing and trimming had I known it sooner.

The only thing that I can add to the conversation is that I like to use GI brass (blanks work well) as it is good for many reloads and I use a 35 cal GC upside down as has already been discussed and I've found number nine shot to work the best for me on vermin, snakes and food for the pot. Six grains of 231 has operated the 1911A1 to perfection in several different GI issue 1911A1s as well as my personal Series 70 Government Model.

Before turning in our 1911A1s for the M9 pistols, I always took a couple of magazines of shot loads with me when deploying overseas and they were very useful for adding additional protein to the menu when in the field.

[rcav8r]

Question here: When using cardboard over powder wads, are you seating them at the bottom of the bottleneck, or pushing them all the way down onto the powder?