Stevens .44 caliber shotgun

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Up to the Chieftain fixed was usual, but then separate, probably because the assembled round would have been too bulky. I think it was originally a bagged charge, but now it is a combustible rigid casing. They are stored in tubes in a water-filled cistern, so that anything that penetrates into the charge will also drown it.

[EDG]

one of my grade school buddies in the early 1960s had a Stevens looking single shot marked 44XL. It was a smooth bore and he shot .410 ammo in it.

[Mk42gunner]

About time to resurrect this thread. I was at an auction last weekend and bought one of the little Stevens Model 101's in .44 Shot. ~26" barrel, no idea if it has any choke at all or not.

My first thought was to reline/ rebarrel it to .32 S&W Long for a neat little bunny gun, but then I got to thinking (uh-oh). The chamber looks straight, i.e. no neck, and measuring with the depth gauge on my dial calipers it is awful close to 2".

Then I remembered that I have close to a box of .444 Marlin brass for an ill fated attempt at brass .410 shells, (they didn't extract from Grandpa's Iver Johnson Champion). A short amount of time with the brass trimmer and I had one case that fits the chamber.

After a lot of google and bing searching; my plan is to use:
WW large pistol primers,
6.3 gr of Power Pistol (slightly slower than Unique, slightly faster than Herco and I have a four pound can of it)
a cut down Winchester .410 wad
3/8 ounce of shot
glue in an over shot card wad.

Does this sound reasonable for a first try?

The little gun might still get converted into a .32 S&W Long rifle anyway.

Robert

[marlinman93]

The Stevens in .44 Shot are not .410, they are .44-40 shot. I also have one here I'm selling and have fired it using .44-40 cases and Speer .44 shot capsules loaded with #7.5 or 9 shot.

[John Taylor]

Funny this came up, one of my customers gave me a 44 shot barrel the other day for a model 44 Stevens. Thinking of setting it up on my model 44 which is 44-40 now.