32 gauge brass shot shells and the 50-90

[andym79]

Hi guys, if you were it a bit of a fix and you had little other choice, could 32 gauge brass shotgun shells be used in place of 50-90 brass (sizing and trimming of course would need to occur).

I ask because down here to get 50-90 starline brass will take about 9 months and cost $3-4 per case. The 32 gauge shotshells I can get now.

Has anyone done this?

I would only use it for light loads, as I assume shotgun brass is designed for pressure of 12k psi!

[Jedman]

Interesting idea. I have a 32 ga. shotgun and shoot handloaded shotshells using Plastic hulls made by Fiocchi and my thought would be, would a plastic case with a .512 - .515 diameter bullet chamber in a 50-90 rifle ?
The plastic hull is quite a bit thicker walled and would probably need to be inside reamed to get it to chamber.
Myself and a friend have made and shot 410 ga. shotguns that fire a 44 cal. bullets from a plastic 410 hull. My gun was rebarreled with a 44 cal. rifle barrel blank and chambered with a oversized straight chamber to work on a pump action shotgun. When loaded with a 44 cal. bullet the 410 hull was larger diameter at the case mouth than it was at the brass head. ( strange I know )
I only fired it with new hulls and never tried to resize the fired casings and reload them.
They were loaded to a much higher pressure than a shotshells and I have never had the plastic case rupture or fail but the 209 primer will come apart at hi pressures and that seems to limit how hot I can load the plastic hulls.

I have several 50-70's but no 50-90 rifles. I did not check to see if the head diameter or rim diameter of a 32 ga. hull would work as a 50-90 has the same base size as a 50-70 but is 3/4" longer.

So what I am saying is if you can get your 50-90 to chamber a shell loaded with a 32 ga. hull it should be able to handle light loads. But if you have a good rifle it would be worth buying a small quantity of the Starline casings as they can last almost forever if not resized and just reprimed, charged, and the bullet seated with your thumb ( no dies needed ) that's how I load some of my 50-70's.

Jedman

[nekshot]

interesting thread for sure! I took a 300 Remington ultra brass and cut off at the shoulder and the dimensions are not far off from the 50-90 sharps. I saw a thread a couple years ago about swagging a rim unto rimless brass and it was clever and easy.

[Nobade]

Not sure those shotgun shells could handle full 50-90 loads. If they are the Magtech brand, they have folded heads. Might work for one or two shots but they probably wouldn't last very long.

-Nobade