38 spc,snake shot ?

UPDATE!

I found my box of CCI 38 shotshells which are the blue capsules and dont work in my derringer. Also in the box were a couple of yellow capsule rounds. It turns out that they were actual SPEER rounds and looked a bit narrower at the end of the plastic. They drop into the chamber just fine. It appears that SPEER was aware of the issue years ago, but the yellow capsules that they now sell for reloading snake shot are the same diameter as the CCI blue capsules and wont chamber. It is only about .011" difference. Probably the old guy at SPEER that was in charge of this sort of thing retired and the new guy didnt know there was any issue. From reading in our forum, I assume that this is a rare problem and most companies would not worry about the tiny percent of guns that have this issue. I have not fired my SHORTENED CCI round yet, I cant say anything about pressure indicators, but since the CCI rounds have no loose powder,( just a contained charge) and the seating depth is roughly the same, I dont think I will have any problem with them. Other than firing a couple of test rounds, I think my problem is solved. THANK YOU ALL, Grant.
 
correction

!!! I take back what I said about the CCI shells having no powder. I just went to my bench to shorten a few capsules and pulled one from a CCI, and found powder. I had opened one a week ago or so and would swear that it had no powder in it when I did. I keep my bench clean and my eyesight is good with reading glasses which I always wear and didnt find powder in the first one. I am not sure what is the problem (probably me), so I will open several more and if they all have powder, then I will go ahead and shorten them as planned. I weighed the powder and it was 4.6 grains of a fine disc type. I have no idea what it actually is. The inside of the case looked (again) like it had some kind of tiny strap over the primer. It did not look at all like a normal primer from the inside. I will let you know when I have fired a few and see what the results are. Grant.
 
The powder was probably clumped and stuck in the case or to the plug for the capsule, and you didn't notice it.
It is not at all uncommon for even lightly compressed powder charges to clump, and that load is probably more than 'lightly' compressed.
 
I also loaded 45 ACP shot shells using RCBS 45 Shot dies, 45 Win Mag brass, Unique, a .410 plastic shot wad, 1/4 oz of 7-1/2 shot, and a gas check crimped in place. Worked pretty darn well.
Click to expand...

As someone who has a couple of .45 Win Mags to feed, I cringe at the thought of wasting those cases making .45acp shotshells.

I'd rather cut off (and ream) .30-06 if I needed to...:D
 
Grant,

Glad you have it basically solved.

Out of curiosity, are the smaller old shot capsules also narrower at the breech end? If so, having them back out and jam cylinder rotation during shooting a revolver probably explains the change. What they could have done was widen only the breech end and put a slight bottleneck in the mold to roll a crimp over top of and left the nose the diameter of a bore-riding cast bullet design coming away from the bottleneck and into the draft angle (for mold release). But injection molds are expensive to make, so I am not entirely surprised they don't jump to make another every time someone has grief with their current design. Also, that approach would mean separate 38 and 357 capsules or just making them all 357 and sacrificing powder space in the 38 Special.
 
I dont know if the 2 older Speer cartridges/capsules are narrower at the inside end, but the slight taper is evident on the part that protrudes from the brass. The Speer reloading components/capsules that I have are not tapered. They seem to be just like the CCI capsules. If the smoke lightens up a bit here in smoky California, I will test the shortened capsules in my heavy frame 38 before I fire one on my derringer. Grant.
 
I have the blue Speers and mine have a taper of a few thousandths. It needs to be there for demolding. It's hard to measure accurately because of how pliable the plastic is. You basically have to turn it between your caliper jaws between your thumb and index finger to feel how much rubbing there is at a given jaw or spindle (micrometer) setting and try to match that by finding the caliper setting at the other end that feels like contact is similar. Otherwise, you'd have to sacrifice one by filling it with epoxy resin and measuring after it hardens to let you find the closed jaw point more surly. Even then, you have to measure all around and record your results to average because they aren't quite perfectly round in cross-section.
 
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