sssssnake sssshot for pisssstolssssssss! (a bit long)
Ssssssssssssssss.
Sorry, got carried away in the moment.
I've heard all sorts of tale about loading various sized shot into rifled pistol barrels so I decided to do an Adam & Jamie "Mythbusters" on the subject. (I must be Jaimie cuz I still have eyebrows.) The test pistol was an Remington 1858 New Army in .44 with a 7 1/2" barrel
Myth #1: Shot can't be loaded into a C&B chamber well.
Uhh no!
Here's what I did, YMMV.
Weigh a few balls for whatever caliber to get an average. Mine is a .44 & the average came out to 135.78 GR.
Pull down a few shotshells to obtain a small quantity of shot. I used # 7 1/2 but any reasonably small shot would possibly do. 2 x 12 gauge shells gave me plenty to mess with.
Set that powder measure you got that is way, way too big for a pistol to some huge amount 150~200 gr is fine.
Pour the selected shot into the pan of a powder scale for modern powder till you have the same weight in the pan as a RB weighs. ( 135.78 Gr for my .44, remember?)
Slide the piston up till you can just fill the cavity with that shot. Use this volume for measuring all shot charges for that firearm.
OK now you have the same weight in shot as you'd normally use for a RB. Why?
Well, you can use the existing powder charge for starters.
Does it fit?
Sorta, kinda
Here's the skinny. A given weight of RB takes up less volume than the same weight of shot, so you need to reduce the weight of shot a tad. 11/15 shot seems to work fine in my .44, otherwise small lead balls will get everywhere when loading the cylinder. Test to refine your pistol as capacity varies model-to-model.
Myth #2: shot makes a donut pattern when fired from a rifled barrel:
Uhh no!
Here's my load sequence & the resulting target, you decide.
Load your normal powder charge. (In my case 28 Gr FFFg) load a wad & ram the wad & powder charge home just like the pistol was a musket. This gets important a bit later but do it now just to make me happy, OK?
Pour the shot from item #1 above into the chamber. Ram it home a second time! Use anything to do this it really starts to matter right about now. I used a .44 jag with the spear point removed
(actually it was removed the second time when I figured out what a HUGE pain it was the first time.)
Seat a second wad over the shot column. This is where all the ramming pays you back, if you didn't ram well you'll never, ever get it all in there & have the cylinder turn. ram again, one last time.
Cap the chamber.
Put a target up at a realistic distance for small shot fired from a pistol. I went with 10 yards.
Fire the darned thing you spent so much time loading.
My results?
60 #7 1/2 pellets covered evenly an 11" square target & there were no mechanical problems at all. 2 shots put 161 pellets into a space that would incapacitate or kill a snake with complete efficiency. the point of aim was close enough for practical purposes. The target is here & the 5 shots of ball are numbered 1~5 & the shot & wads are marked as such. Recoil was lighter than a ball load. NO donut reasonable shot coverage, a lot of spread, but with no huge gaps Mr. scaly could ssssslither through.
Ssssssssssssssss.
Sorry, got carried away in the moment.
I've heard all sorts of tale about loading various sized shot into rifled pistol barrels so I decided to do an Adam & Jamie "Mythbusters" on the subject. (I must be Jaimie cuz I still have eyebrows.) The test pistol was an Remington 1858 New Army in .44 with a 7 1/2" barrel
Myth #1: Shot can't be loaded into a C&B chamber well.
Uhh no!
Here's what I did, YMMV.
Weigh a few balls for whatever caliber to get an average. Mine is a .44 & the average came out to 135.78 GR.
Pull down a few shotshells to obtain a small quantity of shot. I used # 7 1/2 but any reasonably small shot would possibly do. 2 x 12 gauge shells gave me plenty to mess with.
Set that powder measure you got that is way, way too big for a pistol to some huge amount 150~200 gr is fine.
Pour the selected shot into the pan of a powder scale for modern powder till you have the same weight in the pan as a RB weighs. ( 135.78 Gr for my .44, remember?)
Slide the piston up till you can just fill the cavity with that shot. Use this volume for measuring all shot charges for that firearm.
OK now you have the same weight in shot as you'd normally use for a RB. Why?
Well, you can use the existing powder charge for starters.
Does it fit?
Sorta, kinda
Here's the skinny. A given weight of RB takes up less volume than the same weight of shot, so you need to reduce the weight of shot a tad. 11/15 shot seems to work fine in my .44, otherwise small lead balls will get everywhere when loading the cylinder. Test to refine your pistol as capacity varies model-to-model.
Myth #2: shot makes a donut pattern when fired from a rifled barrel:
Uhh no!
Here's my load sequence & the resulting target, you decide.
Load your normal powder charge. (In my case 28 Gr FFFg) load a wad & ram the wad & powder charge home just like the pistol was a musket. This gets important a bit later but do it now just to make me happy, OK?
Pour the shot from item #1 above into the chamber. Ram it home a second time! Use anything to do this it really starts to matter right about now. I used a .44 jag with the spear point removed
(actually it was removed the second time when I figured out what a HUGE pain it was the first time.)Seat a second wad over the shot column. This is where all the ramming pays you back, if you didn't ram well you'll never, ever get it all in there & have the cylinder turn. ram again, one last time.
Cap the chamber.
Put a target up at a realistic distance for small shot fired from a pistol. I went with 10 yards.
Fire the darned thing you spent so much time loading.
My results?
60 #7 1/2 pellets covered evenly an 11" square target & there were no mechanical problems at all. 2 shots put 161 pellets into a space that would incapacitate or kill a snake with complete efficiency. the point of aim was close enough for practical purposes. The target is here & the 5 shots of ball are numbered 1~5 & the shot & wads are marked as such. Recoil was lighter than a ball load. NO donut reasonable shot coverage, a lot of spread, but with no huge gaps Mr. scaly could ssssslither through.
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