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Old August 31, 2007, 10:53 PM   #8
BluesBear
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Join Date: May 17, 2004
Location: Mill Creek, Washington (The Great Pacific NorthWet)
Posts: 378
Handgun Shotshells + the .41 Magnum

Ahhh two of my favorite things in one topic.

As many of you know the .41 Magnum is my all time favorire cartridge.
And I must confess that I have long been enamored of handgun shotshells.
Yes I know they have extremely limited usefulness. And an even more limited range but I am just fascinated by them.
I recall as a young teenager there was a photo in Shooting Times (cover?) of a .45 Ruger Blackhawk with ivory stocks laying on top of a nicely tooled gunbelt. In the loops next to standard .45 Colt loads there were several cut down Remington .410 shells. I can still vividly recall the contrast of the green plastic shells against the rich brown of the cartridge belt.

Over the past 30 years I have made shotshells for everything from .38 Special to .45 Colt and most calibers in between. For both revolvers and semi-autos.

For .45 Colt I use cut down .410 cases. Back in the old days when they were available, I used to use Remington 5-in-1 blanks. I also used them for .44 WCF and .38 WCF. The extra long cases blew out nicely to fit the chambers and held a healthy shot charge. Much more than a .410 but alas genuine 5-in-1s are hard to come by. The ones made today by Starline don't work nearly as well.

For .44 Special I used both .30-40 Krag as well as .303 British cases. Chucking the cases into a drill press and using a file to turn down the rims.

For .41 Magnum I have used all of the .30-30 clan (.32 Winchester Special, .32-40 and .38-55). Remember this was back when all of those cases were relatively common. Yes you get a little bulge ahead of the case head but it's nothing to worry about since we're not exactly talking max pressures here. More recently I have made .41 shotshells from 6mm Remington brass but it's a LOT of work. And thanks to Dan Wesson it's now completely.


By far the easiest way to make them today is to just get some .414 Supermag brass from Starline and use it as a starting point to make a chamber length shotshell.

You will also need a set of .41 Long Colt dies. You use the Long Colt sizing die to resize the neck portion of the case that the Magnum sizing die is too large for.
The expander die is often large enough to allow the larger portion of the case to enter. We only need the expander to seat the over powder wads to a uniform depth. This step can be done with a proper fitting dowel and a mallet. But I prefer the ease of a die. If the expander dies are the same brand you may be able to use the Long Colt expander in your Magnum die.
After you drill out the lower portion of the Long Colt seat/crimp die you can use it to roll crimp the top wad in place.

As with all handgun shotshells the smaller the shot the better the pattern will be. Personally I think #9 is the LARGEST to even consider. I have found 7½ to be almost useless as anything smaller than a housecat can easily fit through the gaps in the pattern. #12 is better if you can find it. BPI sells it and one bag will probably last you a lifetime. Unless you're like me and then it will only last three or four years.
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The "Fashion Calibers" seem to come and go but when all is said and done everybody comes back to the forty-five.
(Chris Curino - Kimber Mfg. Co.)

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