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Old February 4, 2011, 04:06 PM   #4
Unclenick
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Join Date: March 4, 2005
Location: Ohio
Posts: 21,013
I've never tried firing a .410 in a .45-70, but know others who have. There are some problems associated with doing it. You see .410/.45 Colt chambers, like the Taurus Judge has, because the head and rim diameters are within about 0.010" of each other. But a .45-70 case head is closer to .033" wider and the .45-70 rim is around 0.070" wider. That's a lot of looseness.

The result is that while it is not unsafe to shoot the .410 in a .45-70 chamber, standard .45-70 extractors can slip over a .410 rim, leaving you needing a ramrod to get the fired shell out. A special deep hook extractor design may be needed to be reliable. Another matter is, given a rifled tube, the shot tends to spin out into a donut pattern that has the hole in the donut right where your sights aim. Like the Taurus Judge, you'll be fine with that for snakes on the hiking path, but trying to take something out of the air with it will be more of a challenge.

On another forum, a member suggested it was better to load shot into .45-70 cases with a wad crimped over top than to use actual .410 shells. The fixes the issue with the extractor at least. The donut may be unavoidable.
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