.44-40 Shot Cartridges

[JimBob]

Anyone ever make up any of these?I've got an Iver Johnson Champion single shot chambered for the .44 shot cartridge.

[w44wcf]

JimBob,

That cartridge that was used in that gun was sometimes referred to as the "Game Getter" or 44 XL and used a hard paper shot wrapper that extended outside of the case quite a bit. That cartridge is on the right in the pic. The Iver Johnson also used a single round ball cartridge like the cartridge on the left.  



The other type of vintage 44-40 shot cartridges used either a wooden shot carrier or extended case like the ones shown above.
Those would work in repeating rifles as well.

I have loaded the Speer Shot Capsules in  the 44-40 seated to the same length as a standard .44-40 cartridge. For your rifle, the Speer Shot Capsule could be extended out of the case like the 44XL.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/788584/speer-empty-shot-capsules-44-caliber-box-of-25

w44wcf

[JimBob]

Thanks for the info w44wcf.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

When I was a teenager spending summers on my Uncles ranch, a neighbour had a Marbles Gamegetter.  (.22 over .44-40, with a folding stock!)  Other than handling it a bit I have no particular experience. But as the .410 seems to be adapted from the .44 shotshell, does a short .410 fit in this particular piece?

[JimBob]

When I was a teenager spending summers on my Uncles ranch, a neighbour had a Marbles Gamegetter.  (.22 over .44-40, with a folding stock!)  Other than handling it a bit I have no particular experience. But as the .410 seems to be adapted from the .44 shotshell, does a short .410 fit in this particular piece?

Found this on that subject-

http://www.fourten.org.uk/mwpre410.html

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

JamesRobert;  Great Article.  You and Mr. Google hit the jackpot there.

[PJ Hardtack]

I once loaded up some 44-40s with the Speer shot capsules and #9 shot for a friend with a Marble's Game Getter. He was hoping to use them on grouse. Turned out they were more suited for sparrows, there being no rattle snakes around.

I tried making some shot charges for my 50-70 as I'd had good results with shot loads in my P-H Musketoon, taking several blue and ruffed grouse and busting clays at BP RVs. They performed dismally, and after I hit and wounded a beautiful blue that escaped, I broke down the remaining rounds.

[Tuolumne Lawman]

I loaded some 44-40 shot cartridges using 5 in 1 blank brass.  Nifty, but pattern sucked past 10 feet!

[rickk]

It is hard to get a tight pattern in anything with rifling in it.

About 30 years ago the company that I work for had a little R&D operation in a basement corner call "BBM". We manufactured 9mm and 45 ACP shot cartridges.  Past 10 feet or so things got pretty sparse.  There isn't much room for much shot in a handgun cartridge to begin with, and the centrifugal force imposed by the rifling throws the pattern all to hell.

We did have a 1911 barrel made up special that had a compensator that screwed onto the front of the barrel. The compensator had straight rifling cut into it to stop the rotation.  It helped a little.

The BBM shotshell had a copper jacket nosecone. It pretty much looked like standard ball ammo. It would feed like ball ammo. We used a full auto M1 Tommygun to demonstrate the feeding reliability.  Also, the inside of the copper jacket "nosecone" has some lead shot epoxied into it. The lead shot added stability to the nosecone (badminton birdie effect) and also gave it a bit of mass so that the nosecone was capable of doing a bit of damage all by itself.

As a survival round, the cartridge made some sense. A pilot could use it to hunt rabbits and such at short range if needed. However, the Vietnam war had just ended and the need for a specialty air crew survival round went away.

What I can tell you is that getting a good pattern is largely dependent on getting all the shot in there that you can. A very space-efficient powder with a simple fiber wad over it, leaving most of the case for shot is a good direction. That works in straight walled cartridges anyway. The .44-40 is a bottleneck, so you are squishing the shot column if you fill most of the case with shot. I would think it would be a challenge to get it to work, but challenges are all part of the fun.

Rick

[Tuolumne Lawman]

I handcrafted a couple 56-50 shotshells about 5 or 6 years ago.  Had to single load them in an Armisport Spencer.  Not too bad, as I used most of the shot from a short 410 shell.  Took over an hour apiece, though.  I can't remember what I used to fabricate the shot capsul, though.