Shot loads in Revolver

[Dave Rosenthal]

The thought of a spare barrel to change with back & forth gets my head dizzy...I can shoot very accurately with most hand guns, if they're left alone and unchanged. Swapping-out barrels could change something, and to me wouldn't be worth doing. Your mileage may vary!

Dave

 

[Tinker2]

I have used shot loads in my 1851 .36 caliber using “small shot cartridges in cigarette paper” like Ghettogun said.

I used #8 shot. For what I used it for [snakes] it worked ok.
It gave me a 8 inch donut shaped ring of shot down on the ground out in front of my feet.


Tinker2

 

[jim gray]

I have only used shot loads out of a Uberti made 2nd model dragoon. The longer cylinders let me get more shot into the pattern, but it still didn't stay tight for any distance beyond 10 or 12 feet. I used 20 or 25 grains of FFFG under a thin cardboard wad and wonderwad, filled the cylinder the rest of the way up with shot, which I never bothered to measure, and topped it off with another cardboard wad. I only ever loaded and shot one chamber when I did this because I didn't trust my improvised over shot cards to hold.

I have only done this about a dozen times or so; just out of curiousity, but there didn't seem to be a lot of lead left in the barrel.

 

[jim gray]

I just want to add that those cardboard wads were cut from an empty roundball box, they were generics that came in a flimsy, plain brown box. To cut them, I used a steel .45ACP casing.

 

[***Sean***]

I use 35 grains 3f, .454 round ball and a over powder wad. I use # 10 caps. Pop off 6 caps before you load it. Burns all the oil out of the cylinders. Plus the caps are a tight fit on the dirty nipples. If I forget that step the caps tend to fall off on the first 6 shots..