380 shot shells

[Jmorrismetal]

380 shot shells.

First step is to turn the .223 case back and I built a little fixture to trim them to .980"

Once locked into the fixture I rough cut them long then hit it on a disk sander that gets it to .980"

I used Winchester SPP to ignite the N310 under a cardboard wad with 60 grains of #12 shot (about 250 pellets), then a plastic overshot card crimped in place using an old RCBS 45 ACP round nose seat die.

Not the best pattern in the world but not too bad with the small payload.

Even cycles the pistol, here is a video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAIcV5CR7eM

 

[Seabee]

Thats pretty awesome!!. Ive loaded Speer shot capsules in my 45 and 44 for years but this is awesome. Are they re-loadable or are they ruined with the shot? I found with my shotshells loads that the pattern opens up about 1" per 1' of distance added. I carried them for years for snakes in the mountains and they work well at close range on rattlers and copperheads.

Ken

 

[j8064]

Looks like a lot of work but that's pretty cool. I wonder if they'd feed and cycle in a Hi-Point 380 carbine...

??

 

[BigT5g]

Very neat!

 

[StickShaker]

Very nice work! As a menacing child I tried filling .25 ACP with birdshot and a wax cap. Not much room to work with there.

 

[Jmorrismetal]

Had an idea the other day and had a few min to see how it would work.

I took a spare Lee powder through die I had and removed the flare portion from the inside and replaced it with an insert I machined to swage the 380 case down like my 45 ACP die does.

Much faster and the crimp looks a bit better.