.458 Win Mag Shotshell Loads

[MedRiver]

Excellent info. Thanks. A few of those in my scabbard would likely keep the troops eating grouse!

 

[Riflecrank]

Simple as this, crammed full of shot and an inverted gas check firmly crimped over the top,
and a thin card wad between shot and 18.5 grains of Blue Dot, and any LR or LRM primer:

 

[Riflecrank]

I hardly expect to improve on simple for the purpose.
I did try another trick, but never shot them, still sitting here waiting for a pattern board at 10 yards:

Get rid of the cap on the shot capsule and you can get just over 500 grains of #7-1/2 shot with just a little protrusion of the delicate plastic shot capsule.
Even more weight and better patterning with #8 shot, just to perseverate on that point.

Now the round ball in a sabot awaits, to duplicate Davy Crockett's first rifle, Betsy, a .40-cal shooting a .395-caliber ball.

An inverted gas check could also be used to seal the sabot-ball load at mouth of case.
If it works out, I'll need a "Gemmer .458 WIN MAG" for BP loads, with a ramrod and a blow tube for wiping the barrel between shots at deer and squirrels.
The two-capsule shot shell load is a joke.
Hahaha.

 

[mgstucson]

When I make such rounds, mostly in brass case 410 loads for my 3" 410 revolver (but also some for 357, 44mag, and 500 S&W shotshell loads), I use 2 gas checks. One on top of the card wad over the powder. This gas check is in standard orientation, and can help scrape lead off the rifling. Then the shot, then the seal on top. (I really like the capsules, but I also like the inverted gas check on top.) I think someone else said it already, but if you use a shot cup, it tends to rotate the shot column all together going down the barrel and then makes patterns worse. I have thought to experiment by putting a roll of paper around the inside of the case before you add the shot, but I don't know how it would effect the pattern.

For knocking around in my pocket in Africa, I think I would use the inverted gas check on top with a good round-over crimp and a little glue around the edge. I would be afraid the plastic capsules might get crushed in my pocket.

They pattern well enough in my short revolver barrels for snakes and pests, but I would have never thought they would pattern that well in a long rifled barrel. This opens a lot of possibilities.

Thanks again for sharing all the info. I will definitely keep it in my files on shotshells.

 

[Warbeast]

Hm.
Would a 458 lott smoothbore SxS be so unaccurate out to 100?

Thst would be a sweet do it all rifle.

 

[Red Leg]

That is the idea, you get it, unlike Red Leg.

You are correct. I neither get nor have any imaginable use for a .458 bird or snake gun. I am trying to imagine a PH as his neophyte client tries to chase down a black mamba or get within thirty feet of guineafowl.