Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 45 Colt "Magnum" Shotshells for Snakes & Rats

Okay, after you get the shot in the shells, you need to seal up the end. I tried card wads, but they suck. Either they don't hold the shot in place, or they screw up your pattern.

So what I do is seal the end of the case with silicone caulk, like so:



Push the caulk down into the cartridge cases using a wet finger (same as finishing a bead on a bathtub). I then push a couple-several pieces of shot into the caulk so I can tell what size shot the cartridge has in it.

Let it cure for 24 hours, and your shotshells are good to go. They won't shake loose or leak in your pockets because the silicone seals 'em up tight.

Here's some shot patterns from this afternoon. First, #8 shot at 2 yards and 4 yards. These were shot out of a Ruger BH 7.5" barrel.






As you can see, the 2-yard pattern is pretty tight, but at 4 yards it's got some "holes" in it that are as big as a snake's head, which isn't good. I don't have any #9 shot right now, so I couldn't show you how much better #9 patterns than #8 does. Regardless, you probably want to keep your shots on snakes inside a range of 2-3 yards if you're using #8 shot.

On the other hand, #12 shot is a napalm bomb at 2 yards and 4 yards:





They might call it "dust", but let me tell you that these tiny pellets will bounce back off a pattern board at 2 yards and draw blood!

But the real tale is in the damage they do on tissue. Since I didn't have any snakes handy to shoot, here's a tomater and a lime shot with the #12 shot at 3 yards:




I like the #12 shot not only because of its dense pattern, but the shot is too light to do much collateral damage. You can shoot rats, mice, and other critters in the garage or barn with these loads and not have to worry about your background... the shot are too small to put a hole in sheet metal or tires or such.

#8 shot does a pretty good number on the fruit as well:

[img]http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb332/DocDarkside/Fruitand8shot.jpg[/img]



You can make a similar shotshell for a .44, but the parent case is a lot harder to work with. I've used .303 British cases for my .44 loads, but you need to grind down the rim to get them to fit and it takes a lot of time. But like I said, once you've got your cases made, they reload quickly and they last for freakin' ever.

The .45 Colt shotshells are pretty quick to load up, once you have your cases made. For walkin' around in the brush, I load one shotshell up front in the cylinder, with the rest of the loads being a standard cast bullet load. A load of #9's will kill squirrels out to about 4-5 yards. But when I go wading the rivers with a flyrod, I will load up 2 or 3 shotshells because the water moccasins down here are pretty aggressive.