Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns .38 Snake Shot Loads

I am wanting to make up some .38 cal. snake shot loads using Speer capsules (as soon as I can find some). What size shot is recommended for this? I will be using Unique powder. How many grains? Since there is not handgun section on the reloading forum, I had to post this here. Thanks for the reply.

I used them when I lived in eastern Washington. I loaded mine with 8s or 9s whatever I had on the shotgun loading bench at the time. I remember I used Unique but don't recall the charge. It worked extremely well on snakes from a 2.5 inch Ruger Police Service Six.

The smaller the shot the better.The bigger the shot,the less dense the pattern. If you tryb to up the load it gets irratic alos The data I have shows;

#9 shot for either 38 or .357,
Unique, 5.5 gr
700-x,HP-38, Bullesye, all 4.5 gr
W231, 5 gr

I believe load data also comes along with the box of capsules

Your question has been answered, so I will add this,
Be very gentle and slowly increase the amount of crimp you use, it is easy to cut the capsules. Sometimes they break immediately, others later when handling.
A little adhesive or sealer is not a bad idea to help keep the capsules in place, never tried this myself.
If they aren't secure they will tie up your reveover,. Good news, they push back into the case easy with a pry or even finger.
It is best to not shoot bullet loads with shot shells in the cylinder, good recoil will pull them out and tie up your gun.

Don't let me dissuade you, it's not hard to load these things, just a little tricky. I load 38 and 44 shotshells, they both work great on snakes, if a little distance challenged. A friend I loaded some 38's for (#9) killed two raccoons and a groundhog with them. Worked fine, at a few feet, I was surprised as 'hog and coons are pretty tough.

All of the above plus this: I've found that a slight reduction in powder charge can significantly improve patterns.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/6386432/2QUOTE=Ferrum;13268293

If only 12 shot could be had in an 8 ounce bag/container.

In 38 Special I use 4.0 grs of Bullseye with the Speer capsules filled with #10 shot (approx.115 grains) and a light crimp.

A few years ago on one of our hunting club work days I shot a water moccasin at about six feet. As it turned out the base plug went straight through his triangular noggin. One of the guys picked it up after it quit squirming and saw the hole and said, "what a shot? Right through the head!" I didn't bother to tell him it was a shot load.

I shot a corral snake with the cci 44 mag loads, it took two. They are skinny, like a guys ring finger.

I typically shoot grouse with them out of .357 with the loads I gave. I have yet to shoot a snake.

Thanks to all for the replies! Now, if I can only find the capsules. Graf & Sons are out, Natchez Shooters Supply is out, Midway is out, and Mid-South does not list them at all. Not that I am in any rush for them. All of them are supposed to e-mail me when they get in stock again.

# 9 shot will work. 10 or 11 is about perfect, IMO, if you can find it. CCI is now offering new factory loaded shot shells loaded with mixed shot sizes kinda reminiscent of the old Turkey Hunting shotgun shell loads. They claim in their ad that you still have a good pattern with more penetration for bigger varmint sized animals like skunks or opossums.

In my experience, the 38 shot shells are only slightly better than the .22 mag shot shells. It's awfully hard to beat the ,44 or .45 shot shell loads on our big TX rattlesnakes. And we have a bunch of those nasty 6 foot bastards at our N.TX ranch.

And if you want a dedicated snake handgun, the S&W Governor in .410 / 45 acp is the chitt. 😎

Mike Venterino wrote an article about it. He would load his powder charge then a gas check cup up. Filled it with shot.last he would seat a gas check cup down. He said it worked real well.

Slightly off-topic, I tried the CCI factory shot shells a number of yrs ago, my results:

The .22 lr shells were ok for what they are. Small loads of tiny shot (#12?), ok patterns up close. Need a revolver, they won't cycle a semi-auto.

The .38 shells worked fine in a revolver, larger loads of tiny shot (I think they were still #12), but patterns were terrible (in my sample of one, Dan Wesson 715). You could easily have missed the head of a snake at 6 ft. Kinda disappointing. Hopefully your handloads will be better.

The .45 ACP shells were very impressive. Was using a stock Colt Government Model. The shells fed and ejected perfectly and the shot patterns were nice and uniform, plus larger pellets (#9). Only factory loads really worthwhile IMO (haven't tried the .44s).

you really don't need the speer shot cups.
make a wad to separate the powder from the shot by sharpening the mouth of a casing, and use that has a cutter on a piece of styrofoam.
use another piece on top of the shot to keep in in the casing followed by hot wax or i use an electric glue gun, anything to seal.
no 12 shot can be bought on line, hard to find around town.
In a .45colt, i use a .410shot cup cutting off the wings when seated against the powder, to keep in line with the case mouth.

I remember that article, he used potatoes for testing.

158gr SWC works well too. A man should be able to hit a golf ball at 6 feet with a handgun.

They work best.

At Gunblast in the archives there is an article "Snake Loads". Use a cartridge case with a sharpened case mouth to cut over the powder wads from cardboard. A lead round ball of appropriate diameter on top of the shot charge keeps the shot charge in the case.

it's not all that hard to just shoot the dang snake with whatever is in the revolver.