Just a little crazy, but I have to ask?????

[newbee]

I have been told I am a little nuts so I will ask if anyone might know. I have a 50 cal muzzy and thought it might be fun to work up some shot loads for it. Does any one know of a source for 50 Cal shot cups? I know there are shot cups for a little used it is either 28 or 32 guage that if I remember right that mesures .502. I would if they would work, or if some one has other ideas.

[Danny]

I hand one of those back in the 80s and I made some shot loads buy getting some very small sinkers & wrapping them in linen and tying them with heavy thread. Gret for small game and crows.
Danny

[JLA]

i would think you could just pour the shot in on toip of an over powder wad and pack an over shot card on top. you should be good to go as long as the twist rate in your barrel isnt too fast. If its suited to round ball then its good for shot, i would think...

[chw45acp]

I've had the exact same curiosity about shot in my 50 cal rifle. I like Danny's answer. How about a paper "sausage" (for lack of a better term) of shot over a powder charge. I'll pattern a few this weekend and report back............

[LoganWade]

I would be interested if there was a way to do this too, i have a fast twist barrel tho.

[armedandsafe]

Drop your powder followed by a wad. Drop your shot, followed by a wad. The shot cup is not necessary and some rifles will actually blow patterns badly if a cup is used. First wad is a fairly thick one, to act as a cushion. Top wad is standard over shot thickness.

Your fast twist barrel is going to spread you pattern pretty wildly. How much? Only your rifle can tell you that. Try it and see how it works in your rifle.

You aren't going to get high-flying ducks with that combination, but for small game at 15 - 20 yards they work.

Pops

[JLA]

thats what i thought, my great grandad left me his old .45 cal CVA muzzleloader pistol, we killed more than our fair share of squirrels with just that very combination when i was a mancub. the pistol is long gone and my grandad has long been deceased but i remember it like it was yesterday

[newbee]

Thanks for all the advice. My muzzy has a fast 1:28 twist. I just thaught it would be fun to try. I know I can 50 Cal. fiber wads but I had heard the cups in regular shot guns inproved the pattern.

[chw45acp]

Well, I tried some shot in my 50 cal muzzy last weekend. Told you all I'd report back. Here's what I found: 1. It's cold and windy in Maine in April!!! 2. Didn't have any shot cards, so I tried an old trick of using paper from hornets nests. Worked fine. 3. First attempt was a 30-30 case filled with FFg, over powder wad (hornets' nest) then same 30-30 case filled with #6 shot, and a small amount of over shot wad. 40 feet away gave me a 24" spread. Kind of "sparse".
Second attempt I cut a 12 ga. hull in half. Used this measure with equal amounts of FFg Pyrodex, then #6 shot. 40 feet away gave me a moderately dense 24" pattern.
Uncomfortable recoil.
I need to experiment with loads. Maybe a 20 ga shell cut in half...... Will get back to you with my results. -- Charlie

[Monkey Hollow]

I was wondering about taking a plastic sabot that accepts a .429 bullet. I think it is Speer that makes shot capsules to load your own for 44 magnum/ 44 special cases. Load one of these capsules into the sabot, and it just might work. Although, then, I think that you would have to contend with the hardened goo in your barrel from the melted plastic that black powder would leave. I only have experience with real "black", and don't know if using a substitute would make a difference in this respect.

[JLA]

I think the shot capsule within a sabot would produce a plastic bullet filled with shot that would completely disintegrate within the target. Congrats monkey, i think you just invented the worlds only muzzleloader frangible nice work

[Monkey Hollow]

ROFL, JLA. Well, I guess there's only one way to find out. I always thought that the sabots were supposed to peel open like a banana after clearing the muzzle. I don't know at what distance though. Now here's something to fool around with when there's nothing better to do. I haven't loaded shot capsules in like 2 decades, but I used to do my own for 38 & 44. If I remember correctly, the blue translucent plastic was "prescored" with lines that made the capsule break up after exiting the muzzle. Back in the early eighties, a few of us were playing around with sabots in 44 magnums loaded with 30 cal loads. Some of the guys came up with some pretty exotic loads.

[JLA]

yeah sobots are great, if you are a savvy handloader you can take a big bore firearm and through the creative use of sabots you can eliminate the need for anything else. but the we wouldnt have swollen gun collections

[armedandsafe]

The problem with sabots for a SHOT load it that the rifling will spin the sabot and, thus, the shot within. When the sabot opens, all the outside pellets and many of the inner ones are sent off at an angle because of the spin of the sabot. Without the sabot, you will have some shot go astray because the rifling grabs it, but the bulk of the shot will stay on line (pretty much.)

Remember, you are essentially talking a cylinder bore, here.

Pops

[newbee]

I think I will try some BB shot and some wading to start with and see what happens. I figure as long as I don't excced About 400-500 Grains of shot not too much could go wrong. And if I can get a good pattern out to 20 - 30 feet I'll bee happy. I will try some other loads and see what happens.