410 slugs. Anyone play with pistol bullets/BP balls/slugs?

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hexbasher

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I'm getting a 410 with a full choke and I'm in the research stage of slugs

Planning on casting something. Don't know what.

Based off charts a 410 full choke is 0.398

Lee has BP round ball mold at 0.380 and 0.390. This is one thought

Another (better) idea is to order a 40cal bullet mold and swage or size it to whatever diameter I want. Can modify the mold to be adjustable and or make hollow bases

Seems for factory loads, 410 slugs are around 90gr to 100 gr

I've never reloaded/cast for a 410 yet, but just doing research.
 
This sounds like a fun project... Most .40 pistol bullets are heavier... Roundball you could probably stack two... I wonder about the Lee 9mm Makarov bullet... You could polish the mold out a bit (it is a little small at .365)... 95 grains, and it looks exactly like a miniature foster slug:)
 
I know eh? Lots of neat options. I read over on cast boolits (I think) of guys doing Hornady 9mm XTP hollow points with ok accuracy

I going to order one ball and one 40 cal to start with. Good thing crappy lee molds are cheap.
 
Quite a few years ago, and well before there were 410 'defensive' loads, I took a 410 3inch Winchester(?) hull and emptied out the number 4 shot. Used the factory wad and replaced the birdshot with three 000 buckshot pellets. Gave me a fine two inch triangular group at 20 yards.
 
BPI sells wads just for this, I believe it is a "stump 410" wad, two or three balls at a time. They even have loads in their small bore manual but it mainly contains data with the wads they sell. I'll have to look it up later at home.

Edit: It was a BX410 wad and with one pellet of 000 buck they have loads that go to 2850fps. Now that is a zinger.....
 
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a single ball can be used with decent results but a .380" ball or .390" ball is going to bounce around a bit in the bore before it hits the choke. for solid bullets you might want to take some card wads(fiber or nitro cards) and screw the bullet onto them to get weight forward for some stabilization and you get something that fits the bore while the projectile is choke size
 
Use a Lee TL401-175-SWC 175g bullet designed for the 40 s&w. Just a little over choke size and the tumble lube grooves should act like the rifled slugs and give the lead room to displace as it goes through the choke. Load it backwards and cast it soft. Also use 444 Marlin or 303br casings for brass shot shells. Or chop the end off the barrel so it's cylinder bore and use the same style bullet for the 41 magnum. Tumble lube SWC loaded backwards. Being bore size you can load it without a wad. Just use a gas seal. Be warned, loading slugs for accuracy is a crap shoot at best. Pretty tough to meet or beat the cheapest factory slug offerings.
 
geologist said:
My security guards in Colombia carried single shot .410s (not exactly what I'd hoped for) loaded with OOO buckshot and those are, what, like .357?
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Interesting choice of weapon for the security detail. Do you know if the 410 was chosen for a particular reason, or was it likely just one of those quirky south American things that doesn't necessarily make any sense?
 
jethunter said:
Interesting choice of weapon for the security detail. Do you know if the 410 was chosen for a particular reason, or was it likely just one of those quirky south American things that doesn't necessarily make any sense?
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Our house was a villa in town so our real security was the town police plus a company of regular army army all of whom were coordinated with our security in a zoned setup centered on us.

In most situations the most important security weapon is your radio or phone.
 
geologist said:
Our house was a villa in town so our real security was the town police plus a company of regular army army all of whom were coordinated with our security in a zoned setup centered on us.

In most situations the most important security weapon is your radio or phone.
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Still a very "interesting" choice of weapon for guards. My security guards carried AK47 on our excursions in yemen and nigeria.
The bandits liked their victims to have a radio - much more convenient for negotiating ransoms.
 
sawzall said:
Use a Lee TL401-175-SWC 175g bullet designed for the 40 s&w. Just a little over choke size and the tumble lube grooves should act like the rifled slugs and give the lead room to displace as it goes through the choke. Load it backwards and cast it soft. Also use 444 Marlin or 303br casings for brass shot shells. Or chop the end off the barrel so it's cylinder bore and use the same style bullet for the 41 magnum. Tumble lube SWC loaded backwards. Being bore size you can load it without a wad. Just use a gas seal. Be warned, loading slugs for accuracy is a crap shoot at best. Pretty tough to meet or beat the cheapest factory slug offerings.
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there's no way any solid conical bullet will stabilize without begin front heavy that said Cast Bullet Engineering has a .410 foster slug mold but for $200 its more of a investment
 
Have u thought about the thickness of the petals on the wad. With petals a .40 won't fit(u can cut them off with scissors). Have u considered 2 .357 full wadcutters(used in .38 special ctg.) in a wad with petals.
 
antiqueguy said:
there's no way any solid conical bullet will stabilize without begin front heavy that said Cast Bullet Engineering has a .410 foster slug mold but for $200 its more of a investment
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Semi wad cutters loaded backwards are "nose heavy." You could also mod the mold to drop hollow points so they would be in effect hollow base slugs. They may also need a tail affixed to the reversed nose but with heavy loads they may do ok without a tail.
 
jethunter said:
Still a very "interesting" choice of weapon for guards. My security guards carried AK47 on our excursions in yemen and nigeria.
The bandits liked their victims to have a radio - much more convenient for negotiating ransoms.
Click to expand...

Only our guards were armed with .410s. The police and the army platoon(s) (not a company as in my original post) were armed with Galil rifles, Vektor GPMG, Milkor grenade launchers and the officers had 9mm sidearms (Beretta 92, Taurus PT99, Baby Eagle)
 
I stumbled across a steel adapter sleeve recently on fleabay to shoot 9mm Luger from a .410 shotgun, but I'd think the .355" bullet would be doing the "hotdog down a hallway" thing, making accuracy non-existent. But what do I know? Anybody heard of them, or tried one?
 
sawzall said:
Semi wad cutters loaded backwards are "nose heavy." You could also mod the mold to drop hollow points so they would be in effect hollow base slugs. They may also need a tail affixed to the reversed nose but with heavy loads they may do ok without a tail.
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thing is you have to have just the right weight forward I experimented in both 12ga and .410 solid slugs with wads screwed to the base I got mixed results
 
I have two old Lee Enfields, one chambered in 2 1/2", the other in 3", that I want to try some ball loads for fun. I will add to this thread if I can get my butt in gear and do some loading. I have .375 and .395 (I think) Lee molds. I would presume these old girls are cylinder bore, but will try to determine that for sure. The 2 1/2" one will likely work better with rifle casings. I have some Mag-Tec, .444 Marlin, and a few blown out .303 cases to try. The 3" one I will likely just use plastic shotshells. I have a good supply of them.
 
Are your LEE molds round ball, or conicals? Either way you can "Beagle" them by placing a strip or two of aluminum heat tape on the mating surfaces and increase the diameter by a couple of thou, if you think that's what might work.
Casting 180 grain bullets meant for the 40 S&W from my mold (use 'em in my 38-40), they'll drop right around .401 - .403 diameter.
My mold is a shallow groove meant for tumble lubing, but would squeeze though a choke easily enough, so long as the squeeze isn't too much.


On another note, shooting a 9mm through a shotgun bore might not be very accurate, but it won't be loud, either. A friend has one of those chamber insert thingys that allows a 22 to be fired from a 308. Minute of chicken at 30 feet. About as loud as a 22short.
 
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