.44 mag. shot shells

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Duffy

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I was reading on another thread a fellow wishing Rossi would have built a ranchhand in .410 so he could shoot grouse with it.

I have one in .44 mag. and got looking into buying or building shot loads for it. It seems from my research that a shot charge out of a rifled barrel (even with a protective shot cup) is not very effective beyond about 3 or 4 yards.

Then it dawned on me that it may not be legal to hunt grouse with such a gun.

When is a gun a shotgun?

My ranch hand is "capable of holding more than three rounds in the magazine and chamber combined".
 
shot out out of any rifled barrel will give crappy patterns. The rifling in the barrel causes the shot to "donut" leaving a hole in the middle of your pattern. If you handload, you can make your own shot shells for the 44 Mag easily if you want to play around. I used Unique powder and a cardboard disk between the shot and charge. hot glue another disk in mouth of the case to contain the shot.
 
I would not think anyone would suddenly re-define your Ranch Hand as a shotgun, since it is already legally defined as a rifle.

Rossi's have micro-groove rifling (well, the one's I have seen) and may shoot shot better than ballard style rifling. You'll just have to try it and see.

The other thing you could do is just download some cast lead slugs to 500 - 700 fps and you'll be fine for small game that way too.
 
blasted_saber said:
I would say what the manufacturer defines it as.

A shotgun with a rifled barrel is still a shotgun, despite the barrel having rifling and it firing a single projectile.
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Well the manufacturer defines it as a "HANDGUN" but thats another story that some people don't like to talk about.

It would just seem strange to be out hunting grouse with a buddy and he would be restricted to 3 rounds in his 870 pump gun and I would have 5 shot loads in my ranch hand.
And what would the "warden" say?
 
This is one of those things that no matter what the law says, I wouldn't want to be caught doing it. I'm almost certain a conservation officer will just charge you and let the courts sort it out.
 
Duffy said:
Well the manufacturer defines it as a "HANDGUN" but thats another story that some people don't like to talk about.

It would just seem strange to be out hunting grouse with a buddy and he would be restricted to 3 rounds in his 870 pump gun and I would have 5 shot loads in my ranch hand.
And what would the "warden" say?
Click to expand...

he would say its a rifle. Its not any different then the .22LR birdshot shells. You could put 30 of them in a mag and its still a rifle.
 
thing said:
This is one of those things that no matter what the law says, I wouldn't want to be caught doing it. I'm almost certain a conservation officer will just charge you and let the courts sort it out.
Click to expand...

Rifle shells loaded with birdshot arent a new thing. Theyve been around for quite a while and ive never heard of anyone being charged for using them.
 
pointless even the cci shot shells are they give the best performance in short barrels

even if rossi made a ranch hand in .410 it would be .45 colt/.410 and rifled as its a handgun down south but meets rifle definition here
 
I made up a bunch of 44 shot cartridges using 303 Brit cases cut to the length of the cylinder in my super Blackhawk, trimmed the rims down a few thou threw in some unique and 3/4 oz of 7 1/2s and had a lot of fun practicing for snake protection. These cases worked 100% and I never sized them after the initial forming, if they started to drag a little on the rear face I would just remove the cylinder and put the offending fired cases in and give them a rap with a hard plastic mallet and good for another 5 or 6 shots. I just used candle wax to hold everything in place till the primer popped. IIRC I may have put a small piece of tissue between the powder and shot. It was effective on flowers out to about 10 yds from a 5 1/2" Super Blackhawk. I think the only reason it worked out to 10 yds or so was because of the amount of shot these cases held.......3/4 oz is like a 28 ga load or even a light 20 ga load.

I'm pretty sure that the 3 shot in a shotgun only applies to migratory, but I wouldn't want to get caught with a plug out, hunting grouse, during migratory season.
 
c-fbmi said:
I made up a bunch of 44 shot cartridges using 303 Brit cases cut to the length of the cylinder in my super Blackhawk, trimmed the rims down a few thou threw in some unique and 3/4 oz of 7 1/2s and had a lot of fun practicing for snake protection. These cases worked 100% and I never sized them after the initial forming, if they started to drag a little on the rear face I would just remove the cylinder and put the offending fired cases in and give them a rap with a hard plastic mallet and good for another 5 or 6 shots. I just used candle wax to hold everything in place till the primer popped. IIRC I may have put a small piece of tissue between the powder and shot. It was effective on flowers out to about 10 yds from a 5 1/2" Super Blackhawk. I think the only reason it worked out to 10 yds or so was because of the amount of shot these cases held.......3/4 oz is like a 28 ga load or even a light 20 ga load.

I'm pretty sure that the 3 shot in a shotgun only applies to migratory, but I wouldn't want to get caught with a plug out, hunting grouse, during migratory season.
Click to expand...

328gr of shot in a .44 mag wow
 
c-fbmi said:
I made up a bunch of 44 shot cartridges using 303 Brit cases cut to the length of the cylinder in my super Blackhawk, trimmed the rims down a few thou threw in some unique and 3/4 oz of 7 1/2s and had a lot of fun practicing for snake protection. These cases worked 100% and I never sized them after the initial forming, if they started to drag a little on the rear face I would just remove the cylinder and put the offending fired cases in and give them a rap with a hard plastic mallet and good for another 5 or 6 shots. I just used candle wax to hold everything in place till the primer popped. IIRC I may have put a small piece of tissue between the powder and shot. It was effective on flowers out to about 10 yds from a 5 1/2" Super Blackhawk. I think the only reason it worked out to 10 yds or so was because of the amount of shot these cases held.......3/4 oz is like a 28 ga load or even a light 20 ga load.

I'm pretty sure that the 3 shot in a shotgun only applies to migratory, but I wouldn't want to get caught with a plug out, hunting grouse, during migratory season.
Click to expand...

In Alberta it applies to all game birds....no idea about the Yukon.
 
thing said:
This is one of those things that no matter what the law says, I wouldn't want to be caught doing it. I'm almost certain a conservation officer will just charge you and let the courts sort it out.
Click to expand...

In BC there remains great respect for the Conservation Officer Service, unlike other LEOs. They are known (at least locally) for generally being even-handed, using proper discretion, and brave enough to uniformly enforce the law.
 
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