Bird hunting season is coming up. I was curious to see how those CCI shot cartridges would work in .45, since Miss Emma thinks snakes are for biting in half and I'm not sure she would make distinctions between rattlers and harmless ones. I will be toting a shotgun, of course, but sometimes a 12-gauge can be a little much in a close-in situation. Anyway, I was curious and that's enough justification whether I actually use them or not.
I included a 10-pack in one of my recent orders from Midway. $14 for 10 rounds. The cartridges are Berdan-primed aluminum and hold 1/3 ounce (146 grains) of #9 shot. About 210 pellets, according to the box. They looked a little long to me once in a magazine, but they fed just fine.
I fired three rounds ($4.20 worth!) at 3 and 5 yards. The 3-yard patterns seemed to drift left a bit and weren't all that consistent. One measured about 6" and the other 8". The 5-yard pattern measured about 10".
The ammunition fed and ejected from my Kimber without any failures— keeping in mind that only three rounds were fired. I'm not sure how useful these will actually be, but I will be hunting in some rattler areas and it might be comforting to have a couple of them first-up in the Kimber. I'm mostly a beat-'em-with-a-stick type, but sometimes there just isn't a stick handy.
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They're not bad, but I've found that the the length of the barrel effects the pattern; the shorter the barrel, the tighter the pattern, as the spin put on shot by the rifling makes it spread, so the longer the barrel, the more spin and a wider pattern is the result. Some of the best results I have seen is from snubby revolvers.
Very good point. Sure makes sense. Makes my 4" tube on the Kimber a pretty good choice then.
I have some Speer casings for loading my own shot cartridges in .38 and .44
Might have to make some up to play with, although I have no real use for them.
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