RidgwayCO
Member
I had some time free yesterday, and thought I'd load up some .45 Colt shotshells. I've already done this for .38 Special and .44 Special in years past, as I like to have a box of shotshells available for my revolvers, and the commercial CCI rounds are a little rich for my blood...
I started by filling 50 Speer shot capsules with 163.5gr of #11 shot each. Total weight for each filled capsule is about 180gr. This amount of shot allowed for a tight fit of the base cap, and no wiggle room for the shot. At 3.8 gr for 10 pellets, I got about 430 pellets in each capsule. I like the #11 shot because it gives very good coverage on the target.
With the capsules filled, it was time to start loading. Using some new Winchester brass, primed with CCI LP primers, I dropped 7.2gr of Unique (.95cc) into each case, and then seated each capsule to 1.575" COL. That's a lot of capsule in each case...
Then came the light roll crimp, and finally into the storage box.
By the way, when Speer recommends a light roll crimp, they aren't joking. I can't believe I did this twice. I swear, I just tightened the crimp die a smidgen the second time...
So, in return for an hour or so of my time, I've got 48 shotshells for my .45 Colts. Natchez has the CCI Blazer shotshells in .45 Colt for $14.21 per ten. That means my 48 shotshells are worth about $70. Plus my brass is reloadable... And finally, MidwayUSA says that CCI has discontinued the loaded .45 Colt shotshells.
I started by filling 50 Speer shot capsules with 163.5gr of #11 shot each. Total weight for each filled capsule is about 180gr. This amount of shot allowed for a tight fit of the base cap, and no wiggle room for the shot. At 3.8 gr for 10 pellets, I got about 430 pellets in each capsule. I like the #11 shot because it gives very good coverage on the target.
With the capsules filled, it was time to start loading. Using some new Winchester brass, primed with CCI LP primers, I dropped 7.2gr of Unique (.95cc) into each case, and then seated each capsule to 1.575" COL. That's a lot of capsule in each case...
Then came the light roll crimp, and finally into the storage box.
By the way, when Speer recommends a light roll crimp, they aren't joking. I can't believe I did this twice. I swear, I just tightened the crimp die a smidgen the second time...
So, in return for an hour or so of my time, I've got 48 shotshells for my .45 Colts. Natchez has the CCI Blazer shotshells in .45 Colt for $14.21 per ten. That means my 48 shotshells are worth about $70. Plus my brass is reloadable... And finally, MidwayUSA says that CCI has discontinued the loaded .45 Colt shotshells.