44-40 Shot Cartridges

For several years I have been loading .44-40 shot cartridges assembled in the Starline 5 in 1 blank cases, with 5 grainds of Bullseye, Buffalo Arms .45 card over powder, then Federal .410 plastic shot cup over the card wad (necessary to avoid powder leaking past shot cup which causes bloopers), then 1/3 oz. of No. 8 shot and inserting a Buffalo Arms .36 card wad inside the shot cup and roll crimping in old, old (1950s) RCBS ".44 Game Getter Long Shot" dies. These work very well, but the 5 in 1 blank cases are expensive and not conducive to repeated reloads.

Assembling a basic load of ammo for a friend who inherited a 1905 Colt .44-40 with 7-1/2" barrel, going through his brass horde there were a number of WRA and Rem-UMC balloon-head cases which I was reluctant to use for full-charge loads, so I decided to assemble shot loads into them.

Using the same 5 grain Bullseye charge, I was able to squarely insert and firmly seat a Buffalo Arms .45 Colt card wad over the powder. Then bulk loading the shot, without using the plastic shot-cup they hold 180 grains, about 160 pellets of No.8 shot, when stroked off flush to the case mouth with a fingertip. A .44 cal. Buffalo Arms card is then placed over the case mouth, being pressed just below the case mouth and roll-crimped in the .44 Game Getter Shot crimp die bottomed hard against the shell holder.

The resulting crimps are perfect and these rounds look as good as old pre-WW2 factory after having applied two drops of varnish on the top card, spreading it with a fingertip and lettering it dry. Range report to follow!