OT....Shot Shell Questions for Revolvers

[RRFishNHunt]

I was wondering if you can shoot Shot Shells(Snake Shot) through a 4" ported barrel revolver? I know you can through a normal barrel, but I don't know about a ported one?

Thanks for your help.

[RRFishNHunt]

Anybody? I googled all I could and couldn't come up with a yes or no answer, and I thought yall might have some in-sight.

[cantexduck]

shouldnt be a prob. Just have your buddy do it first. What cal.?

[Thorson]

I don't see why not. I believe that the little plastic cap acts kinda like a wadding as it propels the shot down the barrel. So in theory, the shot is fairly well contained until it leaves the gun.

I am assuming that anything would happen if the shot got "hung up" in the porting holes. I am not really convinced that it would be a problem, though I have not personally done it. Contact Speer Customer Service. They may be able to answer your question for you.

[cantexduck]

Thorson- I thought the same thing but in a shotgun shell the wad is "pushed" while containing the shot. On a shot shell the shot is "shot" bringing the plastic cup along for the ride. But either way, I dont think it would be a prob. On the cal., nevermind had a brain fart.

[RRFishNHunt]

Thanks for yall's help, I will contact Speer and see what they have to say. It is a .357 Caliber. I was thinking along the same lines as yall, with the wading/cup going with the shot.

Thanks once again.

[Thorson]

Additionally, I would think that due to the nature of the way shot shells allow the pressure to release in a different manner than regular bullets, it would definitely affect the way the porting holes divert the pressure/gas. At least this would likely cause less pressure/gas to be released.

The pistol shotshell loads are super light with regards to pressure and recoil as compared to regular bullets. I can't scientifically verify this (and hte load data that I have does not list pressure values), but it sure seems this way.


What caliber?

If you are talking .38/.357 I could put together a few test shells for you, if you want to try them out before going out and buying some. I have all the stuff here, ready to go. Let me know.

[Thorson]

Thorson- I thought the same thing but in a shotgun shell the wad is "pushed" while containing the shot. On a shot shell the shot is "shot" bringing the plastic cup along for the ride. But either way, I dont think it would be a prob. On the cal., nevermind had a brain fart.

You would be correct, however, these little capsules that hold the shotshell have "lids" that contain all the shot.

The plastic cases are designed to break up at some point, I am just not sure when they actually do. I always thought that they stayed pretty well together until the load cleared the barrel, then the centrifugal force caused by the barreling cause to them to come apart altogether. Who knows, I can only estimate.

[cantexduck]

From the limited exp. I have shooting them I am betting the plastic comes apart pretty fast. From what I remeber shooting a 9mm at close range the pattern was huge. So I think you are right.

[Thorson]

Here are some pics of the unleaded shot capsules, in case you have never seen them before. I think they are pretty neat myself.









Sorry, the images are blurrier than I expected.

[Thorson]

From the limited exp. I have shooting them I am betting the plastic comes apart pretty fast. From what I remeber shooting a 9mm at close range the pattern was huge. So I think you are right.

Yeah, I shoot them out of a 2" barrel .38. To 5 feet they are deadly, To 10 feet they spread pretty bad but still have good enough coverage to kill small critters. Out past about 15 feet, I don't think any of the pellets hit. IF they do, they do not have enough velocity to do any damage.

Try chasing rabbits with them. You might be better off trying to catch them with your hands, but literally it is a blast. I have actually killed a couple of rabbits though.

[LawDog]

Yes you can shoot them out of a ported revolver barrel without any problems. Also,,,if you load your own,,,,try using #6 shot instead of the #9 or #12 that the commercial ones use. You get less pellets,,,,but the individual pellets have more knock down. You can impress your friends by shooting a running cottontail with one shot.

[Bily Lovec]

yes
I have a 45 colt w/2" ported barrel and Ive shot hundreds of rounds of that exact shell. as a matter of fact, thats ALL Ive shot out of that revolver...

[bulletpusher]

Your fine on shooting them. The reason the pattern is so darn big at close range is, the centrifugal force from the rifling spinning the capsule makes the pellets spread real fast.

[rtread]

I'm no firearm authority but I do shoot CCI Shotshells in my .357 Magnum revolver. I honestly don't know what what a "ported barrel" is but on the back of one of my CCI Shotshell boxes is a warning: "DO NOT USE SHOTSHELLS IN FIREARMS WITH PORTED RECOIL COMPENSATORS". Is this relevant?