Jim Taylor
Well ... THAT DIDN'T WORK!
Friday, October 28, 2022, 13:48

I cut down one of the aluminum .45 ACP shotshells to standard .45 ACP length with the idea of loading them with cast bullets for practice ammmo.

Cutting the thing down was not easy. The .45 caliber pilot for the case trimmer would only go into the case about 1/8 inch. The case walls get thicker the farther you go. A .44 caliber pilot would not go much further.

I finished shortening it by hand ...

Good enough for a test run.

I ran the case into the neck expander and then tried to seat a 230 gr. Berry's Plated bullet. The case walls get too thick and the bullet was distorted, ripping the plating off.

So just for grins I decided to try and seat 230 gr. cast RN bullet. That did not work well either.

To seat bullets into these cases you would need a heel bullet with about a .40 caliber heel and a .45 caliber nose.

I am not sure what I will do with these. Whatever I do it will be something different than making shot loads. I prefer the 12 ga. for shot.