Speer Shot Capsules
I just received my order of .44 shot capsules from Gamaliel shooting supply. They were supposed to be boxes of 50 for $10.95 each. Speer changed the packaging from 50 per box to 25 per box, maintaining the same Item number and the same per box price so that you now only get 25 shot capsules for $10.95. Now the Gamaliel people are great and are shipping me a duplicate order at no cost so that I will get the amount of my original order and they insisted on doing so. I am afraid that Speer doubling their price has priced me out of Speers market. In the future I will make my shotshells using gas checks.

Don't know what to say argo, everything seems to be going up. I've done the gas check thing and it's not near as effective as the shot capsules. I don't use a lot of them so I'm not near so concerned about the pricing.

These price increases are the dickens, but were sure not going to see it get any better in the future. Reloading stuff along with everything else is just going crazy.

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Bob from Idaho

Have to agree with Bob. That eleven bucks worth of capsules is about a 10-year supply for me. I just looked in my crystal ball and learned that when you re-order, you'll be posting how cheap your old box of capsules was!

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Try the gas check thing with shortened .444 cases give the case a quite a bit more room for shot.

With the price of shot these days, about 25 is all most people could afford to fill

I was up a Cabela's in Post Falls Idaho a couple of weeks ago and was looking at stuff in their reloading section. There were two bags of shot on the shelf and the price was $49.95. Kind of makes me happy that I'm armed when I take my lead sled to the range with the two bags of $18.00 buck shot I use on them. who'd ever thought!!!

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Bob from Idaho

Good stuff.

My response from Speer. Looks like they made an honest mistake.

I've played around with different loads trying to find something that patterns a little bit better from my Smith 629. No luck thus far. Please post your results if you have any luck in this regard. Thanks....

Rickster the shot caps from Speer and in fact any shot load from a revolver suffers in the pattern department simply because of the rotation that comes from the rifling in the barrel. I use mine for snake loads and even with 7 1/2 inch shot wouldn't think of using them on any game birds or for shooting anything past about 8 feet away. They are effective for what they are, but your never going to get shotgun performance or patterns from a revolver.

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Bob from Idaho

Rickster, I agree with everything Faucettb said.
I would add one thing- faster is NOT better with shot loads. You'll note that the loads printed on the box of shot capsules (or in the Speer manual) are quite mild. IME, both in 38/357 and in 44, if you try to drive the shot faster, all you do is blow holes in the center of the pattern.

I like them even slower, in fact. I always cut back the suggested load by 5 to 10%, and seem to get much better patterns. It is also true that the shorter the barrel, the better the shot pattern you'll get. I believe that's because the plastic capsule "slides" a ways down the bore before it starts to spin. If it's still sliding when it leaves, there's little to no spin, which is much better.

Finally, I shot a lot of capsules to determine this, but a general rule of thumb is to expect a one-inch larger pattern for every foot of range. Five feet range = 5 inch pattern. Ten foot range = ten inch pattern. Beyond that and you are betting on luck as the spaces between pellets starts getting bigger than most pest targets.

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Slower is better. I got my first experience with Speer shot capsules with a Charter .44 Bulldog. I made the mistake of loading them warm. The result was the recoil in the small revolver caused the shot to slam into the front of the plastic capsules thus breaking them open and spilling shot out the front of my cylinder. Moral of the story: pack the shot in snug and load mild. Also, finer shot is better than larger for this application.

Do any of the ammo companies make loaded shotshells for the .44 Special? It may be oldtimers disease, but I thought CCI used to make some that said 44mag/44 special. I have some that say 38/357. Any help would be appreciated.

Yes, they do, under the CCI brand name. It is still labeled 44 Special/Magnum and is put up in Special brass.

I believe their full list includes shot loads in 22LR, 22 WMR, 9mm, 38/357, 40 SW, 44 Spec/Mag, 45 ACP and 45 Colt.

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Thanks again Rocky.

Lead shot is not the only thing you can fill those capsules with....years back one of the gun magazines, Shooting Times i think, ran an article about different options, such as finish nails and brads, even using little chunks of steel fence wire cut with diagonal cutters to fill shot caps. Still short range use, but fun to experiment with.

A retired LE friend of mine told me about an LA officer he knew who loaded rice in his 12g shot shells for 16 yard trap & skeet one had to be fast but the rice broke the clay birds,he was in our local feed store & bought a bag of red wheat which is very hard so he's going to make up some trap loads,wonder what it would do to a varmint at close range with a handgun shot capsule for sure it's a green load.

Navy beans to feed rioters comes to mind. Reckon rice at close range would work on rabbits, and grouse also. Sure would make the greenies happy, the PC crowd would crab about using uncooked rice the same as for weddings.