One thing I have been wishing for is 480 Ruger shotshell's for snakes, and possibly small game for the camp pot.
Well I was not holding my breath for Speer to take the lead on this.
I did a little research and some looking in my leather tool box and came up with a 1/2" leather punch. When I Miced it, I thought it would make a wad a hair under .500. I got out a Poly cutting board and went to punching out a heavy weight paper plate into wads. They ended up being .510 in diameter. A little over size, but no big deal.
I primed some Speer cases with Winchester Large Pistol Primers.
A little looking and thinking and I decided to try 5.0 grains of Clays for the charge. Shotshells normally work better lite loaded. I figured 5.0 grains of Clays was pretty lite.
Over the 5.0 Grains of Clays I seated 4 of the Paper Plate wads one at a time using the base of a 38 shell case to push them in place after finger starting them. Not Hi Tech, but on Sunday I did not have access to a Dowel Rod the correct size.
Next I filled the 480 case to near full of #9 Shot, leaving enough room to seat an over shot card, leaving brass exposed above the card to seal off the card to the case mouth(aproximately .100).
I then checked to see how much #9 shot this was. It weighed out app. 170 grains. This was more than a Speer 45 shotshell will hold for comparison.

Time for testing. I got out my HillBilly ballistic testing media (Coke Zero Can) for Test Shot #1. The range was app 6 Feet. The test gun was a 7.5 Inch Super RedHawk. The results were pretty surprising. The shot looked to have pretty much all hit in a little over 2 Inches at 6 feet. The Coke Zero Can was pretty much destroyed in the center.
Back for a second load, constructed the same as the first.
Test Shot #2 was on a 16 Oz Water Bottle filled with water. The range was abound 10 feet for this shot. Again the water bottle was hurt bad.

From my findings One will need to put a few rounds on a sheet of poster paper at different yardages to see what the pattern is going to be. Right on top of your target is way to close from my test results. For small game one may even need larget shot to cut down the pellet count in the game, depending on the yardage.
Loading the Big Case using wads seems to give better results than the Speer Plastic shotshells. I have been loading up 38 Specials all Summer. They did not even come close to this results wise. This is going to be a real snake killing load.
I loaded up 4 more rounds, and I have the over shot cards glued in with super glue around the card edge. Tomorrow I will see if everything stays together. I normally HillBilly CCW all Summer. That is 2 Shotshells and 4 Lead Bullet Loads. I will need to see if firing a couple of my plinking loads 400 grain Lee Cast over 7.0 grains of Unique will jump the shot out of the case on the shotshells. The testing continues.

I just keep liking the 480 Ruger more and more.

Bob

Bob R,

Great idea!!! I just took a "dry" bite from a prairie rattlesnake last week. Punctured the tennies and scratched the toes. Killed a 3 1/2 footer, with a long handled shovel, 10 feet from the site of the bite. Only had my S&W 638 snubbie with Fed 147 Hydra-Shoks; and, I didn't have time to pull the Smith from the pocket before the strike.

I seal the over-the-shot wads for my shotshells with a 40% sodium silicate solution. It remains pliable but resiliant. It is also very inexpensive. It is an "old" trick I read about a long time ago. Used the method for about 10 or so years.

How about some pictures?

Doc

Great post!

I brought up Quick Load, and did a little number changing. I manually entered a .475 bullet weighing 170 grains. No way to enter a shot charge that I could figure out. It looks like I can back off the Clays to 4.0 grains, and up the shot charge to around 180 grains. More shot is always a good thing.
I loaded up 4 more rounds with 4.0 Clays and a hair under 180 grains of #9. That is 225 pieces of shot.
For comparison:
Speer 38 Shot Capsule 100 grains.
Speer 44 Shot Capsule 135 Grains
Speer 45 Colt Shot Capsule 153 Grains.

The Card Wads constructed from a Dixie paper plate are .012. Card Stock was only .010. The 4 Cards over the powder would be .048 thick total. I seated them one at a time using a 38 Special case, then pushed them home with a large allen wrench. I will probably make a tool using a 38 case with a dowel rod inside, and a handle to seat the card wads. The case works very well to tool the over shot card into place.I found another advantage of using cards besides the good pattern. You can write on the over shot card. I labeled the 8 I have made up for testing 4 and 5 for the powder charge. I think 6, 9, and 11 might be more common numbers for keeping track of the shot loaded in them.
Now to see how well the shotshells hold up to having a 400 grain Lee with 7 grains of Unique touched off beside it. Another test will probably just multiple shot shells. I am almost sure this will not be a problem.

Bob

Doc, when you hear that buzzing, you're suppose to stop and look for that little sucker, probably tucked under a little sage.

I shot a few rounds today. No issues with the over shot card coming out under recoil. I fired a few 400 gr Lee bullets over 7 grains of Unique. I fired 3 shot shells and 4 of the 400's with one shot load staying in the cylinder the entire time. No Problem. I did get to try the shot shells out under field conditions, however the Cotton Mouth was a little under the weather from a 12 gage blast from about 50 feet as he was coming to us. I waded in to retrieve him, and put a 480 charge on him from about 12 feet body shot only as his head was under some tree roots. This rolled him over not moving, tit's up. I fished him out with a Beaver stick and placed him on the beaver dam for a good look. About 30 inches and app 2 Inches in the middle. I had my hunting buddy Taco covering me while I went in to fish him out. I would hate to get bushwhacked by a second one, or for that matter the first one only pissed off, while in the water with them. And the testing continues.

I hate them darn things more than the rattlers we have out here. I was followed all around a small farm pond I was fishing in when I was going to school back in Tulsa. That stupid thing was hell bent on me and only me. I didn't have a gun so after an hour of this cat and mouse game I left. I guess I could have snagged him with my bass plug and beat him to death when I landed him. You just keep killing those heathan animals and if I ever get back that way I'll wack a bunch with you.

by the way good post and interesting. I read about doing this in one of my older books quite a while back. If I find the article again I'll get you the information.

I read about a guy that did something very similar but he used a lead round ball on top. If I remember correctly he was loading 45 colt cases and used a .454" round ball for a muzzle loader. The article had pictures of the patterns and the round ball was near the center most of the time. He did it so there were no concerns about the top card coming loose.

I load slightley differant. loading for my 357 I load powder and a 36 cal paper patch and one 36 cal ball next I put as much number nine shot as i can and crimp in another 36 cal ball. the lead weighs out at 140 gns. I load one with 3, 36 cal balls in it aswell. they paper at 25 feet!!!

Sounds like fun.
I've made a few of them for my .444 Marlin, just for meaness, just about like you described doing the .480.
I put a dab of craft glue over the end. Nothing crazy, just a little bead.

I might do a few for the .480 as well when I take the scope off.

Well I finally got a field trial of the 480 shotshells. While cutting up a large tree that had broken off in the yard, I almost stepped on a big Copperhead. The Super RedHawk took his head off at a distance of probably 8 feet. Very impressive job on the snake.

Bob

Excellent, I wonder how it would work if I did that with my 475 but just used the same charge and more lead. It's not like a solid projectile so the lower power charge should push it out fine. I might have to try that next year when I go to our property and hunt rattlers.

Wapitirod
Loading shotshells for the 475 should work the same as the 480 Ruger. Like you said just a little more shot. I just picked up a bag of .50 Cal OX-YOKE Wonder Wads 1000 Plus, Part No 5000. I plan to see how they work for the wads. They are for over powder wads on muzzle loaders to include cap & ball revolvers. They had instructions for shot loads for cap & ball revolvers. As far as I know cap & ball revolvers would be app .45 cal, so they should also work in a .475, if they do not take up to much space. I would like to see how they crimp in place. They might work well enough to lose a little case capacity. I will find out shortly. The old guy who owns my reloading supply store is going out of business. And not from the Obama Economy for a change. He has been in business 49 years, and he is a WWII vet, and just getting old, and no one to take over running his store. I will pick up the rest of the wads he has in stock if they work.
More to follow.

Bob