So I picked up a couple boxes of Thompson 44 shot capsuls at the Centralia show. #4 shot followed the load data back of box chose 7 grains of Bullseye. No seating data. Besides not having any overall length data when seating these into the resized and flared cases my seating die pretty much crushes the capsuls into the case. I had die set for a 240 swc. but they were crushed before they even reached the top of the powder charge. I think they might still work. Anyone have experience with these things?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Bob

Barely seat them with the seater out most all the way. They are made to only work in a tender, not be seated all the way for a revolver.

You have to feather them until seated but not crushed.

I shot a lot in a Ruger Redhamk seated to the end f the cylinder. I bell the case and gently seat them enough to get the belling off the case. Never had any to crush.
You won't be satisfied with their performance. To be effective on snakes, etc. you need to be about 6 FEET. I'm not getting that close to a rattler. I use regular full power HPs and shoot their heads off at 6 YARDS.

You have Thompson Center shot capsules, not Speer? If so, they are almost 3 1/2 inches long before being loaded in a case. I dont think that they can be shot in a wheel gun.

Sorry, I didn't read close enough. My info was for Speer caps. I still wouldn't trust a handgun shot load for a snake. Regular bullets do just fine.

My daughter killed this rattler with factory speer shot shells. This barrel has a choke so it may work better than a standard 44 barrel does. These have #12 shot as I remember but #4 seems too large for a shot capsule. My son killed several with the 3" 44spcl 3 screw I built him and my daughter killed two more with the T/C.

I would have liked to have had some of those TC capsules back when I had one of the TC 45 Colt/410 barrels that was set up for shot. It was horrible with the Speer's.

I think I have played with shot caps. in most every flavor that Speer makes. Like Ralphy in Toy Story, visions of ducks on the wing and grouse falling like snowflakes. In all of the years and guns, I only had one, an AMT 45 DAO backup that was much use beyond 6 or so feet. If even that. I just picked up a Colt snubby 357 Mag. Need to find me some capsules and a wall for my head ;^)

Craig

That brings up an unasked question, which barrel do you have? As craig mentioned he had the 45/410 but the one my daughter is holding is the 44 mag with removable choke and it patterns nice with the speer loads.

This is an old post but I will toss my 2 cents in. I have hunted PA pheasants for over 30 years with Contenders. I think the original shot caps are for the choked 44 mag barrel. Back in the 80s I killed dozens of pheasants on the wing with 4 or 6 hotshot capsules in my octagon 10" barrel with external choke. Good to 20 yards perhaps a bit more. Perfect for Flushing off of a pointing dog. I retired this barrel for birds many years ago and went to the vent rib 45/410. I still use 3" 410 ammo for my pheasant hunting. Fun stuff.
I loaded the shot caps by removing the seating stem from my die and seated them by hand before crimping.