.410 Indian Musket Loads for Deer Hunting

[vz24steve]

Well, I have some fire-formed cases! Once fired S&B seems to work the best, it is soft brass (not great in a .303, but perfect for this procedure) and easy to anneal and form. I didn't get full "blow out" with the aforementioned articles powder charge and found I had to up it to 12 grains to get consistent forming. The tougher brasses like PPU still didn't go all the way so I saved those for .303 reloads and exclusively am using S&B...

 

[vz24steve]

Now with these shells... I have done a little homework and here's what I have come up with:...any thoughts?

 

[Fatcamp]

I think it's pretty cool.

 

[Jim1187]

I remember a friends grandfather having one, and him even killing a few deer with it but most of his deer were killed at under 20 yards under the apple tree in the camp yard. No advice on loads, sorry. Interesting old firearm. There is a few local tales about them, not sure if they were as popular/common as the tales make them seem or if it was a case of one or two guns making the rounds with a few families during the same time period. His was the only one I ever actually saw and a handful of decades after the stories happened,

 

[vz24steve]

That's an awesome story, Jim1287, gotta love hunting stories! Only thing better is fishing stories For sure though, I wouldn't want to stretch the range beyond 20/25 yards on a deer, just to be sure I could humanely kill it. That said, I did load six shells today except without an overshot card and used .395 Hornady round balls (tightest fit I have on hand). Three of them equated to a 5/8 oz payload so I dropped a 1/2 grain and used .625 tall fiberwad to get good pressure and lightly crimped with a .30-06 seating die (using the shoulder as the crimp surface). Seemed to work out well on the bench plus side is I was able to use stuff I already have!!

 

[Rich M]

That looks great.

How's that work with the 3 round balls? Basically a buckshot load - if you could load only 1 ball, it might shoot more accurately?

I've heard of guys loading round balls into .38 specials and .357 mag for light duty and small game. Considered going there but haven't. I used .357 mag rifle for deer often enough.

 

[vz24steve]

I will certainly let you know when I shoot 'em. I was going for the same idea as commercial .410 buckshot loads where larger balls like 00 and 000 are single-stacked in the narrow 36 guage hulls. Smaller buckshot fills a wad normally like #4 etc. As far as single ball loading, I am thinking of trying some .410 Round Ball from TOTW as robtattoo suggested, perhaps opening the nonfire-formed .303 cases inserting the .410 ball and crimping over as I just discovered with .30-06 die. Curious if at that point I need to use a wad column or just toss in some Unique and go as is???

Single ball was pretty accurate shooting off-hand, standing at 15 yards out of my 1909 dated example with a straight cylinder smoothbore and pinned rear sight and 1960 dated ammo...so really not bad at all...

My brand new factory Winchester rifled 3" slugs hardly shoot better out of my Mossberg bolt .410!

 

[vz24steve]

That looks great.

How's that work with the 3 round balls? Basically a buckshot load - if you could load only 1 ball, it might shoot more accurately?

I've heard of guys loading round balls into .38 specials and .357 mag for light duty and small game. Considered going there but haven't. I used .357 mag rifle for deer often enough.

I am interested to hear your endeavors with a .357 mag and deer! Be it out if a lever gun?

 

[Rich M]

I am interested to hear your endeavors with a .357 mag and deer! Be it out if a lever gun?

Have a single shot and a Ruger M77-357 (bolt gun). Figure 5# 100-150 yard guns with about 5 pounds of recoil and a real soft muzzle blast.

Part of the 357 mag rifle shooting seems to do with bullet velocity. The faster I can get it to go, the better it shoots. Both guns have shot 1-1.25 inch groups at 100 yards when I was putting lots of effort into it but have gotten lazy and am happy with the bottom-of-a-soda can type groups with em at 100 yards. They'll do that all day long at 1900 fps.

158 gr XTP FP (flat point but it is more like a protected hollow point). Getting 1,900-2,000 fps from a max load of Lil Gun. It absolutely devastates deer out to about 100 yards. Me, wife, kid have 12-15 kills with .357 mag w this bullet and only 1 needed to be tracked, others were DRT. The XTP FP is a great shooting bullet out to about 125 yards. I have trouble getting it to print well at 150 yards so won't use it at that distance.

Tried 158 gr Swift A-Frame loads. This bullet is like shooting a heavy lead solid - they punch thru with no shock & awe. Killed 2 deer but had to track both. 1 was shot thru shoulder at abut 10-15 yards and still ran.

Lately, found Fury Bullets and their .357 158 gr pointed soft points - Using same load as the XTP and A-Frames but the bullet shape has us shooting em out to 225 yards on an 8-inch steel plate with a fixed 4x scope. Sighted for 150 I think. I wouldn't hesitate to shoot a deer out to about 150-175 yards with these. No kills with this one yet. Waiting for an opportunity.

 

[tt_johnsclist]

Some recent discussion along these lines here: https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...ics/15983843/pyrodex-in-my-30-30#Post15983843

 

[vz24steve]

Started experimenting with PC on the .395 RB which added .005 to total diameter but fits, though just, down my fire formed brass to make what almost resembles "Critical Duty" loads for the ol' Indian Police Musket...




I now desperately need to get to the range and try some loads out...up to 10 different varieties! (Including some 6 and 7 1/2 shot shells for small game)

 

[vz24steve]

Well, I tried out some of everything I loaded for this and boy it was a hoot. I know it has been some time since updating this, but had a move between then and now. Also, as you can tell in the photos I did get a little lazy while on a time crunch and didn't mark/swap out targets between shots and different loads. But the really outcome I was looking to capture was in the center between the two targets. That being the heavy PC'd loads. It would be devastating making a nearly three inch incision at 20 yards! This might be my go to buckshot load for deer...