Cheap 410 Shells Without Shotgun Reloading Equipment

By Kurt.

I’m writing this article with the assumption that you have access to reloading equipment and the knowledge how to use it, If you do not, now is the time to learn and the time to acquire the equipment and components. There is a day coming when this sort of equipment and the experience to go with it will be worth its weight in gold.

I feel the the price of 410 shells are way too high and you can buy two boxes of 12-Gauge for the price of one box of 410′s.

So I did a little research and found that “444 marlin brass” would make a good re-loadable brass cartridge because I already had a box of empty 444′s. It was time to get started.

This might be just the thing to keep me out from under foot of my wife. She has this annoying habit of finding things for me to do if it looks like I’m just staring out the window. Seem’s I’ve been plagued with this kind of treatment my whole life.

Anyway, back to where I was going with this. I have two 410 shotguns, a Stevens bolt-action , and an Iver Johnson break-open. The 444 brass would fit just fine in the ‘Stevens’ but the rim was a little thick for the ‘Iver Johnson’.

The way I cured this was to thin the rim of the brass from the base of the shell. This can be done with a small file and a 1/2 drill motor .I will leave it up to you on how to hold the drill and file at the same time. l want to point out that by thinning the rim that you are adjusting the head space so go easy here.

“Chuck” the brass in the drill motor but not to tight as to crush the case, with the base of the cartridge pointing out so you can run a small file on the side away from the primer. Remember that you are making the rim thinner…not cutting the groove deeper. Take off a little bit…then try the cartridge in your firearm until you can close the action. You may not need to do this if you can close your action, so try your brass first.

Something that I should have mentioned at the start…do this with empty brass…not a fully loaded cartridge. You would be surprised at what some people will do.

Now that the brass will fit we move on to the next step, I have an old Lyman Cast Bullet book that lists loads for the 444 marlin and lists my favorite reloading powder “Unique” made by Hercules. I use this powder in every thing from my 45/70 to my 38 special This may not be the most accurate powder but you would go a long ways to find a powder more versatile than “Unique”.

A note of caution here: it is easy to double charge with Unique powder so pay attention to what you are doing.

The load that I came up with is 10 grains of Unique powder using a plastic shotgun wad. I used about 200 grains of # 7 1/2 lead shot. I bought 250 shotgun wads at Sportsmen’s Warehouse for $7, so these should last me a life time.

I want to be clear here: I’m not recommending this load…but this is what worked for me in my two guns, so proceed at your own risk.

Next, I used my 308 seating die to roll the end of the cartridge a bit so that the shot stayed in place…until I could seal it with a hot glue gun. Try not to force the hot glue too far in the mouth of the cartridge. Let the glue cool and then trim off the excess. You are now ready to try the load out.

After you fire this shell the first time…you will not be able to roll the end of the cartridge or punch out spent primer in the 308 die due to the fact that cartridge has expanded some. The 444 Marlin case is slightly smaller in diameter then the 410.

I used a 7/16 box-end wrench to crimp the end of the cartridge. Place the box-end wrench over the top of the cartridge…making sure I was lined up as best I could. Drive the box-end down with a hammer to just crimp the end a little. Then I used a small punch to knock out the old primer. Remember…for safety reasons…do the the above before loading the primer, powder and the shot.

I know some people will wonder why not just use a shotgun reloading press or buy the 410 brass but the point of this was to make something out what I had around the homestead. I was already set up to reload for rifle cartridges and had dies for the 308 and 30-06. But 243 dies or anything in that family of cartridges will work just fine. Remember, you are just wanting to roll the end of the cartridge slightly. The less you “move the brass” the longer it will last. This load has worked well on the predators that steal our chickens and eggs.

Keep your powder dry
Kurt