old 44mag with ext. choke

[rural17]

Just wondering if anyone has turkey hunted with a 44 mag barrel with the external choke. I haven't even shot this barrel yet, but I thought it might work well for turkeys if the shot wasn't too long.

          Tell me your thoughts.        Jeff

[Hopalong7]

Sorry Jeff, but I just don't think you'd have enough gun.  You'd have to be mighty close anyway.  Now you could remove the choke and put a 240gr JSP through his engine room.  Anyway, my $0.02.   Walt

[MS Hitman]

Those barrels were made for the T/C Hot-Shot loads of many years gone past.  The choke was designed to shred the shot container and stop the spin imparted on the load by the barrel rifling.  Accuracy was not great and effective range just wasn't there.

[Hopalong7]

I think I still have some of the old hot-shot capsules somewhere.  If I can find one, I'll weigh it and report back but I think they were well less than a .410 load and did not pattern the best(read tight)either.  Walt

[rural17]

I wonder what these barrels were made for? Shootin rattlesnakes       I bought some CCI 44mag shotshells with #9 shot not even sure if they will work in it.  How well will these barrels shoot a slug?

                          Jeff

[MS Hitman]

You will have to remove the choke to shoot .44 Mag ammo.  A .410 shell should not fit.

[rural17]

Naw these are actual 44mag aluminum cartridges with a little plastic piece on the end containing the shot produced by CCI. They are the same length as regular 44mag ammo ?

        Thanks Jeff

[rickyp]

as stated, the 44 mag with shot capsules will not be any good for turkey hunting.

they are only good to about 20 feet and not good on anything bigger then a rat. you do not have enough shot to do anything and what you do have is not overly powerful.

You can buy empty shot capsules from Speer  and fill it with yor own shot or CCI makes already loaded ones.

I have some for the 45 (loaded for the 45 colt and 454) and 357 magnum and have shot quite a few of them.
BTW these wouldn't be any good for turkey either. and don't even think of the 45-410

[Hopalong7]

The original TC Hot-Shots were a little longer than the CCI capsules and held a few more pellets.  I got to watching Commananche Moon last night and forgot to look for one to weigh.  But still they are only good for snakes and small vermin at close range.  The TC's came pre loaded and sealed and if I remember, came with rather small size shot(like #9's maybe).  The CCI's had to be shorter to accommodate revolver cyclinders.  I think either one is a definate step backward from the .45/.410 and I wouldn't want to take on ol' Tom with one of them for sure.  GOOD SHOOTIN',  Walt 

[wiley]

Speer sell empty shot capsules in 44. They seem to have good capacity.
Wiley

[rural17]

Thank You All  For your feedback, I guess I'll just use the barrel to play around or save it for a barrel stub project in the future?

                 Thanks Jeff