loading brass shells lots of questions

[sachel.45]

I was looking at picking up some magtech .410 brass shells and was wondering how to reload them do you need a reloading press?
and does regular load data work or do you need to use specific loading data for brass shells? how about black powder would you just load volume for volume? and would that work in a .410 and how do you seal the loads? do you use a crimp? i heard some body uses an over card wad and then uses glue or something how well does that hold? sorry for all the questions.

[PlacitasSlim]

I reload the 12ga, so I can give you a sense of what you will need. The first thing is they use Pistol primers, not shotgun. I have a shell holder that fits my shells, so I prime them just like any other shell. I have reloaded some .410's and I think it was a .45 colt that fit them. Next comes the powder, I use 777 FFg because I like the smoke. You will have to work up your own load on this. Over the powder goes a nitro card and then the fiber wads. On a 12ga you must use 11ga wads and nitro cards since the thin walls won't allow use of regular wads.  seat your wads with about 40lbs of pressure. You can use a bathroom scale to measure this. Next comes your shot. Over the shot, I use a 10ga over shot card that I seat down tightly over the shot. Next I seal the whole thing with Ducco cement. I use a mixture of the old Lee shotgun tools and the RCBS shotgun dies to make things easier. You don't need these, but the do make it a lot easier. Hope this helps.

[Sir Charles deMoutonBlack]

The normal shot load for a .410 is 1/2 oz.  I guess you will have to measure out about 220 grains of fine shot, and see what measure it will fit in.  The starting point for BP shotgun loads is a "square load", meaning;  the same volume of shot and powder AND the shot or powder column is the same height as the diameter of the bore.  Most people don't actually measure it that way.  It is easier just to accept the normal or light load as a starting point.  Often less powder than shot will give tighter patterns.  I've never loaded a .410, but the loads are quite small as it is, I'd be tempted to stick with a square load, that is by using the same measure for shot or powder.

(Another indicator might be data for the .44-40, as a .410 was a wildcatted .44-40 made for wild west show shooting.  .44-40s use 30 to 35 grains of black powder.)

19 Mar 07;  Last night i did some cut 'n try.  An old red LEE 141 dipper takes about 35 gr of GOEX, and about 215 grains of #8 shot.  That is just a bit less than 1/2 oz. of #8 shot.  (#9 would weigh a bit more, and would be a better choice.)

The load is built up as follows
1.  pour powder into the primed shell
2.  over powder wad ( a fairly hard card wad about 1/8 " thick
3.  cushion wad up to 1/2" thick, sometimes containing some lubricant
4.  shot
5.  over shot card.  a thin card.  I use cardboard from a waxed milk carton punched out with a 11mm arch punch, or with a cut off belted magnum case.  Ammo packaging or cereal box material works well.
6.  Elmer's glue run around the overshot wad to seal it. The type of glue can vary depending on what you have.  The original sealing was "waterglass" (Sodium silicate??) but most modern cheaper glues are good.

Try the net, Track of the wolf, Dixie gunworks, Circle Fly, etc. for proper wads.