I've heard I can shoot .410 in my 45-70 guide gun??
What can ya tell me? And if so will it hurt the barrel?

Please educate me in this. Marc

When I had a Marlin 45-70 and a Savage 24 with a .410 barrel I fired about a dozen .410's out of it. I can't imagine it did or would hurt anything. The rounds always went off. I don't recall if I single loaded them or fed them from the magazine. The ejected hulls were plumped up a bit and likely not reloadable.
However, usefulness wise, I shot at a starling sitting on a post from about 20' and it just laughed as it flew away. The shot came out of there like a blunderbuss. You could hardly call it a pattern. I have read, the spinning shot column will pattern more like a donut, leaving a gap in the center.
So, it worked in the sense that it made a loud noise, you could scare something off at close range, or perhaps dissuade an angry crowd of protestors or looters in a non-lethal manner.
In my experience, it was better than a pocket full of rocks, but not a lot more.
L.

Yeah, I've done this a few times.
What I've found.....
I find the rim of the 410 cartridge is a little on the thin side and there may not be enough firing pin protrusion to fire the 410 round reliably. I could only get them to go off about 30% of the time.
I ended up turning up some brass spacers that would slip over the unfired 410 case to effectively thicken the rim up a little ( I think it was 20 thou from memory)and they would fire every time with this arrangement.

Extracting the spent cases is your next problem, because again, the rim is of a smaller diameter and is more rounded than a standard 45/70 case, the extractor just rolls off the rim. I ended up having to hook them out with a screwdriver.

And now we get to the shot patterns.....ahh yes the patterns.
Due to the rifled barrel, the patterns get blown out to the whazoo.
At 20 feet, patterns were maybe 5 feet wide and extremely sparse. I guess that you could maybe shoot a snake or something that was troubling you as long as it was at very close range, 4-5 yards max.

Fired cases were bulged and distorted due to the larger chamber size of the 45/70 and I very much doubt that they could be recovered and reloaded successfully.

So really, in my opinion, and even though it can be made to work, the whole idea is rubbish.
There are far better solutions, like simply loading some actual 45/70 cases with some fine shot and cardboard wads with a roll crimp.

Thank you valuable information. It doesn't sound like something that I even want to mess with.
It's always good to ask before you do it LOL, thanks guys.
Marc

I can remember when I was a young kid on a rabbit hunt seeing a guy with a Trapdoor Springfield carbine shooting 410s in it. He had to use a knife to get cases out. In a Marlin yes they will go bang but to risk blowing the extractor off. I wouldn't shoot 410s in any 45-70. Make shotshells with 45-70 brass if you want a small game shell for it.

Just thought I would mention 444marlin cases can be loaded with shot and work perfect in a nice little 410 double I have.

Is there any place to see how to load shot into a 45-70 case??

Maddog,

Pretty simple to load shot in a 45-70. Unique powder and a card wad then a 410 plastic shot cup,shot to fill the case and another card wad on top. Also can make top wad out of hard plastic or a gas check. Crimp over the top wad. You don't have to use the plastic shot cup but without it the barrel will lead fast. Don't remember the charge of unique but you can also use about 14 grains of Hercules 2400.

quote:

Originally posted by srose:
Maddog,

Pretty simple to load shot in a 45-70. Unique powder and a card wad then a 410 plastic shot cup,shot to fill the case and another card wad on top. Also can make top wad out of hard plastic or a gas check. Crimp over the top wad. You don't have to use the plastic shot cup but without it the barrel will lead fast. Don't remember the charge of unique but you can also use about 14 grains of Hercules 2400.

Yep, that's pretty much it.
How I did it was prime the case, 10grns Win 231, inverted copper gas check, thin card wad, a load of #9's, thick card top wad, and then roll crimp the case mouth to keep the whole assembly tight.
I can't remember exactly how much shot I used, but just enough to get a tight squeeze onto everything with the roll crimp. I remember having to fiddle with it to get it just right but probably around 1/2oz or so I would guess.
They functioned quite well, but the patterns were still pretty dismal at anything more than a couple of yards.