When me and my best friend were around 12, we found a bag of 16 gauge shells in an abandoned house.
Royce had a 12 gauge single shot and he was able to fire the entire bag by wrapping paper around the shell to make it fit better.
I certainly don’t recommend that anyone try that.
Never even occurred to me to try this with the 1873 trapdoor Springfield that I grew up with.
Probably thought it was a dumb idea if I had thought of it.
Just because you could don’t mean you should
You’ll put your eye out, kid.........................
Following my father’s guidance of “use the proper tool for its proper job”; I would say, use the proper ammunition for the proper weapon, i.e. use a .410 shell in a .410 shotgun, a .45 ACP in a M1911, 9mm shell in a 9mm pistol,& etc.
I recall a statement by a famous person whose name eludes me right now, saying: “A tool of mediocre quality used for what it was intended, is better than a high quality tool used as for something it was not intended.”
My Dad left me a trapdoor 45_70 that he’d gotten from a studio sale in Hollywood in the 1940s. Also he had an Ideal handloader for it. I make my own black powder cartridges and fire it once in a while. Never use anything but black powder in a trapdoor. Even light loads of smokeless powder can build high levels of pressure. In other words never use ammunition that isnt specifically designed for the firearm. It is painful to have to say this.
He thought about it for a second, and said he hastily came to the conclusion that letting them do it was the best punishment he could come up with.
Sounds like a “Hold my beer” moment.
.410 in .44 Mag Ruger works fairly well. Just check the barrel as wads get caught up in it now and then.
There are lots of chambers that are safe for more than one cartridge (but I don’t think this combination quite makes the list).
A .32 Colt Short is safe to shoot in a .32 Colt Long, a .32 S&W Short in a .32 S&W Long, a .38 Spl in a .357 Magnum, or a .44 Spl in a .44 Magnum.
A .410 is safe in a .45 Colt (AKA .45 “Long” Colt, not .45 ACP) is safe in a .454 Casull is safe in a .460 S&W Magnum.
Some Taurus Judge revolvers are advertised by the company to shoot either .45 Colt or .410 bore shotgun.
Just to name a few.
The reason the guy in the video had problems with excessive case head expansion is that the .45/70 uses a tapered case. It’s 0.480” at the neck (as are most .45-ish rounds) but it flares at the base to 0.505”.
The .45 Colt, .454 Casull and .460 S&W Magnum all are straight-walled cases from 0.478”-0.480” diameter. A .410 shell’s base diameter is 0.470 but .410 chambers are 0.478” or 0.481” (depending whether they’re 2 1/2” or 3”), so they’re well-suited to the chamber dimensions of the .45, .454 or .460.
I’d bet the guy in the video knew it was a mismatch but tried it any way, just to see if a firing chamber oversized by 0.025” was enough for the case head to rupture. Any rifle chamber designed for .45-70 smokeless has an overpressure safety factor of at least 200% when firing a .410 shotgun shell, so it stood pretty much zero chance of the receiver failing. I’d have liked to see him run a full box of shells (or two) through it to see whether he got lucky with those three shots or if one-fortieth of an inch just isn’t enough slop to allow the cases to rupture.
It’s stupid to shoot a shotgun shell down a rifled barrel, unless it’s a slug. The barrel spins the shot, and the pattern is a donut shape with a big hole in the middle.
I remember a story about a guy trying to clear pigeons out of a warehouse, and after blasting away for a while, all he got was a lot of feathers. All of the birds survived.