Remington’s Multi-Ball Ammunition

By Wiley Clapp (RSS)

August 25, 2009

I got my first indication that Remington was loading some special .38 Spl. and .357 Mag. ammo when I saw an unusually marked case. A typical cardboard carton that held 500 rounds, it was empty when I saw it, but was plainly marked ".38 Special Multi-Ball" and "Two #000 Buckshot." 


I finally persuaded Remington to ship me a few boxes, discovering in the process that they also made it in .357 Magnum. As many handgunners are aware, #000 buckshot pellets are the same diameter as .38 Spl. bullets. It is possible to load a pair of them into either .38 Spl. or .357 Mag. brass, atop a charge of powder that drives them to respectable velocities.


Remington made an unknown amount of this ammo, but rather quickly discontinued it. I fired enough to satisfy my curiosity about the load's performance. It would easily put both pellets into a silhouette out to 10 yards, sometimes a little more. For a defensive cartridge, that's pretty good, but it just never caught fire. Go figure.



Clapp on Handguns


Tags:  ammunition,  blogs,  remington,  remington multi-ball ammunition,  wiley clapp

Share |

Comments

ADD YOUR COMMENT

Enter your comments below, they will appear within 24 hours


Your Name


Your Email


Your Comment

2 Responses to Remington’s Multi-Ball Ammunition

Jen wrote:
April 01, 2011

John J, I would like to hear from you on the specifics of your rebuilt cartridge & the load you used. I have a friend who reloads & I'd like to give him the info so he can make me some rounds to try out. I just discovered this at a gun show but I'd never heard about it, so I held off. Glad I did now, but if you found a successful way of loading this, it would be good to know.

John J. wrote:
March 25, 2011

I rebuilt the cartridge and hand casts the balls myself to get things right. I've heard this round cussed on 'forums', but invested some time and built it to some specs that I believed would work. What I found was near immediate success, at 25 yards, there was under an inch spread with the powder and depth I chose. I resized the cases and crimped them to hold the ball to eliminate creep. My crimp was deeper than the original Remington. What I have discovered is the trick is using a powder that compresses well and responds to added pressure - plus burns fast. Remington should have done R&D on this round - it works well. #000 buck was ideal and the .38 case is far better suited for the tests I ran. This is an excellent round if you know how to build it, shoot from standard barrel and up the FPS past 800.