Affordable or home made .410 dummy rounds

1
I have a Mossberg 500 chambered .410, and want to do more dry fire practice and practice cycling and reloading. There seem to very limited choices on the market for dummy rounds that will cycle. It seems like A-Zoom are the only ones, and they run around $5.00 or $6.00 per round; from what I'm reading the Tipton snap caps won't cycle. There are some plastic ones that look light and flimsy, at least $2.50 per round.

I know some people take spent shells, fill them with rice or other stuff, and seal them with silicone. However, I want a really clear visual distinction between the dummies and live ammo, I don't want anything that I need to stop and study to make sure I don't make a mistake. I guess I could use those and mark them with paint or sharpie, but I suspect that will rub off in the gun and foul the chamber, requiring extra cleaning.

I tried making some- took 1/2" hardwood dowel, turned it down in my drill press, and fitted them in the brass from spent shells. I cut back the plastic on the used shells, and tried a couple of things, gluing inside the cut off plastic, and cutting/grinding the plastic out of the brass (that is really difficult to do without distorting the soft brass). The plastic is polyethylene, notoriously difficult to glue to, and if the glue loosens up I'll get a failure to extract. I found a glue that seems to work. but lack of precise tolerances in my woodturning and fitting means they don't load or cycle smoothly. I also made one with a piece of aluminum rod that I glued inside the plastic. (on the right in the attached photo).

The concept seemed good, but I'd need much higher precision for them to work. I'm also concerned with fouling the chamber. Wood splinters shouldn't be a problem, but rough edges on the brass, or excess glue, could be.

I guess if I had a 3d printer I could do something.

Any other suggestions?
Mossberg dummy rounds.jpg

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