What can You Use For Shot?

[ninjatoth]

I have heard of people putting rock salt in place of lead shot?Is this true?What else can you load a case with.I have thousands of old lead .22 pellet gun pellets,what would happen if I loaded them in my .20 or .410 cases and shot them?

[Big G]

Yes, you can load rock salt but it is very corrosive.I would not shoot any of it in my guns.As far as the pellets, you could do that to. But you need to be careful and stay in the same payload wieght as the shell had.Probably way too much touble in IMO.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Little round balls of lead, steel or sometimes bismuth is usually the safest....

[TxGun]

Rock salt residue would obviously rust the crap out of the barrel unless you clean it thoroughly and immediately. Bad idea.

[darkgael]

Some "specialty loads" in 12 gauge use plastic or hard rubber balls as crowd or animal control rounds. I tried to duplicate such a load - for chasing bears off the deck behind the house. I took apart a factory load that used hard plastic "buckshot". I measured the shot and weighed them and then weighed the charge and took a long look at the wad. I was able to duplicate the load at way less than they normally cost. They are as safe as I can make them and exhibit no odd behavior.
The military loaded 12gauge hulls with flechettes (small darts) for use in jungle warfare. They may still use them.
Pete

[Ruthless4christ]

Hot wax! Makes great anti feral dog ammo!

[gunnails]

about 6 dimes.

[SDC]

At one time or another, practically EVERYTHING has been tried in a smoothbore, ranging from spikes in slugs, screws, nails, lengths of chain, etc. etc., but none of them will actually do any more damage than the tried and true buckshot and slugs. Unless you're interested in "casualty-testing" your shotgun to see how badly you can treat it, I'd stick with factory loads or responsible handloads.

[Lavid2002]

I have heard of people putting rock salt in place of lead shot?

Someone did a test on this before im pretty sure...unless you can hit em with the muzzle im pretty sure the salt wouldnt even go through cardoard.

[Nnobby45]

about 6 dimes.

I saw how effective the six dime load was---I think The Box of Truth. Not recommended.

[zippy13]

A load of confetti over black powder makes an acceptable novelty load for birthday shoots, etc.

[Lavid2002]

A load of confetti over black powder makes an acceptable novelty load for birthday shoots, etc.

oh no....why not just buy party poppers this sounds crazy unsafe

[gunnails]

Bob Olinger, slain by his own shotgun during a jail break by Wm Bonney,AKA Billy the Kid, was supposed to be using the dimes. A shotgun shell, 00, etc, cost maybe a nickel. Those would have cost more than $1, "Ten thin dimes"...

IMO, a myth.

[hoytinak]

Someone did a test on this before im pretty sure...unless you can hit em with the muzzle im pretty sure the salt wouldnt even go through cardoard.

While in high school we had a farmer test some of his rock salt loads out on us (a bunch of kids out partying on his land). From about 50 yards or so (from what I remember) it went through my t-shirt and into my back enough to were I had to go to the hospital to get it cut out....man does it burn. Didn't go in far enough for me to use it for HD duty.

[Moloch]

If you manage to blast a full load of rocksalt into the eyes of an attacker it should stop him immediately, but you'll loose the following lawsuit. Fake eyes are expensive!
And dont forget earmuffs to protect your ears from the screams of the attacker.

What about loading copper ''shards'' instead shot?

[GP100man]

i loaded spent primers in 410 for rodent control.
shredded possum anyone???? LOL

[speedsixman]

An old guy told me that when he was growing up on the farm (which was on the edge of the city) they had an old shotgun in the barn that they used for "pest" control. He would dump out the pellets and load the shells with any old bolt nuts that were laying around. Said they made a "whoosh, whoosh" and whistling sound when fired over the head of trespassers.

Wonder he didn't blow up the gun.

Don't try this at home, boys and girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Myron

[.284]

My dad use to make rice loads for stray dogs.

[4thPointofContact]

The military may, at one time, have experimented with flechette ammunition for 12-gauge shotguns. The fact that the military now uses buckshot should tell you something about how effective it was.

There are four main problems with loading the commonly available flechette into a shotgun and trying to use it for offensive/defensive purposes.

1) Flechettes are light, there were between 19 and 20 in each of the 10 cut apart shotshells we evaluated. That's not a lot of weight per projectile.
2) Flechettes are pointy. Icepicks are pointy, but few people rely on icepicks for combat.
3) Flechettes have fins. You wouldn't think of it as a drawback until you combine that with 1) and 2) above. You wind up with a projectile that doesn't have a lot of momentum to begin with and then has little fins on the back that act like very effective brakes to keep the flechette from penetrating very far.
4) Flechettes, to gain whatever weight advantage they can are packed with half of the payload pointing forward and half to the rear. As soon as those rearward flechettes reach open air they lose any stability they may have had in the barrel and fly off ..... well pretty much like any unaerodynamic, non spinning projectile. Picture trying to throw a broadhead arrow backwards and you'll quickly get the idea.


How horrible are they? In the testing we did, at 15 yards the pattern was 6-7 feet in diameter. A 6-foot diameter pattern has over 4,000 square inches. To hit that you have at most 20, inch-long flechettes that will penetrate about an inch and a quarter...at most. In reality, the great majority of those flechettes will hit broadside, without a bit of penetration and probably not even causing a welt on bare skin.


If I had to face someone carrying a shotgun loaded with flechettes or someone carrying a shotgun loaded with birdshot..... there's not much choice in who I'd rather be charging.


If anyone is curious to see the test and the pictures, head over to GeorgiaPacking.Org and do a search for flechettes.

[darkgael]

4thpoint: Thanks for that post and the info. I'd always wondered about how effective the flechette loads were.
Pete

[Uncle Buck]

Being shot with salt rock hurts like heck. I was shot with it as a kid and went crying home to tell my father I had been shot. He looked at the wound and immediately determined I had been up to Reggie's farm, probably stealing his melons, after being told to stay off the property. (He was correct!)
My father turned around and showed me a small scar on his backside where he had been shot with rock salt. He laughed at me and told me his father had told him the same thing he had told me. Stay outta Reggie's melon patch!, he'll shoot you with rock

salt.
Never thought much about a lawyer, as I was the one breaking the law (trespassing and stealing).

Reggie was a good man, I even worked for him for quite awhile, but he could not see very well and one of his passions was growing melons for the county fair. He posted his property and everyone in town knew him.

Can you load salt-rock? Sure, you can load anything that will fit in the barrel. But what are you going to do with it? I would be afraid to try it simply because if you did use it against a person, you would be looking at lawsuits from hades. Our criminals seem to have more rights than we do as property owners.