The practical use of "shooting stacks" that I have witnessed were very large brick chimneys. The fuel had always been coal. It was explained to me that the expansion of muzzle gasses and sound waves loosened the ash, which was very dry. Mostly it was carried by the stack's air draft out in the town. Houses got very dirty, so they did it at night. These stack had multiple layers of brick and refractory cement. Metal couldn't hold up to it.