Shock loads!

[the rifleman]

I once heard of a fellow who for a gag, would load one of his shells with flour mixed with some shot. More flour than shot!

 When he was to start shooting with a squad, on the trap range, he would shoot this load first. Apparently it causes quite a cloud! :grin:

 Apparently the other shooters would be so shocked,  :shock: , that it would take them a few minutes to be able to shoot good again, so he would often end up winning the round. :twisted:   This would be during practise rounds of course, not registered targets....

 I also heard of another load that somebody added a flattened primer to it. Apparently when fired, the primer would make a zinging sound as it flew away, somewhat like a ricochet. That made the other shooters always baffled.

 Somewhat different, but still another shock tactic used. When the shooter was squad leader, as is usual of squad leaders, he would ask," scorer ready?, shooters ready?, Lets see a bird"  When the puller released the bird, he would quickly shoulder the gun, and shoot it. :-D  This usally got a few laughs, and a few shocked looks, as nobody thought that he would shoot the "test" bird, as his first shot.

 Anybody else hear of any goofy loads or funning on the line?

[Bob_K]

Slipping in an occassional black powder loaded shell will also leave a lingering cloud for your squad members to shoot through!

[willysjeep134]

Back before we got a new automated trap we had a man in the traphouse hand loading birds. We would have an Annie Oakley round at the end of the evening.

During the Anney ten or more shooters line up on the line. The man on the right covers the man on the left. Only 2 people are loaded and ready to shoot at a time. A bird can fly within 20 seconds of when Pull is called. We would set the trap to wobble as much as possible, use mo-skeet-o targets, load birds upside down, doubles, or even not load a bird but pitch one by hand up over the traphouse.

You are either Up or Covering or doing nothing. When you are UP, you call pull. The bird or birds fly out. The man to your right Covers you. If you break a bird, you are safe for that round. If you don't break a bird, and neither does the man covering you, you get a miss. If you miss and the man covering you hits one, you are out. If you hit and the man covering you shoots anyways, or he shoots before you, he is out. After you shoot, the man covering you is now Up and the man to his right is covering him. After 25 shots everybody rotates as many stations to the right as the whims of the scorekeeper dictate.

We would usually draw numbers to determine the starting order.

Unfortunately with our new trap there really isn't enough room for a person in the traphouse as well, so we just set the trap to wobble as much as possible and leave it at that.

Now, friends, gambling is illegal, but I hear that some trap clubs have every Annie competitor put in a dollar into the pot, the last man standing gets the money but has to buy the targets for the round too.

[jeager106]

Never, ever, do the flour reload thing!
This is a dandy way to cause super high pressure and possibly burst a barrel.

[the rifleman]

How, or why, would adding flour cause higher pressures?  The use buffer in many shotshell loads. You think it would be much the same...

[.45 COLT]

How, or why, would adding flour cause higher pressures?  The use buffer in many shotshell loads. You think it would be much the same...

If look at data for buffered loads and unbuffered loads, adding the buffer raises the pressure considerably. To just add flour (buffer) without any idea of where the pressure is could possibly result in a very unsafe load. Or maybe not, depending on starting pressures and the amount of flour.

A pretty good shock load is a blank, powder, overpowder wad and the rest of the shell filled with cardboard filler wads. A lot of paper in the air.

[jeager106]

Sorry for the delay getting back to the flour loads.
Long ago before buffer was available to the reloader some bright boys tried flour.
It migrates between the shotcup and case. The stuff is not slippery. The best I can explain it is that the four makes the shotcup 'grab' the hull.
I've seen pics of shotshells stretched a good half inch longer after shooting with flour loads.
Buffer raises pressure too, but the tiney plastic particles have some natural lubricity.
Flour is bad news.