snake shot

[lil_hunter12]

is there some way i can use some #7 or 8 shot in my .44 navy colt to use for snakes in the summer?   thx ahead for any help

[tomhargrove]

instructions for this is printed on the card attached to every pack of ox-yoke revolver wads they are very detailed--tom

[Will52100]

basicly, seat a over powder wad, then instead of seating a ball, pour in shot leving just enough room to seat anouther wad on top and your ready to go.  I tried it with #9 shot and found it to be very inacurate and inefective.  I have heard of good results with #12 shot in 45's and 44's, but for a cap gun you'd probably need a walker or dragoon to get enough shot and powder in there.  Also no idea where to get #12 shot.  The author of the article said at 10-15 feet the snakes just went limp.

[lil_hunter12]

thx im just goin to be shooting a max of 15 feet anyway so i will try the #8 or#9 for snakes

[MISSEDSHOT]

Alright fellas, I have a Pietta 1851 Colt repro. in .44,,,Will shooting shot with wads and as much powder as I can pack in there hurt a brass-framed gun like mine since in theroy no ball or single projectile will be contacting the forcing cone/barrel which is what I understand to cause the gun to shoot loose or stay with 15-17 grains if it will fit.???MISSEDSHOT.....

[lil_hunter12]

i have loaded mine up to 38 grains for deer hunting and it does better than people think for coyote's i figured if it can kill a coyote cleanly at 60 yards it should be able to kill a deer at 30. but i dont like loading it that heavy because it will stretch the frame over time. but they are safe to about 25 grains for along time.

[Rickk]

I used to work for the company that owned the now defunct "BBM". BBM made shotshells in .45 and 9mm. One cool thing about the BBM design was that it would feed and fire in anthying that would fire ball ammo. We even had a Thompson full auto that worked well with it.

All that aside, if you want to shoot shot, you want to consider the following:

- keep the shot awy from the rifling... an improvised  rolled paper or plastic tube will keep the shot away from the rifiling.
- if you really want to use shot, remove the rifling from a "shot only" gun altogether. WIth modern handguns, that is a legal no-no. With pre-1898 stye guns that is acceptable.
-consider putting some sort of "short slug" on top of the shot column to put something solid in the center of the pattern. If you have access to a Corbin swager, make some really short full wad cutters to put on top of the shot instead of an over-shot wad.
-you probably won't do this, but Magnaporting will help the shot pattern.
-it's been a wile since I checked, but T/C made a screw-in choke for one of their barrels that would straighten out the rifling for shotshell use. If you are really gun-ho about a good shot patter, you may be able to have yourbarrel tapped to accept one of those. Oddlyenough, rifling isn't required to be spiral. Straight rifliing at the end will reduce the shot dispursion.
-Speer makes handgun shot shell cups. They will hold the shot toghether well. I have never tried one in a lever loader ... not sure if it would hold up to loading or stay in the gun under recoil. Maybe just load one cylinder with it and make it shot #1.

Personally, snakes don't bother me. I have two big ones in the living room 

[Wwalstrom]

My 1858 Remington, loaded as per the Ox-Yoke instructions with #7-1/2 chilled lead shot accounted for quite a few blackbirds last spring.  No damage to the Rifling either ...  Effective range was about 15-20 feet.

[Rickk]

The shot won't hurt the rifling... the rifling will hurt the shot.

[dumgunny]

The shot won't hurt the rifling... the rifling will hurt the shot.

   Spoken like a man who has never tried to to scrape lead fouling out of a rifled barrel!......LOL

  All that aside, I don't know if Speer still makes em' but I have several boxes of their "Empty shot capsuls" in 44cal and .357/38. they look like a 35mm film cannister in miniature. they consist if a thin plastic cylinder that is scored in a star pattern on the end with a thick nylon base wad that doubles as a "cap" I use them in my 36 cal pistols and my 44 but cutting them down just a bit with a pocket knife and loading them with #9 shot. The 38's fit real snug in the cylinder, but the 44's have to be crushed slightly to stay in the cylinder or I have just criscoed them real heavy. they are great for snakes out to 15 yards or so, and they will give a roving stray dog a far dose of "get along " out to 50 feet or so.
  I also tried the 38 ones in a spanish 9mm Muzzle loading shoutgun, but they didn't come apart and would pierce a target at 50yds with shot, capsule all.

[LEO]

I haven't loaded any C&B shot but I have shot a lot out of cartridge revolvers, rather than more powder you want less than normal, the heavier powder charges blow a hole in the center of the pattern.  After all you are using the shot loads for "at your feet" use anyway.  The good thing about that in the C&B revolvers is that you could load more shot in the space created by the reduced powder charge.  Good luck

[S.S.]

basically, seat a over powder wad, then instead of seating a ball, pour in shot leaving just enough room to seat another wad on top and your ready to go.  .....

Just what was done.....
Then Pull the trigger and Boom... One nice shot and the shot from the other five chambers
rolls out the chamber mouth  from the recoil unseating the other wads... Luckily it did not chain fire
the other cylinders... Thankfully we were after Rats and not an ornery old Copperhead..
Guess I could have toasted him a bit with the five remaining 'Blanks"

[MISSEDSHOT]

One more thing we might try,, I was looking at an article online for some home-built snake cartridges for pistols and they used Elmer's glue to seal the card. Now, could we glue a card to a degreased cylinder?MISSEDSHOT......