12 gauge reloading - alternatives

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davinci

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I was discussing the simplicity of the cylinder bore 12 gauge with a friend yesterday while loading pistol rounds. We discussed what could *probably* be loaded into a shotcup and launched out of the barrel of my norinco 12 gauge.

Among the most interesting.
1)CN gas balls. (from the prison system, he's got a bunch, all .50 caliber) saboted by a shotcup and maybe some cream of wheat.
2)airgun bb's. Copper plated, steel. there's no question that these will work just fine, just thought it was interesting.
3) rock salt, of course. :)
4) carpet tacks. Essentially, 1/2" nails.
5) sand. hey, it's dense and biodegradable.
6) maybe paintballs if the charge weight was very low and a good wadding was used.
7) marbles. glass balls.

has anyone here tried any alternative projectiles for their shotguns?
This is not an endorsement to try out anything like this, it may cause damage to you or your shotgun, we're just spitballing ideas without trying them.
8) spitballs. ;)
 
Box O Truth did rock salt... barely penetrated corrugated cardboard. I'd avoid paintballs. They're relatively soft and would make a mess of the barrel and/or receiver. If you want to shoot paintballs so badly, get a used Tippmann 98 for less than $100 and go nuts. I wouldn't want sand near the moving parts of any of my guns. Marbles can shatter. Carpet tacks may be considered flechettes... I'd avoid those.
 
Thanks strat81 for the points.

has anyone here tried any alternative projectiles for their shotguns?
 
Lets not over-look that old standby from the wild west.

A stack of silver coins!

And yes, that Really works out of a cylinder-bore shotgun!

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rcmodel
 
mythbusters did the dimes, they proved that they're not that impressive with a high speed camera. I'm not going to try them, with 5 dimes per shell, that's a 50 cent shell.

Rock salt is something I've done before, I've also used table salt (not impressive, at all, just disappears after it leaves the muzzle, nothing hits the target at even 10 feet.) my results were similar with rock salt as the box of truth, not very impressive.

Anyone, any other ideas?
 
Surplus Steel Flechettes, if you have a shotgun bore you don't care about.

(Or perhaps small finishing nails with the heads flattened out on an anvil to provide some semblance of stability.)

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rcmodel
 
Do not shoot airgun shot - steel BBs - or carpet tacks, they will score up the barrel. Barrel steel is relatively soft and only dead soft annealed steel shot in a thick wad is safe.
 
starter: that came up actually. we figured loading it up with fresh pistol primers may not be a bad test either.

Jim Watson: that's an interesting consideration. We've got some pressure testing equipment, I'll buy some BB size steel shot at gander mountain and take a crossman copperhead BB and run them through the "crusher" that we use to test compressive force against old concrete in our lab. looks like i've got some shopping to do.
 
A few years back my daugther and I made some 20 ga reloads using glitter as a buffer with the lead shot, thinking that it would be "cool" to break some clay birds and have glitter twinkling in the sky .

To quote Jamie from Mythbusters: "That was a whole lot of nothing."
 
starter: that came up actually. we figured loading it up with fresh pistol primers may not be a bad test either

You've got to be kidding me, right? That doesn't seem like such a hot idea.
 
I'm almost thinking asphalt chunks might work. I'm not sure if they would get so hot that they'd melt though.
 
Half carrot diamonds are the ticket for long range geese! I also use them to lengthen forcing cones and open up chokes. I'm experimenting with MOLY coating them to improve flow threw the choke on turkey guns.
 
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