"Exotic" loads in shotguns?

Personally -

These are Wallet Flushes.
Something to try once or twice to say one did so, to educate, to get it out of one's system.

I do not do these loads, don't own any ,and one could not pay me to take them,or use them.

I've used bird bombs to chase birds away, they work pretty much as advertised. Watched someone play with dragons breath one night, wasn't that impressed and couldn't figure out a real use for it. Got no need for rubber anything to shoot out of a shotgun, that stuff's for LEOs who have their lawyer bills paid by the .gov they work for.

Otherwise most of the stuff I see advertised is just vastly overpriced juvenile geegaws, Hollywood-ized stuff intended to separate the purchaser from his money. I can't see any use in $5 a pop shotgun ammo, it costs too much to shoot enough of it to determine whether or not it's really effective out of a given gun. I can get birdshot, buckshot and slugs to do what I need done out of my shotguns, if I want fireworks I'll buy bottle rockets.

lpl/nc

Rubber buck shot keeps the bears off my porch and out of the yard. better than killing them. (only the real pests get this treatment)

Risky. Could have been shot by someone who was NOT using blanks and felt they were just defending themselves.

I have fired a few of the "Bird Bombs" and "Screamer' rounds, and they are noisy...work well for driving away undesired species in the short term.

Buddy shot one of the flare rounds through his full-choke 870...or exactly..partially through his 870. Flare got stuck at the choke point, and well, he ended up buying a new barrel.

Another 'Bubble-Gum-Brains' tried the "dump out the shot, and put in a stack of dimes" trick...again, fired partially through his full-choke barrel.

Remember the cartoons where they shotty barrel peels back, like a banana? Yeppers...that what he had. Wish I still had that pic.

I would like to get some 12 guage bean bag loads for my 11-87.

Just for HD purposes.

I know birdshot or buckshot will stop an intruder just as well, but I'm not sure I could deal with killing someone for breaking into my home.

Anyone know where I could buy a few rounds?

STiTkacik - those will kill at close range.

Also, if you have only beanbag rounds, and for some reason they don't kill at close range... what if the intruder has a gun loaded with LEAD?

Ive tried the flechette ammo in my mossberg 500 had better penatration than most shot. As for the other stuff what kinda mind thinks this up. I saw a box of shells at a gun show once loaded with carpet tacks. I guess if i ever need to redo the living room floor in a big hurry in could get them.Another box i saw has 2 lead balls wired togather said was like a pirate load to bring down the mast on a enemy ship.Dont know about the rest of you but i dont need to stop a ship with my shotty.Also who decided it was a good idea to turn a weapon into a bottle rocket. Sounds like a good way to loose sight and hearing if it blows up in the barrel.But then again maybe this is just me.







one shot one kill

usmccpl .
the 2 balls with a wire is called a bolo round.

the "pirate" referance comes fromt he days of pirates where a cannon would be loaded by 2 balls teathered with a chain to take out a mast. another version is 1/2 a cannonball on each side with a solid bar between. for the same purpose

Practical loads = Popcorn loads

Remove the pellets from a light loading such as target or promotion dove/ quail load.

Replace with popcoren kernals, re-crimp on your MEC or whatever reloader.

-One can shoot pigeons in the barn and not hurt the barn.

-New shooters, whether a kid with a .410 busting a balloon or clay, or an adult to let them get accustomed to correct basic fundamentals, safety, and working the gun - and getting hits on a stationary balloon/ clay .

-Very effective teaching tool again to show how pellets will "skip" and richochet on water. I often put a newpaper to where pellets "skip/ richochet" from water to the bank.
Show folks the holes.

-With safe backstops of course, shoot into / over into a garden, crops to scare off critters, not trying to hit critter, just let the kernals rain down.

-Not uncommon for scarecrows to have extra popcorn loadings for wooden shotguns...in a shirt pocket, or somewhere, yes I am serious, our scarecrows are shotgunners too.

Folks have been doing these Popcorn loads since before I was born...

I've seen an episode or two of COPs where they bean bagged a dude cause trouble, seemed pretty effective.

Now for the Weird Science Section:
For any viewers that come from a place where blue bonnets grow or have handled the seeds or tried to raise them a few observations are forthcoming.

1.First bluebonnets are not the easiest plants to grow.
2.The seeds seem to be well enough designed to survive planetary collision or any manner of avian GI system I can imagine.
3.In nature they spread by whatever distribution system Mother Nature or the Good Lord is using that week.

I've had this idea a fellow might be able to load a special "blue bonnet planting shell" with a little experimentation that would be an excellent tool to distribute the seeds and, if the ground was soft enough, "drill" em in.

Not sure how much volume a 1 oz load of blue bonnets takes up but I have this old klunker shotgun that might be a perfect test bed for load development

With the appropriate buffers I wounder if a fellow might not use a similar system to broadcast seeds for game plots

STiTkacik,

It's unlikely bean bag rounds would cycle your semiauto. And even though they are in fact advertised as less lethal, they can and do still kill- and the act of firing a weapon at a person is still legally considered using lethal force no matter what it's loaded with. If you're legally justified in shooting someone, you're justified in using lethal force- if you have no business shooting someone, it doesn't matter what you shoot them with. In a defensive situation you may only get one shot- you want it to be the most effective load you can fire if that's the case.

Do yourself a favor and forget the idea of less lethal loads for defense in your own home, leave them to LEOs in the field who have the training and certification to deploy them properly, written SOPs and a chain of command to justify their use, and .gov- paid lawyers to defend them if something goes wrong.

lpl/nc

From practical experience, bean bags and tear gas are overrated.

I'd love to find a 12guage flare I could safely fire in my 590.