thanks for sharing zoog. i am well informed now... but now i wanna try that dime thing
Dimes would make a bad load. The edges would do good damage if they hit, but the entire coin is far too light. They also are extremely erratic in flight and on target due to high surface area and low weight.
Nevermind expensive.
They unique noise would be due to the massive wind resistance.
Technicaly I believe destruction of currency is also illegal I believe, though not usualy enforced. It devalues the dollar because it is still counted as being in circulation, yet has been destroyed.
So use descretion where you try it.
One thing I will say about them is that they are the closest thing to "no recoil" I have ever encountered.
With some loadings the report sounded silly. Like a 40mm grenade, but you could almost go with out hearing protection and not suffer any [noticeable] ill effects.
Then that was due to the loading. As we know for every action there is an equal and opposite action.
The light weight of the projectiles and a low charge of powder was probably used giving you a very weak round. As you see with steel shot you can increase the charge and velocity and still stay within pressure limitations because the payload is lighter.
Also with sharp objects a shotcup would be much more liable to have the explosive pressure impale or even blow the cup through the projectiles meaning a lot of the energy of the shot would go through the projectiles and not be imparted to them, leading to less recoil and much slower projectiles.
For a sharp object like flechetters a much stronger buffer they could not pierce would be necessary to insure most of the explosive energy was transfered to the projectile and not rushing through and past them out the front of the barrel.
I would suggest perhaps a hard object, like maybe a thin piece of metal the size of the inside diamter of the shotcup or hard plastic, or other hard material underneath them between the shotcup and them.
Since there is always and equal and opposite reaction based on the payload and the charge then your lack of perceived recoil and especialy of report means the rounds are either underloaded or designed faulty. They should not feel or have an initial report different from another payload.
I would venture the first for the military loadings because the low report is the biggest clue.
Perhaps the second reason for light percieved commercial rounds.
Now there would be greatly reduced resistance to air by flechettes, but that should not be felt because it is the shotcup being forced, and not the thin pieces of metal out the barrel if the shotcup is designed properly for such a load.
However the commercial ammo likely use regular non reinforced shot shotcups which would not work because the pressure applied to them would cause it to be pierced by the flechettes and lose much of the shots energy through the projectiles every time.
That means the projectiles would leave the barrel at greatly reduced velocity for the payload, and the recoil would be minimized because there was less resistance from the projectile in the barrel.
Bottom line is if fired at the same energy as another payload of that weight and everything was designed well, then the recoil and muzzle report would be the same. Now less metal is usualy going to fit in the same space with flechettes, so that means they usualy will be lighter, giving less recoil. That can be remedied with a higher velocity loading. The muzzle report would be virtualy the same for a given charge regardless. A low report is a failure of the round to perform properly. Likely due to some tiny little company like many that offer odd ammo are simply loading a regular shell with flechettes without adjusting the charge. You have improper compression. Lightening a load by removing half the shot would result in something similar. The shotcup faling to perform with flechettes would compound the problem.
