Cut Shells, turning your birdshot into a slug

[leonidas]

I found this the other day and thought it was interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3M46XVfVOU&feature=player_embedded

Rather than beating the safety horse to death on the obvious hazards of doing this, I'd rather focus on the concept. Especially if it was used in prior to the invention of the slug.

I wouldn't recommend loading them into a chamber on even a pump (let alone a semi), but I think there are ways you could "score" the line rather than "cut" the shell that could aid in pump loading and give you some stability and safety for muliple rounds.

 

[matefrio]

Interesting.

 

[Rum Runner]

I love stuff like this. It is my hope that if nothing else, the internet may prevent the huge loss of knowledge that has occurred through history as time marches on.

I'd like to see some denim and balistic gell tests with that, though I am sure #1 or 00 shot would still be better. Damned cool though unless you reload

 

[TxDad]

Dont have sound right now but is he cutting the outer cover and leaving that little bit uncut so the shells will shoot that downrange and keep the pellets together?

 

[matefrio]

Dont have sound right now but is he cutting the outer cover and leaving that little bit uncut so the shells will shoot that downrange and keep the pellets together?

yep acts like a slug

 

[TxDad]

Thanks for the clarification Matefrio. Thats pretty neat.

 

[Texastransplant]

Old enough to have been shooting before the "power piston" Paper shells worked great in my pump with the cutts compensator. The power piston came along and by the third shot I'd have allsorts of plastic sticking out that open space between the end of the barrel and then compensator. I dispised the power piston wad, loved them old cardboard wads lol.

 

[cuate]

Most, but not all shotgun barrels have full, modified or other choke to tighten down the shot pattern. I think I personally would be leery of cutting or almost cutting the shotgun shell thus to send out the shot in one mass like a solid....That paper or plastic shell portion would have to be squeezed down to pass the choke and it possibly might be dangerous. A little mud or snow certainly is....I could be mistaken, never tried the operation...

 

[Acera]

It's an old poacher trick. If you stumbled across a deer when bird hunting, you could take care of business.

 

[Txmark]

It's an old poacher trick. If you stumbled across a deer when bird hunting, you could take care of business.

I used that back in the 70's as a teenager. Ruined the choke on several shotguns before I knew it. But it sure was a blast hitting something "full force" without buying slugs. Shot a couple of piney woods deer that way, amazing to drop a deer with #8's. Now I have to buy my own guns, learned to take better care of them.

 

[zembonez]

Absolutely cool!

 

[TimberWolf7.62]

Yeah, my father was a civil engineer for a railroad in the late 1940's and worked some in Kentucky. Some of the good ole boys up there showed him the trick. But they were using double-barrels, not pumps, as the shells can obviously become mangled in the action if it's cut.

I tried it a time or two and was able to cut down small pine trees with a shot or two.

 

[cconn]

We used to do that when we were kids, about 20 years ago. Cut almost all the way around a shotgun shell then shoot it. Never hurt any of our beater shotguns we used to run the woods with.

 

[texasislandboy]

haha knew i would see this back in my dumb days... i did it in a over under 12g and pulled both triggers......... one barrel is now flared out the other was fine ended up cutting the barrel down and get chokes put back in it

 

[308nato]

Like they say " I wouldn't try this at home".

 

[M. Sage]

Most, but not all shotgun barrels have full, modified or other choke to tighten down the shot pattern. I think I personally would be leery of cutting or almost cutting the shotgun shell thus to send out the shot in one mass like a solid....That paper or plastic shell portion would have to be squeezed down to pass the choke and it possibly might be dangerous. A little mud or snow certainly is....I could be mistaken, never tried the operation...

The plastic filled with shot isn't going to be nearly as bad as an actual slug (y'know, a more or less solid chunk of lead...), which it is safe to send down one of those barrels.

 

[Texasjack]

OK, I gotta say some things. The older guy in the video says that slugs came out in 1931 but that cut shells were being used in "The Depression". By that he means the Great Depression which lasted from October 1929 through approx. 1939. So his time range covers one year.

The younger guys says these cut shells are much more accurate than musket balls. Really? Both are smooth bores and the inherent accuracy would be the same. Certainly a rifled barrel would have much better accuracy and muskets went out of style with the Revolutionary War, with the notable exception of the Mexican Army under Santa Anna and I think we all know how that turned out.

Finally, if you want the shotgun to shoot like a slug, then use a slug. Many of them have rifling built into them to spin stabilize the projectile and make it more accurate.

Over all, this video is useless information that is more likely to wind up ruining a good shotgun than anything else.

 

[M. Sage]

Yeah, I disagree that slugs are a newer invention. The whole reason we use gauge is to tell how much lead it's going to take to make projectiles for it... Bore-sized projectiles, that is.

Slugs are nothing new or even new-ish.

 

[London]

The first time I heard about this was in one of the Poor Man's James Bond books by Kurt Saxon (Whichever one has the Poor Man's Armorer printed inside). Anyone who likes this trick should definitely check that book out.

 

[cuate]

I'm never going to try that but I remember in the novels about the Chicago Gang days (before obama) back long ago some thugs cut an "X" into their then lead bullets to make them spread or part when hitting the intended target....Another one was rubbing garlic onto the bullets, supposed to make them poison to the victim, haha