Curious.. Any of you use these
pistol shotshells?
http://www.cabelas.com/prod-1/0003708210838a.shtml
as an example for 9mm...
Any problems feeding?
I'm in snake country quite a bit, and
these would be great for popping a mad
rattler, copperhead, etc if they pan out.
I've been thinking about springing for a pack
of those for my .40 S&W, but would like to
hear what you all think about these.
I guess the plastic caps are strong enough
to resist feeding problems, but I've never
tried any. I know they were real popular for
the .357 mag at one point, but of course no
feed issues with the revolvers..
Course, I could use regular ole slugs, but
I would think those shotshells would really
mess a snake up, and maybe not have to be
quite as precise on the aim..

at one time Remington made a snake load.when fired in a Colt Combat Elite the fired case was a bit too long to eject and would jam. I tried the CCI shot load in a S & W 645 , 4506 & 745 and the aluminum case would stick in the chamber. I would have to drop a cleaning rod down the barrel to break the case loose to eject it. the CCI load worked just fine in the Colt Combat Elite and the Kimber SST Compact that I now have. I haven't tried the CCI load in the S & W 1911 yet to see if it works in that.

Having tried varous "snake loads" in handguns, I have no use for them. They are a lot better in theory than in practice.

I use regular loads in my "Walking around" guns.
If I am within striking distance and he hasn't, I don't move, because a snake has hardwired strike reflexes we can't match. It is scary to stand still and let a rattlesnake crawl past you, but it is far safer than trying to outdraw him. If I am outside striking distance, I have plenty of time to aim if I want to kill them. Contrary to popular belief, a snake outside of strike distance won't come after you; inevitably, we invade their space or just happen to be in their route of travel. In really hot weather some stupid prarie rattlers will try use use your shadow as shade.

I was looking at some of the reviews, and they
seem to be luke warm also.
Maybe I'll just stick to the slugs.
I'm fairly careful when I'm prowling around,
but you never know what is hiding under a log,
etc. I have a pair of snake guards that I wear
on my legs if I'm in the thicker brush.
I was thinking mainly in terms of real close
ones. My usual response if one was in striking
distance would probably be to jump back away
as fast as I can, but I guess it depends on how
far he is. I'm not too much worried about the
ones at a distance. Like you say, most are
fairly timid, and they can only strike about
2/3 of their length in distance in most cases.
Probably the most aggressive snake in that area
would be a ticked off cotton mouth, but those
are mainly down at the lake. I'm several hundred
feet from the lake, so I probably won't see too
many of those at my property unless they slither
up a creek of something.
Copperheads and rattlers would probably be the
most likely. I never saw one at all last summer,
except for one crossing the county road leading
in to the place. And it wasn't poisonous, so I
didn't bother it.
You gotta watch those little baby copperheads.
They can be nasty as they don't regulate their
venom well, like a grown snake can.
I hate cottonmouths... They can be pesky if they
think you are on their territory. We had one
crawl into our boat one night at about 2AM out
in the middle of the lake.
Course, that one might have just been seeking
some dry land to sit on for a while.
Came up the back motor transom, and crawled
right on in the boat. Had to whack it with a
paddle, and flick him off into the water.
That was in Kansas on Lake Pomona SW of KC.
I was fishing down here at a sand pit one
evening and caught a few catfish which I dumped
into a steel net fish basket. Had a big water
moccasin actually eat a hole in the metal
basket to try to get to the fish. Bit the heck
out of it several times, and I had to throw it
away. That snake tore the heck out of that
basket.. Never knew they could do that until
then.

They work fine in the gun they were made for. Revolver shotshell for revolvers and pistol shotshell for pistols.
The ones with the blue caps work in either .
The necked down shotshells with the disk in the end are for pistols only and will jam up the cyclinder of a revolver.
.40 shotshells will work the action and reload the chamber just fine. Probably the .45 also, haven't tried yet.
What happens in a revolver is that the necked down portion splits, the case jams back to the recoil shield, and the split case now holds it there preventing the wheel from turning and causing the wheel to be very hard to swing out to unload/reload.

quote:

Having tried varous "snake loads" in handguns, I have no use for them. They are a lot better in theory than in practice.

They work great for me, especially the .38 Specials. I've used hundreds of them over the years on rats, mice, and snakes, and they have performed well. In the hot weather months (starting now) I carry two in my cylinder and spares on my belt everyday. Here's an example of a one shot kill...

Hummm. Maybe I'll try a few just for grins.
The ones I looked at for the .40 had the
blue caps, and were sold for use in semi-autos.
I was thinking about how many to keep
loaded, and also came to the conclusion
about 2 would be good, then the usual
slugs next in line.
I thought if I did run into a mean animal,
I would just go ahead and dump the two
shot shells into it as fast as I could, and
then top off with slugs. Probably not the best
scenario, but maybe faster than grabbing
another mag with slugs only. Depends how
much advance warning I get... I can keep a
2nd mag on my holster, but I gotta yank the
strap off, grab and switch...
But it's probably more likely I would see a
snake before a mean animal.
And if it was an animal, #1 most likely a bad
dog/s, and the shot shells and noise might just
do the trick themselves as far as scaring them
off. If not, the rest are slugs...
I guess the main reason I asked in the first
place was to check for feed problems. I didn't
like the thought of a shot shell jamming and
turning my pistol in-op before I even get to
the slugs.
I'd probably still want to test fire a few
before I starting using them out there.

Reeds Ammunition & Research
Oklahoma CIty OK

Offers .45 ACP SHot shells for Semi-Autos ONLY

150 gr. #12 Chilled shot ( 750 count )
150 gr. #7 1/2 nickel plate shot ( 150 count

$ 12.95 for a box of 25

the front of these shotshells have a bullet like shape to them but have five gaps between
- they look like sharks teeth in a circle

I have a box of 50 of the #7 1/2 - at 4-5 feet
it makes a pattern roughly 1.5"+

If you're sitting around the campfire toward
dusck and you're enough into the conference with Jack Daniels and the skeeters are swarming
the #12 works well at about 15 feet

or so I've heard,

Note the R.A>R. .45 ACP SHotshells should
not be used in a .45 ACP Revolver. I tried them in my 625 and the firing pin stuck into the casebackout primer and it locked it up -
and took a trip to the gunsmith

Here's the link to R.A.R>'s ONline store.

http://shop.reedsammo.com/category.sc?categoryId=21

Functioning in a 1911 depends on individual gun
a tight chamber may have FTF issues but I've not had a problem with ejections

They don't seem to sell a version of those
for .40 S&W.
I was looking at the CCI shells, and noticed
that they say the .40 and .45 ACP shot shells
use no cap, but an extended case instead.
They say those will not work in a revolver.
The .40 version uses 105 grains of #9 shot,
with a velocity of about 1250 fps or so.
I bet those feed ok if they don't have caps.
With the .40 and it's blunt nose, I was
wondering how those would look vs the 9mm
which use the blue caps. The cap if used would
need to be fairly short and blunt.
But I guess they got around it by not using a
capsule at all. Not sure how they are sealing
the shot. Maybe a little cap inside the case..

quote:

I would just go ahead and dump the two
shot shells into it as fast as I could, and
then top off with slugs.

That may be a good plan, but try them first to make sure they cycle your slide. On some autos the do and some they don't. If not, just be prepared to manually operate the slide.

A friend of mine shoots so many rats that he reloads his own for .38 Special revolver. In addition to CCI, other folks have made them over the years...

quote:

Having tried varous "snake loads" in handguns, I have no use for them. They are a lot better in theory than in practice.

"Practice makes Perfect" so the saying goes.

For me, handgun shotshells are great! I've tried some 9mm CCI ones in a couple of Glocks...they go bang, but don't cycle the slide to feed the next round.

I've got two Colt 1911's that shoot the CCI .45 ACP ones great and they cycle the action and feed the next round.

I did have a .45 ACP CCI one separate at the tapered front of the aluminum case. The extractor actually snatched the fired case in half. I realized something was wrong when the next round did not chamber completly. It was hard to determine the aluminum ring was in the chamber, even when looking into the barrel when removed from the gun. The only way I could tell was by dropping a .45 loaded 230 cartridge in the chamber...wouldn't go in completly. That aluminum ring was a pain in the butt to remove.

My preference is to handload .38 Special brass cases with the Speer blue shot capsules. These come in a box of 50. I fill them with #7 shot over 4.7 grains of Unique. They are sudden death on rats and copperheads from a 2" revolver, much more so than the factory ones filled with the smaller shot sizes.

tunnel squirrels

quote:

They are sudden death on rats and copperheads from a 2" revolver,

That is an excellent point. These rounds perform much better from the shorter barreled guns than from longer barrels.

Strike Three Ammo, gotta love that stuff. I still have a few rounds in .38 Sportsmans Guide still sells it,I believe. Talk about an awesome round, 3 lead balls from my 2" Rossi M68 leaves a 1 trigger pull shot group on paper of about 4 inches at 21 feet. I once took out eight of ten budweiser bottles @ 20-25 feet with 5 rounds of Strike Three .38