I've seen the speer shotshell capsules, and I like the idea of reloading them, but I have some questions. Are they hard on barrel rifling? Also, I'm on a cattle ranch, and i'm curious if anyone on here has put rock salt in the shot capsules? We use rock salt out of a 12 gauge on bulls if they aren't cooperating. I thought that it would be cool to have rock salt shotshells in a pistol that I could wear on my hip for rounding up bulls and such. I'd like to load some with #8 or similar size to see if I can luck out and kill some pheasants this upcoming season as well. What do you guys think?

__________________
Still waiting on a .44mag AR15

The Speer capsules are plastic, Styrene I believe as they are brittle, deliberately. Can't say anything about the effect on cattle. About their only utility they have is as snake shot. Because of the effect of rifling on shot patterns you can't dependably break a clay shotgun target at more than 8-10 feet or so. The pattern forms a doughnut, with an increasingly larger center hole as range increases.

__________________
Gunsmithing since 1961

I liked the idea of the shot capsules, but crushed a lot of them while reloading. I have had poor results with #8 patterns were all over the place. How small are your pheasants??? I used to use #5/6 back in the 1970 when Pa had pheasants. Unless you shoot them in the head , like my father did, I do not believe you will have enough #8 to make a clean killing shot. As for the rock salt for steers, you could but would it have enough mass to let them know they were hit? The capsule is plastic and will not hurt your barrel, I do not know what HOT rock salt will do down the barrel. Be Safe,

__________________
I BACK OUR BLUE

Might be an entertaining way to salt your margaritas.

___
Nemo

I've loaded Speer capsules in .38 and .357 and have had very poor results from pistols. Other than for small snakes at 5 feet I would not even bother and quite honestly, I would NOT shoot salt through any gun that I care about since salt is very corrosive.

Actually, the range is more like twenty feet for small game (NOT twenty yards). However, for cleaning rats out of an outbuilding they have done yoeman's work. I have even used them on larger animals where you can get pretty close. They are effective on snakes at the same distance.

I do have one caveat - they are MUCH more effective if you use FINE shot - #12. It greatly increases pattern and at the ranges we're talking about, the fine shot works well. It will shred a snakes head at twenty feet.

FWIW
Dale53

I've found shotshells out of a .38 with a 2" barrel to be good for nothing. I think they might do better in the larger bores.

I tried rock salt once in some shotgun shells and what resulted was a load of table salt at 20 feet. It's probably the noise more than the salt affecting the bull. You might try the plastic, primer-fired bullets with good effect.

How 'bout a wrist rocket slingshot with a bag of marbles?

Seems that would put the hurt on them without any real damage.

I think that at best you would end up with pre-salted flank steak on the hoof... with little of the desired effect on the bull's behavior. JMHO, never really tried it.

Froggie

You're grossly overestimating the usefulness of those capsules.
Very close work on rats and snakes is what they are for,and what they barely do.
no sir, you did not find an easy button for bull's, nor a game bird round here.

__________________
it just needs more voltage

Sounds like some violations of the USDA humane handling rules. I would think that the Food Safety and Inspection Service could find that (shooting 12ga. rock salt rounds at cattle) an actionable offense, wouldn't they?

There you go, and I've never heard of a Man-with-a slingshot call before.

I haven't had much luck with the Speer shot capsules either out of my 38s.

We had some "uncooperative" bulls on the farm when I was a kid but we never felt the necessity to use a 12 gauge on 'em - regardless of what the shells were loaded with. Just seems to me like there ought to be a better way?

Salt has a hardness of 2.1
Copper has a hardness of 3.0
Steel has a hardness of 6.5

Salt will not scratch steel. Copper jackets, which are harder than salt don't scratch steel. However, not cleaning moist salt off steel may do damage.

Up close, the plastic in the Speer capsules could cause major damage.

In your shotgun get some bean bag rounds, and shoot "them" cows from at least 15 yards...

As to the Speer Shotshells. I have used them in 22LR, 22 Mag, 9mm, 38 Special, 44 Special/Mag, 45 ACP and 45 Colt.

I have killed some BIG snakes with all of them.
With the 44, 45ACP, and 45 Colt I have killed a LOT of small game for the pot.

The wife and I have found them most effective. I NEVER go into the hunting field without them.

My wife killed a squirrel one time, with her 44 Mag Mountain Gun, with Speer/CCI factory shotshells, that was so far away that I would not have shot at it with a high base load of No6 shot in a 12 ga...

I do have experience with CCI Shot Shells on large rats. Effective range is single digit feet. With .45 Colt at 8-10 feet from muzzle to trophy Rat , would give multiplle body hits. While the rats all expired , none of the solid hits gave pass thru.

My grandpa used to do it years ago, we don't shoot at livestock nowadays, it was just an idea to bounce off of the community. Calm down

__________________
Still waiting on a .44mag AR15

Realistically a flying pheasant needs an ounce of #6 or even #4 shot. They are even harder to kill on the ground than in the air, in my experience. You are not very likely to come up on one at 10 feet for a head shot with #8 from a handgun.

I load both 38 and 44 special shot loads with the Speer capsule. I use the John Taffin load with #11 or #12 shot which puts out a pretty dense pattern. But, they aren't effective beyond about 10-12 feet, aren't expected to be, but they kill about any size snake you run across.

__________________
H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

44 Magnum Shotshells

This works much better than the capsules.

__________________
5

My experience has been different with the 2" .38 cal. I use #9 with Bullseye, rats, squirrels and copperheads die quickly within eight feet. I am rarely without my .38 when on the land. I have not used this at greater distances.

I haven't seen those in years. an you still get the primer fired plastic rounds?

Edit:
Disregard my question. I see Speer still makes them.
http://www.speer-bullets.com/product...g_bullets.aspx

How about a bull whip

I've carried .44 shot shells to deal with camp pests for years. Most people want to hear that bears or such are the biggest problem when backpacking, but I list 1: insects, especially mosquitoes, and 2: rodents. The rodents will chew through a tent to get at sweat in a sleeping bag. They can climb ANY tree to get at food hung there (a total waste of time, in my opinion, and not possible in most evergreen forests), and will chew through backpack straps, belts and shoes to get salt from sweat.
Shooting distance was never more than a few meters and the shot always killed them quickly.
I've never tried or even thought about rock salt. I never had to control big domestic animals. Just ran fast and climbed up tall things.

Back in the 90's I used to use the blue speer shot capsules in a 38spl. Would fill them with 5 shot (10 to 12 pellets) & load them to p+ levels and shoot skeet with them in a 6" bbl 586.

This was on a standard skeet field where the birds went 40+mph & the center line is 21yds away. Never could hit any birds in the center stations (too far away) but they were fare game @ stations 1, 2, 6, 7 & 8.

It would be interesting to see how the chunks of salt handle the pressure and how much it crushes/deforms.