.357, .38, and .44 mag speer shotshells with rock salt?

[.44MagnumN00b]

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?

 

[Alk8944]

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.

 

[vipermd]

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,

 

[Nemo288]

Might be an entertaining way to salt your margaritas.

___
Nemo

 

[chief38]

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.

 

[Dale53]

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

 

[rwsmith]

.38 caliber shotshells

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.

 

[SMSgt]

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.

 

[joedaddy]

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

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

 

[Green Frog]

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

 

[venomballistics]

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.

 

[gm272gs]

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?

 

[SMSgt]

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

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

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

 

[bedbugbilly]

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?

 

[22shtur]

Rock Salt

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.

 

[NE450No2]

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...

 

[Biggfoot44]

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.

 

[.44MagnumN00b]

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?

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

 

[Murdock]

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.

 

[H Richard]

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.