cutting a ringed load??

[madokie]

i remember reading about this in some publication a long time ago and never tried it out i was wondering if anyone ever has??you take regular shotgun shell ,say bird shot#6 or what have you. and with sharp knife cut into shell ,near the wad section,90 degreses to shell, so that shell is held together with only 3 or 4 small lines of plastic that run paralle to shell, you then put shell into gun aim and fire the idea is that front part will stay intact & exit barrel 1 large piece about 1 & 1/2 inches long and hit target like slug, A POOR MANS SLUG load.

 

[highvel]

I would not try it, besides the legality of modified ammo for the specific reason of inflicting maximum killing potential.
Possible failure to feed properly.
Also, the possiblity of leaving pieces of the shell or wad in the barrel for the next round.

 

[jaguarxk120]

Also called a cut shell. Yes a poormans slug load, yes it can be done, do it NO. Boosts pressures through the roof. You are taking the shell casing,wad,and shot column and pushing the whole works down the barrel then through the choke!! It's very much like shooting a 3 inch mag in a 2 3/4 chamber.

 

[nitetrane98]

I couldn't begin to say how many ringed shells I put through an old Iver Johnson Champion 20ga single shot when I young. We didn't have a clue what pressure was and probably wouldn't have cared. Fun to see a big yellow splat on a tree. Seemed like it kicked a bit more.

Fortunately nothing ever happened and I can afford real slugs these days.

I suppose it could be used as a field expedient if you were out bird hunting and got yourself treed by a big hog, bear or something.

In my experience it's been "No harm, No foul."

 

[Lee Lapin]

Right in front of the chamber in your shotgun barrel is a constriction called the forcing cone. It's there to transition between the larger diameter of the chamber and the bore diameter.

Look at the hundreds of threads on any shotgun forum that talk about shooting 3" magnum shells in 2 3/4" chambers. You'll see that practice generally discouraged in every thread, because the opening crimp of the longer shell as it's fired protrudes into the forcing cone and partially obstructs it as the shot charge goes through.

And yet people are going to say it's OK as a regular practice to blow the whole forward portion of a shotgun shell through that same forcing cone?

All I can say is, I'm not going to unless it is indeed a genuine emergency. Slugs are not that hard to get, nor are they so expensive that I'm going to risk shooting 'rung' shells on a regular basis. I don't consider it safe, any more than I consider shooting 3" shells in 2 3/4" chambers a safe practice. Yes, I know people have done it for many years, people have blown up shotguns in various ways for many years too. I prefer to keep my face and fingers intact as long as possible.

jmho, ymmv,

lpl

 

[kozak6]

While still a bad idea, it seems to me like it might have worked better in the days of paper cases and felt wads.

Poor man's slug load?

A box of slugs is cheaper than a new shotgun. A box of slugs is cheaper than new fingers. A box of slugs is cheaper than new eyes.

 

[zippy13]

I saw a cut, or circumcised shell instant-slugs demonstrated, with astonishing results, buy a Thai exchange student at our club some years ago. A standard 12-ga target load vaporized a fist-sized cobble with no trouble. He cautioned that it works well only with new shells. I few days later, I recall him spending the whole afternoon trying to clear the mess an instant-slug from a reload had made.

If I understood him correctly, the "slugs" were commonly used in Thailand because standard slugs were prohibited. The government would allow civilians ammo only for target work, birds and small game. If you wanted to go after pigs, you had few options other than the circumcision specials.

 

[Dave McC]

Not a good idea.

A now closed gun shop had an old shotgun on display. A single shot, it had the barrel end opened up like the horn on a Gramaphone. Word was a ringed shell had done the damage.

I disagree. A darn fool did that.

Natural Selection is a slow and imperfect process,but it does work...

 

[James R. Burke]

Yup that is called a cut shell. I would "not" do it. "Very" dangerous could plug your bore up. If you need a slug I would just buy what you need. Again "Dont" try this. They make some really great slugs now so there is no need for it.