Von WITZLEBEN-luoti/ shotgun dart
"Shotgun dart", designed by a German or Baltic German nobleman von WITZLEBEN in the turn of 20th Century. (There is at least a legend that he resided in Finland in late 1800s). The first foot-long arrow projectiles were designed in mid-1890s. Some of them were patented, but commercial success of them was poor. Hunters made presumably the arrows of balsa wood rods with wax impregnated cotton cord concentrators for their own use. A rather complicated expanding lead point was cast to the tips of arrows with a mould, patented by von Witzleben.
Arrow was pushed into the bore of shotgun just like a howitzer shell and a driving charge was pushed separately behind it in the cartridge case, loaded with a small blackpowder load and wadding only. (Japanese makers of "ninya" and "samurai" movies use also shotguns - not long bows or even the crossbows - for throwing the arrows with very small powder charges). Von Witzleben's shotgun darts became shorter. This drawn one was for sale still in 1903 in Germany. Longitudinally grooved tail was still of balsawood. A loose projectile was fed into the chamber of "break-loading" shotgun and a driving charge was chambered behind a dart. Muzzle velocity of projectile was slow. It was known as an "Elster-Geschoss" (a "magpie bullet") due to swinging of its tail in flight. Bullet was - however - accurate to ca. 40 meters range and it perforated easily an elk, when hit sideways.
Modernized von Witzleben bullets were chambered into shotguns seated into shells. The cartridge case held a wooden tail and thin over-powder wadding, but the point of a dart (hard lead alloy or cast iron; considerably sub-caliber) extended even from the mouth of non-crimped full length shotsell. These cartridges were shot from break-loader shotgun's one barrel only - and definitely first. Another barrel was loaded with some other kind of cartridge (usually with "Sauposten" canister, seated into the roll-crimped shell). Von Witzleben's dart cartridges were unable to stand recoil of other barrel. Usage in the repeater shotgun was impossible, of course. The earliest Brenneke slug, seated into roll-crimped shell, was therefore an overwhelming competitor.
Some bullets of v. Witzleben's design were futuristic, having a point thorn similar to that of French T.H.V. handgun projectile. Another projectile, with a wadcutter cast iron point, was sold as a "Granaten-Geschoss" ("artillery shell projectile") but, as far as I know, it contained no explosive charge and fuze. It might have lead belts around it's point and base of the cast iron cylinder (like rotation bands of an artillery shell) equipped with a fluted balsa wood tail.