Cut shotgun shells

Look at the inside dimensions of a shotgun chamber and choke. When you pull the trigger you are forcing a much thicker "projectile" down there which has to swage to a narrower dimension in the forcing cone and again in the choke. I wouldn't do it with a gun that I care about. Or hold that gun with hands that I care about. Or shoot it around anyone I care about. Real slugs are available, and even wax slugs work better at much lower pressure.
 
this has been done for years,and for the same amount of years naysayers who have probably NEVER done it shoot their mouths off about how dangerous it is,BUT like some have said,i dont think i'd want to do it to a screw in choke barrel,as for the supposed issue of swagging a larger load,plastic and tiny balls,,especially lead balls,sqeeze through pretty easy.
 
this has been done for years,and for the same amount of years naysayers who have probably NEVER done it shoot their mouths off about how dangerous it is,BUT like some have said,i dont think i'd want to do it to a screw in choke barrel,as for the supposed issue of swagging a larger load,plastic and tiny balls,,especially lead balls,sqeeze through pretty easy.

Yup, a lot of Whiskey wisdom right there. I'll shoot my mouth off some more. Look at a pressure trace from a barrel mounted transducer. The pressure graph shows pressure / time. The moment of peak pressure is a few microseconds after the shot is initiated, and while a normal shot charge is just leaving the chamber.
With a cut shell you are forcing a shell with a max. outside dimension of 0.797" through a forcing cone to squeeze it to a minimum bore dimension of 0.725" ( data from Lyman 5th ed. Shotshell reloading book) so 0.072" or so of squeezing. Want to hazard a guess what that does to pressures at the chamber? Nothing good. By the time a cut shell hits the choke the gas behind it have reduced in pressure to a fraction of the peak. A cut shell may also be hard on chokes, but is producing far more dangerous pressures at the chamber.
Credible ballistics labs warn against changing minor components such as wads in shot shell reloads for a good reason, a small change can put pressures over the safe limit that the gun was designed for. A gun will probably not blow up from shooting a cut shell, but it might, and you won't know until it happens.
 
this has been done for years,and for the same amount of years naysayers who have probably NEVER done it shoot their mouths off about how dangerous it is,BUT like some have said,i dont think i'd want to do it to a screw in choke barrel,as for the supposed issue of swagging a larger load,plastic and tiny balls,,especially lead balls,sqeeze through pretty easy.

I'll drink to that!
 
this has been done for years,and for the same amount of years naysayers who have probably NEVER done it shoot their mouths off about how dangerous it is,BUT like some have said,i dont think i'd want to do it to a screw in choke barrel,as for the supposed issue of swagging a larger load,plastic and tiny balls,,especially lead balls,sqeeze through pretty easy.

Never wore a seat belt for years or a helmet on my motorcycle either so does that make it SMART and fine today
Stupid plain and simple and I have done it quite a few times years ago. We would use them to raise geese and ducks when they landed outside the decoys all the time also screwed a barrel with one
Cheers
 
Realistically, besides in unprepared desperation or for giggles, in what other situations would anyone need to do this?
 
If faced with a choice between certain bear trouble or the remote chance that a cut shell would damage me or my shotgun, I'd probably choose the cut shell also. Otherwise no thank you.
 
Realistically, besides in unprepared desperation or for giggles, in what other situations would anyone need to do this?

Unprepared desperation and (cheap)giggles pretty much covers it.
In the interest of science/curiosity might be the other reason..... :)
 
After reading about these on here a couple or three years ago, I did cut two or three el cheapo bird shot rounds and fired the out of an old single shot. Drilled a nice hole on an old stove out at the dump up at Dillon. Waxed ones would be better. That'll be the next trial for me.

Thanks Ganderite for giving the details on how to make the wax ones. :)
 
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