Lost Art of "Cut Shells"

Back when I was a kid it was a novelty however according to my dad it was an nessesity when he was a kid in the 20's and 30's. You could use shot for birds or rabbits and one of the cut shells if you were lucky to come across a deer as it was rare to be able to afford shot shells and slugs and if you wanted to eat you did what you had to do.
I haven't shot one of them since I was a kid but if I found myself in a situation where I had to it wouldn't bother me at all. None of the shotguns that we use were choked so cannot comment on that.
 
antiqueguy said:
ive done it in my martini henry with a adapter thing is though that's a .470" barrel or just about the same diameter as a .410 hull I would never do it in a normal gun for something like 12ga you are squeezing a piece of .795"+ plastic with shot in it acting like a solid down a .725"-.735" bore god forbid there is a choke fixed or not at the end
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So shoving a piece of oversized plastic down a bore won't work? ... The magical pixies must make the sabots work
 
I think the plastic will be MUCH easier to deform than lead or steel, but it's still a bad idea. Sounds more like the 'Art of Lost Fingers' than anything else.

If I was in a situation where not having a slug would kill me, yes I'd try it. For sheets and gigs? NO CHANCEY.
 
One can tell from the posted replies of negativity that there are many shooters who are young and inexperienced, or older that have led sheltered lives in the hunting and shooting world. As stated in previous post's the cut shell was born of necessity. Many folks did not have the money to by slugs, SSG's, and various sizes if bird shot, they were dam lucky to have money for any shells at all. So they bought bird shot in the size that suited them best and improvised and made due.
Are cut shells as good as modern slugs?, of course not, but they have worked reasonably well when necessary over the years. You have to remember when the idea was conceived and first used shotgun shells had paper hulls with fibre and card board wads which probably did not hold together as well as to-days plastic hulls and one piece plastic wads. Never seen or never heard of a gun or shooter being damaged by using cut shells of either old or new vintage. Our guides in the north used them on a regular basis to shoot seals, at close ranges they were very effective.
Nobodies asking or suggesting you use them, the thread is about an old method of cutting shells to improvise for the replacement of heavier shot mass or slug which is not readily at hand when needed. Keep an open mind gentlemen.
 
... Also the face of the shotshell is designed to OPEN under pressure... I would think that it would open up before anything went terribly wrong as far as barrels exploding .. I could maybe see a full choke blowing out or bulging but as far as causing harm to the shooter I can see that pressure building before the shell opening
 
Used to do it , 30 years ago , with a Mossberg pump. Just a fun thing to do on cans etc.
I did have one leave the plastic hull just at the chamber/barrel. Couldn't load the next round.
From then on , I always checked the barrel after each shot.
 
I have done this quite a bit with a variety of shotguns. I take cheap low powered ammo and cut the shells to make pseudo slugs for testing where various guns are sighted. About 25% of them do not stay together. the rest print nice big round holes.
 
mrgoat said:
Keep an open mind gentlemen.
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An open mind will also include that a cut shell is not a legal substitute if game regulations require use of a slug.

There may have been a some small 'need' for this 70+ years ago... but seriously - today?
 
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mrgoat said:
One can tell from the posted replies of negativity that there are many shooters who are young and inexperienced, or older that have led sheltered lives in the hunting and shooting world.
I am neither young nor lived a sheltered life , just not stupid and resent your all knowing comment here.
you can tempt fate all you want, but hand loading a slug properly is far cheaper than buying factory bird shot.
Cat
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TwoTone said:
This one always gets the Safety Sallys worked up real good!
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Yeah, this same crew says that firing a shotgun in a 20/12 condition will not bust it either, and I have also seen the results of that .
Go ahead and shoot your shotgun like this , it may work for a while, but metal fatigue and catastrophic failure is not always instantaneous......
Cat
 
3macs1 said:
I would not call it a lost art. More like how foolish we were not knowing what could happen. :)
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^ THIS!

I was introduced to cut shells at a young age, this is an OLD poachers trick. no officer, I'm not hunting big game, I only have bird shot with me. Very, very dangerous. Now that everyone has an internet connection, I have seen far too many pictures of ruptured barrels from these things not clearing the choke.

I've shot hundreds of cut shells in my life, I will never cut another shell again unless my life depends on it.
 
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TwoTone said:
This one always gets the Safety Sallys worked up real good!
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See grouse Man's pic posted of shotgun barrels in post 10 of this thread. I'd rather be a living breathing safety Sally than a dead retard.


http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/foru...-of-quot-Cut-Shells-quot?highlight=cut+shells

Edit: here is the pic. You decide if your fingers and face are worth saving a few cents over.


The results of cut shells

394A7FF9-944B-4BE4-891F-7FAE543FA5AD-5346-000006BE69D52B5D_zps5d370a52.jpg
 
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