Cherry Pits?

[Trapper]

I'm not sure if this thread is supposed to be here in the smoothbore catagory or somewhere else. But here goes.. A bunch of us were sittin round the club after shootin and were talking about things that the frontier hunter could have put into the smoothie to get game for the hungry hunter that could have been found in his surroundings. Cherry pits came up! We thought this might be interesting. We have a place nearby that makes dried cherries and sells them. One of the members knows the owner real well and he's going to get us a bushel full of pits to try. We're going to try them on some trap birds out of the trap. I think this otta be quite interesting! But before we tried it, I thought that maybe someone else has already tried it and I could save some time and energy.What do you guys think?
Trapper

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I'm willing to bet that you fellas aren't the first ones to use projectiles other than lead shot in them smoothys. :hmm:

 

[paulvallandigham]

I hope you are standing close to the trap when you fire those pits. they have no real weight to them, and way too much frontal surface for the weight they do have. I suspect that you will have to use very light charges of powder to get any kind of pattern, or range out of them at all. I am talking here of staying well below the speed of sound.

YOu can figure all this out in your own living room, using party balloons. Blow up three small ones, say 4 inches in diameter. Then blow up three more that are large, say 10 inches in diameter. Now take one each of the 2 sizes of the balloon, and individually, crank back and throw them as hard as you can. use a magazine or beer can to mark on the floor where they land. Now try throwing slower until you find the maximum distance the balloon will travel. The smaller balloon travels farther.

Now, hold all three 4 inch balloons, by their knots, and repeat the above test. Mark where each of the three balloons land so you can see how far apart they land when thrown as hard as you can. Repeat this test with the 3 10 inch balloons.

Now, reduce the speed of your throw to see how much thrust( velocity) you can give the balloons and still see them land the closest together.

It will be less velocity than you used to throw one balloon the farthest. The 4 inch balloons will land farther than the 10 inch balloons, and stay closer together.

 

[Tkendrick]

I agree with Paul.

Even wet, fresh out of the cherry, there just isn't enough mass there to maintain any ballistic velocity once the thrust from the wadding is gone.

I would be very surprised if Cherry Pits could even penetrate stiff cardboard at ten feet.

Of course, having said that, I wouldn't want to stand in front of your gun when you try it. I have been wrong before, and even if I am right, I bet it would sting like a son of a gun! :shocked2:

 

[Rebel]

How 'bout dried peas or corn kernels?

 

[paulvallandigham]

Same problem with corn kernels, or dried peas.

 

[trent/OH]

How 'bout dried peas or corn kernels?

What is the ballistic coefficient of Popcorn?? :rotf:

 

[Rebel]

Well then how 'bout some pieces of the wifes bisquits? Hard enough and ballistically deadly. :rotf:

 

[Bon Sauvage]

............And nobody shoots a charge of silver beads for a werewolf load? :rotf:

Ogre

 

[Blizzard of '93]

how 'bout raking around in the creek and gathering up them little yellow shiny rocks that are so heavy? would that work?? :blah:

 

[soggy]

I'm not sure if this thread is supposed to be here in the smoothbore catagory or somewhere else. But here goes.. A bunch of us were sittin round the club after shootin and were talking about things that the frontier hunter could have put into the smoothie to get game for the hungry hunter that could have been found in his surroundings. Cherry pits came up! We thought this might be interesting. We have a place nearby that makes dried cherries and sells them. One of the members knows the owner real well and he's going to get us a bushel full of pits to try. We're going to try them on some trap birds out of the trap. I think this otta be quite interesting! But before we tried it, I thought that maybe someone else has already tried it and I could save some time and energy.What do you guys think?
Trapper

:hmm: :hmm: I think a load like that would be the "PITS" :rotf: :rotf:

 

Is this when the fella hollers out,"Hey guys, watch this!!!"

 

[Tkendrick]

Hey Bliz,

Where's that creek where you been pickin up the little shiny pellets? :hmm:

 

[reloader4410]

had a carpenter bee problem on my carport didnt want to shoot through the roof so used rice in an old caplock pistol dont remember the load but at 5 feet deadly on bees.

 

[Trapper]

We had the same problem at our club with them pesky carpenter bees. 40 grains of 3fffg,no wadding or cards needed,just good old fashion black powder down the barrel and ya have a real neat 10 foot flame thrower. Works wonders on them fast little fellers. Lots of laughs too!!
Trapper

 

[Britsmoothy]

The Mrs just slapped my hand as I was reaching for her pearls :nono:

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Sounds like a job for "Myth Busters". I once made up a "parade load" with 40 grains 3f, some tissue wadding and a couple of smoonfuls of plastic glitter. I thought it would look neat as the glitter floated down in the sunlight. Well I don't know what happened but there was no floating glitter, maybe I used too much powder.
For Warewolves I load my 12 ga. with a stack of silver dimes. You have to get close but if a warewolf ain't close there is no need to bother him, they seem to be gittin' kinda scarce anyway, Colorado hasn't had a season on them in years.

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

For a contest I hosted I once had a bunch of ballons tied to an old fence. I loaded a 6 bore brass barreled blunderbuss with a good amount of dried pinto beans! Had the ballons out to about 20 paces. We did break a few ballons.

Load

55 grains of FFFG
6 bore fiber wad
one scoop of dried pintos ( 1/2 cup )
6 bore over shot wad

The wads came from Mikes Shotgun Wads who sets up
on the first row at Friendship.