Good BP Revolver Snake Load

[Nephi]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I´m new to this forum and my name is Grasshopper32 cause I´m here to learn. That video helped, but what would be a good revolver for this? I´d wanna chop down the barrel if possible. Also, let me clear one thing up, I eat the snakes I kill.

 

[Claude Mathis]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I´m new to this forum and my name is Grasshopper32 cause I´m here to learn.

Here ya go. Make sure your sound is on. :wink:

[youtube]n1VkVXtqFfk[/youtube]

 

[rodwha]

Great video!

 

[rodwha]

A .36 is probably all you'd need, but a .44 would hold a little more shot. Not to mention you could potentially hunt with it if it's allowed by law in your state.

There are some that are available with 5.5-6.5" barrels in both .36 and .44 caliber.

Check out an 1862 Colt Pocket Police/Navy for a .36 cal and an 1858 Remington New Model Army with the short barrel and Pietta has a couple of 1851 Colt Navy models in .44 cal with 3-5.5" barrels.

Another possibility would be to get a Colt model and buy a spare barrel that you could cut short.

You could try a .31 caliber, but I doubt you'd get enough shot in one to make it useful.

 

[cynthialee]

I have also only been biten by a garter snake.
Pick one up and it clamps on every time. I stoped picking them up as a kid.

 

[necchi]

I have also only been biten by a garter snake.
Pick one up and it clamps on every time. I stoped picking them up as a kid.

Yeah!
I was maybe around 10, some friends and I found a bonanza in a swamp, if there was 50, there musta been 100 Gartner snakes, I found the Momma of'm all, the biggest one, an picked it up.
That thing sqooched out it's neck, turned it's head and BITT ME!! An HUNG ON !!
Scare't the bejeezuz outa me,
Uhm, it died,,, kinda sudden like,,

 

[Joe Sullivan]

necchi.
Man, your gonna run out of post soon. 5556? Thats gutta be a Minnesota state record.

 

[Zonie]

You mentioned wanting to cut the barrel down on your 'snake pistol'.

If you notice when your looking at a Cap & Ball revolver, they all have a loading lever built into them.
It hangs under the barrel and engages a latch to hole it in place.

If you cut the barrel off you will need to also cut off the loading lever and reposition the latch, or totally remove the lever.

If your loading a lead roundball into the chamber, the ball must be slightly larger than the chamber.
While ramming it into place with the loading lever a ring of lead will be sheared off making the ball exactly chamber sized. Then, while compressing it against the powder the ball will become a tight fit in the chamber.

This is what keeps the balls in the unfired chambers from moving forward as the gun is fired.

This shearing of the lead ball takes quite a bit of force and if the loading lever is cut off, using the short loading lever will be a real PITA.

While removing the loading lever sounds like a easy solution, carrying it around and then having to reinstall it every time you want to reload the cylinder will also be a real PITA. Especially after you loose the screw that holds it in place.

In any case, whatever you come up with for a snake load will have to be pressed or wedged into the chambers well enough for it to stay in place while the pistol recoils.

Something to think about. :hmm:

 

[rodwha]

"In any case, whatever you come up with for a snake load will have to be pressed or wedged into the chambers well enough for it to stay in place while the pistol recoils."

A very good reason for light loads.

 

[tom deinek]

+1

I hold with Grasshopper32, Indiana Jones & others of that ilk on the topic of snakes.

 

[nkbj]

I live in southeast Texas and regularly go copperhead hunting* with my trusty Briggs & Stratton. They're always out there. They're always dangerous. And I never feel bad about hearing the thwock of a venomous viper achieving flight one piece at a time.

*It's called lawn care.

 

[nkbj]

Oh, by the way. A short barreled muzzleloading pistol (not a revolver) works fine for throwing a dense shot pattern up close. Once upon a time I dove off into a thicket of saplings because my doggie was after a copperhead and having too much fun to listen to me. Then I realized that I was unable to move around, swing the dull machete or stop the dog. Then I started wanting to have snake shot.

 

[M. De Land]

Yeah, good points! I really don't care for those short loading levers.MD

 

[Al Cummins]

Really the longer the barrel the better for shot. I dont believe we were talking about eradicating the species but if you have ever been bitten by a copperhead I promise ya you wont want them in your yard. If you walk across your yard in the dark you stand a decent chance of encountering a snake, some snakes.... you only get one chance, so dont kill em....its natural selection. :blah:

 

[Chris Hayes]

Ok, now that evryone here has stated their opinion on shooting snakes, what i do in my 1858 steelie is load 20 gr FFF Goex, just enough 9 shot to almost fill the cylinder, and a .44 gas check. This pressed in upside down will work. I then use a little clear nail polish on it to seal it during carry. I too usually give snakes a wide berth, but I also am prepared to shoot them. Good luck

 

[crockett]

SquirrelTail: You live "way up North" in North Carolina. :grin: I didn't even know they had coral snakes there. I was in GSMNP last Spring and only saw one little snake. I did see a nice bull elk which pretty much made the trip. In any event coral snakes are common in Florida to the extent folks find them in their back yard shrubs/mulch. It was definately a coral. Everyone always talks about the red on yellow kills a fellow but when the snake is squirming around it can be hard to tell. I always look at the head because a coral snake has a black head. The tail also loses the red and there are only yellow and black bands, which is pretty easy to see.
The 40" yeah, that's why I kept it and I was pretty excited because all the others I've seen were like you said- 18" to 24" and not much thicker than your big finger. I called the fish and game people and they played it down saying a lot of corals will reach 36" and a rare one or two have gone to 60". That was new to me. I'm still happy I kept my 40".
I'm told Diamondbacks don't exceed 8' but some fish camps around here have old skins over 8' that are nailed on the wall.

 

[Robert Egler]

That's a good long coral snake! Should make a nice hat band or something.

We have coral snakes in several of the southernmost counties, but as I said they're considered endangered here. I've 'hunted' snakes for more than 40 years and have never seen one. (Hunted as in search for, catch, examine, release, with the occasional 'get bitten by' in that sequence. :haha

Sorry for doubting you. :surrender: I work with the county in the summers on animal population surveys, I'm one of the 'snake guys'. People are always calling about Water Moccasins that turn out to be Northern or Banded Water Snakes, and all the Coral Snake sightings we get are always king snakes (some of which aren't even red and yellow!). Had a Hognose snake misidentified as a cobra once!

 

[Robert Egler]

Back to your original question. I think that 20 grns Goex 3F and lead BB shot in a paper shot cup would be my choice. My experiments in shooting shot from a rifled barrel show that the rifling usually tears the shot cup open by the time it leaves the barrel. I used a double wrap of newspaper.

I also found with extensive testing that the 'donut hole' predicted in the shot pattern from a rifled barrel doesn't seems to occur. The pattern gets wide really fast, but the pellets are fairly evenly distributed.

 

[Al Cummins]

I found lighter loads hold a tighter pattern
http://youtu.be/IKT8HDAveuI

 

[Nephi]

You mentioned wanting to cut the barrel down on your 'snake pistol'.

If you notice when your looking at a Cap & Ball revolver, they all have a loading lever built into them.
It hangs under the barrel and engages a latch to hole it in place.

If you cut the barrel off you will need to also cut off the loading lever and reposition the latch, or totally remove the lever.

If your loading a lead roundball into the chamber, the ball must be slightly larger than the chamber.
While ramming it into place with the loading lever a ring of lead will be sheared off making the ball exactly chamber sized. Then, while compressing it against the powder the ball will become a tight fit in the chamber.

This is what keeps the balls in the unfired chambers from moving forward as the gun is fired.

This shearing of the lead ball takes quite a bit of force and if the loading lever is cut off, using the short loading lever will be a real PITA.

While removing the loading lever sounds like a easy solution, carrying it around and then having to reinstall it every time you want to reload the cylinder will also be a real PITA. Especially after you loose the screw that holds it in place.

In any case, whatever you come up with for a snake load will have to be pressed or wedged into the chambers well enough for it to stay in place while the pistol recoils.

Something to think about. :hmm:

I was wondering if that´d be a problem. I actually got this idea from a guy on another forum, http://thesurvivalpodcast.com/forum/index.php?topic=32208.0 I saw it and liked the idea of a "poor man´s" judge while I wait for my pistol permit paperwork to go through.