Shooting "miscleaneous" projectiles?

[Billnpatti]

I used to shoot kitchen matches out of my BB gun. We would draw a target on a brick or cement block wall and shoot at it from about 10 yards. The matches made a nice popping sound and would leave a mark on the wall. And that was just one of the crazy things we used to dream up. :idunno:

 

[Britsmoothy]

I have wrapped a marble in numerous patches in my double 12g before now with a pinch of powder. It would get a close bird or rabbit,,,,,maybe!

B.

 

[roundball]

The correct size patch & marble have been very accurate for me in tests I've run out of .58cal and .62cal rifles. I have to assume they would be similarly as accurate as a proper sized PRB would be out of a smoothbore.

 

[Supercracker]

Considering how valuable lead was and how difficult it would have been casting shot "back in the day" (prior to the shot tower) I'm sure lots and lots of birds were dropped with a carefully selected load of gravel.

 

[BCarp]

Some of us were toying with the idea of shooting paint balls out of muskets with light loads of powder, and IF it worked engaging in 18th C. paint ball fights in the woods. Haven't followed through on that yet (and yes! we'd wear eye protection!)....

 

[Loxahatchee]

Some of us were toying with the idea of shooting paint balls out of muskets with light loads of powder, and IF it worked engaging in 18th C. paint ball fights in the woods. Haven't followed through on that yet (and yes! we'd wear eye protection!)....

:hmm: :shocked2:

You just took reenacting to a new level!

 

[bpd303]

Considering how valuable lead was and how difficult it would have been casting shot "back in the day" (prior to the shot tower) I'm sure lots and lots of birds were dropped with a carefully selected load of gravel.

One of my friends tells of his father & grandfather gathering lead out of the creek banks at a place called Hogscald here in Carroll County. They would pound the lead into flat sheets and cut it into little squares to shoot in their smooth bores. They took a lot of small game and turkey with those loads.

 

[okawbow]

I knew a guy who shot several deer with an arrow fired from a short barreled muzzleloader. I assume the broad head stuck out the muzzle. He never could get the hang of shooting a bow, but said he could hit a pie plate every shot at 40 yards with the arrow/gun. Said he used a really light load, that made very little noise.

 

[cynthialee]

One thing you have to consider when entertaining this misguided thought is bridging. If you put something in the barrel that is longer than the gauge but shorter than the barrel there is a chance the intended projectile can get jammed up inside.

 

[Many Klatch]

Ball bearings work great, just don't dry ball. I talked with a flintknapper once who claimed that a handful of flint chips were really deadly out to about 10 yards.

Many Klatch

 

[Alden]

Ball bearings work great, just don't dry ball. I talked with a flintknapper once who claimed that a handful of flint chips were really deadly out to about 10 yards.

Many Klatch

Ummm, YEAH!

 

[Wes/Tex]

Technically, you could try most anything softer than the barrel's steel...ideally though, you need to use discretion not to mar or scratch the bore. Can attest to the old marble trick, they turn to powder if fired against concrete. The other fun load was a handful of .22LR brass picked up at a range and used to stuff a steel barreled blunderbeast back in the late 60's. Absolutely tore up an oil can sitting on a stump. Remember those old hard paper 10W-30 cans from back then? Flint chips do sound totally lethal at close range as well! Yee-ha!! :wink:

 

[theoldredneck]

A muzzle loading smooth bore handgun I built has been a hoot to shoot carpenter bees with. Loaded with course sand it has very limited range and the bees that are within a few feet are totally destroyed. A friend calls it sand blasting bees. We have played with lead shot, plastic beads, glass beads, steel shot and the course sand is my favorite to play with. There is no doubt in my mind that small smooth river rock would be deadly as lead at limited distance. The projectiles weight and shape would determine the distance it would be deadly.

 

[buzz]

Well when your walking in a parade just use horse apples folks get a kick out of it watching you load shoot and fire thatleft behind by the horse

 

[Britsmoothy]

The correct size patch & marble have been very accurate for me in tests I've run out of .58cal and .62cal rifles. I have to assume they would be similarly as accurate as a proper sized PRB would be out of a smoothbore.

Hey,,,,thats ok Roundball :hatsoff:

Brits.

 

[jethro224]

A muzzle loading smooth bore handgun I built has been a hoot to shoot carpenter bees with. Loaded with course sand it has very limited range and the bees that are within a few feet are totally destroyed.

A friend of mine loves to blast them carpenter bees too. He was using grits. Now he is using cous-cous.
Says it's like bee buckshot. :haha:
With the grits he was limited to a couple of feet max range for a sure kill. With the cous-cous he can drop 'em at 10-12 feet. As of Memorial day he was over 130 kills for the year already.

 

[theoldredneck]

Number 12 shot gives the best range and patterns but will also damage buildings. Rice works good but the course sand is cheap and at 15 to 20 feet does not mark metal build walls or roofs. Would not shoot the sand in a good gun. After a few hundred shots it has definitely polished the barrel on this gun but it was built for this type shooting or as a friend says " Grown men playing without any adult supervision."

 

[nit wit]

The Ancient Onnes had a woods walk once that you shot food out of your ml.dry peas, beans,rice,potatoes,carrots,etc.
I'll tell you what a potatoe or a carrot bullet will go through the lid of a toilet seat with a reduced charge!
Nit Wit

 

[tom deinek]

"Ball bearings work great, just don't dry ball. "

Looked forever for glass marbles to try. Found some but it never occurred to me that a marble could be out of round. Got one stuck. Blew it out with a TINY amount of powder through nipple.

Fortunately I had only been checking for diameter & unpatched marble rolled in & stuck 2" from muzzle. Knew I should have seated the marble all the way down but took a chance.

Never had thought about dryballing a foreign object.

Gave that bag of marbles to the next kid I encontered.

 

[roundball]

"...it never occurred to me that a marble could be out of round. Got one stuck. Blew it out with a TINY amount of powder through nipple..."

In checking my 9/16" I found several thousandths variation, so I set up a quick sorting process and dropped the marbles through 3 times to increase the probability that I'd get 2-3 dimensions measured that way...and used nothing larger than .570" in the .58cal.
Everything that was too large to drop through the measure got set aside for use in the larger .62cal with a much thicker patch.
They're actually accurate enough for small game out to the 25yd area where most small game is taken...head shot on a squirrel, rabbit, etc.