Shot Bags -

[GrayBear]

I'm getting active in ML shotgun shooting and have yet to come up with a good way to store, carry and use the shot.

What do you think most early pioneers, those who pretty much had to make whatever they had, used for bird shot?

If you are a shotgunner do you use a flask, a horn, a bag, some version of a shot-snake or what? I can, of course, just buy an Irish or English shot snake but I like to make my own gear when I can.

The next question if I do buy a snake, is which is best between Irish and English types and what are the actual differences.

Thanks,

GrayBear

 

[bub524]

I bought both a Irish and English head and made my own shot snakes. The Irish, by name alone, is the better charger. Just kidding. The Irish has a scoop and English has an adjustable spout. Both work well. The English may have the advantage of not having a scoop to loose in the woods. They aren't hard to make. Go to Goodwill and get a cheap leather coat and you can make several from the leather.

Firewalker
TMA 137

 

[Stumpkiller]

What he said.

Plus, with a long barrel fowler the Irish on a shot snake is easier because you don't have to contort your body or back away from the gun to get the charge into the barrel. For a loose pouch the English is easier as you don't have to hold three things (gun, scoop, shot flask).

I made my shot snake from a garbage-picked softsided leather suitcase. :haha:

 

[CARBABY]

For hunting with a ML-Shotgun I use a flask and English type shot pouch. The flask is for shotguns, in that the charger/(measuring assembly)
is graduated in Drams. I prefer the English type shot charger as they usually have adjustible capablity for 1 1/4 ounce or 1 1/2 ounce loads,
and the assembly is pretty much one unit. Whereas the Irish type has a scoup that can be lost as it seperated from the rest of the pouch. I use a pouch rather than a snake. I tend to believe the English type charger on a snake might create more fussing than I want. The Irish heads seem to have an advantage on a snake pouch application. This opion is predicated on the snake being worn around the neck in cross fashion.... the weight of the shot drops the pouch down past the muzzle of the upended shotgun when loading and has to be pulled up for loading. One has to monkey around with the design and tighness of the peculiar snake. How tight do you wear it. If using the English charger- how far do you want the muzzle of the shotgun from you head or body as you load. An English type pouch can be utilized in loading, with the shotgun butt on the top of your boot/shoe and at any distance your arms can reach. (Hum! Easier to SEE what I'm explaining than to write/read it}..Kind of a chopping explaination ... hope you get the drift!!!! A pre-loaded straight line capper beats digging in a cap box between shots. The capper will be well worth it's cost the first time out on a hunt when your fingers are a little cold.

 

[taylorh]

Good question. I solved the problem by taking six (you can use as many as you like) 3.5 inch by 3/4 inch diameter pieces of hardwood oak sticks, and drilled out the center of each to hold 1 ounce of shot each. Tapered and corked one end, and drilled a hole through the diameter of the other end, so that I could hang them around my neck. When I'm loading in the woods I tear open and drop my premeasured charge from folded zig-zags, followed by card, wad, shot from my premeasured chargers, followed by a card. No matter what you do it takes time to reload shot. But this is a good project, and I think I look rather attractive with the shot chargers hanging around my neck. :grin:
Have Fun,
Taylor in Texas

 

[bub524]

Just happened to remember a friend had a shooting bag with a false bottom that held the shoot and he had an Irish charger on the corner of the bag.
Very cool and very handy.

 

[Berk]

I use a pouch that I made that has 3 pockets for the different wads. (over shot, cushion, and over powder) undernieth is a chamer that holds the shot. It has an Irish style shot charger. Not PC but very handy Here is a picture of it evan though it doesnt showw the 3 wad chambers very well. [url] http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/berkenstock/detail?.dir=8373&.dnm=5430.jpg&.src=ph[/url]

Berk

 

[bpollock_sr]

I made a small shot bag that I carry in my shooting bag. It holds about a lb. or lb.and 1/2 of shot.Enough for a days hunt.I made a spout for it from a piece of deer antler which I drilled out with a 3/8 bit, and whittled a plug to fit.They are realy quite simple to make, and if you have some scrap leather you could probably make one in less than an hour.

 

[dek]

:hmm: I don't understand people loosing the shot cup of an Irish charger. :hmm: Drill a hole in the flat part of the handle of the charger. Thread a leather lace through the hole and tie a knot in that end to keep the lace in place. Tie the other end of the lace to the shot snake strap. Make the lace as long as you need to load your gun. Make it long to start with as they are easier to shorten that to stretch. Dixe sells an adjustable Irish head and of course they can be made for a smaller charge by inserting wads into the charger. :grin:

 

[Dave K]

I agree with Deathwind. I have several shot snakes here, but I like the shot pouch much better with the English head. This is what works best for me anyhow.

 

[Ridge]

I don't use a shot snake because I read once that they only date back to the early 1800's. That may or may not matter to you.

I use a hard leather molded "bullet bag". I've often thought about making a "shot horn", but I haven't got around to that yet.

 

[GrayBear]

Thank you all for your replies. Now I've got several things to try and to experiement with seeing what I can build.

I appreciate the time you took to help me out.

:bow:

GrayBear

 

[CrackStock]

I have an Irish snake and like it. However, if you want an earlier solution, I started with a simpler system:

I took a short section of copper tubing and flared both ends. I sewed a leather snake to snugly fit this on one end and tightened it with some leather strap. I then filed a plug stopper to keep the shot in. I cut a split across the part that went inside the tubing and put a wedge into that to adjust the tightness. This all worked very well.

CS

 

[GrayBear]

Thanks, CS. Another good idea.

BTW, Here's one I picked up somewhere on the web:

"Nice powder chargers can be made by drilling out an antler tip. Use a drill of 29/64ths (.453") diameter and each quarter-inch (.250") of depth will be very, very close to 10 gr-wgt of powder by volume. Drill a hole for a thong in the tip so it will hang upside down and dry. Tie it to your possibles bag strap."

It's handy as I use the same charger to measure, by volume, both powder and shot.

Thanks again,

GrayBear

 

[CARBABY]

Addressing: "I'm getting active in ML shotgun shooting and have yet to come up with a good way to store, carry and use the shot." For a temporary solution to carrying shot. Obtain some spent 20 and 12 gauge shotgun shells. Dump your premeasured shot into the 20 gauge shell and slip it into the 12 gauge shell. Makes a nice little container for small hunting jaunts. One can cut the shells down to reduce storage space and shot rattling around.

 

[Black Hand]

I have used both a shot bag and flask with a charger head, but I would like to propose an alternative. The best method I have found (at least for me) is pre-measured shot loads. I make mine with newspaper filled with shot, twisted and tied on each end like a "Tootsie Roll". I then cut the tails short and lube the whole thing. I load powder, 2 thin over-powder cards, the shot load (no ripping, breaking etc involved) and another card. 15-20 of these loads take up very little space and are easy to use, no flask/pouch or measure to mess with in the field (especially with cold fingers). They also function as a shot cup, and have tightened my pattern considerably with the additional advantage of keeping the fouling down (it used to take 3-4 shot chrges to foul my barrel bad enough that I could not load a ball).
Black Hand

 

[hornetk4]

I have a 12 ga sxs and the first thing I made was a few different bags out of soft deer skin to hold my shot and just poured the shot into a measuring cup made from an antler tip it all worked well enough but after a few times out on a hunt I just made some paper tubes by wrapping those stickum notes around a dowel and taped the ends shut then measured out my powder in half of them and put shot in the other half . You can also write on them as to there contents . Then when you load in the feild you just tare open the tube and pour it down the barrel . its much easyer to put 10 of each in your left and right hand pockets along with the wads then there is no need to cary a shot or powder flask . You can use your possibles bag or haversack for birds witch is my reason for going out in the first place

 

[Tim Evers]

Gentlemen,

I have taken to useing my muzzleloading double shotgun in the field more and more. I really enjoy the old girl. I spent many years trying to make do with different kinds of containers or paper tubes. (seemed like they always got wet or rolled around in my kit till I didn't trust them to be dry anymore)I finally bit the bullet and got tooled up with the shot snake (english) and a proper flask. (When I got it used at the gun shop it was accually a pair of suspenders that had the shot pouches in the front of your breast pokets- one for powder and one for shot, and both incorperated with engish charger.) I kept hitting them on accident and fillig my waders up with shot and powder. I use a flask now and rigged up one of the pouches on an overhead strap. I now consider the flask and charger to be a neccesity for the opperation of running my old gun. I also nick the overpowder and overshot wads with a chisel. If you drop the powdwer, run the overpowder wad down the barrel about 2.5 inches, drop the shot, install the overshot wad on the shot charge, you not only see where your at in the loading process, but only have to ram the rod down the tube once. (which I think makes the loading a little quicker in the heat of battle. The chisle nick lets the air past for a smoother seat.)