strange ammo

In the early days of firearms, it wasn't unusual to load river gravel. Powder, then tow wadding, gravel, then another wad of tow.

Then there were sprites, also known as springels, arrow projectiles.

Stone ball projectiles ranged from small arms to culverns for collapsing castle walls.

 

[410-er]

What caliber are malt balls?

 

[ghostdncr]

One of my cousins supposedly killed a man using a musket loaded with "small stove bolts" back in the late 1800's. I shoot a Brown Bess and can see stuffing all manner of improvised projectiles down that .75 caliber maw!

 

[Wes/Tex]

I'm sure just about anything has been used at least once to load big bore muskets, blunderbuss, swivel guns or scatterguns. Not always a good idea since many iron or steel items can seriously scare up a bore. Next time you hear somebody doing the glass, nails and chain links routine, just smile.

 

[ghostdncr]

In this relaxed day and time, I would take care to properly patch any odd projectiles I loaded. Was watching a Hungarian video today about the use of cut lead bar projectiles and they fared well against traditional round balls. I can see shooting them out of the Bess but unless they were so long as to completely eliminate any possibility of turning sideways in the bore, I'd wrap them in a thick patch or two just to be on the safe side. I thought pea gravel would make a great improvised projectile as long as its greatest measure was less than bore diameter and it was properly patched.

 

[Stumpkiller]

There was a National Geographic documentary on tigers years back where some local talent (in an area where firearms were forbidden) made a bullet for a pipe barrelled spooky cobbled up firearm by jabbing a finger in the dirt and melting a toothpaste tube (tin?) to pour in to form a bullet.

Did kill a tiger with it.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I'm so glad you did't have a picture to go with that story, becuase the picture i'm painting in my head is priceless :rotf: