Swan Shot

[Muggsy]

I've seen pictures of Swan Shot and understand what it is, but what type of game should it used for and why was it used? Does anyone know of any modern sources of it?

:thumbsup:

 

[Stumpkiller]

.310" round balls from Hornady. Here in America it became "Buck Shot". Same stuff.

Anything up to the size of a swan out to 35 yards or so, where legal. Too big for squirrel, to small for deer (IMHO). But, a blast from a 12 ga smoothbore approximates a burst from an Uzi.

 

[rich pierce]

swan shot as I know it is homemade shot. it varies in size, etc, is bigger than #4 birdshot and smaller than buckshot. from what i understand, it was just used when commercial shot was unavailable. i was taught by an old woodsrunner to just some lead and run it through a hot spaghetti drainer and catch it in a basin of water. we did it off a creekbank, etc, where the shot had time to fall and cool some before striking the water in the basin. not very round. he called it swan shot though.

 

[tg]

I am not sure what pictures you have seen of "Swan" shot bot it is not the funny looking stuff with a tail. it is and has been for 250 years a round cast shot much like small buckshot. I think it is around .22 or .23 in size it was named like many other shots ( Dove, Buck, pigeon ) for the tpe of game it was suitable for, not its shape.

 

[irishjim]

My great Grandad on my mom's side was originally from the James River area of Virginia. He told me stories, when I was a youngster, of his father & uncles hunting waterfowl with "punt guns". The guns were mounted on a swivel on the deck of small "coffin boats". From his desciption the gun was a huge muzzleloader (basically a small canon) with a bore almost as big as a mans fist. The gun was loaded with about a pound of powder, cattail punk, a pound of "Swan Shot", and more cattail punk. I never really saw any of the shot but he said it was the size of small green peas. The method of hunting (illegal now and possibly then) was to manuver the boat into a large raft of ducks or geese at night and fire the gun into the sleeping birds. Until I saw your post he was the only other person I'd ever heard speak of "Swan Shor".

 

I'll try to get some pictures of it, but I have some shot made by Plumbleau that works wonders on squirrels. It's about the size of #4 shot, so you have to use more to get a decent shot column, but it lifts them right off the tree branches. For the most part it seems to lay down when it leaves the barrel, so you have nice aerodynamic shot that puts big holes in galvanized trash cans.

I like the pasta strainer idea...but mine are all plastic!!!! :hmm: Bet that wouldn't work so good.

Beouf Sauvage qui Trebuche

 

[Muggsy]

Thanks for all the posts- now let me pose another question: the "Swan Shot" that I have always seen looks like small tear drops. There is some on ebay for auction, and I have also seen it on the Mark Baker video series in reference to hunting. I've not seen it anywhere else, and ran across it on ebay which sparked my question. Is this shot incorrectly referred to as swan shot?

:huh:

 

[tg]

"Is this shot incorrectly referred to as swan shot?"

Yes...it is just poorly made home made shot, swan shot was a cast round shot of a size deemed suitable for the taking of swans, piegons shot was a much smaller Rupert and later drop shot, the swan shot thing with the tail is .... an old wives..you know what, this myth keeps on trucking like the culy maple French fusils and the F&I period guns styled like a late southern flintlock and a host of others.

 

[Stumpkiller]

"Swan Drops" swan shot is just big honkin ( : shot used for killing swans. If you've even spent much time around dead swans you'd notice their plumage is a fair suit of armor. To get through the flights and into the vitals is 2x the difficulty of breaking into a turkey. Now, we all try for turkey head and neck shots with extra-full chokes. Then, it was a chokeless matchlock (when the swan hunters first sallied forth) and you needed some heavy devistation at the 40 or 50 yard range, so bigger shot was called for.

I was under the impression that what we now call "buckshot" is of the same general category as European swan shot.

15 pellets/oz. is the "official" size for swan shot, about .27 caliber., same as 00 Buckshot.

Ezukiel Baker's Official Shot Designation Table (c.1821) ~ Click me

 

[tg]

I have seen several different sizes given for swan shot and the term was used in the 18th century in addition to buckshot but it is a cast round shot and always has been.

 

[blackhorse]

I have seen the tear drop shot called swan shot but I do not believe that is accurate. Nontheless, I personally would only use the tear shape shot for display. Imagine biting into a piece of succulent rabbit and having a wedge shape piece of lead being driven between your teeth. OWWW. Course maybe that is one of the reasons our anscestor were toothless LOL ha ha.

 

[blackpowder shooter]

A friend of mine used the tear drop shaped swan shot on squirrel and rabbit. He said it destroyed the game to the point of being inedible. Makes for better conversation piece than for hunting.