Rock salt is a very good round to use against a pack of dingos. or dogs, or any other animal you do not particularly want to destroy.

It also works against non professional burglars - the pros get really ratty, if you shoot them with that. I have used poly beads in loads for much the same sting effect, though they do not remind the critter for days, like the salt.

Theo

 

...noise levels are also affected by the crimp...the tighter the crimp, the higher the pressure, the louder the noise...

 

Yeah but most home presses are nothing like the Factory types unless you have a Dillon like my dad.

 

I had the displeasure of the rock salt experience when I was a kid. We lived next to some foothills and of course that is where we always were. The owner didnt really like us kids being on his property. I took a round in my tail as I was running down the hill towards my house. It was a staurday and my dad was in the garage tinkering and I went past him into the house. He could tell something was wrong and asked what happened. I told him and he said the only good way to get it out was warm water. I stood in the shower and it hurt like hell. After I got out of the shower my dad and I went and had a talk with the landowner. He had been having a problem with people shooting his cattle, so he started shooting back. After our talk my friends and I were welcome on his property as long as we didnt tear it up. I keep about a dozen loaded for stray dogs and such. They really work well.

 

Hey AlabamaBronco can you recall the range he had on you

Oh and what shell would be best to use and what is the range, theres some stray dogs hanging around my chicken coop.

 

Actually, 00 magnum loads work pretty good for burglars out here in Oregon. Thats what I keep in my pistol grip 8-shot defender. I say in Oregon because it may not be legal to use lethal force on home intruders in other states. Bummer.

 

Conductors on freight trains where I grew up used to use rocksalt rounds to keep kids off the track and out of the open rail cars.

 

Yea, I know...I used to be a press operator for what was formerly Imperial ammunition company out of Canada...

Try a little experiment to demonstrate the effect that crimp has on pressure/noise...open a crimp, empty contents (shot), leaving just the wad, load and fire the round...(at a safe backstop o'course) what you'll get is slightly more than a pop similiar to the old snap caps back in the old days...

Try it again, only this time roll the crimp into the hull...notice the difference?

A proper crimp is highly critical to insure the proper ballistics...same as with standard rifle/pistol ammo...hell even black powder for that matter (with tamping).
...I miss the fun stuff we used to do in the lab....*sigh*

 

wabiker,

What happened to Imperial?

They used to make the best shotgun shells you could buy IMHO.

Then they started making really crappy ones, then they went out of business altogether I think.

Waxy

 

My understanding was there was union or labor issues, that went unaddressed causing disgruntle employees who were sabotaging the product ...The Imperial trademark was purchased by Dr. Gus Rios and moved "lock stock an barrel"to Bellingham, WA...(where I signed on back in 1994)
He then attempted to continue production under the name of SHOTCO ammunition corp. We were using Imperial packaging trying to get product out the door to get business built up.
We had 3 industrial loaders (12ga, 20ga, 410ga) each one was capable of producing a pallet of packaged shells a day...easy.
We also acquired most of the Ballistic lab equipment (computers, unversial receivers, barrels, programming/SAAMI specs etc etc etc) We had a direct line to Mr. Blount (of CCI fame), Remington and a bunch others...
It was my fantasy job...Ground floor on a potentially awesome manufactoring company in the firearms industry...Hell we all had titles!

He was actually interested in marketing his own line of center fire rifle cartriges along similiar line as what Weatherby did back in the 60's...Conventional combos with larger case capacity resulting in higher velocities...And they worked. I know of at least three of these rifles floating around...My buddy got a 338 Imperial magnum as a severance.

The sad part about Dr. Rios's operation was that he trusted his son and nephew in handling Marketing/Legal-respectfully...turns out they were embezzling the investors monies, to the extent we had no funds to get our raw materials out of bond...(shot, wads hulls from Italy)...no materials, no product, no sales, no job...

I walk out in the fall of 94'...because he couldnt make payroll....
I still have a couple of cases of shotshells with the Imperial logo, that I actually loaded...oh yea, and a brand new REM 11-87 sp semi-auto 12ga...for free

 

Damn!! I wouldnt want a wounded bear anywhere near me!

Since they stopped the spring bear hunt here, theres been a huge nuisance bear problem in this area. It's standard to have shotgun and slugs or a rifle with us on any camping or fishing trip.

AS far as salt loads go, If you dont want to kill it, then you dont need a firearm. Period!

 

F150Daniel---
I wouldn't shoot past about 20 yards with this.

As for other who seem to think that shooting salt would damage the barrel. The salt and lead shot rides the wad all the way out of the gun. The lead and salt should never touch the barrel. That is why you almost never see lead fouled shotgun barrels. I said lead because it follows the same properties even though you should not use salt and lead together. Not sure why but the sodium can cause fusing, then you might be shooting a highly inaccurate slug, dangerous. I am curious about using steel with the finely granulated salt as a buffer. hmmmmm

 

The salt will leech out...
Why would anyone use a salt/lead combo...? what purpose would it serve...?

 

Well they sell buffer around the shot and we use it arond the nontoxic loads because it helps improve the pattern. The lead we load is so cheap it ain't worth it. We don't run salt through the press, when you pay $5,000 for a couple Dillons you want to keep them in top shape. I was just curious if you could use salt as a buffer, it would be considerably cheaper than using the premium buffer.

 

I first learned about shotguns being loaded with rock salt watching "The Beverly Hillbillies".

Granny was forever talking about shooting them varmits (people) with a load of Rock Salt and then watching them scatter like bees at a picnic.