"...outside of complete desperation, you shouldn't do it..."
More than 30 years ago now, my old boss told me of a man who lived alone out south of town, at the base of the Big Horn Mountains. The story went that he moved out West from Chicago, because he got into some trouble there...
He built a field stone dwelling (one simple room with a doorway and a couple of windows), and as he cleared all the rock from his yard area, he piled it up as an ongoing fence around the place. He also had a 16 ga., single-shot, break-open shotgun.
My boss told me that he used that shotgun all the time (don't know the make). He'd shoot birds and small game with it, or, after making a strategically placed, deep score around the shell with a knife, he'd shoot deer with it whenever he needed the meat. That man lived out there for quite a spell, and the story goes that he died digging a well on his place; he was found down the hole. This all occurred back in the late 20's, pre- WWII era. So, it was paper shells back then.
Can't help to think that the method probably wasn't too uncommon back when necessity was mutha, and money was tight. You can still see his place out there on the Canyon Road, a couple of miles short of Crazy Woman Canyon, up on the mesa.