Rock Salt?

D

DMK

New member
My dad and I were shooting his H&R 20ga this weekend and got to talking about using a 20 for protection. He mentioned Rock Salt as a "non lethal" option and it occurred to both of us that we haven't heard of anybody using it in many years.

Does anybody sell Rock Salt shells or is it something that you'd need to load your own?

Personally, I can't see the use unless you were inclined to shoot a warning shot in the air. I don't think I would be so inclined personally.
 
Rocksalt

What is the use? I have a old "Long Tom" single barrel, exposed hammer shotgun, with a 40" barrel, in 12 ga. I load it with 6's and rocksalt and use it to hunt squirrels. The rocksalt preserves the meat until I can get to the game.
If you are talking about self defense, you want to use OOBuckshot. I can see the slimy attorneys now jumping at the chance to take the case of someone who was "maliciously maimed" with rocksalt.;)
 
If you're not justified in using deadly force, I sure wouldn't want to be the one pointing a shotgun at someone, regardless of what it was loaded with.

M1911
 
Sounds pretty risky to me. At close range (under 10 yards????) the rock salt charge would act like a slug, and kill just as dead. There is probably some range at which the rock salt would penetrate, but not be deadly, but that is a pretty short window.

And, as already noted, if someone is shot they will sue you and likely win, unless you would have been justified in killing them anyway.

Bad idea all around.

Now for hunting squirrels, maybe. Kill 'em and season 'em all at the same time...
 
Rock salt can't really be considered a "non-lethal" option for shotgunners, but there have been a couple of ideas along these lines. Fiocchi used to load shells with some very lightweight plastic beads that would have stung like hell, but were only useful at a specific range (too close = dangerous wounds, too far = no effect).
 
Late in WW II, several of us were doing a commando raid on a watermelon patch. One guy came out over the fence, rather than under it.

He discovered the joys of rock salt.

:), Art
 
DMK
Think about how salt make metal rust and then think about how much you will have to clean your gun after each and every time you shoot one of these loads.

Chuck Graber
 
Nowadays, pointing or shooting a shotgun loaded with ANYTHING will probably be construed as "use of lethal force", since we live in the "Age of the Wimp".

Nonetheless, shooting at trespassers or vandals with rock salt out of old single or double barrel shotguns used to be recognized as fairly reasonable.

My wife grew up in France and Italy, and was shot in the legs with rock salt by a farmer whose fruit she was snitching as a little girl. It stung and made red marks, but no real harm was done.
Best.
 
When I was 5 or 6,my friend Lenny, another hoodlum of my age, and myself thought it was fun to slide into his neighbor's garden and swipe beefsteak tomatoes, take them to Lenny's garage, slice, salt and devour. They were delicious.

The neighbor caught us once and warned us. We carted not a whit, until the next foray saw us touching the ground only about every 10 feet or so coming out of his garden with the shotgun blast ringing in our ears and our backsides burning.

Pop was working night shift at the time as a game warden and was sleeping until I arrived home.They heard me coming.

Mom was checking me out while Pop held me and I confessed to my misdeeds. Pop said (after finding no great damage) that I had gotten what I should have gotten for stealing stuff. I was settled into bed when I heard Pop leave the house and return after a short while.

20 years later I learned from Mom that Pop has seen the neighbor, paid him a couple of bucks to cover the stolen tomatoes, and then broke his face. Mom said Pop thought it would have been a good lesson for a teenager but too severe for a small child.

Two things....

Never was much in stealing to this day. Maybe it was cheap at the price for that lesson.

And, rock salt is a no-no....
 
Rock salt.
As stated....too close and it is lethal. Too far and it is useless.

And as Dave McC noted, it can get the user's face broken.

Sam
 
Ah, days of youth...

One of my boyhood memories involves having watched my grandmother shoot my grandfather in the butt with a double load of rock salt...

It goes something like this:

Granpa was comfortably huddled in his chair, watching the Cowboys, when Grandma came in to remind him to go out and look at the hogs (one of them was pregnant, and ready to litter out, as I remember). He blissfully ignored her repeated cajoling, even up to the point when she walked in, turned off the TV, and gave him "that look." It should be noted that my grandparents were second generation Redneck/German farmers, and the double 20 gauge stood by the door at all times.

Grandpa had gotten up, with some grumbling, and headed outside. After walking almost halfway to the pen, he stopped, turned around, and came back. Two minutes later saw him with the game on again.

"She ain't done, yet." was his reply when Grandma asked about the sow.

Again the TV was switched off, with Grandma's stern admonition that, if Grandpa didn't "...Get out there and check that sow, he'd have a butt full of buckshot." Again he grumpily headed out. And again, two or three steps off of the porch, he stopped and turned to come back in. This time, however, he was greeted by the double barrels of the 20 gauge, and an irate little German woman!

He made it fully halfway across the yard before she unloaded on him (about 30-40 feet) with both barrels. Grandpa missed the rest of the game, and spent the better part of the next couple of days sleeping on his stomach! :D :eek: :D
 
I'm surprised he didn't retaliate!!! Bloody hogs causing all the trouble, people are more important. That Grandpa was cool for watchin the game and grumbling ;)
 
Heh heh, did any one see "A View To A Kill"?

Bond (the guy he just shot gets back up): "What's this loaded with???"

Stacy: "Rock salt."

Bond: "Now you tell me!!"


Sounds pretty risky to me. At close range (under 10 yards????) the rock salt charge would act like a slug, and kill just as dead. There is probably some range at which the rock salt would penetrate, but not be deadly, but that is a pretty short window.
Click to expand...

But it didn't work that way in Bond!!! I trust 007 more than I trust you, so there!!! :D
 
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