Snake shot

Birdshot for small game is pretty poor in my opinion. The pattern spreads so quickly and gets thin. the donut shaped patern is a fact of life with all rifled bores shooting shot.

I like light loads with round balls or light cast bullets for rifles for small game or grouse shooting. Keeping he velocity around 1300 fps or less keeps the noise down, and also themeat destruction. Just shoot them enough to know where they hit compared to your regular load. They usually hit about 2" low for me. I've loaded light loads for 30-30, 30-06, 338, 44, and 45-70. When the loads are kept light, the noise is about like a 22 LR load or a little more. Give you about 40 yards of usable range.
 
Remember the snake load is first!

A few years back I had a snake load as my first round in a 357 mag Ruger 4 5/8" Blackhawk to fend off those Texas rattlers we often encounter. The rest were super hot softpoint semiwadcutter handloads. We put up a wild hog of about 250 lbs at about 20 feet. I figured at this range we'd be eatin pork for dinner. I was almost as shocked as the hog when I saw the yellow plastic of the Speer shotload rickoshet up in the air. I think you could have heard the hog squeel 10 miles away. I can still hear it..

Nope I didn't shoot again. I did a feet do your duty and I'm here to tell about it.

Yup 4 people wittnessed it as they were behind me about 25 feet and I passed them up. They may tell this tale but I only do annonomously...

Today I use a 45 Derringer with 2 1/2 410 shells for snake loads and a 45 Ruger Super Blackhawk Hunter with Garret Loads as my Hog Gun.

Be careful with them snake loads. :eek: :eek:
 
Gunmann:

Ya, that's the worry I have about carrying snakeshot out in the field. I'd either have to shoot a snake with a nice, hot .357 round, or I'd be shooting at a feral hog or a feral dog or a 2 legged varmit (which are what I figure the worst threats to be) with snakeshot. Which is more likely to get me hurt or worse?
 
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