Snake Shot ??

M

mrcharlie3531

New member
After seeing a venomous snake, I went out and purchased cci snake shot (shot shells) I intended to load my model 19-3 and have it ready to go.

A friend of mine told me shooting snake shot though it, would ruin the bore. Would I be shooting 1000 rounds .. No maybe 1 or 2. I really doubt shooting 1 or 2 rounds would do any damage.

Charlie
 
It's never damaged mine that I can tell and yes only shot a minimal amount as I don't run across many snakes that need killin'.
 
CCI would never sell or market something that would damage a bore. Way too much liability there. I shoot shot loads I make for my 32 mag Ruger that doesn't have the plastic capsule. My loads use loose #12 shot and gas checks for over shot and over powder wads. No bore damage at all. Its an old style way to make shot loads.

Your friend doesn't know what he is talking about.:rolleyes:
 
Don't tell him, I said so

Your friend doesn't know what he is talking about.
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With all due respect for your friend, he is misinformed and came up with this on his own. When I use to hunt out west, I always had these in my revolver. Never had to use it but we shot it just for fun …. :D

Be Safe !!!
 
Perhaps

In general shot is soft, it's is generally softer than a bullet. Of course that depends on the bullet, big picture view.

Perhaps your friend could describe how this softer material can somehow damage a bore?
 
In case the others posting above haven't made the point that your friend is clueless, let me pile on. The CCI shotshells are not going to damage your gun.

One point of caution though. The plastic shell capsule has low friction and may start working its way out of the case after multiple shots. I load my cylinder up with the first two being shotshells followed by standard rounds. YMMV.
 
"Snakes......I hate snakes", Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Jr

And I'm not a fan of them either.:eek:

But there needs to be a reason to dispatch a snake. If he's in my yard, he runs the risk of death. If I'm in the woods or on a trail I let him be.

Snakes are there for a reason. They eat vermin (rats & mice). If your yard/house/barn/whatever is overrun with snakes its likely you have a plentiful supply of food that snakes like to eat. Eliminate or reduce what attracts the vermin and the snakes will look elsewhere.

That said, poisonous snakes that are an immediate danger are not welcome in my yard.

Real men kill snakes with sticks. If not a real man, then screaming usually attracts enough attention and someone will volunteer to beat the snake into a pulp for you. (pretty much any male over age twelve will be willing to do this)

Using a stick is superior to a gun because:
Quieter (except for your screaming)
No reload needed (unless you break your stick)
Sticks don't richochet
Sticks require little practice
Sticks come in various lengths to suit the users ability
Sticks require no permit (as of today)
Sticks can be used inside of the city limits (California may require you to paint the tip orange and limits the length of the stick to 12")

Edit to add:
Shovels or hoes are acceptable, but less satisfying, than the multiple strikes required by a good stick.
 
A time and place

No animal has the right to live forever and I usually don't need an excuse to kill something. Snakes in my yard, get a pass and I don't need to burden the wife when I see one. She even gets upset when she sees one on TV. two years ago, I caught Garter snake in the yard and made the mistake of telling her. Put it in a empty coffee can and took it for a ride, in the country. Told the wife I killed it and that conversation lasted too long. ….. :rolleyes:

Getting back on point, I still have two boxes of TC shot-shells and I understand they are somewhat collectable. Like I said, I shot them out west and had no issues. …. :)

Be Safe !!!
 
In general shot is soft, it's is generally softer than a bullet. Of course that depends on the bullet, big picture view.
Click to expand...
Actully most shot is "chilled" (arsenic and antimony added, and quenched) shot...not "soft" shot. And as such, is harder than many cast bullets. Nevertheless, even the hardest lead alloy shot is softer than the steel of a gun barrel.
 
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My friend just got snake bit about a week ago. He is just south of me here in Burleson Tx by about 6 miles. He walked out to his truck to get some other paperwork he needed in his black socks and the snake was by his car. He was pretty sure it was a copperhead and we do have lots of them in this area.

The snake bit him on the right foot. He didn't get a good look at the snake because it was very late at night and dark. He said the snake struck him and the fangs got hung in the sock and he had a hard time shaking him off. I wish I could have seen that dance.;)

He went to the hospital but they told him at his age the anti venom could be just as bad as the snake venom so they sent him home to rest. His leg swelled up and was very painful for a few days. I saw him Friday night and he is up and around and now the butt of many jokes. I call him "Snakebite" someone else suggested "Fang". But he is laughing about it. He thinks the snake bit his foot because he thought it was a rat. I think the snake may have been right.:D
 
Rat shot will not hurt your bore...it may lead it up a bit if, unlike the CCI commercial offering, it is not encapsulated, but is easy to remove with a bore brush and/or chore boy wrapped around the brush.

That said, here in KY copperheads get the shovel treatment on our farm...live stock, hunting dogs and my grand daughters do not need to be bitten. All other snakes, get a pass, except one overly aggressive black snake that took to harassing our blue bird houses...had his head right in the entry hole in fact...I sent him off to snake Valhalla with a .22 LR solid.

City folk and suburbanites often make light of snakes, venomous or not, but don't consider the consequences of a bite to stock or people out here in the hinterlands. Yep, they're good on rats and mice, (the snakes, not the suburbanites) but....I have a couple of barn cats that attend to similar chores.

YMMv, Rod
 
Shot

Rat shot works at close range....what it was designed for.
The problem with any shot load fired through a rifled barrel is that the rifling will spin the shot load just like a bullet. That results in a a spinning torus - a donut shape with on shot in the middle. This is worse in some guns, not so bad in other.
It is a good idea to pattern the rat shot loads at snake distance so you know what you can expect. I have a Ruger Vaquero in .45 that does not show a torus...my other guns do.
 
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Using a stick is superior to a gun because:
Quieter (except for your screaming)
No reload needed (unless you break your stick)
Sticks don't richochet
Sticks require little practice
Sticks come in various lengths to suit the users ability
Sticks require no permit (as of today)
Click to expand...

It is much better for your foot to be hit with a stick rather than shot with snake shot. Snake loads are an ingenious solution to a nonexistent problem.
 
My friend John

My friend bought a place in Ca. Moreno Valley, out in Riverside county. I liked to call it Moron valley.
Had the coolest place on top of a big hill/mountain, property was about 11 acres and had one or two acres that were usable, very steep and rocky. The place had gone in to foreclosure and had been empty for some time when my friend bought it.

The property was loaded with snakes. My buddy often had a rattlesnake as big around as your forearm laying in the driveway. 5-6 footers, he was justifiably concerned about his dogs.
He killed every snake he saw, there were one hell of a lot of snakes.

Twas but a matter of a couple months and his place was overrun with vermin, he came to realize the error of his ways when the rats ate the wiring of their shiny new Range Rover.
That little adventure alone was over two grand. The rats became a much bigger problem for them than the snakes ever were.
 
Don't listen to your "friend" when it comes to handguns and ammo...he's an idiotexpert .

It's not "snake shot"...it's "rat shot" . Kill the rats with it...
You can kill a snake with a hoe...don't need no gun .
 
Twas but a matter of a couple months and his place was overrun with vermin, he came to realize the error of his ways when the rats ate the wiring of their shiny new Range Rover.
That little adventure alone was over two grand. The rats became a much bigger problem for them than the snakes ever were.
Click to expand...

If one sees a lot of large snakes, one should consider that they are there preditating on something. It seems prudent to find out what they are after before shooting them.
 
Glad to see this thread. When I started looking at gun forums (and even earlier in the gun magazines in the Q&A columns) there was a pretty even number of "snakes" verses "bears" questions. Seems like in the last few years it been "bears, bears and more bears". Happy to see things evening up.

FWIW my friend tells me if I'm hiking thru the woods and see a snake I can walk around it and if I don't see it a gun isn't going to do me any good. My friend is a real killjoy. :rolleyes:

P.S. We also used to get regular "guns in space" threads and we haven't had one of those in a long time either...just in case anybody is looking for a topic to post.
 
Dogtown, that is classic

Using a stick is superior to a gun because:
Quieter (except for your screaming)
No reload needed (unless you break your stick)
Sticks don't richochet
Sticks require little practice
Sticks come in various lengths to suit the users ability
Sticks require no permit (as of today)
Sticks can be used inside of the city limits (California may require you to paint the tip orange and limits the length of the stick to 12")

Edit to add:
Shovels or hoes are acceptable, but less satisfying, than the multiple strikes required by a good stick.
 
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