Alternate cas practice loads

I need to practice my cas shotgun reloading and shooting techniques but don’t want to waste my valuable #9 shot building practice loads so I went on line looking and found slugs made of everything from wax, jbweld, wood, marbles, aluminum, plastic, rubber balls, ceremic, hard candy etc. I like the idea of using wood as it’s biodegradable [would only have to police up the wads] and would be easy to make using a plug cutter or a 3/4 dowel. They might even knock down plates on my plate rail [7 to 12 steps]. Anybody here do any experiments with cheap alternate slug material?

Just realized that I’m in the wrong sub forum. Could someone smarter than me move this to the shotgun sub?
Thanks for moving my post CB Forum fairygodfather.

Ed: You could do 11/16/.687 wood dowel cut to about 3/4" long for what you are wanting to do.

The slug will fly completely willy nilly after about 10 yards, if it even makes it that far, but it will go out the barrel.

Don't know what to tell you about a powder charge, but it shouldn't take much.

Randy

I would go with wax. If you're after super cheap cowboy practice loads for manipulation drills and close range work, take some empty shells, cut the crimp off, and re-prime with a magnum primer. Then stuff in a crumpled wad of newspaper with no powder charge, and pour in some melted wax.
they are quiet, safe, will fly 7-12 steps accurately, and only cost about 4 cents a piece.

I shoot a lot of these primer-only shells at home in the back yard, and my neighbors don't hear anything at all. The hulls are infinitely reloadable, and if you accidentally plug yourself in the foot or something, they don't even leave a bruise.

The wax will stick to steel targets if it's soft enough, and when you're done shooting you can scrape it off, melt it down and load it again!

Proof of concept...I just turned down some 3/4 soft dowel using my table saw, a pine guide and my 3/8 drill [utube idea] and made 4 slugs which I reloaded in my 2 inch short shells and was 4 for 4 on my plate rail at 7 yds [knocked down 2 plates that were hit high]. They fed fine, no recoil and totally disintegrated. Used the same powder load that I use for my cas #9 shells. I need to build some more. But I don’t like using the table saw so I’m going to build a dowel cutter out of some 1/4 in plate and try that. I’ll post photos of the next batch.

Built a steel cutter out of 1/4 inch plate. I think it needs a back plate out of hardwood to help support the dowel to keep it from moving around so much, as it makes a rough finish cut. Used a 11/16 drill for the big hole in my plate. But I've also ordered a 18mm plug cutter off fleabay to mess with whenever it gets here. Also want to try some scrap oak.

Here’s 5 rds at 8 yds. Hadn’t thought about it before shooting these on paper but I probably need to cull my hulls to be all the same, not AAs and budget winchester as the light weight of the ‘slug’ is probably being affected by the hull thickness and folds. AAs are thicker than the other Winchester hulls I'm playing with. Not a bad group for dowels and they’re flying true, BIG wad cutters. The slug that is intact bounced off a small hanging steel sass marshal next to the cardboard. Being it was a hanging target and swung it didn’t break apart. Need to try some harder heavier wood.
Attachment 264301

I don't compete in anything that requires quickly reloading a SXS, but I would think the weight of the shells would make a big difference. With wood, the shells are feather light. If you get good at that, reloading with real shells are going to be way different.

That said, if you want to continue to load biodegradable slugs that only need to go 5-10 yards, let me recommend waxed hard cards. NOT the standard hard cards which blow apart out of the muzzle, the waxed ones hold together. These should do better than pine. https://www.ballisticproducts.com/1_...oductinfo/HCW/

What about stuffing the shell with dried cut lawn grass ? We use dried grass for salute firing our 1.1 inch cannon in the front yard. Nothing to pick up.

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I had thought about using sorghum seeds but don’t want to be planting sorghum all over my yard. For this project I want to be able to hit a target with a projectile[s] along with practicing various feeding techniques. How about a little background for the non cas shooters, CAS shotgunning, while it is a small shooting part of a match, can be a big part timewise and your time is your score with misses and procedures adding time. We usually shoot 6 scenarios in a monthly shoot [double all this for a 12 scenario 2 day regional match] which equals 6x10=60 rifle rds, 6x10=60 revolver rds [5 rds per each of two revolvers] and from 12 to about a box of shotgun shells depending on the match director as each one is different but the rifle and two pistols are loaded at the start of each scenario while the sg starts mty and is loaded on the clock. There are numerous ways to do that depending on the gun you’re using, a double or a 1897, how many targets you need to knock down and how the gun is staged. I use a ‘97 pump and can load singles but the slickest way is to pick up 2 to 4 rds at a time from your belt with your left hand which are loaded over the top. So my goal is to figure out what works best for me and practice it until it’s smooth as catsuit.

ED: Try loading from underneath the gun. Shells are held between your index and pinky fingers and the gun is tipped to the right when port loading it. 97's have a huge ejection port so finding it won't take much practice.

This is how we are taught to manipulate shotgun shells at a Front Sight Tactical Shotgun Class. You should look into going to one as you would come out of a 4 day class,,, Vicious! Or in Baltimore speak,, Wicked Good!

Seen many 97's there and guys were CAS shooters learning how to run their guns effectively.

This will also improve your Riot Control Technique which could be useful.

Randy

I made up "dummy" shells for CAS practice and got very good at loading quickly. (6th place in the State shoot for Shotgun only stages) There is no need to have a projectile as misses are practically non-existent anyway. I used silicone in the primer pocket so reduce damage to the firing pin. You could put in hard rubber as well.

I filled the shot area with plastic injection pellets as I had a bunch of them from work. That made the rounds light but that may have been a good thing as light rounds are more difficult to run fast. No reason you could not load them with shot.

Why waste powder and primers to learn to go fast? And reloading wastes even more time! Something that goes "boom" and hits a plate is not needed. I would spend about 30 minutes a day in the living room cycling rounds through the 97 and SxS..

BTW, paint your dummy rounds a color of hull you NEVER use. Never had live rounds in the same room you will be practicing in.

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Originally Posted by Baltimoreed

I need to practice my cas shotgun reloading and shooting techniques but don’t want to waste my valuable #9 shot building practice loads so I went on line looking and found slugs made of everything from wax, jbweld, wood, marbles, aluminum, plastic, rubber balls, ceremic, hard candy etc. I like the idea of using wood as it’s biodegradable [would only have to police up the wads] and would be easy to make using a plug cutter or a 3/4 dowel. They might even knock down plates on my plate rail [7 to 12 steps]. Anybody here do any experiments with cheap alternate slug material?

Just realized that I’m in the wrong sub forum. Could someone smarter than me move this to the shotgun sub?
Thanks for moving my post CB Forum fairygodfather.

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Hi Baltimoreed
I save my used coffee grounds everytime I brew a pot.
I dump them on a cookie sheet in the oven.The pilot lite in the oven dries them out almost overnite.
I use the dried grounds when loading pistol rounds to shoot carpenter bees.
The shot loads using the dried used coffee grounds are free, are effective, and they don't chew up wood or richochette like lead shot does.
If you start saving the grounds, they begin adding up in a hurry.
Just my 2 cents.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dverna

I made up "dummy" shells for CAS practice and got very good at loading quickly. (6th place in the State shoot for Shotgun only stages) There is no need to have a projectile as misses are practically non-existent anyway. I used silicone in the primer pocket so reduce damage to the firing pin. You could put in hard rubber as well.

I filled the shot area with plastic injection pellets as I had a bunch of them from work. That made the rounds light but that may have been a good thing as light rounds are more difficult to run fast. No reason you could not load them with shot.

Why waste powder and primers to learn to go fast? And reloading wastes even more time! Something that goes "boom" and hits a plate is not needed. I would spend about 30 minutes a day in the living room cycling rounds through the 97 and SxS..

BTW, paint your dummy rounds a color of hull you NEVER use. Never had live rounds in the same room you will be practicing in.

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Don: I use Green Remington hulls for my Dummies. I have like 12 or so of them and don't reload them. I load them with COW instead of powder and a dead primer.

Dry practice is the way to learn gun handling. Front Sight taught us that!

Randy

I would use cast glue boolits.
Reusable slugs .cast in a wad, you can just reload the whole thing.