Mustard Seed? Buckshot? 38 special

Long ago my Dad had me shoot up some old ammo. One of the boxes was 22 rimfire filled with mustard seed. He said it was for shooting mice inside a barn so you wouldn't put holes in the structure.
They put holes in the paper target, but would barely put a hole in a clay pigeon at 5 feet.

I wish I had kept at least one for my cartridge collection.

Well now I just bought some speer capsules for 38, got me to wondering about the mustard seeds.

Does anyone see a problem with trying out a shotshell filled with the seeds? I already have a handful made up with number 4 and number 8 shot scrounged from some old paper hulled shotshells.

Also, what size buckshot would work in place of a gas check or wad atop shot if not using the speer capsules? Coat the buck with lee Alox, wad or check over the powder is my idea?

If you use a buckshot you will need to weigh your shot and the buckshot together to establish your load.

The biggest problem with an organic based load is weight vs powder charge. I don't see a problem, particularly in a speer capsule, with shooting mustard seed. However the only way you are going to tell squat about it is to load a capsule, and weigh it before loading the round to see what grain weight you are looking at. I suspect it will be staggeringly low which means some experimentation to get the load data correct and safe. You might consider, MIGHT consider, testing a single load with primer only (depending on the caliber) to see if you can recreate what cci does with their one 22 load that has no powder in it. Might work, might not, as always this is not advice and anything you do I am not responsible for. I would be interested in the end results. Always use safe loading procedures and published data.

GoodOlBoy

Buckshot will go through the structure and leave a hole.

For .38, try to find some .36 cal black powder balls.

Or take a double ought buck and flatten it till it fits snug.

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Originally Posted by GhostHawk

Buckshot will go through the structure and leave a hole.

For .38, try to find some .36 cal black powder balls.

Or take a double ought buck and flatten it till it fits snug.

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I guess I was asking questions about two kinds of loads.

One was about mustard seed in a speer shot capsule.

The other about what size buck to use in a buck and ball or simply buck, load.

I just bought some 12 gauge with 000 buck. Cut one apart and used it to load over some 7 1/2 shot and a cardboard wad for a max weight of 122 grain. Charged with 4.5 grains of Unique.

Will post what I find when I shoot em.

Seed in shotcapsul,new way to plant garden?

Someone actually sells rounds for shooting to sew seeds, IIRC that was on one of those gofundme type sites. I doubt that'd be popular with neighbors in suburbia...

You could try lots of other seeds too, might want to be careful about ones with very hard shells lest they bounce off hard surfaces (buckwheat for example)

Mustard seed? I've always heard about rock salt in shotgun, but Mustard seed?

Rock salt's pretty light and you may need to use BP to propel it, I'm told, I doubt mustard seed is much more dense so you might want to use a fairly fast powder :)

Actually, for propelling light loads out of a shotgun, Bullseye might be your ticket.. Anyone who loads shotshells eventually dishes in a shell or two.. not enough shot or wrong wad or some reason why the load does not crimp right. I used to take these shells with only a wad and fire them at the range to get back the hull for reloading. One time I made up some light target loads with Bullseye.. it is a book load from Hercules for 3/4 oz lead shot. Well I dished in a crimp, emptied out the shot, and proceeded to fire said "blank". It fired the wad just fine with a very convincing sounding shot.. I wondered about this.. loaded something in the same fashion.. I think it was rock salt.. and it fired just fine.. so it's possible that with a fast burning propellant like Bullseye, Clays, or the like to have enough pop to propel something that in other cases might create a squib condition. 2.5 - 3 gr of Bullseye with that shot capsule full of whatever else will likely work out just fine.

I use 5gr of Bullseye in a .45colt case sized to rim in a .45acp case with decapper removed and flush seated to rim. Sized case is punched out to remove from sizer. Only needs to be sized once.
I'm using cardboard wads cut with a 7/16" hole cutter in a drill press.

I prime case; and flare and charge case with a Lee powder measure with powder-thru-case expander die.
Place a wad over powder. I fill with ground corn cob or Walnut hull tumbling media, and cover and crimp with another card wad.

I shoot these in a .410 O/U to kill carpenter bees in the spring. Works to about 20feet.
So loaded with #6 birdshot over a wad cut from corrugated cardboard, they'll hold 0.4oz shot. Kills gray squirrels well to about 50feet.

I don't think Mustard seeds would kill mice at much more than 2-3 feet.
The Walnut hull media will take the paint off lumber and pit the wood to about 7-8ft. Likely a better choice than mustard seed.
I haven't used Mustard seed, but have tried Quinoa. Didn't work well.

Mustard seeds are tiny & light, rice or buckwheat would carry further but you might want a face shield for WHEN one ricochets back at you.

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Originally Posted by Mr_Sheesh

Someone actually sells rounds for shooting to sew seeds, IIRC that was on one of those gofundme type sites. I doubt that'd be popular with neighbors in suburbia...

You could try lots of other seeds too, might want to be careful about ones with very hard shells lest they bounce off hard surfaces (buckwheat for example)

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OK, this post got me thinking,, scary though that is.

I am faced with 3-400 feet of ditch bank cut at about a 45° slope. Tried seeding with with one of those bag seeders you hang around your neck. That meant walking along the slope and barely turning the crank to keep the seed from slinging out too fast. very hard soil so not a lot of the seed actually stayed on the bank although we did get a fair crop if winter rye started in the ditch bottom. If I can get the rye started on the slope then it will be easy to overseed the sprouts with real grasses as those seeds will have the rye shoots to fall into.

Anyhow, I now have a winter project. That being to determine how much payload I can fit in a shotgun shell and then move on to some firing tests to see how big a pattern results.

If that looks promising I will load up a mess of seedshells :) and wait for spring. When the ground is freshly thawed and soft I think the seeds would embed in the soil enough to stick there and germinate.

In an ideal world I would hydroseed, would have done that already, but nobody around here does it any longer for less than a royal ransom. I used to do it but had to sell my equipment after I tore my left shoulder apart.

This is just crazy enough that it might work.

I can see it now, "ALAN GOES AWRY!"

Alan in Vermont - I wonder if a "bug-a-salt" or BB gun would shoot rye for you, or an airsoft shotgun? A thought :) Might be too big for a bug-a-salt tho

I'm going to see what I can come up with for straight walled hulls so I can seat the wads way deep on top of a light charge of Bullseye. I found data for 3/4 oz. 12 gauge loads so I think I can work down from that data.

I've told a couple people about my braincramp and they have both been of the opinion that it can't hurt to try.

Would be really cool if I could cob up a charge bar for my 650 so I could load them like regular shells. This may be the winter project I have been looking for. Anybody got a bar for a 650 that they aren't using and are willing to part with cheap?

I use (2) .300 balls with a .283 ball at the bottom inside of a Speer capsule. At 15 yards, the .283 prints 1.5” above the 2 .300 balls center mass from my 442 and my wife’s LCR. I use the load data that accompanies the capsules with Unique. Fun, yes, how realistic it would be to use, I pray I never have to find out. Never saw a snake worth shooting it either. I get the lead balls from Track of the Wolf. Can’t wait for the closing on my first house so I can begin casting!

I was loading buckshot in a capsule in a 38 special for a while. 3 #1 buck would just fit in a speer capsule. They would hold a palm sized pattern at 5-7 yards. the problem I had was that the buckshot would bust the capsule during recoil. I tried buffer and also tried a thin card in front of the first pellet keep it from busting, but couldn't figure it out. one of those projects I put on the back burner, that I will revisit later at some point.

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Originally Posted by clearwater

Long ago my Dad had me shoot up some old ammo. One of the boxes was 22 rimfire filled with mustard seed. He said it was for shooting mice inside a barn so you wouldn't put holes in the structure.
They put holes in the paper target, but would barely put a hole in a clay pigeon at 5 feet.

I wish I had kept at least one for my cartridge collection.

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I have heard .22 rimfire #12 birdshot loads referred to as "mustard seed shot" and "rat shot" over the years.

I have also shot special MO-Skeet clay targets with Rutledge Bore 22 rimfire smoothbore Remington "shotguns".

The ammunition is still in current production.

https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/fed...atalogId=10051

#12 shot is also currently available for handloaders from Ballistic Products:

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/Chi...uctinfo/02612/

Indeed, until recently Rio 12 gauge and 410 gauge #12 shot rounds were available:

https://www.cheaperthandirt.com/prod...35101602891.do

https://www.cheaperthandirt.com/prod...nds-amm-811.do

Gun Digest: Routledge Bore

https://books.google.com/books?id=sx...20Bore&f=false

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Originally Posted by Alan in Vermont

I'm going to see what I can come up with for straight walled hulls so I can seat the wads way deep on top of a light charge of Bullseye. I found data for 3/4 oz. 12 gauge loads so I think I can work down from that data.

I've told a couple people about my braincramp and they have both been of the opinion that it can't hurt to try.

Would be really cool if I could cob up a charge bar for my 650 so I could load them like regular shells. This may be the winter project I have been looking for. Anybody got a bar for a 650 that they aren't using and are willing to part with cheap?

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I have made up some short 12ga with 1/2 oz load and work good.I did it with 2 3/4" hulls and also for 2" and 1 3/4" all for 1/2 oz. Good light load.

Mustard seed is expensive. Search for the thread on wood bee loads. Uses grits or my preference, walnut shell tumbling media. Bullseye is indeed the king for these loads.

For buckshot, two .360" balls over a card wad works well in the .38 Special. See 2 Ball .38 Special article in castpics./beagle

Do a Google on mounted Cowboy shooting. They shoot balloons up to 22 feet from a horse running full speed.

https://www.sassnet.com/forums/index...nted-shooting/