Wax slugs, anybody else shoot them?

[dm1333]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl95y4HaTzU

Basically you have a giant frangible slug or something like the shotgun version of a Glaser round.

I have killed every gallon water jug in about a 10 mile radius with these!   

[White Horseradish]

I've shot them out of my Nagant revolver. They dented an old ammo tin.

[AmbulanceDriver]

WH - I think you missed part of the point on the "wax slugs".   You open up a standard shotshell, and without removing the shot, fill it with molten wax....  Then crimp the shell back down.

[dm1333]

I'm actually cutting the crimp off a 12 gauge birdshot, pouring out the shot and mixing with melted paraffin wax, then putting it back into the shot cup. You don't fill the shot all the way back up to the top of the cup, and pour a little more paraffin to cap it off at the top.  I'm sure you could do the same by re crimping the shell but I don't have any shotgun reloading stuff to do that with.

You open up a standard shotshell, and without removing the shot, fill it with molten wax....  Then crimp the shell back down

How do you get the crimp undone without messing it all up?  How do you recrimp it? 

[castle key]

I don't shoot them, I just put salt on them.

[AmbulanceDriver]

I'm actually cutting the crimp off a 12 gauge birdshot, pouring out the shot and mixing with melted paraffin wax, then putting it back into the shot cup. You don't fill the shot all the way back up to the top of the cup, and pour a little more paraffin to cap it off at the top.  I'm sure you could do the same by re crimping the shell but I don't have any shotgun reloading stuff to do that with.

How do you get the crimp undone without messing it all up?  How do you recrimp it? 

Sorry - I was actually misremembering the first time I saw information on it....   The way you do it is what I've found to be the correct way.

[HankB]

Wonder what happens to the pressure . . . even with grex (powdered soft plastic buffer) pressures go up a bit. With wax?  Hmmm . . . I think I'll skip this experiment.

(With no crimp, I can also see the rounds in the magazine of a pump or semi-auto beginning to disassemble themselves under recoil . . . )

[AJ Dual]

Wonder what happens to the pressure . . . even with grex (powdered soft plastic buffer) pressures go up a bit. With wax?  Hmmm . . . I think I'll skip this experiment.

(With no crimp, I can also see the rounds in the magazine of a pump or semi-auto beginning to disassemble themselves under recoil . . . )

Generally, the harder and more solid a shotshell's payload in the wad/cup is, the lower the pressure will be. Loose shot & buffer materials want to flatten out at the moment of firing due to their own inertia so they obdurate more in the shell, and the forcing cone etc.

The wax binding the shot together certainly isn't as solid as a lead slug, but it's probably less "fluid" than shot and buffer would be.

[vaskidmark]

Why are you fooling around with trying to turn shot shells into slugs by playing with melted wax?

The old-timey technique of "cut shells" works just as well if not better, and can be done on-the-spot if you have a reasonable sharp knife blade and a relatively steady hand.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3M46XVfVOU  (BTW, you do not need a beard to make cut shells.)

stay safe.

[Perd Hapley]

The old-timey technique of "cut shells" works just as well if not better, and can be done on-the-spot if you have a reasonable sharp knife blade and a relatively steady hand.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3M46XVfVOU  (BTW, you do not need a beard to make cut shells.)

stay safe.

Cool, thanks. Did not know about that.

[HankB]

Hmmm . . . they generally warn against using, say, 3" shells in a 2 3/4" chamber because of a pressure spike when the crimp unfolds into the bore - not the chamber. With cut shells the whole forward end of the case - not just the crimp - goes down the bore.

The chamber volume will increase a bit lowering pressure as the forward part of the shell moves . . . but this is another experiment I won't be doing with any of my guns.

[MechAg94]

Why don't you just mix the shot with molten lead then?                  ...........oh wait.

 

[Jamisjockey]

Cut shells seems like a great TEOTWAWKI tool.  Some things you just gotta file away.....

[roo_ster]

Why are you fooling around with trying to turn shot shells into slugs by playing with melted wax?

The old-timey technique of "cut shells" works just as well if not better, and can be done on-the-spot if you have a reasonable sharp knife blade and a relatively steady hand.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3M46XVfVOU  (BTW, you do not need a beard to make cut shells.)

stay safe.

Whoa.  Never thought of that.  When I saw dude cutting down the shell, I was like, 

Not sure I would use it in a SD situation, unless I was pinned down at range and had only bird/buck on hand.

Hmmm . . . they generally warn against using, say, 3" shells in a 2 3/4" chamber because of a pressure spike when the crimp unfolds into the bore - not the chamber. With cut shells the whole forward end of the case - not just the crimp - goes down the bore.

The chamber volume will increase a bit lowering pressure as the forward part of the shell moves . . . but this is another experiment I won't be doing with any of my guns.

I would have to see some piezo-electric pressure testing to use in anything other than extremis.

[Gewehr98]

I'm kinda partial to shooting wax snails, myself! 


 

[280plus]

An old friend of mine was a River rat in VN. he said they'd open their shells, modify them in a certain way and seal them back off with the gov issued peanut butter. No way for me to actually confirm this however.

[vaskidmark]

An old friend of mine was a River rat in VN. he said they'd open their shells, modify them in a certain way and seal them back off with the gov issued peanut butter. No way for me to actually confirm this however.

Now if you had said they used the processed cheese food spread I might have believed you.  That stuff was great for sealing things - eat a tin of it spread on the hardtack crackers and you could go on a 3-day patrol with no worries.  I could also believe they dumped the 00-Buck and backfilled with cheese to make a slug - it would probably hold together and act like a beanbag.

C-rat PB not so much.  With the amount of peanut oil it had it made a great candle which was also an effective insect repellant.  (But you had to burn it - rubbing the oil all over just attracted bugs and made them sticky so you could not get them off.)

stay safe.

[280plus]

I was thinking that the PB that came in the green gov issue cans not C-rat. But I know I wasn't there so all I have is his stories to go by. I do recall reading that the snipers would take just the cheese and PB with them to eat for the clogging effect you mention.