Turn your field shotgun loads into deer loads with a simple cut. http://www.2ndamendmenttv.com/.../lost-arts-pt-1.html

We call them "ringers". Don't know about the legality issue if used for hunting purposes.

My advice? Do NOT do this!

During World War II, immediately after the Fall of France in 1940, we British formed home defence units from civilians called the "Home Guard".

Initially these were armed with sporting rifles, old military rifles kept by target shooters and shot guns.

The British Government had the cartridge companies such as the famous Eley-Kynoch load up shotshells with buckshot and with a single round ball.

Many unofficial leaflets and word of mouth spoke of "cut shells" also. Just like the guys in the video.

Others went even further in their advice. As most shells were roll turn over they advised levereing out the card overshot wad and pouring molten candle wax into the shot! Then making the cut, like the guys in the video, but through the case and the fibre undershot wad.

Now where did our "knowledge" of "cut shells" come from? Not from "illegal" deer hunters as deer hunting with shot guns using buckshot or ball was legal in Britain at that time.

No. It came from those who had advised using "cut shells" to shoot grey squirrel dreys out of trees. No doubt that then gave the same advice for use against Germans!

Official advice and advice from the gun trade was and always has been DO NOT DO IT! Either before and after WWII against these squirrel nests or during WWII against Germans.

The reason in a modern gun (in other words any gun made since the late 19th Century) that has any degree of choke it is dangerous.

So this advice AGAIN has to be re-issued in 1940 to the "Home Guard" home defence units. DO NOT DO IT!

You risk damage to the choke area of the gun. The choke is designed to swage down a loose column of shot. It is not designed to swage down shot contained in the way a "cut shell" does it.

Advice, at the time, 1940, of for squirrels, if you did need a single projectile in your 12 gauge but could not get the round ball loads and wanted something safer than a "cut shell"?

Take out the shot charge from the 12 gauge shell and use the top end cut off from a 16 gauge shell cut through its fibre wad to rin effect an enclosed (16 gauge) cylindrical projectile.

So as in 1940 and like on the WWE wrestling....PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

Thanks, sounds like good advise.

While I would not do it either...

In the American Rifleman a few years back they did a test where they "cut or ringed" some shotgun shells, and then shot them.

It did not harm to the gun, and pressures were less than the same shells fired normally...

I've done it and shot a 50 gal. drum at 100 yards. Used a pheasant load

It blows a 12ga. sized hole through the whole thing

Also shot some 8" thick trees with success

Ive heard of this from the old timers but never seen it or tried it. Dont plan on trying it but it is very interesting to see what they were talking about.

We did this when I was a kid. My dad killed his first buck with a ringed shell. He was standing behind a corn shock when it came down through the field. We quit doing it when we could get either punkin balls or slugs. Back then, shotshells were pretty easy to come by, but not so for slugs or rifle ammo. So we made do.
We never tested them on targets, we would have considered that a waste of ammunition.
Bfly

Several years ago, someone at our Skeet range mentioned this. Several of us spent about a half hour cutting shells and shooting them. Games like "who could hit closest to a rock 150 yds down range."

We also shot several shells at our 55 gal trash barrels. They would make a 1 1/2" diameter entrance hole and the #8-9 shot would just splatter on the back side of the barrel.