Shotgun Reloading for Skeet/Trap - Stupid question

[Les White]

Anyone ever tried alternatives to steel/lead shot? My intent is simply for busting clay in the backyard with light loads. Talking to a buddy yesterday about it and lamenting on the availability and cost of lead/steel shot he suggested maybe using coarse blasting media. I started poking around and it looks like the coarsest stuff I can readily get is still too fine. I googled alternatives to lead/steel shot and found a single post by an Australian guy who said he uses sorghum seed in his 12g to blast rats on the pig farm and claimed 7000+ kills.

It looks like sorghum seed falls in line with #8-9 shot and 5lbs of it can be had for about $20.

Obviously there'd be a weight difference and I'd have to experiment with the load recipe - roughly 15k seeds per lb vs. 5100ish of #8 lead per lb and 7400ish of #9 lead per lb.

And I'd have to heat treat the seeds in a 150 degree oven to render them inert so I'm not planting sorghum all over the property.

Anybody ever tried anything similar?

Think it would work at such short ranges? It's almost worth the $20 to find out.

 

[Catfish]

You're going about this all wrong:

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[Dan]

Buy it catfish and I will pay shipping. I have about a ton of lead.

 

[Mad Dawg]

Unless you're a high volume shooter, reloading is not cost effective NO MATTER what shot material you use. Sorghgum?? Really?? 7000+ barn rats?? Maybe so if the rats were within 10ft!! Otherwise, I'm not buying it........ Feeding a couple barn cats would take care of the rat problem and would likely be a whole lot cheaper than reloading.

 

[beamernc]

Not sure if the seed would be hard enough to break the clays unless they were point blank range. What about rock salt? I hear people used to use a lot of it against watermelon thieves.

 

[Les White]

You're going about this all wrong:

Shop

NEW PRODUCT! Cast Gray Iron Lead Shot Pan With One Set of #7.5 Drippers. $250.00 With FREE Shipping!

www.oasisleadshotmaker.com

I had that thought too, but making shot is more than I want to tackle.

Unless you're a high volume shooter, reloading is not cost effective NO MATTER what shot material you use. Sorghgum?? Really?? 7000+ barn rats?? Maybe so if the rats were within 10ft!! Otherwise, I'm not buying it........ Feeding a couple barn cats would take care of the rat problem and would likely be a whole lot cheaper than reloading.

Nope, I'm likely going to lose money reloading shells. The purpose is to be able to load super light loads for the girls.

Not sure if the seed would be hard enough to break the clays unless they were point blank range. What about rock salt? I hear people used to use a lot of it against watermelon thieves.

That was also suggested to me. I was worried about it corroding the barrel, but a google search says just clean the barrel after each use. Also said 20 yards was about the max effective range. Might be worth a shot.