I just always assumed that it was a legend. I couldn't imagine rock salt not turning into a powder when fired through a shotgun.

 

I read somewhere that if people used shotguns in a bankrobbery in the UK years back, they always use salt in the cartridges because it was not likely to be fatal if it hit someone.. They still had the death penalty back then and the bandits were afraid of killing someone.

 

Hence the saying "not worth his salt"

 

That comes from Roman soldiers being paid with salt. Salt was worth it's weight in gold. it's also where the word salary comes from.

 

Hey, I have shot a couple of dogs, knocking over my trash cans, with rock salt. They didn't stop long enough to tell me whether it worked or not. Actually, never saw the dogs again so I did worry if I had killed them or not.

 

Wondering how far back the ol’ rock salt thing has been going? I’ll guess that most of ya’ll have never loaded black powder shotgun shells. I’m confident I could get it to work if loading BP. Unlike modern smokeless recipes where it’s a really bad idea to fiddle around with components, with BP I could simply keep reducing the charge until I stopped vaporizing the salt.

 

We're gonna need to see that video!

 

I bet he's right.

 

I would think that at some time rock salt was loaded into a blunderbuss, as a short range weapon the rock salt probably worked just fine.

 

I hope you are not tryin' to call my Grampa a LIAR? Ain't it funny how every Grampa told that same old watermelon story?

 

Well, mine didn't but, he never grew watermelons.

If I'd caught the thieves I could have used some rock salt loads 2-3 years ago! We had cantaloupe growing on the fence along the county road and almost every time one was ready it would disappear. Then one morning there was a heavy dew I saw the marks in the grass from the edge of the road to the fence...and a cantaloupe was gone. The next year we moved them inside the fence, into the garden and put up another 2 ft. tall woven wire fence around them. The woven wire was to keep the turtles out and it works

 

Try a salt-slug.

 

I believe that the rock salt in the shotgun is right up there with the load of dimes in the shotgun.

They use lead shot in shotshells because of the weight. Go back and read that first post. A QUARTER-OUNCE OF SALT.

Try this - get a handful of shot and stand 15 ft away from a sheet of paper, and throw the shot at the paper just as hard as you can.

Now get a handful of salt and do the same thing. That shot put holes in the paper. I guarantee it. That salt never got there. It doesn't have the weight to carry any distance.

It's a good story. Both the salt and the dimes are good stories. But they don't work.

 

It's a good story. Both the salt and the dimes are good stories. But they don't work.

I don’t know about that Alpo. I load 1 1/8oz 000 Rock Salt and get great results. 😉🫣

 

In the terms of "Yester years" Grampa tells of a kid getting a non-lethal load of rock salt in his britches. The water melon thief doesn't dare tell his Pa, lesson learned. The kid never steals melons again. Story over, at least the way Grampa tells it. Skip forward to "Now a Days"? Break a kids skin with Rocksalt? Attempted Murder? Assault with a Deadly Weapon? Discharging a firearm within 50 yds, of a roadway, Brandishing? Then the Civil suit. MY Client is Scarred for life, Disabled, Traumatized, unable to even LOOK at a cantaloupe without Anxiety Disorder. Allergy to salt. Reality sometimes takes the fun of shooting trespassers.

 

Please, if ya'all catch a hungry guy in your garden, please, instead of blasting him with Rocksalt, or anything else, give him a grocery bag. If you cannot afford this, let me know, I can kick in a buck or two. Let me know.

 

Awwww Man . . . How 'bout this . . .

 

OWT....Old Wives Tales. Be sure to thoroughly clean your shotgun after the rock salt test.

 

Now you are attacking old wives? Or just their tails? Cheese and Crackers 🧐

 

1965, I don't know what the load was, or what it was shot out of, but I still have the scars on the back of my legs, butt, and lower back. Halfway over a barb wire fence leaving someplace I shouldn't have been. Grampa cleaned me up, and told my Mom the holes in my shirt and Levis were from the barb wire. He didn't want my Dad to find out, because he knew what my Dad would do to the old man that shot me. Never did find out how my Grampa knew how to doctor rock salt wounds.

 

I would have to assume that whatever salt that you cannot dig out must be soaked out, and I know that stings.

 

Rock salt, the 1890s less lethal rounds.

 

I heard that many times. Never believed it. I, compared it to buck shot. One would have to be really foolish to shoot someone with it.

 

Well,,,,,,,,,,,,,I got a piece in my back and two in my right leg.
Yes it burns like heck for about a week. Mom dug the pieces out but it still stung.

 

I have used popcorn in loads to shoot varmints that I wanted to run ohg but not kill. Worked like a champ.

 

I have heard tales of Rabbit hunters in central Virginia shooting beagles (Sometimes hounds) with rock salt at a distance to break them from picking up a Whitetails scent and dropping a rabbits trail. Sounds cruel but I suppose if you are a hound or beagle you don't forget that stinging butt. My great uncle Jake had a Blue Tic hound that he mixed with the Beagles. If that rabbit crossed a deer scent trail it took days to get the hound back found walking along a dirt road the next county over. Course my Uncle Jake loved that Blue Tic and would never do such a thing. He called him his jump dog. He had a couple of little English Beagles that were great at working a briar patch to get the rabbit out. The tip of their tail was always bloody when they came out.----------------------------Ray

 

I bet those Lima beans will fly straight and offer a good pattern.....

 

I just got through testing a couple loads with soy beans, they didn’t even make it to the target from 15 yards away.
Where the rock salt weighed a quarter ounce the soy beans (approximately 27 beans) only weighed 5 grams.

 

I just got through testing a couple loads with soy beans, they didn’t even make it to the target from 15 yards away.
Where the rock salt weighed a quarter ounce the soy beans (approximately 27 beans) only weighed 5 grams.

How about lentils?

 

Tapioca pearls or tapioca beads are a bit more spherical than beans.

 

When I was a kid, around 10 (many-many years ago...😉😄), my friend and I were "borrowing" some tomatoes from an old man's garden. He came busting out of his shed hollering, "You lil' s#$#s better get your butts out of here or I'll fill 'em with rock salt!!!" Then he started literally shooting...right at us!!!😳
Rock salt or not, having heard him say that as he squeezes off a round or two directly at us, it definitely had the desired effect, and made us true believers!!😄
100% true story.✋

 

Ok, one more test. I got to run into town today so I’ll pick up a bag of lentils and see how they work.

 

Well, if you stick the muzzles in someone's gut and pull the trigger.....

 

I found a use for old tumbler medium. I loaded it into shot shells and used them to remove wasp nests from the wood rafters of my outbuildings. Doesn't hurt the wood and kills the hornets. They were also good for carpenter bees on the wing.

 

I finished up the testing just a little while ago before sunset. I picked up the lentils by decided they would go better in a soup.
I thought about using air soft pellets, there round, 6mm and fairly sturdy.
The shell held 38 balls of air soft pellets, but only weighed 3.5 grams heavier. So I used salt as a filler and that brought weight up to under a half ounce, and with the more weight there wasn’t as much burned powder left in the barrel. I shot this 38x29 inch piece of cardboard at 15 yards with a full choke, there where 30 pellet holes on the cardboard, and as you can see it was spreading fast.
I think it would make a good non lethal pest round for critters, or a water Mellon thief round. Lol