Solidly Wrong
So, what makes a good snake gun? First off, it’s nothing firing a solid bullet. Such things could have devastating consequences around a dwelling with living beings about. After passing through a rattler, a solid bullet is apt to bounce off hard-packed dirt and do significant damage elsewhere. Solid bullets are not the answer.
CCI sells snake shot cartridges for revolvers from .22 LR up to .45 Colt. I’ve used several in .44 Special and .45 Colt; not trusting .22s or .38s to do for some of the sizeable rattlers we have encountered. By the way, CCI says on the package of .45 Auto shot capsules “NOT TO FIRE IN REVOLVERS.” I took that as a direct challenge and did so with an old S&W Model 1917. I lost the challenge after having to beat the ’17’s cylinder open with a piece of ax handle.
The CCI big bore snake cartridges are sufficient and in times of laziness, I’ve shot several rattlers with them. The reason they are not my favorites is they carry No. 7 ½ shot. Nigh on 40 years ago, a reader wrote me from Alabama saying he only used No. 12 shot and when hit by it, a snake was just plain dead. It wasn’t trashing about, wriggling away, or still buzzing. It was dead limp.
Try finding No. 12 shot — It’s darn near impossible. I searched in vain until I talked with a rep from one of the shot manufacturers. He sent me a 25-lb. bag to prove it exists. This was four decades ago and I’m still using it. Back in those days, Speer hadn’t yet offered their nifty plastic shot capsules for the .45 Colt so I went the old-fashioned way of producing shot shells for revolvers — putting one gas check in a cartridge case with the cup facing up, filling the case to its brim with No. 12 shot then squeezing another gas check cup down on top. The finish was a stout crimp.
