Ok guys, time to get creative......

[Punisher422]

I have an 18" Mossberg breacher barrel on my Remington 870 12 gauge. I know that you can purchase breacher rounds, but they're on the high side and I would like to see if I can reload some. Why? Just to see if I can do it. It's not like I breach doors every day or even every time I go to the range, but I would like to see if it can be done.

The commercial breacher rounds I have seen have been a shotcup full of compressed copper or other metal powder. The idea is once the powder goes through the lock/door it dissipates and doesn't continue to travel or injure anyone inside. Does anyone have any ideas on how to go about creating this round?

[krag35]

#12 bird shot is pretty fine, I don't think it would work any different, especially if you kept the shot charge down to 1/2 oz or so.

[steg]

If you could get your hands on some steel blasting media ( tiny steel balls ) and a very very fine screen, the stuff is awesome, years ago I used to load it in speer ? plastic canisters as snake rounds for the .357. I fired once at a simple Manilla folder opened up, at I would guess around eight feet away, and I don't think you could place a one inch ring anywhere on that folder and not have at least one tiny hole somewhere in the ring, the shot I was using was around the size of table salt..............steg

[blaster]

Blasting media sounds dangerous to the bore unless it was contained somehow.

Breaching rounds are often a plastic capsule filled with fine metal powder or water.

Or a slug of powdered steel bound with wax.

Size 12 shot would probably work.

Dirt would probably work too and its free.

[Punisher422]

After doing some research I decided to try to fill up a normal shot wad (Winchester AA) with the slag taken from the top of my pot during casting. The slag is very similar to dust, but I didn't have a way to really contain it, so I ended up melting wax into the shot cup to hold it all together.

Will wax on the wad hurt the barrel in any way if it comes into contact with it? Also, would this same idea work with sprues from casting slugs for a limited penetration home defense round?

[blaster]

Wax on the wad shouldn't hurt anything unless something funky is going on like the wad is sealed in the hull with wax.

You could load sprues in a wad. I would probably weigh every load however since the sprues will not have consistant weight.

[Jim]

What would happen if you put the muzzle on a door knob and fired a round of standard #8 bird shot at it?

[shotman]

I would line up an extra barrel and some insurance send policy to me
We call it --- hey guys watch this - in wv have whole hill full

[Johnch]

Never tryed it

But I wondered if a unslit steel shot wad with #9 shot would do what you are trying ?

John

[Punisher422]

No 8 and 9 shot would work for blowing the lock off, but what I'm trying to do is limit penetration of anything that would happen to be behind the door. The commercial breacher loads aren't supposed to have enough power three feet past the door so if someone is still in the room they won't get shot by the breaching round.

Is it really applicable? No, but it's a lot of fun and challenging to try to achieve.

I thought of the sprue idea yesterday afternoon. I would think that would be a wicked home defense round that would somewhat limit penetration, which is the chief complaint for using buckshot and slugs for HD.

[bohica2xo]

The 250 fps doorknob or deadbolt is probably much worse than a pellet of shot or two...

Training with #9 skeet loads is the way to go. You can blast doors / hinges / locks etc. all day long. Then load the real stuff after you clean the gun & put it back in the squad car.

Always makes a believer out of a rookie when you start whacking cinder blocks with a contact shot...

B.

[megafatcat]

Electroplating supply places sell powdered copper.

[Punisher422]

I finally tested some of the breacher loads I tried to make with lead slag and dust held together by candle wax. I loaded it with 14 grains of Red Dot. The load easily penetrated a 1" cedar board (All I had to test it on at the time). I set up two pine boards three feet behind the board with a piece of styrofoam between the pine boards. The small pieces of slag didn't even dent the pine boards but did penetrate the piece of styrofoam. Anyone have any ideas to refine this load or what to use to simulate a human being behind the door? Hopefully soon I will get an old door and place a bolt and hinges on it to test my loads on a real door.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
All this makes me wonder about door material. Steel security doors would have to be different than hallow core or even the cheap exterior doors most houses are shut with.
Length & diameter of hinge screws also... plus extended and thicker striker plates..

[xfoxofshogo]

tri a sulg made of paper in a wad after hiting some thig it shod come a part realy good you have to be right up on what your shooting

[Chicken Thief]

I finally tested some of the breacher loads I tried to make with lead slag and dust held together by candle wax. I loaded it with 14 grains of Red Dot. The load easily penetrated a 1" cedar board (All I had to test it on at the time). I set up two pine boards three feet behind the board with a piece of styrofoam between the pine boards. The small pieces of slag didn't even dent the pine boards but did penetrate the piece of styrofoam. Anyone have any ideas to refine this load or what to use to simulate a human being behind the door? Hopefully soon I will get an old door and place a bolt and hinges on it to test my loads on a real door.

A pork belly?

[eye shot]

Try a bar of Lava soap. Push end of barrel into soap bar then push back out and load in wad- shell. The pumus in the soap should do the trick.

[xfoxofshogo]

Try a bar of Lava soap. Push end of barrel into soap bar then push back out and load in wad- shell. The pumus in the soap should do the trick.

ya and clean that gun too