Thread: A Cautionary Tale

How Things Go Wrong... The road to hell really is paved with good intentions.

This is a cautionary tale about where best intentions can lead. It happened a long, long time ago, on a continent far, far away. Fortunately, no humans or bats were hurt in the making of this tale.

In my younger days, I worked on a nature reserve, where security was a bit of an issue. It was very close to the border between South Africa and Mocambique, in the sub-tropics – a hot and humid place.

One of the conservators decided that they would like to be able to blast off a warning shot or 2 with a shotgun in the general direction of an intruder – be they man or monkey, even in the dark. A plan was hatched, and the solution was rock-salt loaded shotgun cartridges. Hand loads were made, and the rounds tested – they worked a treat, shredding banana leaves at about 10 paces, but little damage beyond that – perfect for teaching a lesson to a less-than-committed intruder likely to be encountered in a casual burglary… All good so far.

Fast forward 2 years, and a bat problem emerged in a 5m high shed. It was an open-bay design, and bats were nesting in the recesses, with faeces running down the walls. For those that haven’t smelled it, it is a pungent, horrid stench that you’ll never forget. Anyway, a think-tank went to work to come up with a solution. Bats can carry rabies, so handling them was not an option. Someone then remembered the rock-salt cartridges, stored in the firearm safe. That night, just when the bats became active for the evening, there was an ambush. The shotgun was produced and as soon as the first rat of the sky stuck its head out, head-ranger took the shot. An almighty clang was heard, and a neat 12g hole appeared in the sheet iron of the roof. The salt had solidified due to the ambient humidity and time, creating a solid slug. Awed at the performance, the firearm was put away, and the rest of the ammo destroyed.

A warning shot at an intruder would have had far worse consequences – most likely a fatal shooting. Beware when embarking on what seems like a great idea!

Ha ha great yarn, scary alternative ending

In the scheme of things, a small hole in the roof was a very cheap lesson!

Some mates did that on the farm shed back in the 80's with wheat. Loaded them up for rats-only thing is they did no testing with it. Strangely enough it was pretty much the same result as yours. I doubt the wad had dropped off the wheat. Same thing, first and only shot produced about an inch hole in the corner of the roof.

Interesting indeed. If it hit the roof with wadding intact it would effectively be a solid. Scary stuff!

did he hit the varmint ?

I doubt it... I think he was angry enough with the bats to hit the roof though.

@Jusepy cant remember for sure but something in the back of the memory banks suggests that the rat getting away was the punch line to the story.

@Mauser308 - OK, I'll bite... Please share your story... Sounds interesting!

I once was present when a bloke lost his calf muscle from a blank .308 round stuffed with toilet paper. A new recruit was ordered to man a desk at the entrance to our building and he fell asleep. A 7.62 bullet was pulled and the FN barrel was stuck under the table. The result was a ruined career before it had properly commenced and almost a year stand down for the trigger man. Also a far and away dark continent decades ago.

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing. Interesting that the rock-salt "poacher preventer" was a widespread thing... Where did it happen?
I have seen rice in salt shakers, and it makes sense in a weird sort of way.

I think some things are best not investigated too deeply, and the birds on fruit trees sounds like very plausible explanation!

A few years back......well actually a lot of years back, back when I was a teenager. We lived only five minutes from the river and as teenagers a heap of us would bike down to the river at any opportunity, to go fishing, or swimming, or chatting' up chicks etc etc. There was a farm next door to the public access to the river and some of the guys use to wander across the paddocks to get better/quicker access to some of the better fishing holes. Said farm often had a few cows or occasional bulls in the paddock. The old fella that farmed it was a grumpy old prick and didn't take lightly to young fella's wandering across his paddock. One afternoon he had had enough and came storming out with the classic side by side shotty, up and lets strip. This happened a few times over then next weeks until one of me mates copped a load right across the back of the thighs, lots of little holes that quickly started to sting, and then sting a lot. Off home to his Mum, and asked her to check it out, and she was able to extract a number of little pieces of coarse rock salt! Poor old mate had a pretty sore for a couple of days as the salt took that long to dissolve, leaving him with a nice scattering of little scabs all over the backs of his thighs. We never went back through those paddocks again.

Wow! Gives new meaning to taking your salts!

I tried something similar (chick-peas) for the neighbors dog. He would let his expensive-mutt loose at night, and it was killing the kids rabbits and guinea-pigs. It didnt work well, and sometimes didnt even go off (lack of wad pressure?) The mutt upscaled one day and I found it had killed, and was eating one of our calves. I raced off for the 12g, and some buckshot, only to find said mutt (large male beagle--who'd have thought) had scarpered. I got a load of firewood compensation for the calf, then Owner and mutt suddenly left (sold-up) out of the blue. 2 months later, went to shoot a couple of bunnys, blew the to bits, then remembered I'd left buckshot in my belt