Shotgun - What would happen...

[battleop]

I was loading some 12 Gauge #9 Skeet loads yesterday and I got to wondering.  What would happen if you dropped powder and then shot without a wad in between?   I did some Googling and couldn't find an answer.   Would it spit the shot out or blow up the gun?  

[enfield]

At worst, probably a misfire.  At best, probably a bad pattern.

[Omega]

Unless done on purpose you would know right off as I doubt you could get a good crimp.  If done on purpose it would probably be a real light load due possibly to unburned powder, the shot would pattern horribly and may even cause some damage to the barrel as it bounced along it.   

[battleop]

I've never had a problem with dropping shot on top of powder on my Sizemaster but I do occasionally skip the shot drop and crimp a wad on powder with no shot.  Those are defiantly noticeable.   

[dcloudy777]

I would think very low velocity, as the shot column wouldn't make a very good "barrel seal", and the much of the burning powder gasses, being lighter than the shot, would actually come through the shot and beat it to the muzzle.

 

Or maybe the shot would get hot enough to obturate... heck, I'm just thinking out loud.

[MacGyver]

It would be underwhelming at best.

[zgunbear]

You get a smokey pop and the shot really doesn't do much

[chances R]

I would go ahead and breakdown and buy a decent wad.  For generally 1 cent you will get much better results.  :doh:

[GKar]

As Omega opined, you'd pretty much hafta know it as soon as you pulled the loader handle cause the crimp would be beyond horrible.  I grabbed a wad that was missing the powder cup once (Downrange manufacturing mistake) and used it - fingers of the crimp went so deep I could just pour the shot straight back into the bottle with no problem.