Dime Loads In Place Of Buckshot

An answer to a much asked question from those who've actually shot at things other than water jugs and jello.

Dime loads were popular back in the days of the SE Asian fracas. They cut through elephant grass better than buckshot and at short range did a ghastly job on human flesh. Almost two decades ago I sent off a snail mail to Jeff Cooper asking if he'd had any such experience and about a month later received a reply. Yes. He'd heard of such from many reliable sources and said that it was actually first tried in the jungles of those Japanese held islands in the Pacific with a lot of success but that such a load was frowned upon because of the various and sundry conventions that prohibited specialty munitions.

I've hesitated from answering this query because I didn't want to have to deal with the frustrating emails, but enough is enough. I am not an expert in anything. There are however, some things I've done and seen done with my own eyes and therefore feel comfortable responding to. If this particular report doesn't jibe with modern terminal ballistic endeavors then perhaps, just perhaps, all of that jello isn't all of that accurate with regards to defining wound parameters outside of the laboratory.

Just a thought.

And with the price of modern shotshells, 16 or 17 dimes isn't going to break the bank but bear in mind the fact that outside of shooting targets for fun, it might be a dicey situation should you be hauled before a court of law and asked to explain yourself after a self defense shoot. Again, such a load works extremely well, but since you're not going to be stalking Charlie through the bush you'd probably be better off using off the shelf munitions.