Oh yeah, I was trying to stick to retailed products, but yes, homebrew shotgun rounds have been around for basically as long as shotguns.
Another kind of homebrew shot is coin shot:
https://www.alloutdoor.com/2020/06/17/shooting-pennies-shotgun/
I’ve heard anecdotally that people have been doing that for quite a while.
So I have no actual source on any kind of coinshot…
But why not use half pennies?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_cent_(United_States_coin)
Yes, the US used to have half pennies.
Imagine buying an apple for $0.03½
Anyway, they stopped being minted in 1857, but that’s still within the early timeframe of ‘The West’, and I’d bet they were still used in circulation for another decade or two.
That’d be cheaper than using nickels, haha.