Guns are a hot topic, there are strong opinions for and against them, everybody can come up with lists for and against. I live in the United States and I do support the Second Amendment and our right to bear arms and protect our persons, families and homes with a firearm but not everybody agrees with me and that’s fine by me, you don’t have to agree with me, it’s just my opinion and thoughts. I’m NOT the type of person who hates people that disagree with them, your opinion is yours and mine is mine, live and let live as it were. The subject of guns, and building them using lowers from 80% Arms, can be a very heated debate and this isn’t the time or place for it and I’m just not going to get into it with anyone either. That being said, today for review I’ve got a non-lethal alternative to guns for home and self defense called the Salt Pepper Spray Gun for Home and Self Defense. The gun at it’s very base is an air gun that shoots balls filled with a powerful and potent pepper spray powder that are very similar to paintballs. What I have today is their whole kit which includes the carrying case, gun, co2 cartridges, pepper spray rounds and practice rounds. I’m a big fan of home security and protection and something like this can be a great addition to the tools to protect your home and family especially if you aren’t a fan of guns but yet want something that can offer protection and even maybe a little peace of mind. Read on to learn more…
Specifications and Features
SALT Pepper Spray Gun for Home and Self Defense
The SALT Pepper Spray Gun
The SALT Pepper Spray Gun was designed to offer the same trusted, non-lethal protection of pepper spray but at 10 times the safe distance. Shaped like a traditional handgun, SALT shoots rounds filled with a powdered pepper spray that create a chemical cloud upon impact, incapacitating anyone in the vicinity.
All-in-one kit – Each SALT kit includes 1 pepper spray gun, 10 pepper spray rounds, 10 practice rounds, 1 magazine (7-round), 2 co2 cylinders, 1 lockable case (lock not included), 1 easy to follow user manual.
Trusted protection – Trusted by 5000+ agencies including the U.S. Military, State police and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Easy to use – No violent kick or loud bang when fired.
Effects – SALT Rounds are filled with a non-lethal powdered pepper spray that break on contact, immediately causing temporary blindness, difficulty breathing and severe impact distress.
Trusted Protection – SALT has been proven safe and effective by more than 5000 trusted agencies including the U.S. Military and Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Range – 150+ feet vs the 6-10 feet of traditional pepper sprays or tasers.
Shelf Life – Our military strength pepper spray has a 5-year shelf life (more than double the industry standard)
Power – SALT is powered by a safe, household CO2 cylinder that is activated when needed by simply pulling the trigger of the gun to break the cylinder’s seal.
Speed – A SALT Round travels at 320 feet per second, delivering the same kinetic energy as being hit by a 50 mph fastball.
Number of Shots – SALT is fed by a 7-round magazine, which allows the user to quickly fire up to 21 rounds.
Made In America – Every SALT Pepper Spray Gun, Round and accessory is manufactured right here in the Midwest by our manufacturing partner, Tippmann, the number one most trusted name in air powered technology.
Price: $349.99 (from Amazon at time of review)
The Review
Let’s start with a video unboxing and then move on:
The Salt pepper spray gun ships in a nice carrying and storage case that can be locked to keep it secure, but they don’t include a lock. Inside you’ll find things arranged nicely and thick padded on the top and bottom of the case to protect the contents from damage. The case is plastic yes but it’s fairly sturdy, I have several of these types of cases floating around my home actually and they can take a beating really, it takes a lot to break them surprisingly. Yes you can run them over with a car and they’ll break of course, but just average use they hold up well really. The ones I have I’ve had for over ten years and they get tossed around and used all the time and they’re fine so I would think the Salt gun and accessories will be safe inside of this case.
Once you get everything unpacked you’ll find the gun, two small brown boxes, two Crosman CO2 cartridges, user guide and a Salt logo sticker. I have to say the user guide is very detailed and easy to read with plenty of pictures for reference. One thing I should note is that at first I didn’t even see the user guide and sticker I didn’t think it came with a user guide, which I thought was very odd not to have a user guide, but then I found it under the bottom foam layer in the box.
The small box with the blue label is practice rounds, and there are 10 of them, these are filled with household talcum or basically baby powder. The round themselves are blue and white in color and they’re large as they are .68 caliber. The rounds come in a very sturdy box which is padded well with foam and each one has an individual space. The idea od these rounds is to not only let you practice but give you a safe idea of what the real pepper spray rounds will do and how they’ll act in a real life situation.
The second small box with the orange label has the live or pepper spray rounds and they’ve packaged just like the practice rounds are, these are blue and orange in color so you can easily differentiate between them. According to the specs these have a shelf-life of approximately 5 years so you can keep them around for along time and not have to worry about purchasing more to keep the ‘fresh’ and ready to use.
For reference here in this review, I’m right handed and any positions mentioned are from that point of view and while holding the gun and aiming it as you would a gun in your hand while looking down the sights.
The Salt gun looks very real, very much like a real gun would. It is a large gun, it’s about 11 inches long and about 7 inches tall with the magazine in the gun but it only adds maybe .25” in length overall. The grip of the gun is rather large or thick, it’s 2.5 inches wide and about 1.25 inches thick. I’m a guy and I guess with average sized guy hands but I can barely get my hand around the grip, I can just barely touch my thumb and middle fingers together while gripping the gun. I can still get a very good grip on the gun but my concern here is those with smaller hands, specifically women who might want something like this product for protection, they may have a hard time with it and being able to grip the gun correctly. The gun has a trigger reach of just over 2.75 inches which is measured from the face of the trigger to the back of the grip.
All in all the gun feels well made and sturdy, yes it’s mostly plastic but it does have nice details on it and it is aesthetically pleasing. The gun is all black in color wit the exception of the trigger which is silver.
To give you an idea of just how big the Salt gun is, the .50/.44 caliber Desert Eagle with a 6 inch barrel (the most common size) is only 10.75 inches long and with a height of 6.25 inches and a thickness of 1.25 inches with a trigger reach of 2.75 inches. The Salt gun is bigger than a Desert Eagle so it’s a big gun. The main difference of course is the weight, the Salt is primarily made of plastic so it’s much lighter in weight and should be a bit easier to handle.
On the grip of the gun is the Salt logo and then on what would be the slide of the gun is the Salt logo again and the name spelled out next to it.
On the front of the gun, below the barrel is a Pictatinny or tactical rail so you could attach accessories like an extra handle, laser sight or bipod for example. The gun also has standard iron sights on top at the front and back to assist in aiming.
On the left side of the gun, just above the trigger, is the safety switch, push in to turn the safety on and you cannot fire the gun. Just below the trigger is another button to release the magazine from the gun, just push the button and the magazine will forcibly eject itself from the gun as it’s spring loaded. On the grip of the gun, behind the trigger you’ll see three small round clear windows through which you can see the rounds inside of the gun when it’s loaded.
The right side of the gun has the some windows as the left and looks virtually same but there are no Salt logos there.
On the right side of the gun is the other side of the safety lock. this is the side you push in to remove the safety and have the gun live an ready to fire. I should note the safety is very stiff, I can do it with one finger but it does require considerable effort. I did notice that after using it a while it did become more loose and easier to switch on and off.
On then top of the gun is another small window that shows you it’s loaded, this window shows that a round is in the chamber and ready to be fired.
The Salt gun is powered by the included CO2 cartridges, they standard cartridges that can be purchased at pretty much every sporting goods store. They include two Crosman brand 12 gram cartridges which is a very well known company with a great reputation for quality products. The cartridges go into the front of the gun via a compartment that opens by twisting it. You insert the cartridge into the gun and then twist to lock, but you must twist and push a second time to fully load or lock the cartridge into the gun. At this point in time the cartridge isn’t actually punctured as it gets punctured on the first trigger pull, and then it’s ready to be fired, this is so you can load the gun with the cartridge and have it ready to use without fear of the cartridge losing pressure as they will once they’re punctured. The Co2 cartridges are supposed to provide about 21 shots but from my testing I only got between 16 and 18 shots from them and I tested several of them as I went and purchased a 25 pack of Crosman CO2 cartridges for this review for testing.
The magazine can hold 7 rounds and it’s spring loaded. To load the magazine you need to push down and lock the spring ejection system into the bottom of the magazine and then you can put the rounds in, they go in very easily. The right and left sides of the magazine are open so you can see how many are in it. The magazine itself is made of plastic and it feels very sturdy and should last a long time I would think.
The range is supposedly 150+ feet and ok that’s possible, I did not have an area to test that claim, but range doesn’t mean much if it’s not accurate at that range. The other issue I have with that claim is that the primary use for this gun is home and self-defense and I might have 45 feet from the front to the back of my home indoors and that’s the only one space that is continuous from the living room into the dining room, front of the house to the back of the house. The majority of any kinds of encounters in any home are probably going to be 15 to 20 feet in distance, if not shorter really.
I tested the Salt gun with the Salt practice rounds and I bought competition grade paintballs as well since Salt only includes 10 rounds for practice and they’re rather expensive. The Salt practice rounds are $35 for 10 of them, I bought 1000 competition grade paintball rounds for $16 on sale. I did all of my testing in my basement at a distance of 15 feet, yes I measured it, I did my testing indoors so as not to worry about wind possibly interfering with the accuracy and this gun will primarily by used in the house most likely so I figured testing it indoors is the better choice. I did shoot mostly paintballs yes, and accuracy is very spotty, some shots were perfect right on target, then some were wild veering off at just random angles inches to over a foot away from the intended target. I used the paintballs first just so I could get an idea of how the gun worked and fired, and yes I cleaned it afterwards. I then used the Salt rounds and got the same results, some were right on target and others were just way off the mark. I should note I fired close to 100 rounds in total so I did use it quite a bit just to make sure of the accuracy and to see how the gun works of course, through all the testing it was the same, some shots were right on and others were way off.
That being said though, the pepper spray and practice rounds, when they explode, spread out and disperse the contents in a fairly large area so accuracy here is relative as you don’t need to hit the target square on as the pepper spray powder will spread around the area of impact so getting close should be good enough in this case.
The gun uses Co2 and I just wanted to mention that it does sweat, moisture did accumulate on various parts of the outside of the gun, especially while using it for an extended periods of time. During my testing I needed to wipe it down.
I do have another video for you which is actually three videos spliced together showing paintball rounds and the Salt practice rounds being fired at targets. The videos are labeled for each one, the first two parts are the paintballs and then the last part is the Salt practice rounds.
So as you can see from the video, it’s more inaccurate than it is accurate on average really.
I’ll be honest I did not test the pepper spray rounds. I have some experience with pepper spray, mace etc thanks to relatives and friends in law enforcement and it’s just not something you want to play with at all and supposedly the mixture in the Salt rounds is more powerful or potent than what the consumer might buy off the shelf. If you purchase something like this you might get it into your head to test the pepper spray rounds, just don’t, it’s not advisable at all. I’ve never been maced or pepper sprayed directly but I’ve been near when it’s been used and even at a good distance away it’s not a pleasant experience at all, this is just not something you want to play with.
Conclusion
A lot of people don’t like guns and this is a gun plain and simple, it’s effectively a non-lethal gun that should incapacitate anyone shot at with it thanks to the potent pepper spray rounds. If you don’t like guns then don’t think of it as one, it’s just a very effective delivery system for the pepper spray powder that allows you to get and be farther away from danger than regular liquid pepper spray would. The Salt gun allows you to be out of harms way and still have the ability to incapacitate an intruder or someone meaning to do you or your family harm.
The gun does seem very well made and sturdy and for the most part it’s simple to use. The instructions are clear and concise, once you read through them you should have no problems using the Salt gun. The included case is nice and you can secure it with a lock if you want to.
I do have pros and cons for the Salt gun, but I think the pros outweigh the cons for the most part.
The practice rounds are just overly expensive in my opinion but thankfully you can use regular paintballs to practice with. The live rounds are expensive as well but I think that price is justified and they’re not something you’re going to be going around and shooting as you would practice rounds.
The gun itself is very large, it could be called scary looking really, and daunting in its appearance and size. Size is the issue I have here, I’m a man and I can barely get my hand around the grip, a woman or anyone with smaller hands might have a problem holding this gun. I have ‘looks like a real gun’ under Pros, but it could be listed under Cons as well, it depends on your views I guess.
From my testing the accuracy isn’t the best but you don’t have to be right on target as the pepper spray rounds do disperse into a fairly large cloud, most of my hits were within six inches to a foot away and that’s fine for these pepper spray rounds.
+Looks like a real gun
+Gun seems well made overall
+Pepper spray powder spreads so you don’t have to be perfectly accurate
+Everything included in the kit
+Long shelf-life for pepper spray
Cons:
-Large handgrip might not be comfortable for those with smaller hands
-Not what I would call accurate
-Very expensive practice rounds
| Grading | Scores Out of 10 |
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Disclosure: This product was given to me for review by the company for review purposes only for free or at a discounted price.
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