Last year I found a guy on CL that was selling shells for $0.10 a pound, so we bought some........no.......a lot. 300 pounds of shells. They worked fine for smoking. I couldn't keep the mice from chewing open the burlap bags and eating what the could find in the shells. To top it off, it became infested with magots when spring came around. It all went to the dumpster at work.