Has anyone had any experience making lead shot?

What tips do you have for a novice ?

If you don't get what you want here go to shotgun world.com shooting then into shotgun reloading then look for top threads about #2 from top it has everything you ever wanted to know on making shot. About 100 pages!

A friend and I bought a shot maker 20 or more years ago when we could get lead wheel weights cheap. Wheel weights are now made of zink so we quit making shot. Our process involved the shot dropping into a coolant tank filled with water and water soluable oil. The coolant would heat up and the shot would stick together. You either need a way to cool the coolant or a very big tank of it.

Just curious as to why?

If I had free lead I would find something else to do with my time.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
Just curious as to why?

If I had free lead I would find something else to do with my time.

Yeah, you could do something really productive like sitting in front of a TV or computer screen.

I bought my first shotmaker in the '80s. for about 20 years when I was shooting registered Trap and Skeet I was making and shooting 700-800 pounds of shot each year. Back then used wheel weights were plentiful and made excellent shot.

Like elk hunter posted, thanks to our wonderful government (EPA), we no longer have good wheel weights. Also, the problem of the coolant heating up is easily solved by replacing the hot coolant with cool liquid.

Making your own shot is time consuming. First, you need a source for your lead. My main source now is range lead that I mine at our local range. I then wash and clean the dirt, etc from the lead. The used lead is then smelted down and cast into clean ingots. Alloyed lead with tin and/or antimony makes better shot than pure lead.

Next, the cleaned lead ingots are melted in the shotmaker and you make shot. Drippers are available for different size shot. I make #8 shot that I use for everything from .410 Skeet to 27 yard Trap. You must keep the lip of the shotmaker clean and properly chalked. You must keep the coolant temperature under about 120 * F or 50* C.

Depending upon the alloy and cleanness of the lead you are using, openings of the drippers may become clogged and will need to be cleaned.

After the shot is made, the coolant must be washed off. I use laundry detergent as a coolant instead of water soluble oil.

I then dry the shot, and tumble it with graphite.

After all of that work, shooting a 100 straight or winning a Trap or Skeet event with your homemade shot does have some satisfaction.

quote:

Yeah, you could do something really productive like sitting in front of a TV or computer screen.

Don't care for that either.
Loading, shooting, stock making is how I waste my time OK after I got to feeling better.

I'm a firm believer is doing what makes you happy. If making shot does it that for sure go for it.

I won't even attempt to count the number of cast bullets and balls I did over the years. Now days I buy them and spend my time loading and shooting them. Since free lead is pretty much gone you don't save that much by making your own.

Hats off to you.

quote:

After all of that work,

I'm with Ramrod, you must not value your time very highly. I'd rather watch TV than cast shot. To each his own.

Hoytshooter,

Thanks for that. I'd forgotten about shotgunworld. it is certainly topical there. A lot of good reading there - 52 pages I think.

Buffbr,

Roger that. What you state there certainly gells with what I read. Lead pressure, drop distance, chalked bib, coolant temperature and viscosity all need monitoring carefully in order to make round shot of uniform size.

I made my shotmaker out of an old electric fry pan (dead element), made my drippers (doubles for 7 shot - aluminium bolts with two .095" holes) and put the bib on it the other night. I've yet to run it though. A gas camperstove will be the heat source. I may make another out of a working electric frypan for more controllable temperature if I get acceptable results with the prototype.

I now need a couple of receptacles for the coolant/shot with overflow container and I'll "crank her up".

Melted all available lead the other day, fluxed it and skimmed off the junk, then hardness tested it. I'll use the hardest stuff and see how I do.

Shot here is $95/10kg ($4.32/pound)and supply is very variable. So I'll persist.

I've seen a lot of very poor quality shot made. But the quality is of little importance shooting the Cowboy action match.........however my intention is to make shot that I'm happy to shoot DTL clays with and then I'll use that for all my shooting.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
[QUOTE]I'm with Ramrod, you must not value your time very highly. I'd rather watch TV than cast shot. To each his own.

My time is free, I'm retired

I often fall asleep watching TV and miss the end of the show that I was watching. Pretty much wasted time.

At least at the end of a shot making session I have something to show for it.

twobob, How did you drill the 0.095" holes in your dripper bolts. I make 8 shot, and the holes are 0.016".

Also, the heat source for my shotmaker is a 120 volt electric stove coil.

My shot falls into a rectangular stainless pan that just fits inside a 5"x8"x12"deep stainless pan. The inside pan has holes in the bottom to allow the coolant to drain (when you pick it up), and has a stout handle on the top for lifting it up.

The outside pan has a 1"x1/2" high "gutter" a couple of inches below the top that catches the coolant that the shot displaces. A rubber tube is attached to the bottom of the gutter and the coolant is drained into plastic jugs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKnXFq63hj8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M1Ghk31WFMhttps://
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA28A2i3Z6E



Don't fall asleep!

buffybr,

Not to sound like a smartarse but I drilled the holes very carefully with a very small drill.

But seriously I made the aluminium bolts on my mill and lathe as the makers of them don't want to ship them to Australia.........but they did list the size of the dripper holes for the shot size.

I turned some 6061 on my lathe, cut the 3/8 unf (?) thread with a die nut (cheating !!!), bored the hole up the bolts shaft (1/4" or 3/16" ???)until halfway into the bolt head, put it into my dividing head on the mill, cut six flats on it. Then back to the lathe, cut it off and faced it to length. Then back to the mill and carefully drilled the two holes, on two bolt flats (that will be on the bottom), into the hole up the centre of the bolt.

A mate loaned me two drills, as he was sure I'd break one. I finally "nutted up" and found that there was very little to drilling the holes once I got down to it.

Using plenty of speed and short "pecks", keeping the drill unclogged and, using a mixture of lard and turpentine I drilled most of the holes with the first drill ........... until I broke it (it stuck in the bolt and I had to junk it - lucky I built 2 spares)....then continued on with the second one.

Annoyingly my mate, who loaned me the drills, took great pleasure from my discomfort at having to drill such small holes..... and my discomfort at having broken a borrowed drill (as he expected me to do)................and then he resharpened the broken one and showed me it'd cut again.

The things we do!!!

My notes have the dripper hole sizes as: #4 - .150", #5 - .120", #6 - .110", #7 1/2 - .095", #8 - .09", #9 - .08"

twobob,You have far better tools than me.

Have you made any shot yet?

Your dripper hole sizes look big to me.

I use a wire cut off of a wire brush to clean my dripper holes when they get clogged. The wire just fits inside the dripper holes. I miked one of the wires at 0.016", and that is where I got that hole diameter.

My drippers were made for #9 shot, but the shot that they make is actually about #8 1/4.

Tumbling the shot for a couple of hours with "a pinch" of powdered graphite greatly smooths and polishes the shot.

buffybr,

I haven't made a pellet yet.

I got the dripper hole sizes off of ebay adds for commercially made drippers. I suppose I'm about to see if they're correct.

Drilling the .095" holes was traumatic enough without having to drill .016" holes.

I'll have to put together a tumbler for the purpose...........but it's abit like cooking wild duck ....."first get your duck".