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Home made shot maker

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Oudoceus

40 Cal.
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Hey everyone!
I'm going to try to make some home poured shot. I have a piece of 1/4" plate on top of a 5 gallon bucket with a hole for a small cast iron skillet to fit into. I've drilled some 1/16" holes in the skillet because that's the smallest I have to start with. I guess I'll be making what's called Ruperts shot. I'll fill the skillet with hot coals and then pour molten wheel weight lead into it. The drops will fall into the bucket which will have cold water in it. Has anyone tried this method for making shot? If so, I would like to know what size holes you used to approximate the different size shot (5, 6, 7, etc). Also, how far did you let the shot drop before it hit the water? If nobody has tried this method I guess I'll use trial and error and let you know what happens. I'm just waiting for my lead to arrive to get started.
Walter
 
I'm not sure anymore since it's been a long time since I've read about the making of lead shot, but it seems to me the molten lead had to fall 50 or more feet to become spherical by it's surface tension. Probably depended on the shot size.
 
If you google "shot makers" there is a company that makes this equipment, and you can order it to produce different sizes of shot. The drop only has to be a few inches, according to the video demonstration on that site.
 
Interesting looking device.
I remember one time 50 years ago or so my Dad and I tried to make shot.
We must have been doing something wrong, it was pretty lumpy stuff! :rotf:
 
The attempts I made proved quite difficult! I did make some shot though and used it on game too, still have some.
I found I could only make small shot without droping it from very high. I would think 50' would be required to form solid round shot before hitting water. I had shot oxidising when dropped in water just an inch away so had to use oil. This then adds problems with cleaning the oil off.


I think your 1/16th holes will produce large shot.
My hole was adjustable and around .040" but produced something like 8s.


I made a couple of makers but found it not very efficient. If I was to do it again I would only consider a long drop tower so the shot had solidified in air, till then,,,,,,

I wish you luck and have fun, it sure was for me.

Brits :hatsoff:
 
I've got one of James Stewart's "Better Shot Makers" and have been very pleased with it. I drop the shot about 1/4" into hydraulic oil and later clean it with Avgas. Gasoline works about as well but leaves some residue.

The shot is visibly not as round as commercial shot but patterns just as well. My only issue loading it is when loading .410 it tends to hang a little more in the drop tube. I have heard that a little graphite mixed in will help.

When I picked mine up I spent a couple of hours picking Mr. Stewart's brain about everything from fluids to set up to drippers. As I recall the precision with which they are drilled is critical. You might do well to spend $30 and buy a set of drippers from him. Interesting guy, worth a phone call.
 
Try putting a thin film of oil on the surface of the water bucket that receives the lead pellets. If they are not as round as you like, put them in a "Case tumbler", or "Case Vibrator" without the cleaning compound, and let the pellets bang against each other for an hour. They will come out much more uniform in size and roundness. Screens can be purchased to sort the pellets according to shot size.

[ use the rule of 17 to determine the diameter of pellets. Subtract the Size number of your shot, from the number 17, and you get the diameter of the pellet in hundredths of an inch. For example, subtract #6 from 17 and you get a pellet that is .11" in diameter. Check any shot chart, and you will find that .11" is the nominal diameter for #6 shot.]

If I were going to make shot, I would keep the end product in jars, and spray the pellets with WD40 to keep the oxidation from happening during storage. As long as the container is sealed, the driers in the WD40 will not evaporate, so the pellets should roll freely through any dipper or press. I use WD40 to keep my Lead balls for my rifle and pistols free of oxides during storage. The balls turn black, but there is NO fuzzy gray/white oxide on them.
 
You will have the basic concept of the "Rupert" shot maker, trial and error will show how things work and the size of holes needed to make different size shot, the shot will likely be a bit out of round or should be for this method. Just do us a favour and if some come out with a tail don't call them "Swan" shot. :wink:
 
And remember, if you start with holes too small you can open them up. If you start with holes too large you're . . .

The shot will be larger than the holes because of the surface tension of the lead. I'm wondering why you don't get "noodles" rather than shot for that 1/4" drop mentioned above. When I use my bottom pour Lee it looks like a steady stream for the 2" drop when I'm filling my ingot molds, but that is a 1/8" hole.
 
If I recall correctly, #8 shot is about .090". The best I can tell, the hole in the dripper is about half that.

From my conversations with Mr. Stewart, the hole size was found by trial and error based on the temp achieved by his machine and using wheel weight lead. The lead pours out of the drippers so fast that it looks like a steady stream, bounces off of a lip on the "skillet" and drops immediately into the oil. The oil must be deep enough that the shot hardens before it gets to the bottom or else it will flatten and stick together.
 
Is the dripper the pan with the plate with the holes in it, or is it just the plate with the holes? The website doesnt explain which part is which. Or maybe I'm just kinda slow today...
 
The Littleton machine looks very similar to the Stewart machine and can be seen here: http://www.littletonshotmaker.com/

The "drippers" are made from a 3/8" hex head bolt about 1/2" long. A hole is drilled in the end of the bolt all the way to the head, just shy of penetrating the top of the bolt. Then a tiny hole, appropriate for the size shot desired, is drilled in one flat of the hex head, intersecting the first hole. The dripper is then mounted in the side of the "skillet" above the drip lip and oil.
 
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The Bevel Brothers described their attempts at making home-made shot in their monthly column in Muzzleblasts magazine a couple of years ago. I don't remember much about the article, except that it was much harder then they thought. They poured the molten lead onto a sheet of copper with holes poked in it. They were surprised at how small the holes needed to be. The other problem was teardrop shaped shot, due to too much surface tension in the molten lead. Only after they mixed some commercial buckshot into their melting pot to add the necessary chemical (I don't remember what it was) did they achieve round pellets. Commercial shot is not pure lead, it contains an additive to reduce surface tension which allows the drops to become spherical as it falls. Sorry I can't remember the metal, antimony maybe?
 
Good morning
I experimented with shot making down here as it is not available .
One thing I discovered rapidly is that water is not the desired cooling agent for larger shot. Antifreese worked well. Old motor oil also.
A long deeper cooling basin is also better. Can be made out of thick wall 4 " sewer pipe.
My dripper was a lemon squezzer half that did not have holes. Holes were drilled with the smallest bit I had. 3 holes would have been plenty. I started with 5 and plugged two. Holes were drilled in the squeezer cup on the side farthest from the handle. Handle was clamped to my work bench. Propane torch was positioned to heat dripper. Lead (range scrap) was dipper fed from my lead pot to the squeezer dripper.
I origonally had about a 2 foot drop into a 5 gallon bucket with 1 foot of water in it. That was real exciting.
If you add a piece of angle iron below your dripper so the hot drips can roll down about 6" before dropping off into your coolent it can aid in the roundness of the shot. This also helps the shot to cool some before dropping into the coolent.
Metal screen wire can be used as a preplaced catcher inside your coolent to retreave the shot. My first trys I pored it out onto a screen over another bucket.
Small shot is easier to form. I wanted larger shot. #2 and #4 was my goal.
I discovered it is easier to buy old shotshells and salvage the large shot sizes I need. If I was doing alot of small shot hunting down here I would again make my own but there just is nothing where I live to hunt with small shot.
 
I picked up a Littleton shotmaker a while ago. I am very satisfied with it. The one that I use drops very uniform #7.5 shot. The wastage is small - about three pounds or less out of the last 100 pounds that I made.
The stuff patterns very nicely out of my 20 ga. Fowler and my 12 ga. SXS.
The coolant that I use is straight anti-freeze. The drop from the ledge below the drippers into the coolant surface is very short, about 3/8ths of an inch; the ledge itself is one inch wide and the shot drops onto the middle of that. The total drop from the drippers to the coolant surface is about one inch. When the drippers are all working, they drip so fast that there is a hiss from the shot stream flow. The flow appears to be a stream as opposed to individual drops but it is not.
The machine will make 25lbs of shot in under a half hour (20 min.?).
 
How much did that shot maker set you bck and where did you find it? I've been considering getting one.

Thanks,
RustyJr
 
Rusty: I got it from Brownell's (they do not list it any longer). Sinclair sells them. http://www.sinclairintl.com/.aspx/...c291_a_7c735_a_7c100004266_d_100004266_d_5790

The machine is not cheap. In fact, unless you have a source of lead alloy and shoot a lot of shotshells (like at Trap or Skeet), it is probably not worth it. Even at $30+ per 25lbs., you can buy a lot of shot for the $430.00 cost of the Littleton.
That being said, I have access to a continuing supply of lead alloy and I go through 100 lbs of shot in about 3 months shooting Trap. The machine makes nice shot and will pay for itself in a year.
Using more traditional means, I have dropped shot from a dripper in a lead furnace - dropped one at a time into water. Virtually all of those pellets had tails. I loaded them anyway into a ML'er and shot some Trap with them. I was able to break about 50% of the clays that I shot at. Was that the shot or the more open choke on the MLer?
Dunno.


Pete
 
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