Home made shot maker

[paulvallandigham]

For one person, who doesn't shoot a lot of practice trap, skeet, or sporting clays, NO- it doesn't seem like the right investment. But, why are you always thinking of "ME"??? How about sharing the machine with friends, and charging them for the lead you make for them, or they make for themselves. In no time at all you have recouped the cost of the machine, and everyone is saving money over the retail cost of lead these days. I was last buying lead shot in quantities when it cost as little as $10.00 a pound, if you bought enough "chilled shot" in volume. For shooting trap, with both my modern shotgun, and with a Mlers, I went through a lot of shot in a year. More when I began shooting Registered Trap. I didn't have the time to attend shoots every week several places in the area, but I was practicing 1-2 days a week, and hitting a match on at least one weekend day in the late 1980s.

With one of these machines, and the lead then available at less than $.25 per Lb., I could have saved a lot of money on shot. And, I could also have supplied friends with shot at a price that would have saved them money, too. A group of shooting friends, or members of a large family could pool their money, buy one of these machines, and not worry about lead for their reloads again. The money saved, could be used to buy a few bags of commercial shot for match use, or hunting. NO?? :hmm: :thumbsup:

 

[Oldnamvet]

"I was last buying lead shot in quantities when it cost as little as $10.00 a pound, if you bought enough"

That seems really high since a 25# bag would then go $250? Typo in there somewhere?

I'd like to again find the little 5# bags of #4 and #5 shot that I used to buy.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Yep. it was $10.00 for 25 lbs. back when. Sometimes we could buy #7 1/2 or #8 shot for 8 or 9 dollars a bag, on sale. We had an "almost local" distributor, who would give you a good price if you spent more than $100.00 in his storefront, so it was always worth the drive to stock up when we could.

Thanks for catching my typo. Long day.

 

[Darkgael]

Yeah, Paul...with the volume of Trap that you were shooting, you would have saved some dollars.
I wonder if Littleton (or some other company) was selling shot makers 30 years ago.
The machine is pretty efficient. Once it is warmed up and dripping, it makes about a pound of shot a minute. Shoot four rounds of Trap and you've used seven pounds of shot.
Pete

 

[paulvallandigham]

Cly target shooters burn up the most ammo, and most components. If you have a progressive reloading press, and one of the shot makers, you could produce a lot of ammunition in a very short amount of time. The shot maker doesn't make sense, however, if you only have it working a couple of hours a week. That is why I think sharing the machine( let friends share in the investment dollars, too!) with other shooters just makes more sense.

Otherwise, while you are doing the week's laundry in that room, you can have the shot maker working in your shop, and then bag up the extra shot, and sell it for less than what shooters are paying for shot commercially these days. The price has come down, but not as much as it has to if we are going to get new shooters into the Clay target sports. :surrender: :thumbsup:

 

[vern faulkner]

Paul

I still have the bag (empty) from the first bag
of shot that I bought back in the late 60's. Bought at the Allentown Army & Navy In Pa. Price was $4.88 for 25#. Ah, for the good old days. But I was only making about $2.85 an hour back then.

Vern

 

:hmm: I've been studying on the different ways available for making lead shot. I think the reason most homemade shot is deformed is threefold.

First, is that people may be using pure, or at least soft lead.

Second, is the wrong coolant to catch the shot.

Third, being the height it is dropped from.

The stuff with tails is/was called "drip shot". Better shot can be made by a
fairly similar technique, called "Rupert's shot" or "Rupert shot". The
technique apparently goes back to the 16th century, but was popularized by
Prince Rupert in the mid-17th century. It used a specialized colander that you can make. You put glowing coals in the colander to keep it and the lead hot, set the colander over your bucket of water, then pour the molten lead through the colander. Pure lead does not easily make round shot, so it had to be alloyed with something to increase surface tension. Arsenic was used originally used, but antimony apparently works, and clip-on wheel weights are a handy source of a good alloy. This alloying would likely also help make rounder drip shot. Both the hole size and the temperature of the lead affect the shot size.

I am contemplating using a round bottom cast iron melting pot, drilling four 1/32" holes, and suspending this from a metal tripod by means of three steel chains. Start a pile of charcoal briquettes in this pot. Place a catch bucket with coolant about two feet beneath it. For my source of lead, common wheel weights, with their antimony content, should provide the right fodder for making shot.

CP

 

[gearheart]

An acquaintance of mine, a friend of my Father in law, bought one of those Littleton machines and supplied shot to the entire sportsman's club in Bartlesville OK. He scoured the service stations in the surrounding area for wheel weights and made really good shot. Ran it like a small business and did pretty well for about 4 years. He gave it up because he had exhausted the supply of wheel weights in a 100 mile radius. The capacity to make and use shot exceeds the capacity of garages to supply discarded wheel weights.

 

[Darkgael]

Place a catch bucket with coolant about two feet beneath it.

Good luck with that.
The lip on the Littleton machine is only 3/8" from the surface of the coolant (100% antifreeze). The shot is very uniformly round.
1/32" hole is going to make quite large shot.
Pete

 

[paulvallandigham]

You can use any scrap lead you get on ranges, or from salvage yards to make shot. Save some of those wheel weights to add to any Soft, pure, lead you might get. It doesn't take much antimony from a wheel weight to produce those nice round pellets. Today, many wheel weights are no longer being made of lead, so be careful.