Homemade shot

[Pukka Bundook]

Flinty Scott,

Believe it or not, you can drip lead through a regular playing -card, fastened to a wooden frame with drawing pins. That's how I first tried it and the card stayed in one piece. I used a needle to make the holes.

Loyalist Dave.
Yes , lots of stuff to go wrong, LOL! Mind you the late GT Garwood, (Gough Thomas) showed a very effective little contrivance in one of his books.
I'd have to look it up though as I never tried it.
Maybe for making Lots of shot, ....get sheets of thin lead, cut it into tiny squares, then rent a cement mixer for the weekend, and dump it all in. LOL!

 

[LawrenceA]

Flinty Scott,

Believe it or not, you can drip lead through a regular playing -card, fastened to a wooden frame with drawing pins. That's how I first tried it and the card stayed in one piece. I used a needle to make the holes. LOL!

What size shot did that make?

 

[reloader4410]

back in the day i had a lee bottom pour that dripped reversed the bottom made a bracket put it up in my open carport about 8 foot drop to a bucket of water came out half & half round & round with tails tails shot pretty good

 

[toot]

No lead or lead/tin/antimony/zinc based alloy is hard enough to damage ANY safe to shoot barrel. Period. However use great caution around molten lead and water. Or you might get a visit from the tinsel fairy. Yes that's a real thing. It's the result of a steam explosion and molten lead. It will fling molten lead in every direction for quite a distance.

I thought it was the other way around- water going into the lead pot- on a hot day sweat from your brow -or putting in lead that has been left out in the rain? that will empty the pot in DAMM short order!

 

[toot]

Very interesting subject. I wondered what would happen if I were to drip pure lead from the spout of a Lyman ladle into a bucket of water five feet below.
View attachment 38880
Good lord.

WOW!! now that is some nasty looking s$$t, and it will kill!!

 

[Gun Tramp]

WOW!! now that is some nasty looking s$$t, and it will kill!!

Trilobite shot, for the truly "primitive." I'm going to try moving the lead closer to the water as suggested.

 

[NorthFork]

@toot

Yes water into lead is a disaster. Lead into water is ok. I was just trying to urge caution for anyone using water around molten lead as sometimes accidents happen. All it takes is a little splash of water in the wrong direction and POOF a visit from the tinsel fairy.

 

[Pukka Bundook]

I suppose my shot was about number 6, but it was a disaster on the whole! ....card wasn't quite close enough to the water, so I got lots of snakes...
This is going back more than 50 years..

 

[toot]

remember that in a pinch / dire straits, even small prices of gravel will kill! I for one rely like he odd looking SWAN SHOT! it is rely primitive and historically correct, in the given time frame!

 

[TNGhost]

The ONLY HUGE PROBLEM IS..., to get round shot that is better than the method in the video, Prince Rupert used arsenic as a flux for the lead, and I don't think you want to be messing about with arsenic heated up to the 622° F melting point of lead, nor with arsenic-water in the bucket below.

Almost all lead alloys, even in modern times have a percentage of arsenic in them. It is not a problem when obtained already alloyed with the lead and other contributors, like tin and antimony.

I wouldn't though, as you advise, go to messing with pure arsenic and try to alloy it myself.

Here is a demonstration with an "Oasis" home shotmaker. Could be "Downy" fabric softner is the secret, and perhaps graphite paint.



You can find it on Amazon for the low low price of $425.00.

 

[eggwelder]

going to have to try that with all the wheel weight lead I have. working on two antique smoothbores, but it should work ok in a more recent vintage 120 yr old double as well.

 

[Historian]

I use the cheap water downed Dollar General fabric softener. If you use the concentrate you have to cut it down 50/50 with water. If the coolant is too thick you will get pancakes. I use distilled water. Here is a picture of my Oasis shot maker in action making Bismuth #4's this summer.

 

[Zonie]

Drips almost always start out as relatively long streams of the material and as they fall the surface tension on their outsides tends to cause them to become spherical. That is why "shot towers" used to make shot were often as high as 300 to 400 feet tall.

Anything made from shorter distances will harden into the irregular shot that many of you folks have shown.
Of course if your into doing things in the traditional way, these irregular pieces of shot probably are good representatives of what the average farmer would have used in their smoothbores.

 

[Jerry Rodgers]

watched a video on this on youtube awhile back... guy let the lead cool a bit gets that glazed look. When to hot it resulted in wire... then "swan shot looking" when right temp were nearly round... was pouring through a slightly less than an 1/8yh hole in a large spoon ...

 

[Carbon 6]

I've made shot with a spoon, a cup and a campfire. The hard part isn't making shootable shot, it's not spilling your lead into the into the fire or burning your fingers.

 

[Heyyou48307]

Look for a split shot sinker gang mold

 

[Eterry]

I use the cheap water downed Dollar General fabric softener. If you use the concentrate you have to cut it down 50/50 with water. If the coolant is too thick you will get pancakes. I use distilled water. Here is a picture of my Oasis shot maker in action making Bismuth #4's this summer.

I have a few hundred pounds of Lyman #2 alloy from the 90s. And 2 five gallon buckets of wheel weights.
I've been pondering making shot; an expensive part of smoothbores. Where would i find a machine such as yours?
Thanks in advance.
Et

 

[Carbon 6]

Here you go Terry
http://www.oasisleadshotmaker.com/
You can also buy it off Amazon.

I think Oasis use to be the Littleton, they are virtually identical.
http://www.littletonshotmaker.com/
You might want to calculate the payback first before you order, if you have less than 250 pounds or so of lead it might be cheaper and a whole lot less hassle to just buy your shot.

 

[Eterry]

Here you go Terry
http://www.oasisleadshotmaker.com/
You can also buy it off Amazon.

I think Oasis use to be the Littleton, they are virtually identical.
http://www.littletonshotmaker.com/
You might want to calculate the payback first before you order, if you have less than 250 pounds or so of lead it might be cheaper and a whole lot less hassle to just buy your shot.

Yea...I might try to cobble something together...that's not gonna be cost effective.

I looked on Amazon but couldn't find anything...must've not hit the right keys.

 

[Eterry]

I was thinking about using a bottom pour pot, using a thin plate of steel that'll heat quickly, and a catch basin of some sort.

Also saw a vid of a guy who simply put a nut and bolt in the side near the bottom of a metal bucket. I dont know if he drilled a hole in the bolt, or used a hollow bolt, but had it on a propane torch and was doing good work with it.
Idle hands are the Devils workshop...lol