Making Shot the wrong way

[missionary5155]

Good morning I decided to give it a try using my typical scroung about routin. I settled on a lemon squeezer bottom (the half with the holes) as my"dripper" unit. A propane tourch to keep it hot and my basic lead I retrieve from my personal clay impact area.
I placed a 1 gallon bucket of water below hole filled lemon squeezer part that was C clamped to bench top. Fired up the propane torch also attached to the bench top and pre heated the wholly handle. Dumped a ladle (Lyman) of molten lead.
THIS IS NOT the way to make shot ! WOW was it ever real eyepopping jumping back for about 3 seconds. Hot lead and steaming water flying all about.
I reckon that is one of the reasons lead towers were so very tall. Lead does need a cooling time before hitting water. Some of the nicest modern art shot you ever did see. What a pattern that stuff would have shot.
So how did the pilgrims do it ? Werent no stores back then ???

[Jim]

The height of the shot tower gives the molten lead droplets time to sphere on their way down as well as cool to solidification. The water in the bottom of the tower is just there to act as a shock absorber so the shot doesn't deform on impact.

Capish?

[jhrosier]

....
So how did the pilgrims do it ? Werent no stores back then ???

I have heard about shot being made by cutting thin sheets of lead into little cubes.

Jack

[uncle joe]

+1 on what Jim says. I also think the height of the fall helps determing the size of the shot. The further it falls the smaller the shot. probably need more fall time. Several guys on this board make shot I'm sure they can help more. :)

[Sitsinhedges]

+1 on what Jim says. I also think the height of the fall helps determing the size of the shot. The further it falls the smaller the shot. probably need more fall time. Several guys on this board make shot I'm sure they can help more. :)

I can't see how shot size can be determined by how far it falls. Larger shot would need to fall further to solidify but the size of the lump of molten lead that drops and forms into a ball will determine size surely

[fishhawk]

history channel had a program about a month ago there was a screen at the top that shook to make the droplets before they started the fall, size if the screen decided the size of the shot steve k

[mikenbarb]

Im up to about 70 feet high and it seems to be working ok. The biggest problem at that height is wind drift and pellets blowing off target from the kiddie pool at the bottom. Gotta do it on dead calm days plus its better then because the crane dont sway much then either.:-D

[shotman]

mike that sun has fried your brain. you got luck this time . Molten lead and water dont mix. Look up shot makers and see how they are made. Used motor oil, break fluid, PURE antifreeze, there are some others but NOT water rick

[mikenbarb]

I think it is the higher im getting. Im gonna try it at 120' for some buckshot and see how it comes out. Should be fun at least on that crane ball swinging in the breeze with a torch in one hand and a pot and strainer in the other. Yee Haaaa!!:twisted:
PS- Im using a heavy antifreeze mix.

[northmn]

We had a discussion about how early shot was made on the American Longrifle site. A gentleman by the name of Prince Rupert developed a brass screen in the 1600's and dropped shot into water at about a man's height. It was more or less round. They use "poisened lead" which is lead with an arsenic additive. Heat was critical. There was some casting of larger sizes of shot. They used terms like duck shot, swan shot or even buck shot to denote size of the shot to the game. Some of the homemade shot dumped without arsenic had a teardrop look and worked. Another way to make shot, I believe used in Germany was to shave or cube lead and then roll it between steel plates. We make steel shot this way today, by rolling cut wire or "hobbing". There is an exerpt I read where a couple of mountain men used two flat rocks to make buckshot out of round ball in this manner. Watts invented the shot tower in about 1780. The original shot towers were about 150 to 200 feet high and were used to make musket ball as well as birdshot. They still used "poisened lead" to assist in the shot making. Commercial bird shot today still has arsenic added as it does temper and I have used it to make bullets. The US constructed its first shot tower in about 1810. As I stated, one of their major customers was the military. There was a shot tower in the St. Louis area that also helped outfit Western travel. Much of the roundball shot in the early 19th century was drop shot. They used water as a catch. Later developments included a fan system to create an updraft which is the same as increasing height.

Nortnmn

[imashooter2]

Your basic understanding of the process is sound. The holes in the lemon squeezer are way too large.

[missionary5155]

Your basic understanding of the process is sound. The holes in the lemon squeezer are way too large.

That was one of my wonderins. I have read through the shotmaking Threads and decided to see if my "squeezer holes" just maybe would make LARGE shot...
Anyway I thought before I started drilling the other half I would see what kind of info developed here.
Antefreeze and old moter oil are the next attempts with the smaller holes. If it works I will take pictures...

[Sitsinhedges]

I would suggest you make your holes ROUGHLY 1/3 the size of the shot you want to produce, though other things factor into that. 1/3 is a good starting point though. Dot4 brake fluid is best as a coolant, but can burn so watch it.

[NSP64]

I used a sharpened nail to make a tiny hole in a steel laddle, attached an aluminum (sp) ramp below the hole@ a 45deg angle-to bounce the shot off of. The ramp allows the tail to catch up to the front. (whats the last thing to go through a bugs mind when he hits a windshield---His a**) so I bounce the shot off of the ramp into undilluted antifreeze(about a half inch gap from ramp to fluid. I use a propane torch to heat laddle and ramp. It also helps the lead bounce off the ramp if you use soapstone rubbed on the ramp(before you heat it up). If I get the laddle really hot it makes size 12 as it cools down 7-8 size. I use WW lead from my bottom pour pot to fill the laddle.
10268

[missionary5155]

NSP64... Thanks ! I was wondering about the ramp odea also... This is the simplest solution I have seen so far. I do not have an electric here. My casting and shooting is very limited so a Datsun pickup axle hub cover on a propane stove is my rig.
I was working to make a usable rig when I return for popping crows inDanville, Illinois (public service to "agricultural specialists") Just have to figure how to attach the ramp to my lemon squeezer handle now and I am gonna make another run into pure antifreeze.
THANKS EVERYONE ! SUPER place to learn !

[Sitsinhedges]

It's important to keep a consistent 'head' of lead if you want to keep the shot a similar size. You can't just let something run until it's empty unless you want a batch of allsorts.

[runfiverun]

they used to cutt it into squares the bigger stuff left in this configuration was called swan shot.
to get it round they would cut the sheets to thinner or thicker depths, then make squares then would roll it around under/between steel or glass to get it round.
before that you got cubes of whatever size came out from the cutting process.
the tower drop method requires the use of arsenic in the mix[increases surface tension] and is dropped from height it was then seived to sort the sizes.
now days the lead is blown up with air.as it passes on a conveyor belt type of affair.

[Silicon Wolverine]

on a side note, shot with tails is known as "prince rupert drops" after the aforementioned inventor.

SW

[BruceB]

It occurs to me that by making some VERY CRUDE small shot out of pure lead, just random-shape globs, we would have an easy method of weighing-out just the right amount of pure lead for casting softpoints. Nothing fancy or symmetrical at all is needed.

Something on the order of #9 or #10 shot (in weight) could easily be weighed to a considerable degree of accuracy. This will be much easier than trying to find a mould to cast correct-weight pure-lead donor bullets, especially for the smaller calibers.

This given amount of lead shot would then be melted in the mould, allowed to solidify, and then the harder shank alloy will be poured in on top of it. Once this in turn has hardened, the whole mess is reheated until the contents of the mould re-melt, making a two-alloy softpoint bullet with NO SEAM between the harder shank and the pure-lead nose.

Soon's I find a suitable ladle to sacrifice, I'm a-gonna try this.

[Bobby Ironsights]

Silicon WOlverine; Prince ruperts drops are a "toy/curiosity" made of tempered glass droplets with a tail. You can bang on them with a hammer and they won't break, but snip the tail and they explode. I think that's what you remember from physics class.

To the OP, missionary; Why don't you think they had stores in the "pilgrim days"?

[missionary5155]

Silicon WOlverine;

To the OP, missionary; Why don't you think they had stores in the "pilgrim days"?

Good morning STORES ? Do you buy every thing you need ? There have always been those who decide they can and will fill their needs by the products of their own two hands. Sure there were some stores scattered about older established settlements... But does that preclude that there were individuals making bird shot at home ?
God Bless you throughout this year !

[shotman]

The reason we use wheel weights is because they contain arsenic. Arsenic acts as surfactant in molten lead. The dripper hole is very small to the size of the shot. No 7 shot is .010 the dripper is .0025. That is about the size of the heat holes in a acetylene torch tips.[not center hole] some use those. The shot need to roll about in and drop in coolent at no more than 1/4in fall. Coolent need to be heavy bodied[I use hyd fluid] and need to be 12in or about deep. If you dont have a cooling set up need to quit when temp of fluid is around 100 or so . It thins as it gets hot. Any zinc and you have a mess. Zinc is like mixing gas in latex paint. shotman

[subsonic]

I know a guy that makes shot by dropping it off the edge of his kitchen table into a 5gal bucket. We watched him use his setup one day for a few minutes, but it has been a while. He gave my father-in-law a duplicate of his setup that I don't beleive he has ever used. I will try to get some pics of the setup today, but it's sleazy and does not make round/uniform shot. Kills stuff just fine (rabbits go limp) and doesn't pattern too bad either. I would guess this is close to how the common folks used to do it. The obvious problems with this would be if there is a rule that limits your shot size - either a game law or range rule - because it would be difficult to "size" shot that is not round.

[subsonic]

Here are some images that show how this thing is made. I'm borrowing it to play with. Basically, it's just a section of copper tubing with a short piece of angle iron brazed onto it. Then there is a brass nut with a small hole drilled in it. The drop of lead you can see in the in the 2nd picture is where the hole is drilled, not in the end/tip where you might expect it. The ring on the piece of threaded rod is to hold the propane torch in the correct place. The lead is poured into long strips using pieces of angle iron with ends welded on to make skinny "ingots". I would imagine large wheel weights would also work fine if the clip was removed first somehow.

The lead hangs out the back and the copper tube is heated with the torch. As the lead melts it drips out of the brass nut and onto the little ledge formed by the angle iron (which is chalked, just like most shot makers). The "catcher" is a large coffee can placed into a pan below the nozzle and filled to the top with fluid. As the shot pushes the fluid out of the coffee can it overflows into the pan. I need to find out more details about what fluid to use, but I do not beleive it is water like I posted above. I also plan to use my tiny number drills as gauges to figure out what size hole is in the brass nut (may be an irrigation nozzle?).

[thehouseproduct]

That's awesome. I want one like that. I dont want to make shot for thousands of rounds of skeet, i just want to make enough to load some blackpowder brass hulls once in a while.

[RugerFan]

Good morning I decided to give it a try using my typical scroung about routin. I settled on a lemon squeezer bottom (the half with the holes) as my"dripper" unit. A propane tourch to keep it hot and my basic lead I retrieve from my personal clay impact area.
I placed a 1 gallon bucket of water below hole filled lemon squeezer part that was C clamped to bench top. Fired up the propane torch also attached to the bench top and pre heated the wholly handle. Dumped a ladle (Lyman) of molten lead.
THIS IS NOT the way to make shot ! WOW was it ever real eyepopping jumping back for about 3 seconds. Hot lead and steaming water flying all about.
I reckon that is one of the reasons lead towers were so very tall. Lead does need a cooling time before hitting water. Some of the nicest modern art shot you ever did see. What a pattern that stuff would have shot.
So how did the pilgrims do it ? Werent no stores back then ???

Actually, you weren't too far off from the "Francis Shot Pot."

http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l449/wolf913/Shotpot.jpg