Shot making question

[mallard12]

What is the best process for making shotgun shot. Dropping lead from a 30 foot tower or a electric shot maker? I can set up a 30 foot drop at a friend warehouse but which best will give the best results?

Thanks

[Cap'n Morgan]

Use a shot dripper! Dropping shots from a height only produce true round shot if the lead is alloyed with arsenic (increases the surface tension). Shot towers are a thing of the past.

[dverna]

I have never seen good shot from a home made set up unless you are willing to set up a sorting system.

I used to shoot 15-20,000 12 ga shells a year and could not justify the time or the capital investment to make shot that I would trust in competition. Bear in mind - you need a perfect score in Singles to get into the shoot-off at most Trap events.

I have never seen shot produced from a 30 ft tower. Most commercial shot is produced on towers over 100 ft. Home shotmakers are the drip-o-matics and they do a reasonably good job IF you know how to run them.

If you starting out, there are a number of people how have gone the drip-o-matic route and can help you. I suspect that starting with a tower, you will get very little hands on experience from others.

Don Verna

PS: The "best" process is to buy it a ton at a time when the price is not too ridiculous. LOL

[smkummer]

If you are buying WW ingots for about $1.50 per pound, your already at 37.50 per bag of shot. My local trap range has shot for $42 a bag plus tax, so that takes a long long time to even out and some labor. If you have a supply of scrap lead or wheel weights from a tire shop for say .30 per pound, then you may be a client for shotmaking of which I do. I own the discontinued Shannon shotmaker and if you do a search, you may find my trials and success with it. I love it and it has paid for itself over and over. A Littleton or Shannon of which I have used, makes more shot faster but it has much more equipment that needs to go with it. And the Littleton needed a garage temp of at least 60F to work.

[jimb16]

Where are you coming up with the Littleton needing at least 60 degrees to work? Mine works fine in temps as low as 30 degrees!

[Littleton Shot Maker]

The longer the drop the more gravity will pull at the bottom of the shot pellets and make it tear drop shaped.
Shot towers are 100-120 feet tall but they pour 100,000 pounds of led per pour.
They have a tons of screens in side the tower that separates the leads as it flows down through each set of screens. Many screens.
The also push air into the chamber and drop the lead into liquid metallic arsenic.....

We drop lead 1/4 inch from the surface of the coolant, this way the lead is not pulled down before contacting the quench coolant.
Each pellet is also spinning to minimize the pull of gravity just a bit as it falls into the liquid..

why drop 30 feet? in mid air? No rolling down any ramp to round out the shot before it cools.
Are you trying to get away from the coolants??

[mallard12]

Thanks for the replies

I tried searching on web for the tower drop method but there's little information. I experimenting with the dripper method and understand the process but before I commit to buying or building the dripper method I wanted to try the tower drop. I have access to a 30 foot drop but not 100.

I have a lot of wheel weights and would like to make the roundest shot possible. I mostly shoot sporting clays which I reload for and would like to make shot that's not only hard but round for those 45-60 yard shots.

How is commercial shot manufactured?

Thanks

[Red River Rick]

The longer the drop the more gravity will pull at the bottom of the shot pellets and make it tear drop shaped.
Shot towers are 100-120 feet tall but they pour 100,000 pounds of led per pour.
They have a tons of screens in side the tower that separates the leads as it flows down through each set of screens. Many screens.
The also push air into the chamber and drop the lead into liquid metallic arsenic.....

We drop lead 1/4 inch from the surface of the coolant, this way the lead is not pulled down before contacting the quench coolant.
Each pellet is also spinning to minimize the pull of gravity just a bit as it falls into the liquid..

why drop 30 feet? in mid air? No rolling down any ramp to round out the shot before it cools.
Are you trying to get away from the coolants??

Really! Mind telling us where you get this information from....................because most of what you have said is not correct.

RRR

[Littleton Shot Maker]

what did i say?
gravity does not affect the lead?

the tower in Nev. did not pour 100,000 pound per pour?? that's what they told me.

there are no screen inside towers?
they just drip it from a big pot at 100 foot up? and then it falls down and turns into shot? no liquids at the base.

ALL my info came from Black Diamond shot co. are they still open?? Maybe they told me a ton of bad info?? what a bunch or bad news spreader they are...thought it was west coast, but was wrong- it's only been 15 years since I talked with them.

I don't run a tower have no reason to drop liquid lead from any 30-100 foot system, not at 40 pound an hours any way.

I been making shot- selling machines for 13 years, I've always dropped it at 1/4 inch from the top of the liquid.

RRR please tell what I got wrong so I can re-check my source info. you hi-lighted the hole post, did I get it all wrong?

Has any one here ever run a shot tower?? or worked for the Shot towers??Who has 1st hand info, not guided tour but who has run REALLY RUN these things??

[Littleton Shot Maker]

just did a quick search,on the inter-web search engines----- after 1808 shot towers did add up flow air. Some - some did not
the copper sieve it not just one, there are multiple "copper screens"
all the searches come back with "dropped into water- or liquids" at the base. ??
Liquid lead is pulled out of round gravity, semi solid lead will not because it is semi - solid, like what the towers produce , they don't drop Liquid lead straight down, it semi cools- in the screen- then falls away....if semi solid then no tear drops....

[Red River Rick]

The longer the drop the more gravity will pull at the bottom of the shot pellets and make it tear drop shaped.
Shot towers are 100-120 feet tall...........

If this is the case, why are they dropping the shot from a 100'+ tower if the farther it falls, the more "Tear Drop" shaped the shot would be?

They have a tons of screens in side the tower that separates the leads as it flows down through each set of screens. Many screens.

Yes, there are screens, but not TONS of them (unless you mean weight wise, perhaps). The molten lead was piped into a central coldren at the top of the tower, which overflowed into smalller caldrens that fed a number of screens, usually all of the same size.

The also push air into the chamber and drop the lead into liquid metallic arsenic.....

Dropped into liquid metalic Arsenic...... The only time arsenic comes into the equation is when it was added to the molten lead (in trace amounts) to help the form a better "SPHERE" when falling. The shot was caught in vessels containing water and not Arsenic.

Just to clarify one thing, making shot from a Shot Tower and making shot from a Shot Maker are somewhat different processes.

I've been making lead shot for over 25 years, so I kinda have an idea as to how the systems works, as well.

RRR

[Littleton Shot Maker]

I have made shot- not using a tower- I can only repeat what "they- tower employees" told me, I also believe each tower is a bit different, when probed about the 'water' they laughed at me and said, NO it's not just water> do they add the arsenic into the lead pot as it melts, or it is in the alloy already before melting? I can not confirm as I have not worked at any towers,

When we asked them about the screen - screens they would not even say HOW many there where in there?? Or what size the holes where, but that they get two pours in the summer 100K each and one in the winter about 60K

does this speak to every single tower, I can't say??

the tear drops only applies to MOLTEN Liquid lead, not the semi- solid- shot, solid don't deform due to gravity, the tower using the air have mitigated the tear drops_ as it was explained to me by an engineering working for ATK and Winchester, by written agreement I am not allowed to use his name in any open format. BUT There is more than one trade secret 'We' will never know unless we work at the tower our self....

[Cap'n Morgan]

Here's a link to a short clip on how shot used to be made:

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/shot-tower

I tested shot dropping from a height many years ago using a makeshift setup. The shots turned up any shape but round. I then tried melting and dropping shot from a few factory made cartridges. Now most of the shot was a perfect sphere - proving to me that arsenic was a vital element for dropping good shot. I later spoke to a guy who had worked in a shot tower and he told me that adding metallic arsenic to the lead was a tricky affair as a good part of the stuff would evaporate when added to the lead. I decided to play it safe and build a shot dripper instead.

[Red River Rick]

Cap'n Morgan:

Thanks for posting the link...................it only strengthens what I said above.

Mallard12:

As other's have already mentioned, go with the shot "Dripper" system and forget about the "Tower" method.

I have had a few shot makers, the Littleton and the Shannon, both work very well. I didn't need two, so I sold the Littleton and kept the Shannon.

The Shannon is no longer being made, but they do show up for sale. If you can find one, they are a nice machine and make very good shot when using a blend of 2 parts pure PB to one part WW.

Actually, the smaller the shot, the easier it is to make on the shot makers. And producing quality #7 1/2 or #8 shot wouldn't be a problem, for your needs.

Good Luck

RRR

[M-Tecs]

Cap'n Morgan thanks for the tower video!!!

[mallard12]

Thanks for all the info

Looks like the dripper method is the one I'll go with.