Anyone know if James Stewart "the better shotmaker" is still around?

[218bee]

I been wanting to try my hand at making shot as I shoot ALOT of shotgun shells and have ALOT of lead.
I know James Stewart had a good reputation and wanted to get ahold of him, but last post I saw about him was from 2009.
I wonder if he's out of business.
As a second thought, does anyone know anything about the "OASIS" shot-maker.
Dude has small website and youtube video of his product....looks ok and comes in 240V.
Any input would be helpful.....Thanks

[Hamish]

http://www.littletonshotmaker.com

Watched the video at Oasis. Interesting that he impugns the other makers and his own maker as to the quality of the shot. The Oasis looks exactly like the earlier Littleton it appears, except for the color. I've no dog in the fight, but if they are essentially the same, then the Oasis is $75.00 less.

Apparently Mr. Stewart died around 2010. From looking at old threads it would seem that buying 220V rather than 110V would be a smart move.

[too many things]

jim is still very much alive , and as hard headed as always

[Ed_Shot]

Glad to hear it. I got my Better Shot Maker from Mr. Stewart in July 2014 and he was a wealth of knowledge. If he is still making them, the Better Shot Maker is definitely the machine to buy IMHO.

[Gun Nut]

I'm on trapshooter.com and have seen others say that he has stopped production because his parts for the machine have went up to high. He also took down his web site

[too many things]

he did stop making them for now as he has health problems If wins the battle he will start again .
but he is still kicking, and has a health road to recovery we pray

[Ballistics in Scotland]

There is an alternative which might be worth experimentation, which the British author Gough Thomas Garwood wrote about in the 1960s.

In the old long-drop system the pointed tail of a lead droplet was absorbed into the spherical shape purely by surface tension, and it hardened in the air, the water playing no part except to cushion its landing. Garwood's correspondent described a short drop, in which the front of the droplet was cooled and slowed by a drop of only ⅛ to ⅜in. into water. A 1in. hole was drilled to about 1/32in. of the far side of a stout iron bar, and numerous holes, about the thickness of a sewing needle for No8 shot, were drilled to make a sieve. Under the most primitive conditions in Ireland, the bar was heated red-hot on a peat fire and bars of lead pushed through the sieve by hand. The main variables were the heat and the distance from the water.

It produced good results, but there are improvements that could be made. A piece of sheet metal, or an interchangeable series with different sized holes, could be screwed to the bottom of a bar or pot with a straight-through hole. I think it would work if hot lead were simply poured into the sieve, which could then be much lighter, and stainless steel would conduct awa less heat than most metals. Screw-adjustable legs could hold it the desired distance above the water.