can a shot maker make buckshot?

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive been mass loading buckshot loads and theres got to be a faster way to make buckshot then a mold!! I mostly use #3 buck. I use 00 too but the mold casting works ok for the larger sizes. Just takes forever to cast enough #3 to get anywhere.

[Red River Rick]

Lloyd:

Pretty hard to make buckshot with a shotmaker, not that it can't be done.

Nowadays, a lot of the buckshot is swaged.

RRR

[UNIQUEDOT]

Pretty hard to make buckshot with a shotmaker, not that it can't be done.

I wouldn't imagine that it could be done at all. I'm fairly certain that buckshot has always been either cast or swaged. I just can't imagine forming large round balls from drippers, but i did see once a huge gang mold made from iron that had a bunch of cavities...i don't recall how many, but it was a lot.

[Norbrat]

Ive been mass loading buckshot loads and theres got to be a faster way to make buckshot then a mold!! I mostly use #3 buck. I use 00 too but the mold casting works ok for the larger sizes. Just takes forever to cast enough #3 to get anywhere.

Lee makes gang moulds which cast 18 per throw in 00, 000 and #4.

http://leeprecision.com/bullet-casting/buckshot-molds/

[Box13]

cut and paste from this PDF link...
http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/Landmarks/5576.pdf
Projectiles, either spherical or of other configuration,
larger than 20 caliber (0.200 in. diameter), are usually
molded regardless of the quantity produced.
Smaller sizes are normally produced only in large quantities
and by "dropping" in a free fall. Shotgun pellets
as large as FF size (0.23 in. diameter) have been
made, but the BB size (0.18 in. diameter) is the largest
drop shot made today.
...Robin

[shotman]

well A shot make will make them but they will be odd sizes. It happens when you mess up a melt LOL sometimes you can get the chain looking stuff .

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive got a lee OO. Wish theyd make a #3 buck mold. With the one i have you get more spruce then you do shot when you run a pot. It took me 5 casting sessions to fill a 3lb coffee can with good shot and all the seperating of spuce and shot takes more time then casting the shot does.
Lee makes gang moulds which cast 18 per throw in 00, 000 and #4.

http://leeprecision.com/bullet-casting/buckshot-molds/

[UNIQUEDOT]

You can get a #3 buck mold from sharpshooter ( http://buckshotmold.com/ ) they are 20 cavity, but the sprues have to be cut with flush cutters so they don't save time. I have found that if you run the pot hot enough to wear a gas mask :shock: that fill out is darn near 100% every throw.

[shotman]

and get dog toenail clippers . he dont have #3 all time so may have to wait . Kroil works on them too
change the handles to a 1in split mop handle and they work good

[turbo1889]

To my knowledge the larger the shot you want to make the taller your drop needs to be. The British among others used to make "grape shot" for cannons that was the size of grapes and was used like buck shot in a cannon against enemy troops and vessels in an anti-personnel application.

As I understand it you need a very tall building to make dropped shot that large and get it to turn out round, in addition the set-up to make it is like an ice-cube tray with bottoms that open up so it is sort of a pre-measured amount of molten lead that drops as a single clump and then during the drop forms into a round shape (surface tension) and hardens stiff enough to not deform when striking the cooling pool at the bottom. We are talking a tower tall enough that it takes many seconds for the shot to drop all the way to the bottom.

I could be all wrong but that is what I have been told ~ the bigger the shot the longer the drop and once you get big enough it has to be a ice-cube like grid that serves to pre-measure the molten clumps that are dropped because you can't naturally get droplets that big from just a simple hole type nozzle.

[mac1911]

I dont think shot is made in "towers" any longer.
I think larger shot is cut wire and tumbled until edges are round out for mass production. "bird" shot is made much like the littleton/stewart shot marker just on a larger scale.

[beagle]

The Sharpshooter moulds are pretty good. I have an 0, 00, #1 and a #4. It takes a pretty good casting session to run enough #4s for a couple of boxes but I don't use that many anyway.

Be sure to cast 'em fast and hot and they fill out real nice. Couple of hours tumbling in a rotary tumbler smooths out the sprue cuts really well./beagle

[UNIQUEDOT]

I dont think shot is made in "towers" any longer.

I bought about 20 bags of west coast premium shot In the mid 90's (was buying only Lawrence till then) and on each and every bag it said "The only shot tower in the Western United States that produces shot the old fashion way WE DROP IT". The bags also have the image of a drop tower on them so unless west coast in Nv. has changed their method in the last few years they are still dropping shot from towers. I seem to recall reading somewhere that shot towers were still very common in Europe.

[Lloyd Smale]

the sharpshooter is the #3 mold i have. It works but you end up with more spruce then shot out of a pot of lead.
The Sharpshooter moulds are pretty good. I have an 0, 00, #1 and a #4. It takes a pretty good casting session to run enough #4s for a couple of boxes but I don't use that many anyway.

Be sure to cast 'em fast and hot and they fill out real nice. Couple of hours tumbling in a rotary tumbler smooths out the sprue cuts really well./beagle

[jsizemore]

I have Cap'n Morgan buckshot molds in #4 and 00. When it's up to temp you can empty a 20 lb bottom pot real quick. When you open the mold and you drop the shot still attached to the sprue on your towel, you can roll your hand across it and the shot snaps right off. Much faster then the Sharpshooter mold. Both produce good shot. I don't know that he made any #3 buck molds.