making shot

[686]

have you used range lead for shot making? what i have is mostly cast bullets. i think it to be harder over all than ww. also if i added some 60/40 to ww or maybe 1/2 lb liontype to 10 lb ww, would that work and would make smaller shot than stright ww?? thanks

[Winger Ed.]

The really good 'hardened' or 'Magnum' shot has alot of Arsenic in it so it tempers itself as it cools, and I think it helps it flow real well in its liquid state also.

Reclaimed shot from the range makes some really great bullets due to its alloy. Some of the best bullets I've ever made were pure Lead, and about 25% shotgun shot. (at the time, I wasn't shooting shotguns, and I found about 300 pounds of shot at the scrapyard. Otherwise, I'd never have melted a single one of those pellets. I learned this lesson when I started buying shot to feed a old 12 guage side by side)

Soft(cheap) shot that's closer to pure lead doesn't pattern as well. Being soft, it dents & 'smushes' itself against other pellets going through the choke and down the barrel--- even in a shot cup style wad. Not being as uniformly round the individual pellets fly off in weird directions, opening up your pattern.

If you can get ahold of a Lyman reloading manuel- the orange one, it goes into this subject fairly deeply in the first few pages of it.

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