Made some shot today

[JeffinNZ]

Fired up the old shotmaker again today. Made 20lb in about 3 hours. Hardly likely to break a record but the maker ticked away while was having a tidy up in the garage. I just had to drop an ingot on about every 10 minutes and change the anti freeze out every 20 minutes or so.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Shooting%20stuff/Shotmaking_zps85eb0d32.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Shooting%20stuff/Shotmaking_zps85eb0d32.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Shooting%20stuff/Shotmaking2_zpsb2269a5c.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Shooting%20stuff/Shotmaking2_zpsb2269a5c.jpg.html)

I needed some more shot as had run out and Abby can't load any 12 gauge for me.

[smkummer]

I have a 2 dripper Shannon like yours and it makes about 25 lbs. in 1 1/2 hours. This is the first time I have seen a single dripper. While slower, I like these over a Littleton as clean up is so much easier.

[jimb16]

I was running my Littleton today and dropped 80 pounds of shot in 3 1/2 hours. They do work great if you properly maintain them and use the right mix of metals. My biggest problem was keeping it fed. I needed to use a torch to preheat the ingots so the melting could keep up with the dripping.

[JeffinNZ]

I was feeding mine range scrap alloy yesterday that I had smelted into clean ingots. It ran perfectly.

[mtgrs737]

Good job guys! Nothing like sticking it to the commercial shot makers who are pushing the price of bagged shot shot close to $50 a bag of 25 lbs. The shotgun sports are reeling from the effects of high prices here in Kansas. I have a James Stewart shotmaker that has 7 ports that I can run double dripers in so I drip 14 pellets at a time and can make 60 lbs. in an hour. I use my shot to shoot trap and I shot AAA on my first singles event so the two I missed were not caused by the shot. Keep up the good work!

[Euan]

Jeff, I'm impressed. I will have to get my one set up and going. It looks just like yours, but has 2 drippers.
Hope all is well, Cheers Euan.

[Euan]

Good job guys! Nothing like sticking it to the commercial shot makers who are pushing the price of bagged shot shot close to $50 a bag of 25 lbs. The shotgun sports are reeling from the effects of high prices here in Kansas. I have a James Stewart shotmaker that has 7 ports that I can run double dripers in so I drip 14 pellets at a time and can make 60 lbs. in an hour. I use my shot to shoot trap and I shot AAA on my first singles event so the two I missed were not caused by the shot. Keep up the good work!


mtgrs737, you feel bad at $50-00 a bag of shot. Over here they gouge us $100-00 a 10 Kg bag. And that's only 22 pound, Short changed 3 pound as well.
Cheers Euan

[mtgrs737]

mtgrs737, you feel bad at $50-00 a bag of shot. Over here they gouge us $100-00 a 10 Kg bag. And that's only 22 pound, Short changed 3 pound as well.
Cheers Euan

Euan, Sorry to hear that your being gouged on the price of shot there also. I would get yourself a shotmaker or make one. If you have the time and the lead it is not hard to make shot. I have about $850 invested in my equipment and I feel that it does not owe me a dime anymore. I shoot for about half the price of the cheapest factory loaded ammo I can find. I have tested several of the factory shotmakers products and have found it to be no better than mine with most of it not as good. Hardness is important for long range trap shooting and most factory shot that I tested is no harder than chilled shot which is about the same hardness as clip-on wheel weight alloy. I noticed that West Coast Magnum shot took the antimony % content off their shot bags, what I have tests only chilled shot hardness and I won't shoot it in long range handicap. I add 2 % antimony to my Wheel Weight alloy to increase the hardness for longer range handicap shooting and it works very well. It looks like the price of shot has gone nowhere but up in the last few years, so I doubt that it will get any less expensive.

[Vinne]

Right you are Mtgrs737. Mine has paid for itself 100 times over. Some shooters at the trap range bring factory shells and say it is just as cheap as reloading. I tell them "what happens when the price goes crazy" OR like now "when you can't find factory...anywhere" then what!!!

[Malgus]

Yet another niche of the gun world I had no idea existed.

I knew that in "The Before Time", shot was cast using a copper pan with a handle affixed. The pan had many holes in it, and the lead dribbled through the holes, becoming spheres in the air and then landing in a pot of cold water. I wonder if anyone still uses the old way...

Going to have to invest in one of those shot makers.. But what is the purpose of the antifreeze? Would not cold water work just as well?

Please be patient with me... new to the shot casting world.

Mal

[bgoff_ak]

actually I wondered the same thing. looks great guys ( i never knew how they made shot ) if its wrong do they come out like tear drops ?

[TonyfromItaly]

lead shot in italy goes for 3.50 euro a kg. (4.50 dollars for 2.2 lbs) and going up. Considering that we can easily get scrap lead plumbing pipes for free........ How do i get a james stewart shotmaker over here?

[Fishman]

Yeah Jeff likes to tease us with his cool shotmaker:)

Don't think any made I over to the US. I wish some manufacturer would make a copy

[TMenezes]

OK, I have cast a few thousand bullets, a few hundred 12 gauge slugs, and a few pounds of #4 Buckshot with a Lee buckshot mold ( I found this tedious). But I have now idea what these shot casting machines are. Can I buy one, and who manufactures the cheapest one that works well? Please school me on this part of casting that I knew nothing about.

[grullaguy]

Yet another niche of the gun world I had no idea existed.

I knew that in "The Before Time", shot was cast using a copper pan with a handle affixed. The pan had many holes in it, and the lead dribbled through the holes, becoming spheres in the air and then landing in a pot of cold water. I wonder if anyone still uses the old way...

Going to have to invest in one of those shot makers.. But what is the purpose of the antifreeze? Would not cold water work just as well?

Please be patient with me... new to the shot casting world.

Mal

I cast some Rupert's shot or as some people call it, Swan Shot today. This was for my trade gun.
It ranges in size from around #6 to #2 and is somewhat lumpy with some tails on the shot. I used a tuna tin with a small hole drilled in the edge. I put one ladle of lead at a time in the tin while holding it over another can of water with a set of pliers. I had about a 50% reject rate, but the original trade rifle users probably had similar results.

My trade gun performs better with heavier shot and being a cylinder bore, I have to get close to what I want to shoot. This shot would be very difficult to load in a shot shell, but it is period correct and efficient fodder for my flintlock.

[JeffinNZ]

Yeah Jeff likes to tease us with his cool shotmaker:)

Don't think any made I over to the US. I wish some manufacturer would make a copy

I think they did make it to the US because there is an article featuring one in a Shotgun Digest from a couple of decades back. I have contacted Lee and offered to send my maker as a demo model but they said they thought such devices would be problematic and weren't interested. If someone made these in the US I am sure they would sell.

[SpotHound]

Jeff

What coolant do you like best, I see repco in the background.

I use supercheap coolant but its not thick enough.

[SpotHound]

lead shot in italy goes for 3.50 euro a kg. (4.50 dollars for 2.2 lbs) and going up. Considering that we can easily get scrap lead plumbing pipes for free........ How do i get a james stewart shotmaker over here?

JAmes will post anywhere, I love mine !

[rollmyown]

How does the roundness compare to commercial shot? Is the size of shot adjustable? If it is what sizes can you achieve?

Nice set up BTW, slow n steady wins the race.

[TonyfromItaly]

Thank you SpotHound, i will contact James in the next few days. Is the roundness of the shot acceptable for bird hunting?

[jimb16]

The shot that I get from my littleton is very round but does have a tiny dimple. By the time I run it for 20-30 minutes in a case vibrator to properly graphite it, most of the dimples disappear and the shot is almost impossible to tell from commercial shot. I run #6, #7.5 and #9 through mine. #6 for hunting, #7.5 for most target shooting and doves and #9 for skeet with the .410. I use Sierra antifreeze as coolant and it works very well. If I run a normal afternoon run, I get a max of 90lbs of #6 down to #70 lbs of #9. Extra dripper sets run about $65 per set of 7. If anyone wants the phone number, email me and I'll send it to you. jimb16@hotmail.com

[jimb16]

Should have added that I dropped another 60 pounds of shot the other day. I think that makes around 150 total in the last week or so.

[SpotHound]

Thank you SpotHound, i will contact James in the next few days. Is the roundness of the shot acceptable for bird hunting?

Yes, very much so.

[JeffinNZ]

I used Repco antifreeze. Seems to do the job.

[lhudson]

http://www.magmaengineering.com/component/banners/click/11/

[mikeyjones]

If anyone wants to sell some homemade shot at reasonable prices, I'd be interested in buying some....

[Russel Nash]

Fired up the old shotmaker again today. Made 20lb in about 3 hours. Hardly likely to break a record but the maker ticked away while was having a tidy up in the garage. I just had to drop an ingot on about every 10 minutes and change the anti freeze out every 20 minutes or so.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Shooting%20stuff/Shotmaking_zps85eb0d32.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Shooting%20stuff/Shotmaking_zps85eb0d32.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Shooting%20stuff/Shotmaking2_zpsb2269a5c.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JeffinNZ/media/Shooting%20stuff/Shotmaking2_zpsb2269a5c.jpg.html)

I needed some more shot as had run out and Abby can't load any 12 gauge for me.

It appears that your "ladle" is an aluminum casting. Do you put anything on the lip/ramp, like chalk, soapstone, or pipe flux?

I made my shotmaker from scratch from a wide piece of channel iron (steel) and a piece of angle iron (again, steel). I coat my ramp with graphite spray, but eventually a blob of molten lead will stall on the ramp and then it just keeps backing up from there. Kind of frustrating.

[Russel Nash]

Oh... call me a philistine or blasphemer or whatever, but I drop right into plain ol' water straight from the tap.

[JeffinNZ]

Yeap, chalk on the ramp.

[Greebe]

Cool. Are you interested in a lead exchange for shot? I would send you more lead pound for pound then shot.

Thanks,
Greebe

[Russel Nash]

Yeap, chalk on the ramp.

Thanks! Hey, could you post a side pic of your shotmaker?

I don't know how much you have worked with steel, but like every piece of angle iron I have polished up to an almost mirror like surface always has this grain kind of texture to it. As much as the graphite spray tries to fill in the barely perceptible "cracks" I think that little molten blob hangs up.

[mroliver77]

Thanks! Hey, could you post a side pic of your shotmaker?

I don't know how much you have worked with steel, but like every piece of angle iron I have polished up to an almost mirror like surface always has this grain kind of texture to it. As much as the graphite spray tries to fill in the barely perceptible "cracks" I think that little molten blob hangs up.
Russ, what about stainless? I have a little bit of food grade 20 gauge that came from a soup factory. It is highly polished already. It is hard (for me)to cut so I have never played with it. My farmer just showed me his plasma torch! hehe It seems to please him to loan me his toys.

Building a shot maker has been on my list for a while. I did not realize you can make as large as #6 shot. My business loads contain my 30 cal round balls.
J

[Russel Nash]

I was making my own dripper bolts by using wire welding tips. .024 tips got me about a #7 shot, so about ...wait... 17 minus 7... Okay about .100 in diameter. I tried jim stuart's dripper bolts. I don't like them. The outside diameter of the wire welding tips is a quarter inch. So whatever hardware bolts I used had a head on them thicker than that, probably closer to 3/8ths.

Getting larger shot is a matter of temp and "head pressure".

[Littleton Shot Maker]

On those old, smaller units, the use of steel would be a problem, So much btus are used to get the steel hot and the lead to that at some point it will not keep up or you will have to feed it just molten lead to keep up, Maybe not with one droppers but the one with 4 is an issue. Aluminum transfers heat better. Steel is very sticky unless it's very hot, then the lead runs out, not dribbles.
And, when those elements go, try to replace it easily or inexpensively. I own two, One broken, One like brand new ( we don't use them) they are for decoration. Both are Shannon, they came out after the Game King

[Screwbolts]

Today I was running an old Shannon Shotmaster making 6s, and "Russel Nash" is correct, head pressure and temp. To make 6s, I was running just one of the 5-6 size drippers. ( the original owner had lost one of this set. ) Chalk on shelf and bottom of dripper. I May make a second dripper for this unit.

I was feeding it with small 3-4 oz ingots to keep head pressure down ( less that 1/16" of alloy depth change as ingot melt), just keeping alloy level to the level it would just run. Temp was set to just flow alloy, was just above slushy in tray.

For coolant I was running Gain Fabric softener, 1 part to 2 parts tap water. I keep the coolant in a plastic pail and set it outside to further cool this morning before I started. I would change cans when stirred coolant was luke warm to the touch. I also would pour cold coolant directly into the can catching shot to reduce coolant temp. I stir the coolant with a rod to help with thermo layers.

Alloy was range scrap , lino, WWs . 5-2-1

Made 25.5 pounds of shot that measured .108 to .112 inches. I ran 3 hrs and 40 minutes with one dripper.( low head pressure and low temp.)

I find that hot alloy causes dimples.

When I make 7.5s I can run more than 25 pounds an hour.

[Littleton Shot Maker]

the dimple could be too fast of a drop, i.e. the angle the shot master is set at. But too much water will have a similar affect. Just tilting the unit forward or backwards , small amounts, will speed or slow the roll speed down off the ramp just enough...

the BEST coolant ever, easiest to use , I call it grunt proof, Allegheny Petroleum, Advantage fr46. Just got a report back today from a VERY BIG TIME customer that will be running 4 units at one time into one tank using the above mentioned coolant and could not be more happy with the results , roundness, size uniformity etc, and it will wash off easy too.

Head pressure is key, even in a bigger pot, the lead (in ours) just sits at the top of the jam nut anything higher and it will not dribble right size or speed or some time at all.

[Screwbolts]

Alan B , Thank you for taking the time to read and add to these threads, I do know it does take time!!!! All things take time.

Laus Deo,

Ken

[Littleton Shot Maker]

How big a shot do you want to make?
One guy added a thin sheet of aluminum on top of the ramp (thin sheet) mini c-clamps to hold it on, custom drippers, and temp reduction and he got .20 and .22 , they did not look like bearing, but he proved it can be done. I have not done it yet, but will try very soon, very soon moving Dad and Mom buck to Tucson, we have a shop-build there. I can't fire up a led smelter or make shot here in the HOA at home, barley able to work on the car inside our garage with our lookie Lous......