Baking Buckshot

[acguy45]

71121





I recently got a buckshot mold from a member here and I had a chance to cast up some. Now I'm waiting for a flush cutter that I ordered from harbor freight to make its way across the water (impatiently of course) so I can cut off the sprues.

I have done a bit of searching here on the forum and other places about heat treating the buckshot to make it harder. I know some would think its a waste of time but I have another couple months to kill before I go back to the states so I figure what the heck I might as well try it.

The alloy I used to make the shot is mostly COWW with some battery terminals. The information that I have seen as far as temps and time in the oven has been contradictory and a little confusing to some extent. Does anyone have any experience or ideas on a temp and time to properly heat treat the shot I made.
Also I was curious if the shot should be in a single layer or is it ok if they're on top of each other.

Any thought or ideas on this would be greatly appreciated thanks for taking the time to read this post.

[pipehand]

Sure you could oven heat treat them, but the wheelweight buckshot is already harder than factory lead buckshot. I water drop mine right out of the mold to harden them.

[centershot]

acguy45,
Heat-treating is very simple, but time consuming. First, you need to know the melting point of YOUR alloy in YOUR oven. Set your oven temp at 400-425 degrees F to start and let it come up to temperature. Place a few pieces of buckshot on a tray and put it in the oven, set a timer for an hour. If the shot doesn't melt, increase temp by 25 degrees and wait 30 minutes. Repeat until the shot melts. You now know the melt point. Set the temp 25 degrees lower than the melt point and put in a full tray of shot for one hour. About 2-3 minutes before the timer goes off fill a large container with COLD water, the colder it is, the better. Then dump your shot quickly into the water to quench it. Done! Or, you can simply water-drop your shot directly from the mold while casting! Good luck!

[Andrew Mason]

also, instead of trimming them with cutters, try twisting them off.

thats what i do, nice and flush.

[acguy45]

Thanks for all of the good information and tips l will hopefully have some time to try them out this weekend.

[M27]

I also throw my buckshot in my rotary tumbler to round out any rough spots from cutting the sprue.

[John in WI]

I make #1 buck with a Sharpshooter mold (looks like that's what you're using?). I'm using a mix of WW, range scrap, and a bit of linotype. When I made my "super buckshot" I cast a few pounds of it and air cooled it. I then tumbled them for about 2 hours to smooth out the sprue. I have a garage sale toaster oven I use for heat treating. Slowly I ramped up the temp until I got the few test pieces of alloy to slump, then took the temperature back down ~20 degrees. I then just laid a single layer of the balls on an old baking sheet and soaked them at high temperature for an hour, then dumped them into a pail of cold water.

Finally, I re-tumbled them first with graphite then with Johnson's Paste Wax.
Do they perform any better than plain jane buck? I'm not sure. The ones I recovered from phone books seem less deformed than the un-hardened variety. Patterning seemed about the same, but I'd expect it to perform a bit better in the penetration department in the real world. Probably not worth the effort--but then again, casting in general probably isn't. That's ok--I'm doing it because it's a heck of a lot of fun

[koehlerrk]

Probably not worth the effort--but then again, casting in general probably isn't. That's ok--I'm doing it because it's a heck of a lot of fun

Shhhh.... if my wife finds out this all isn't worth doing, she'll make me watch chick-flicks instead of playing with lead...

[mtgrs737]

Walmart sells a flush cutter in their jewelry/crafts section, at least they did when I got mine. You won't need a cutter if you snap them down on the towel covered casting bench when they come out of the mould as they will just snap off at the sprue. Any that don't just press down on them with a gloved hand and they will snap at the ball/sprue joint. I do this but it requires that you cast pretty hot and not waste time and let the sprue get too hard.

[LUBEDUDE]

Yeah WalMart sells the green flush cutters for 5 bucks like mtgrs said, they are green like in the pic below and in the jewelry hobby area.

[acguy45]

Thanks for all the advice and tips. My cutters got here last week. they dont have a walmart here in korea yet who knows they might one day. lm not going to be here to find out l deros back to the states in 29 days. then l can load some of these baby's up an try them out.

[Garyshome]

I use a Box Cutter and roll the shot under the blade and it cuts pretty good without messing up the buck [the blade is really thin]

[GBertolet]

I have had good luck heat treating WW alloy. I use a toaster oven that supposedly goes up to 450 degrees. In reality it is more like 475 degrees, so I had to back off a little. By using the toaster oven, I don't have to worry about lead contamination in the house oven. I made a wire basket that fits into a 5 gal bucket. This allows water to come up from the bottom also, aiding in more uniform tempering. I found 45 minutes of heating time in the oven to be adequate, then quickly inserting the wire basket into the 5 gal bucket of water to finish the process. The closer temperature in the oven you can get to the melting point of the WW, without going over, the harder the end result will be. 465 - 470 degrees is about as hot as you can go without welding the projectiles together. Oven thermometers are seldom very accurate. Lesser temperatures will result in less hardening if desired. Unlike steel, the hardening process of WW take place over about 24 hours. For even more additional hardness, you can put the hardened projectiles in a plastic bag, and place in the freezer for a week.

[Theunsb]

Ever tried dumping the just casted shot from mold into cold water for hardening?
Works for me when casting boolits

[Lloyd Smale]

thats what i do when i want harder shot. Also run your mold to the point its almost to hot and the balls are setting up and when you dump it most of the balls fall right off the spruce.
Ever tried dumping the just casted shot from mold into cold water for hardening?
Works for me when casting boolits