Shotmaker Question

[EMC45]

I am looking to make a shot maker and am curious about shot size. I see the majority of folks here are making 8s and 9s. Is it possible to make some 6s? I am mainly looking to squirrel and small game hunt with these so I want some thing pretty heavy. I have killed a bunch with 71/2 though.

[chrisx1]

Littleton makes number 6 drippers, and I have heard of people dropping larger than that, but in my experience, the bigger the shot, the harder to get everything working right. My advice would be to start with 8 or 9 to get everything going well, then move up to 6.

[Cap'n Morgan]

I have made fairly good looking shot in #4 and #5, but the old guy (who's shot maker I copied) could roll them as big as #2. I don't recall the name of the shot maker, but it had four nozzles with interchangeable discs with holes for the different shot sizes, and you could control the flow for each nozzle with a "beer tap".

If anyone's interested I have a CAD drawing with a cut-view of the nozzle arrangement.

For the last fifteen years lead shot has been totally banned here in Denmark. At the same time the quality of steel loads has improved dramatically so we've learned to live with the loss...

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

EMC 45

My Littleton shotmaker has no trouble making #6. This is not to say that it did it right out of the box. I like many others had to go through a trial and error process to get everthing dialed in. My "big breakthrough" was the installation of a kitchen stove rheostat to be able to set the temperature of the melt. I understand that littleton was going to start installing a rheostat on the units from the factory, but if you have one that doesn't have a switch; try it. It was the only way I could get constant production of the larger shot size.

Regards,
Everett

[Shotgun Luckey]

How would you hook up a rheostat to control the temp. I know electronics but have never dealt with rheostats?

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

Shotgun Luckey

I just use it to controll the maximum output from the heating element of the unit. I wired mine into the power cord and mounted it externally.

Regards,
Everett

[shotman]

find an old stove and take the on /off controle for one of the burners works good -- to get larger shot the lead temp needs to be lower. Size 7 1/2 drippers will make good 5 and 6 if you keep the temp down to 450 / 475 shotman/rick

[RP]

making 9s is the hardest because of the small holes 20 thousands larger shot take larger holes less clogging and if you use pure lead the shot will get bigger the with WWs

[Shotgun Luckey]

Would a rheostat work on the little Lyman pots with no controller?

[duckhuntbros]

I have made fairly good looking shot in #4 and #5, but the old guy (who's shot maker I copied) could roll them as big as #2. I don't recall the name of the shot maker, but it had four nozzles with interchangeable discs with holes for the different shot sizes, and you could control the flow for each nozzle with a "beer tap".

If anyone's interested I have a CAD drawing with a cut-view of the nozzle arrangement.

For the last fifteen years lead shot has been totally banned here in Denmark. At the same time the quality of steel loads has improved dramatically so we've learned to live with the loss...

I'm really interested in making #4 & #5 shots Cap' N Morgan cuz over here in the Philippines it's quite difficult to acquire them and they're expensive. We use mainly #4 and #5 for waterfowl hunting.Much better if we could make #2 shots because of the weather here..too windy. Considering the fact too that mallards here are pretty smart. They would fly at high altitudes on their exit after my hunting buddies have cornered them in the pond.
I'm really interested if you could help me out in making my own shotmaker.Thanks alot!!!!

[scrapcan]

Cap'n Morgan,

I too am interested in you shotmaker arrangement. If you cannot post here send me a pm and I will try to put the stuff up somewhere for you.

[Cap'n Morgan]

Give me a couple of days, and I'll see if I still can find the files. If not, I can take a picture of what's left of the shot maker after ten years out in the open...:oops:

[Vinne]

I an verry interested in a CAD drawing with a cut-view of the nozzle arrangement.

[kyle623]

I would like to make a shot maker too. if any body knows where i can get plans to make one i would really appreciate it.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

may have some luck here, within the 33 pages of posts.... http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=15776

[heathydee]

I would like to make a shot maker too. if any body knows where i can get plans to make one i would really appreciate it.


It is all here in this forum in a thread entitled "Gonna Build a Shotmaker" to which I contributed . They are pretty simple machines to make with perhaps the exception of drilling the tiny holes required in the drippers .