Chilled Shot Question

[DHDeal]

I was given a lot of shotgun reloading gear that I have no use for. It included a MEC press, shot/powder bars, 2 bags of wads, primers, and 5 bags of shot. A couple are opened, but mostly full. I have a good digital scale, but haven't weighed it.

I have read where the shot doesn't melt as well as WW or pure. Would it just be easier to sell/trade it for lead I can use? I noticed a couple threads where this has been discussed.

I try to not go harder than COWW for all of my revolver bullets and I'm not sure what the Lawrence Magnum shot is hardness wise.

Thanks,
Dale

[RugerBob]

I'd find someone in your area to trade with. Shot trade at 1 1/2-2ibs of ingots for 1 lb of shot.

[avogunner]

According to Bumpo's calculator, chilled shot has a Brinell of 10 and Magnum shot 13 (COWW is 12). I've used a lot of reclaimed (and heavily oxidized) shot for boolits over the years, and mixing with 63/37 solder it makes a fine alloy. Yes, it can be a chore to smelt but that's due to the graphite coating of shot or, as in my case, the heavy oxidation. Ok, that being said, I would agree with RugerBob....shot is expensive these days so you could sell it rather easily to a shotgunner and then buy lead from a vendor here. Or, as he mentions - trade it.

[Teddy (punchie)]

HI I maybe interested in the shot. Send me a PM if you want to sale it.

[toallmy]

I would trade it pound to pound for clean ingot save yourself the work .

[smkummer]

I have a shot maker and while it works, its time consuming. Plenty of shotgunners that still reload. In fact I was trading clean ww ingots of 30 lbs. to another person for his 25 lb bag of shot. Both of us happy.

[bdicki]

New Lawrence shot sells for $38.95 a bag or $1.56 a pound. If you order at a skeet/trap club there is no shipping charge, you just have to wait until they order clay pigeons.
http://www.gamaliel.com/shot/lawrence_brand_magnum_shot.asp

[243winxb]

Lawrence shot- Equivalent Hardness of % of antimony. The key word is equivalent.

There is not that much antimony in the alloy. Its tower , water dropped to harden it.

All will shoot well, if doing oven heat treating method. Great for full power loads in 44 mag.

Sell it if possible. I used some #2 Lawrence to make 250 gr cast.

[smkummer]

243winxb, I have a feltman carnival pneumatic Thompson looking machine gun that eats #2 shot. If you have a quantity of number 2 shot still, I would trade you ingots for it. I tried PM you but it didn't work.

[runfiverun]

there is a difference between chilled and magnum shot.
even in the smaller sizes.
magnum is like 5% and chilled is more like 3%.

the antimony percentage in shot is taking a wide swing lately.
it's different in everything any more.
and different between reloading brands on the shelf.

even Remington uses different amounts of antimony in their shells.
their gun clubs use 2% their new clay and field hulls use 4% and their STS line uses 6%.
Winchester and Federal are fairly linear in their hull line-up's.

it's getting to be so that you have the economy lines, the middle of the road loads, and the premium shells.
the 'premium' shells are what we used to call target shells.
everything else is of a lesser quality.

[243winxb]

243winxb, I have a feltman carnival pneumatic Thompson looking machine gun that eats #2 shot. If you have a quantity of number 2 shot still, I would trade you ingots for it. I tried PM you but it didn't work. Used up what i had, about 10 lbs.

[DHDeal]

All good information. I've cast for years for BPCR, mainly 20/1 or 16/1, and casting for revolvers is a relatively new adventure for me. However, Accurate Molds seem to keep being delivered to my house for some reason.

I glanced at the shot again and I believe it is all Magnum shot, so higher antimony content.

I may just post time for sale, but 5 bags is gonna hurt on shipping even using flat rate. My mailman has commented for years on my heavy packages. FWIW, it's all smaller shot, #6-#9's.

Need to go see exactly how much is in each bag.

[lotech]

I have 250 lbs. + of shot, 75% reclaimed, the rest new from the 1970s. Had two offers in my area to trade for ingots but neither person followed through. I won't go to the trouble of shipping lead, so I've been gradually using the shot mixed in with ww alloy. It's somewhat of a mess to work with; it will all melt as long I "crush" what floats to the top against the pot walls using a dipper. The mixture makes good bullets.

[dverna]

I agree with those who suggested trading it or selling it. BTW, if it is oxidized, wear a mask while handling it. That dust is not good for you.

[quilbilly]

I use hard chilled bird shot mixed with pure lead for my boolits at a ratio of about 60% pure to 40% chilled. I also add in a little extra tin but that may not be necessary. That alloy makes fine pistol and rifle boolits for me. I have run the plain base boolits from that alloy up to about 1450 fps. in 30, 35, and 44 caliber rifles without any issues but have started to have problems above that velocity. Recently I came across 15# of 00 buck so will be experimenting with that in the near future.

[DHDeal]

Understood about oxidized lead. This stuff is still in their bags and not oxidized. Turned out only one unopened bag was Magnum with the rest being chilled. 105 pounds total. Kinda working on a possible trade for all of the shotgun reloading stuff for lead/pewter. This would be a nightmare to ship as it all totals about 150 pounds and that MEC Sizemaster isn't small.

If all else fails, I'll add it to my lead pot when I feel like being aggravated.

[Bigslug]

It's really not all that hard to smelt the stuff, and I find it gives nice, clean metal. My smelt-stirrer is a roughly 1/4" x 3/4" wrought-iron stick about 18" long J-B Welded into a 1 1/2" dowel for a handle. I use that to stir the shot and smash it against the sides of Satan's Little Smelter to break it out of its graphite husks. I then use a long-handled, large bowl serving spoon with the handle bent at 90 degrees to scoop out the crud. Really not any worse than skimming off jackets (with a tempura spider) or range dirt (with the same spoon).

I segregate all my scrap pre-smelt into four piles: shotgun slugs (reliably found to be about 40-1 lead/tin), jacketed (reliably around 25-1 to 30-1), other people's cast, my own rejects, and "mystery metal" (usually yields something like wheel weights), and shot (often wheel-weightish for hardness, but lacking in tin). Those four piles can be useful stuff for a vast number of applications if you mix them a bit.

[TNsailorman]

When I quit loading for shotguns, I melted the remaining bags of shot and made .45 and .43 Spanish bullets out of it. It worked well in both. Most of my shot was chilled but I used the magnum shot for the .43 Spanish bullets. worked for me, james