For you guys making your own birdshot at home, what to add to alloy to…

Make the shot smaller in diameter?

The Mark I version of my shotmaker used dripper bolts that I cobbled up using regular old hardware store hex headed bolts, hex nuts, and Tweeco style wire welder tips.

Those seemed to drop closer to a #7 size.

For the Mark II version, I had bought dripper bolts from Jim Stuart from “The Better Shotmaker” fame.

I bought two sets of dripper bolts. One for #7.5’s and one for #9’s .

But it seems like no matter what I do, they both drop a #7.5 .

This is with some combination of wheel weight lead and recovered backstop bullet lead.

I am just wondering if I were to add some tin if it would drop a smaller pellet???

Thanks in advance.

Tin seemed to contribute to fairly rapid internal clogging of the drippers.

In addition the the hole diameter, the speed of flow through the dripper greatly affects the shot size. So a low level of molten lead or a restricted dripper could both cause larger shot sizes.

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Originally Posted by Agent1187

Tin seemed to contribute to fairly rapid internal clogging of the drippers.

In addition the the hole diameter, the speed of flow through the dripper greatly affects the shot size. So a low level of molten lead or a restricted dripper could both cause larger shot sizes.

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Thank you sir!

My “laddle” is a big piece of channel iron easily 18 inches to 24 inches long. So I might just cut it in half, so I end up with two laddles.

Then the new “dam” I make will be taller, so I can make the pool of molten lead deeper. In turn, that should increase the “head pressure” or “pressure head”.

Straight clip on WW

Been a few years since I fired mine up but I'm 100% with Polymath. Straight clip on wheel weights worked the best for me. I could cut it to roughly half COWW and half soft range scrap. But if I got a smidge too much scrap or if it cooled slightly because the wind picked up dripper's would stop dripping.

To be on the safe side I'd go 60% COWW and 40% soft lead.

While I haven't dropped any lead shot, I have been making Bismuth/Tin for some time and found that shot size from any size dripper varies widely with different factors. Higher temps and/or head pressure will make smaller shot, lower temps / head pressure will make larger pellets. Dripper size numbers seem to be more of a suggestion than a rule. I make my own drippers out of brass bolts for ease of drilling. If changing temps and depth of fill in the ladle to increase head pressure doesn't work, measure the hole in your smallest dripper and make smaller ones. Hope this helps. grayscale

Arsenic is added to increase the surface tension of the molten lead.

I built my own shot maker, similar to the Littleton, and I ordered #9 drippers from one of the sources on Ebay. I use a mixture of 5 parts range lead (salvaged from an indoor backstop) and 1 part w/w, but 7-1/2 is the smallest I can get. I have tried straight w/w, for me it made no difference.

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Originally Posted by MarkP

Arsenic is added to increase the surface tension of the molten lead.

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I am thinking I want to have less surface tension so the droplet falls away sooner with less diameter?

Maybe?

Possibly?