Home made shot

[RED333]

As a member of a few forums I have picked up skills of one kind and another.
One of the skills I have picked up is shot making or shot dropping, no not from a 100 foot plus tower.
Picked up a rig off ebay, on another forum we have a section on smooth bores and shot dropping has is own thread.
Here is my rig, mine is electric and I use a torch to make shot. The shot comes out at 7 to 9 size, most is 7.
The torch keeps the dripers hot.









russian image forum

[Greg Pennell]

Now that looks interesting. I was just thinking about trying to make some shot, and this thread popped up...must be ESPN or something  .  Looks pretty good in the pictures, does it come out fairly round?

Greg

[RED333]

I have not tried to roll it on glass but did did roll it across a piece of steel and 99 % rolled off and left the swan shot on the plate.

[ltdann]

whats the final touch for?

[Pukka Bundook]

Very interesting!  Can you tell us a it more about it?

Looks very nice shot.

Richard.

[Nordnecker]

Yeah, I was just reading about shot towers the other day. I knew it fell a distance into water, but still don't know how it is formed initially. Please do tell us more.

[Darrin McDonal]

Why fabric softer?
Darrin

[Greg Pennell]

Darrin, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that it reduces the surface tension of the water in the catch can.  Probably lets the shot come out rounder, instead of flattened on one side from hitting the surface?

Greg

[RED333]

Why fabric softer?
Darrin
I tried water and had very bad swan shot, like 100%
Straight anti-freeze, still had over 70% swan shot, 50/50 was worse.
Now the straight  fabric softer is the trick, buy it cheap, wally world brand.

Yeah, I was just reading about shot towers the other day. I knew it fell a distance into water, but still don't know how it is formed initially. Please do tell us more.
Shot towers were tall to allow the lead to form a ball and cool enough to hold the shape when the ball hit the water at the bottom of the tower.

Lead is straight clamp on wheel weight.
I use the softener straight, as the lead drops out of the dripper (hole is just .020 in size) it rolls down the ramp coated with welders soap stone. This starts the ball shape.  When it falls into the thick softener it cools into a ball and falls to the bottom.
My rig is small, for a larger rigs you will need to keep the softener cool, if it gets to hot you will get swan shot.
I have a bit over $125.00 in my rig. Production was 5lbs in 30 mins, not bad for home made shot.

[ClaudeH]

RED333,

Will you share some more details on heating?  Is there heat under your shotmaker?  What is the aluminum foil for?  Do you bring your lead to any specific temperature?  Then just ladle it in?

[Daryl]

Red 333 - thanks for this thread.  Shot is getting difficult to find in some areas & has been here for quite a while.

Just about bought an electric shot maker some time back, watched a bunch of videos on it, but never took the plunge.

Straight clamp-on wheel weights make for very had shot, much harder than ANYTHING you can buy, including the various plated shot.

It should pattern exceptionally well.

[RED333]

Will you share some more details on heating?  Is there heat under your shotmaker?  What is the aluminum foil for?  Do you bring your lead to any specific temperature?  Then just ladle it in?


The element is a stove top element, 208 volt that I run on 110 volts. I made brackets from steel wire to hold the element to the bottom of the pan. Takes a bit longer to heat but does work well. Only issue is that the element is round and misses the corners under the front corners. Thus I use a torch to keep the drippers hot. The foil is for insulation, since that pic I have changed to ceramic wool, holds heat much better.

Yes WW is harder but it flows well out of the drippers.

[Daryl]

Gotcha - flow - would be better yet, if MIXED into that amount of lead I see in the tray, there was about 2 ounces of in added. 
You could then mix in some pure lead to stretch out the WW, or if not needing that, the straight WW will likely shoot tighter patterns.

[44-henry]

I had looked into an outfit like that years ago when I was still doing a lot of waterfowl hunting. At the time I thought it might be a good way of making my own bismuth shot at an affordable price.

[Scota4570]

I dabbled at this using a lee pot and a home made dripper.  I made about 100#.  The lead has to fall the correct distance so the tail just falls back into the sphere and then solidifies in the liquid.  Temperature is critical.  Water pops the lead drips like popcorn.  Antifreeze worked OK.  I did not try fabric softener.  I hear diesel works.  In the end, it was a mess.  Littleton makes/ made a shot maker for this purpose.  I also see you can buy reclaimed shot pretty cheap.  I am far from needing to make lead shot,  maybe someday though. 

[RED333]

I do not shoot a lot of shot gun, well some buck and slug. I wanted to make a shot maker to see if it was possible for "me" to make good shot, well it worked and worked well. This was more of a test that any thing else. It does show it can be done on the cheap with an electric element heat.

[Pukka Bundook]

I think you did a brilliant job, Red.

Wish I couod get at making one!