Home made square shot

[Britsmoothy]

I'm impressed with his left-handed over-the-shoulder technique, Zonie.

High quality commercial shot was made by a technique similar to Palliser's in the 18th century.

An Essay on Shooting, Wm. Cleator, 1789:

*The patent milled shot is said to be made in the following manner. Sheets of lead, whose thickness corresponds with the size of the shot required, are cut into square stripes by a machine, and thus again into small pieces that are cubes; or of the form of a die. A great quantity of these little cubes are put into a large hollow iron cylinder, which is mounted horizontally and turned by a winch; when by their friction against one another and against the sides of the cylinder, they are rendered perfectly round and very smooth."

Spence

I made one at work once but never photographed it. It did work and I used the small quantity of shot produced.
It involved a lathe, a small steel vessel and some steel punching as an agitation agent.

 

[toot]

Back in the 60's I remember one year where I was hard up for shot and cash, was shooting the 10 bore single,and old English made piece the Ole man brought home, so I used SPENT 12 gauge primers, we where jump shooting coyotes in the sand hills

I have heard that also. I have friends that use all of there spent pistol & rifle primers into there shot gun hulls. not an uncommon thing to do. & also use spent 209 shot shell primers!

 

[Britsmoothy]

I have heard that also. I have friends that use all of there spent pistol & rifle primers into there shot gun hulls. not an uncommon thing to do. & also use spent 209 shot shell primers!

Me too.

 

[sportster73hp]

Spent primers being brass and possibly steel interior would be legal for migratory birds. A short range alternative to steel shot and easier on the barrel

 

[JBrandon]

Archaeological evidence: I have seen a male gorilla skull from the early 20th C with a healed wound in the face - with a square chunk of iron, maybe .38 or so, sticking out. I imagine some native hunter with an old muzzleloader turned a large but peaceful herbivore into a really surly brute. I kinda hope he got his head punched for it.

 

[SDSmlf]

Some years ago, I read an article, book, something printed, somewhere ( I cannot remember where I read it to save my life) about what the author described as goose shot. The author stated that in the old days they would flatten a lead ball into a sheet and cut squares of lead to load in their smoothbores.

Sam Fadala wrote about it in The Complete Black Powder Handbook.

 

[George]

Shame on Sam for perpetuating the swan shot myth, he should have known better. Swan shot was a molded shot, not a drop shot, what Sam described was Rupert shot. In the period shot was frequently named for the game it was used on, and they had bird, pigeon, high duck, low duck, goose, swan and buck shot. Swan shot was never named that because the necks looked like swans. Those tails are evidence that whoever was making the Rupert shot didn't know what he was doing, properly done there are no tail, curved or otherwise.

Spence

 

[Buck Conner]

https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/hh/35/hh35v.htm

 

[Runewolf1973]

Was thinking of chopping up some lead free silver plumbing solder for use as a lead-free alternative to hunt with.

 

[Dave James]

Mite have to see if I still have the steel spinner and cup set up to knock spurs off or round balls I bought back in the 70's, drop some square shoot in it dust them with graphite drop the top on and crank the handle round,and round and round

 

[Jay Templin]

Made a couple pounds of drop shot a couple of years ago. I have a Lee drop-bottom pot, so I set it dripping into an empty yoghurt cup of water. If you drip it slowly enough, it’s pretty firm before it hits, even though it’s only a couple of inches.
Doesn’t pattern worth a tinker’s dam.
Jay