Homemade shot

[Rató:rats]

Hi guys. I’ve searched the forum for an answer for this but came up with bupkiss.

I’m looking to make some shot from a few pounds of bar lead I got from Turkey Foot Traders. I was planning on just pouring from the ladle through a screen. Not for hunting, just for fun, blowing up pumpkins this fall etc. My question is how do I make shot that’s not too hard for my fowling piece? My (limited) understanding is that if I drop the molten shot in water it would be too hard for my barrel. Should I drop it in room temperature oil? I do not want to resort to paper or plastic shot cups, trying to keep it simple and trad.
As always I look forward to profiting from the forums experience.

 

[Carbon 6]

My question is how do I make shot that’s not too hard for my fowling piece

Not sure that's possible if you're using lead. Commercial shot is either "chilled" (shot dropped into water) or it has antimony added to harden it known as "magnum shot".

Your shot will likely be tear drop shaped also, it will still shoot.

 

[Brokennock]

If it is pure lead, don't worry about it.
Put a tiny hole in a table spoon, heat the spoon like you would a round ball mold slowly pour and drip lead into the the spoon and through the hole, letting it fall into a pail of water. The higher you drop from the rounder the shot is my understanding.

 

[Carbon 6]

Put a tiny hole in a table spoon, heat the spoon like you would a round ball mold slowly pour and drip lead into the the spoon and through the hole, letting it fall into a pail of water. The higher you drop from the rounder the shot is my understanding.

 

[Rató:rats]

Awesome thanks guys. Now at least I have a starting point. Let the alchemy begin

 

[oldwood]

I shouldn't interject this ,but there is a way to make crude mechanically made shot. If you don't have any sheet lead the thickness of the size bb's you need , you will have to pound out a small ingot of lead to the thickness of the bb 's you will make. Next , using scissors , shears or whatever's handy , cut the lead sheet into squares the size shot needed. You'll need two smooth hardwood boards to roll the shot into round from square using a circular motion.
This method is very crude , and an old way , perhaps precolonial , but to me too labor intensive. I suppose , if you need shot , and have lead , might be a way to make shot on the frontier... ............oldwood

 

[NorthFork]

No lead or lead/tin/antimony/zinc based alloy is hard enough to damage ANY safe to shoot barrel. Period. However use great caution around molten lead and water. Or you might get a visit from the tinsel fairy. Yes that's a real thing. It's the result of a steam explosion and molten lead. It will fling molten lead in every direction for quite a distance.

 

[LawrenceA]

I have only made shot using a little shotmaker that bounced the lead off a platform and then into water. Even then some were slightly flattened or had a little tail (results as below). I tried using a tin can and got needles or teardrops. In the shotmaker I found the lead drips had to be caught at the right distance (about 1") as they seemed to get round and then go out of shape again. Remember Shot towers were the only known way to produce commercial quantities till the 1950's and they need to be like 100' or something to work.
What you drop it in is also a bit of trial and error with anything from just water to fabric softener to Diesel being used.
Yes it heats up and needs to be refreshed. Yes you are supposed to keep the coolant at the same height. I got around this I filled the coolant container to the brim and sat it in another container to catch the overflow.
Then I got water to work so just let it overflow then.

If you use wheel weights (as I did) then by chilling it you will harden it.
I use my shot in my 1830's-40's shotty with no apparent problems.


But if worried you can anneal the chilled shot but be careful not to melt it.
As Oldwood said larger sizes can be rolled (I think Winchester does this with some steel shot now). Bigger sizes can also be basically crushed and hammered to rough balls.

Let us know how you go.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Before the use of "shot towers" lead shot was often cut. A thin piece of lead was cut into strips and then cut into squares. The square shape though causes a very wide pattern spread, and wasn't very desired. As the video shows, you can try and pour some shot, and sometimes you get "wire" which could then be cut into smaller bits, or teardrop shaped shot that some folks today call "swan shot" but I think originally, "swan shot" was a size not a shape. Some of the shot is closer to a round sphere by the video method..,

Then along came Prince Rupert of The Rhine (Germany), and his "shotmaker"..., in the 17th century...,

You lay this on top of a bucket of water, that bucket having a metal edge on the top where this rests (you'll see why in a second).
You place some lead fragments in the center...,
Then you pile burning hardwood charcoal over top, and fan it to quicken the burn rate and raise the temperature...,
This then transfers the heat to the lead, and as the lead slowly melts, it drips through the holes in the copper plate, and into the water in the bucket...,
And the heat keeps the lead from sealing the holes, and is why you need the metal rim on the top edge of the bucket...,

The ONLY HUGE PROBLEM IS..., to get round shot that is better than the method in the video, Prince Rupert used arsenic as a flux for the lead, and I don't think you want to be messing about with arsenic heated up to the 622° F melting point of lead, nor with arsenic-water in the bucket below.

I confess I've never tried doing this with the plain lead and the "maker" suspended from a rail on my deck and the water 15' below. It might work.

The DIY lead shot making machines have the user drop the lead into transmission fluid instead of water..., but they do make round shot....,

LD

 

[toot]

I beleave that making shot in that when done it is called SWAN SHOT.

 

[Pukka Bundook]

The cubed shot, when turned for a period in drums, produced shot "Perfectly round", according to the writers of "An Essay on Shooting, (1797, I believe.)
Toot,
Swan shot was the size at one time. (Large for large birds).
I tried dropping into cold water decades ago, but it wasn't too successful. The water needs to be nearly touching the sieve for the method I was trying.
This way, the idea being that the droplet would touch the water before it separated from the molten lead, and the cold water would contract the forming pellet into a nice round one, the tail being drawn in with the contraction.
As said above, no normal lead can possibly harm a barrel, not wheelweights or even linotype.

Best,
Richard.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

The water needs to be nearly touching the sieve for the method I was trying.
This way, the idea being that the droplet would touch the water before it separated from the molten lead, and the cold water would contract the forming pellet into a nice round one, the tail being drawn in with the contraction.

EGAD...
Have the water sit CLOSER to the opening(s), not farther away....,
I shall need to fire up my shotmaker and see what results are obtained (pun intended)

But then one needs to pay really close attention for as the lead submerges into the water, the water level will rise... and if it contacts the plate, then the process will stop....
..., or do I make a drain hole in the bucket, that will prevent the water level from becoming too high, and thus when it almost reaches the copper plate (brass in my case) the excess water flows out, keeping the water from going too high?

LD

 

[Carbon 6]

The ONLY HUGE PROBLEM IS..., to get round shot that is better than the method in the video, Prince Rupert used arsenic as a flux for the lead, and I don't think you want to be messing about with arsenic heated up to the 622° F melting point of lead, nor with arsenic-water in the bucket below.

Before you worry about the roundness of shot try the Rupert shot with tails, I found it performs quite well despite it's shape.

 

[nhmoose]

N0 lead alloys will hurt your barrel

 

[LawrenceA]

into the water, the water level will rise... and if it contacts the plate, then the process will stop....

You could always put something on top of the bucket to lift the sieve off the rim and fill the bucket

 

[Flinty Scot]

Have to try this. I just found the wooden bucket from an old icecream maker, it already has a run off hole, about 2"below the rim. Should work well. Now to find copper to make the "sieve"...

 

[Historian]

Here are some Bismuth 7's and 4's that I made this summer while on CV19 break. Any type of lead will not hurt your barrel. As stated correctly above Swan Shot was a large type of shot size used for large waterfowl, ducks, geese and swans.

 

[Gun Tramp]

Very interesting subject. I wondered what would happen if I were to drip pure lead from the spout of a Lyman ladle into a bucket of water five feet below.

Good lord.

 

[Carbon 6]

Try it from 1 inch.

 

[Eterry]

Youtube is your friend...