How do you make homemade buckshot? I did, but I need a better way

[Skull_Hide]

Alright guys I'm new to the forum. It was finally time I joined a black powder for just for black powder rifles.

I've been shooting black powder rifles for about 3 years and I've done my share of tinkering with them but I have a question about making lead buck shot. What ways are there to make it?

I don't want to buy or need to buy a big bag of it online so I need a way of making it at home. My way has been this way so far.

*Take my Lee precision melting pot and have it drip lead out one about every 1-2 seconds

*Have cut water bottle or soda can filled with cool water under the pour spout collecting the lead drops cooling them and forming them into tear shaped buckshot.

*Problem after a while the lead will mushroom out and form pop corn balls shape and not be any good for buckshot. I need to know how to fix this.

And don't bother Youtubing this. There's no videos. If anything you'll see mine soon in a few days of how to do this because I just shot the video tonight but I still have to edit it. fyi the video will be done by Soldier715, me.

Can anyone think of a better way to do this or another way to make buckshot? It needs to be lead shot, I can't shoot steel down my bp rifle barrel with out pitting it

And I can't tell if the mushroom effect on the lead is from the water temp, lead temp, height of fall form pot to water. I don't know. This process will make the tear shot but unless you do it just right "which I have before but I don't know how or why it worked so well that time." You'll have to sort out all the wrongly formed ones and remelt them after being completely dried.

Ideas?

Opps just saw the sign saying making goes in the craftsman area. Well I'll see what posted on here then if nothing helpful go there.

 

[mazo kid]

There was something about making shot on another forum, can't seem to find it now. The gist was putting a bolt with a tiny hole drilled through it as the "dripper" in the bottom of the lead pot. The molten lead was dripped onto an aluminum trough that was prepared with graphite. This made the shot round before dropping into the water bucket. I have molds that make some shot but it is very labor intensive. I have also borrowed gang molds that are a little better but still a lot of work.

 

[Dphar]

Alright guys I'm new to the forum. It was finally time I joined a black powder for just for black powder rifles.

I've been shooting black powder rifles for about 3 years and I've done my share of tinkering with them but I have a question about making lead buck shot. What ways are there to make it?

I don't want to buy or need to buy a big bag of it online so I need a way of making it at home. My way has been this way so far.

*Take my Lee precision melting pot and have it drip lead out one about every 1-2 seconds

*Have cut water bottle or soda can filled with cool water under the pour spout collecting the lead drops cooling them and forming them into tear shaped buckshot.

*Problem after a while the lead will mushroom out and form pop corn balls shape and not be any good for buckshot. I need to know how to fix this.

And don't bother Youtubing this. There's no videos. If anything you'll see mine soon in a few days of how to do this because I just shot the video tonight but I still have to edit it. fyi the video will be done by Soldier715, me.

Can anyone think of a better way to do this or another way to make buckshot? It needs to be lead shot, I can't shoot steel down my bp rifle barrel with out pitting it

And I can't tell if the mushroom effect on the lead is from the water temp, lead temp, height of fall form pot to water. I don't know. This process will make the tear shot but unless you do it just right "which I have before but I don't know how or why it worked so well that time." You'll have to sort out all the wrongly formed ones and remelt them after being completely dried.

Ideas?

Opps just saw the sign saying making goes in the craftsman area. Well I'll see what posted on here then if nothing helpful go there.

Making good drop shot is beyond the capability of the hobby home shot maker.
If the lead is fluxed with arsenic (IIRC) it flows better and makes rounder shot. But it will need a very long fall to make rifle grade buckshot. Probably 60-100 feet maybe more.
Search the WWW for "shot tower".
Any shot with tails on it will not pattern well from shotguns and will not shoot well in rifles.
Dan

 

[paulvallandigham]

I don't know why you want buck shot. Its of very limited use on game. You can buy it from Ballistics Products in a 7 lb. bottle, I believe, instead of buying a 25 lb. sack of it. For only a small amount of buck shot, that would be the smarter way to go.

As for making your own, there are machines out that you can locate on the internet
http://www.littletonshotmaker.com/

that make shot. They are drip machines, that drop the molten lead into water to make the shot. I don't know if they have one for making buck shot- as more people are interested in making small bird shot for practice shooting at Trap and Skeet. Google " Shot maker" and you should find the machine that is available.

I have a friend who made his own shot- in all kinds of sizes, using screen he made from sheets of metal, in which he drilled holes of various sizes. He used a separate "screen" for each size shot he made. He made the sheet metal screen large enough to fit the top of a small garbage can in which he put water to catch the shot. He had to fiddle with the height of the water to get the best " Drop distance for each size shot.

Today, you would put those pieces of shot in a electric "tumbler", or Case Vibrator, without the cleaning medium, and let the balls bang against each other to make them more round. Then, sort by weight, and diameter for the most consistent patterns.

I shot up an old box of 00 Buckshot loads my MIL gave me, just to see what they would do at close range. We had a tree down blocking the river at my gun club, causing bank erosion, so I went to work firing the buckshot into that tree trunk, just to see how much wood I could remove.

NOT MUCH.

I was standing about 7 yds from the tree as I shot off the 25 rds. and got a good, tight group or pattern at that distance, with all pellets hitting the tree. But, the balls are so light in weight that we didn't see much penetration.

I have not seriously considered using buck shot for anything other than a cheap source of RBs for my .36 cal(000 Buckshot) MLer, since.( For social purposes[ie.self defense]a load of birdshot, at the distances you find inside the average home or apartment, will do as much damage if not more than a comparable load of 00 buck, and poses much less danger to over penetration, and risking the safety of innocent bystanders in other rooms/apartment or outside the home.)

You can buy ball molds to cast you own, in .36 cal., and .32, and, sometimes in .31 cal. If you look for molds for casting fishing line weights, you can find gang molds for the #1, #3, and #4 buckshot sometimes. ( respectively, .30,.25, & .24 diameters)

We have custom casters who can produce balls in just about any diameter, if you are only thinking of a very small number, that would not justify doing it yourself.

Tanner, for instance, can make a mold for you in any caliber you want. So can Rapine. The Tanner molds are made in brass; Rapine in steel and are more expensive for that reason.

You can find Italian made brass molds for sale for replica pistols in .31 caliber for less than $30.00. MY first .36 Cal. mold was one of these molds that came with my replica revolver.
I hope this helps.

 

[buttonbuck]

I have a lee that casts a .311 cal double ball mould that seems close enough for your purpose only it would take a bit of time to cast a pound would take a while. I figure close to 175 per lb I think a shotgun shell with buck shot has 9-12 pellets if memory serves me.

 

[tg]

Typicaly buckshot is made in a mold or from a shot tower, any home made method will likely be unsatsifactory, it will not do well in a rifle barrel even if made properly.

 

[biliff]

I'm confused as to what your intended use is since you state you shoot "rifles". Buckshot and rifles just don't go together. Or are you shooting a smoothbore?

 

[Skull_Hide]

I use shot in my Hawkens .54 percussion rifled rifle because I don't own any small calibers in bp, only one Long Kentucky .45, a few .50s and one .54, my favorite. And I need something to shoot when hunting birds or very small game, it was just idea to try out works alright, but need to be within 5-20 yards at most to make a clean kill. Also I just wanted to try it out. I do have some cast iron 20 ball molds. I'm not sure of the exact size because I've never really used them. I believe they would be in the size area of a .30-.45 I have three of them, all different sizes.

 

[paulvallandigham]

The rifling in your barrel will cause any sized lead shot, or ball to spin. If you shoot birdshoot out of a rifled barrel, the shot spins like the spiral pattern of paint on a barber's pole, only the hole in the middle of the " pattern" keeps getting bigger the further the shot gets from the muzzle.

In most jurisdictions, ITS ILLEGAL to use buck shot to shoot any birds.

If you are looking to shoot birdshot in a rifle, then put the shot in some kind of paper cylinder, or " cup" to protect the shot from the rifling, and the rifling from the shot. You will still get spiral patterns, but at least you won't fill the grooves of the rifling with lead that will be difficult to clean out at the end of the day. And the pellets will stay together for a few yards outside your muzzle before spinning off in all directions, because the rifling distorts the shape of all the pellets that rub directly against the lands and grooves.

Index card stock makes a pretty fair cylinder or shot cup for the shot. For close range birds, stick with #7 1/2 or #8 shot, and don't use heavy charges of powder. Stay in the 30-40 grain weight area for better patterns. The pellets have enough weight to carry pellet energy out to 20 yards to kill birds. The secret to killing birds is to create a denser pattern of shot, so that 5 or more pellets hit the bird. :thumbsup:

PS: You should know and understand the "RULE OF 17". If you take the number of the shot size given, and subtract that number from the number, "17", you will get the nominal diameter of the pellet in that shot "size". For example: If you are shooting #6 shot, 17-6 = .11", which is the diameter of #6 shot. #1 birdshot is .16" in diameter.

Buckshot sizes begin with #4 buck, which is .24" in diameter, and gets larger in diameter as the Number of the Buck shot decreases. Buckshot size diameter is not determined using the " Rule of 17".

 

[biliff]

Your profile shows you're from Oregon. You can't legally hunt birds with anything other than a shotgun which is defined as a smoothbore. Only exception is grouse with .22.

Your other problem is shotsize. Nothing larger than lead BB is allowed. Pertinent section of the regs quoted below:

Shotgun - a smooth bore firearm,
designed for firing birdshot and intended
to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel
length of 18 inches or more, with an
overall length of 26 inches or more.
One may hunt game birds or crows:
â–  With shotguns no larger than 10 gauge.
â–  With recurve, long and compound
bows; hawk or falcon.
It is prohibited to hunt game birds or
crows:
â–  With rifles or handguns. EXCEPTION:
Forest grouse can be hunted with any
rimfire firearm.
â–  With a shotgun that can hold more
than three shells.
â–  With any shot larger than BB except for
steel shot no larger than F. Exception:
No shot larger than No. 2 or smaller
than No. 6 may be used for wild turkey.
Tracer shells may not be used to hunt
game birds.

For rabbits or squirrels, you're better off downloading a PRB and head shooting 'em.

 

[Skull_Hide]

I did know about the cup/shell for shot when shooting it in a rifled barrel. I've been thinking about what to do about that and I agree with index cards.

 

[Skull_Hide]

When I say birds I don't mean duck, grouse or any other that might be worth killing. I took out a few crows that were in my garden in Summer, but I didn't tell you that,Shhhhh........ and just what is a PBR? And I believe you should just be able to blast them if they're being a pest. They were eating my plants.

 

[FPDoc]

PRB = Patched Round Ball

 

[paulvallandigham]

Again, the Crow is a Federally protected game species- to gain cooperation from Mexico to protect geese and ducks. You can't use buckshot to shoot crows. Use birdshot, and make sure they are in season, and you have a license for hunting small game. Check your hunting regulations to find out if its legal to shoot ANY birds with a rifle shooting a single projectile.

In Illinois, Starlings, pigeons, and English Sparrow are Unprotected. However, we have regulations dictating what kind of guns, and shot sizes can be used, and they do not make it clear if these also apply to non-protected species. You are likely to get both a ticket, and see your gun confiscated here, if you are caught using the wrong gun or wrong ammo. You can lose your right to hunt for up to 5 years, too.

( It rarely happens, however. The only time I know it did was against a POACHER of deer, who was killing a deer every night and selling the meat to employees of a certain food warehouse business for $100 a carcass. You do the math. He had a prior history of doing the same thing in California, so the Judge threw the book at him. Confiscated the gun, his truck, and jailed him, and barred him from hunting for 5 years. He left the state, I am told, and probably went back to poaching somewhere else. He made a lot of money before he got caught.)

 

[Billnpatti]

Early shot makers used a process similar to the one that you are using (short fall process) but they used a metal plate with holes drilled into it through which they poured the lead. Later, it was found that if they let the lead shot fall farther, it would more closely assume a spherical shape as opposed to the tear drop shape. Being more spherical, the shot was more accurate. Accuracy being measured by shot pattern. If you will look at pictures of the old shot towers of the 19th century, you will see that they are usually about 3 stories high. It takes about this heighth for the shot to become spherical. So, if you can figure a way to allow your shot to drop 3 stories into a large tub of water after you pour it through a metal plate with holes of the proper size to give you the size shot that you want, you may make some nice shot. But, Jeeze Louise, how expensive is shot where you live? I know it is expensive everywhere but not enough so that building a shot tower is worth it.

Oh well, such are the thoughts of an old fart like me. :hmm: I guess I'm just too lazy to do things the hard way anymore. :snore: If it makes sense to you, go for it. :thumbsup:

As for the mushroom shapes that you are getting, I'd guess that they are the resut of the lead getting too hot. I don't know this for sure but that would be my guess.

 

[R.M.]

The Littleton Shot Maker dribbles lead out onto a sloped piece of tin and lets it roll into water. I wonder if you could devise something like that??

 

[tg]

Crows are a gamew bird(federal do t a treaty with Mexico) you can hunt them in their season or when the are causing crop damage,a crow validation on your liscence would probably be needed, I suspect the game officials do not give much attention to crows that get them selves shot,a quick check of the upland bird rules may help you out in getting around any crow regs.

 

[Dphar]

I'm confused as to what your intended use is since you state you shoot "rifles". Buckshot and rifles just don't go together. Or are you shooting a smoothbore?

Buckshot works fine in small caliber rifles.
32 caliber for example.
Its little different, if at all, than the swaged balls sold by Speer and others.
Dan

 

[rafterob]

Wher I come from a PBR is Pabst Blue Ribbon :wink:

 

[Joel/Calgary]

Wher I come from a PBR is Pabst Blue Ribbon :wink:

Long Long ago, on a planet