Shot Question

[Andre V]

Hello,

We are experiencing a shortage of shot in South Africa, i managed to get some home made shot from one of my fellow shooters. I noticed that the shot is not perfectly round, there are some odd shapes but in gerenral they are fairly round. More oval shaped.

Would this lack of perfect roundness make a huge difference in shot going where it should? It makes sense to me that not round things will go where the surfaces of the shot direct them, but seeing as i am so new to this, i am probably wrong.

Thanks in advance for your time.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Angre: The only real way to know about such shot is to pattern it. At closer ranges usually fired by cylinder bore, MLer shotguns, the patterns should not be much difference. But if you are shooting a gun that is choked, or trying to hit targets at 40 yards, it probably will make a difference, and for the worse.

 

[biliff]

A lot of the effort that goes into developing long range shotgun rounds is toward finding ways to keep the shot round during the firing process. Plastic shotcups, buffer material, cushion wads etc.. Any out of round shot tends to leave the pattern early. Starting off with out of round shot is usually reserved for loads that you WANT to open up quickly for short range shooting. Some of the more extreme, fast opening loads actually use square shot.
So to answer your question, you're not going to get the best long range patterns with oval shot. Best thing to do is pattern your loads at different distances and see what you get.

 

[bingo1952]

It will make a small difference but you can grade out the majority of your out of round shot by rolling it down a shallow incline made of sheet metal placed at about 5 degrees, 8-10" wide and 6' long. The round shot will roll in a fairly straight line to the bottom and the out of round shot will go to either side and roll off. Use a level to set this up. If it is inclined either right or left the round shot will go for the lowest point. Pour the shot slowly so that it is not all going downhill in one big mass.

 

[paulvallandigham]

You might try using a case tumbler to put that shot into and let it bang itself round. Just put the shot in without the usual grit medium to polish cases, and turn the machine and leave it for an hour. This is often down to get rid of sprues on round lead balls, and it should work just as well to round shotgun pellets. It can't hurt giving it a try. Then use screens to sort the shot by size. Mcmasters sells screen mesh of different size openings, and you should be able to find something from them that give you the size shot you want to shoot.

Just an after thought. Sorry I didn't mention it this morning. :thumbsup:

 

[Andre V]

Thanks guys.

Paul: I did try put some shot into my tumbling cleaner and it worked quite well. The shot is definitely rounder now and very polished too. I had it in for about 2 hours next time i will try for 4/5 and see what happens

 

[paulvallandigham]

The proof will be on the pattern boards of course. That is why I suggested that you screen the shot for sizing because all that tumbling is likely to reduce the size of each individual pellet, to some extent. How much, of course, depends on how long its in the tumbler, and how out of round it was at the beginning.

 

[Andre V]

Well i will be testing on birds this weekend.:wink:

One of these days when the excitement wears off a little i will get to the range and start with some patterning. At this stage though my testing will have to be at moving targets, namely rock pidgeons doing about Mach 2 over the sunflowers. :thumbsup:

Thanks for the great advice guys. I am learning a lot from this forum. :hatsoff:

 

[mazo kid]

Andre, you could also put shot between two steel plates and roll them around. Probably a lot of work, though it might pay off in improved patterns. Let us know how the hunt goes. Emery

 

[Rocky Johnson]

Try shooting them like they are frist.They say heavy shot is not round but patterns ok. :wink: Rocky

 

[Britsmoothy]

I have made my own shot and yes there was /is all shapes in it. Any way I tried it on paper and although blotchy was not to bad pattern wise although slightly of point of aim. That was at 30 paces but on actual game I did not do to good. Squirrel and pigeon. It is a bit fine for squirrel but I expected to down pigeon with it but I did not but did when I went back to the "real" stuff. Inside 20yds should be fine though.