Making shot

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drax05

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I learned to make shot while living in Alaska from a guy who shot league shoots with us and reloaded all his Trap and Skeet rounds with shot he made at home. After I moved south, he had a new "maker" sent to me. I haven't used it yet but as this Corona stuff has got me anchored to the farm for a while, may just get it out and get back at it. The only orifices I have are #7, tumbled they will be about 7 1/2's. I'd like to get something between 4-6's for my turkey loads, but I may have to make them, perhaps from grease fittings? Anyhow, I remember we made over 20-30 lbs in an hour or so. So..... out to the barn, run off my rat snake and pull the lead buckets out........ don't know how long all this is going to last.
 
We use to make "swan shot" (tear shaped like the original shot towers made in St. Louis). Once you figured out the height of the fall of the poured shot into the water it was easy to do for the same look as the original shot.



time.moves.jpg
 
My shot maker drips lead through 5 orifices into a .30 cal. ammo can (because it's elongated just about the same width as the maker) and drips 6-8" into fluid. Used transmission fluid is what my buddy in Alaska used. I have to drain one of my tractors shortly so will probably save it. oops, just checked, has 7 drip holes/inserts
 
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I learned to make shot while living in Alaska from a guy who shot league shoots with us and reloaded all his Trap and Skeet rounds with shot he made at home. After I moved south, he had a new "maker" sent to me. I haven't used it yet but as this Corona stuff has got me anchored to the farm for a while, may just get it out and get back at it. The only orifices I have are #7, tumbled they will be about 7 1/2's. I'd like to get something between 4-6's for my turkey loads, but I may have to make them, perhaps from grease fittings? Anyhow, I remember we made over 20-30 lbs in an hour or so. So..... out to the barn, run off my rat snake and pull the lead buckets out........ don't know how long all this is going to last.
That is so-o-o cool making your own shot! I never heard of it and I'm a waterfowl hunter. Sounds economical.
 
Oops, lead shot. I don't think this aluminum mould would do steel..... for my flint 12 ga., I only needed a few loads so I dissected some old BB & #2's I had in 3 1/2" left at camp once and I don't have a 3 1/2 gun, don't want one either for that matter, just too much for this old boy now. Embarrassing to say.
 
Oops, lead shot. I don't think this aluminum mould would do steel..... for my flint 12 ga., I only needed a few loads so I dissected some old BB & #2's I had in 3 1/2" left at camp once and I don't have a 3 1/2 gun, don't want one either for that matter, just too much for this old boy now. Embarrassing to say.
Ditto on that. Can't tell the difference between 3 1/2 12s and 10 ga. Overhead in the blind on the collar bone, OUCH! Just lettum get closer, ducks, geese, coyotes and other vermin.
 
My shot maker drips lead through 5 orifices into a .30 cal. ammo can (because it's elongated just about the same width as the maker) and drips 6-8" into fluid. Used transmission fluid is what my buddy in Alaska used. I have to drain one of my tractors shortly so will probably save it. oops, just checked, has 7 drip holes/inserts


In our atempt to make what the shot towers made in St. Louis at the turn of the century. We finally ende up with a screen attached to a 12" X 12" wood frame attached to a 12 foot step later. Poured the hot lead onto to screen and watched it fall 10 feet into a pail of used machine oil (worked pretty good). Probably made 50 pounds of it one summer toe be sold to the period guys at the different encampments along with lead bars cast from original molds for the Saint Louis shot towers.

Shot-Tower.jpg


Shot-Tower-Photo.jpg washingtondcandbaltimore547-768x1024.jpg
Luther M. Kennett’s Shot Tower. On Lewis Street bet. Bates and Smith.
Daguerreotype by Thomas M. Easterly, ca. 1850. Shown then and now. Missouri Historical Society Photograph.

The Shot Tower, built in the early Nineteenth Century, was once the tallest structure in the United States. The building produced lead shot for muskets and rifles. Molten lead was dropped one drop at time from the top, and after achieving zero gravity that formed the lead into a sphere, the ball would be hardened by the time it hit the floor.




time.moves.jpg
 

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Oops, lead shot. I don't think this aluminum mould would do steel..... for my flint 12 ga., I only needed a few loads so I dissected some old BB & #2's I had in 3 1/2" left at camp once and I don't have a 3 1/2 gun, don't want one either for that matter, just too much for this old boy now. Embarrassing to say.

The mould will melt before the steel
Will your flint gun barrel handle steel shot
 
Ditto on that. Can't tell the difference between 3 1/2 12s and 10 ga. Overhead in the blind on the collar bone, OUCH! Just lettum get closer, ducks, geese, coyotes and other vermin.
Well, I have a habit of shooting directly overhead or a little beyond and off my collar bone also, I think it's caused by a virus, anyhow I put a spring loaded butt stock on my 870 two years ago, and others trying it, loved it as much as I do. Call me a candy ass, but after 3 days afield on Snow Geese, on a conservation order, with a 10 shot extension, it HURTS..... but whatnhell, do it every year.....tough job but somebody has to do it.....
 
The mould will melt before the steel
Will your flint gun barrel handle steel shot
Modern steel, no choke, almost same pattern and distance as my turkey load. I only used steel a couple times as I wanted to shoot a migratory species, other than that, only shoot lead. Also, I don't use any modern greases or oils etc. on my flint guns, just me mind you, bear grease, sweet oil and bees wax, internal and out, wood and steel. Been using a looooong time. Others milage may vary....
 
My shot maker drips lead through 5 orifices into a .30 cal. ammo can (because it's elongated just about the same width as the maker) and drips 6-8" into fluid. Used transmission fluid is what my buddy in Alaska used. I have to drain one of my tractors shortly so will probably save it. oops, just checked, has 7 drip holes/inserts
checking my notes, drip/drop should only be 1/4 inch down from drip/splash plate to cooling liquid, DOT 3 Brake fluid #1 recommended then water-soluble oil, then liquid soap. Realized it has been a while since I did this. When I get started again will take pictures.....
 
Shot aint hard to make. A friend makes several hundred pounds a year. I usually supply him with wheel weights.
 

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