Makiin' shot

[Dick Dastardly]

Got out my old Littleton shotmaker this afternoon.  Pukin Dog, Rotten Redeye Randy and myself made up some fineshot out of WW metal.  We made around 75 pounds, a bag for each of us, before we quit.  I left the rig set up and may make some more this weekend.

Our cost. . . . some beer, some WW metal ($20/200 pounds in the raw), some electricity, some kerosene and that's about it.  We have to wash, dry and put graphite on it.  I'd say it cost me upwards to, oh maybe, Twelve Cents a pound.  For 25 pounds that's around Three Bux.  A savings of somewhere in the neighborhood of $35 a bag.

DD-DLoS

P.S.  This stuff works great in my MEC 600 Jr. Mk-V loaders.

[Wills Point Pete]

Well, I don't have a trip that far north scheduled but when I do I'll bring a case of Shiner Bock from here in Texas and a few dollar bills.

[Dick Dastardly]

Tell ya whut Pete,

When Pards show up with fermented malt beverages and a will to work, we make boolits or shot.  Keeps the cost of killin' steel varmints down and makes lots of friends.  Nuthin' much more boring than makin' fineshot alone and dry. . . 

DD-DLoS

[Mason Stillwell]

Yep Dick I been making shot for some time now. used to sell it.

Now with my job and  future in doubt It reallly saves me money.

Mason

[Dick Dastardly]

I've got some old graphite in a box and I  use it for lubricating the necks of my bottleneck brass.  I used some of this on my shot again and it's just fine.  But, when I was digging around in the loading lab I came across a bag of moly.  I'm wondering if anybody has ever used moly instead of graphite on shotgun pellets???

DD-DLoS

[Grizzle Bear]

Careful there, Dick!

If the Safety Nazi's see you mixing Adult Beverages and Molten Lead, they are sure to have a tizzy!

Grizzle Bear

[Dick Dastardly]

Heck Griz, we never got the stuff closer than a foot from the pot. . .

I'm goin' to turn on the melter again and make up another hundred pounds.  I had so much fun that I just don't want to stop.  Instead of 'em lil cans tho, I'm considering using a three foot piece of schedule 32 PVC.  That way I won't have to change out the receiver so often. . .

DD-DLoS

[Dakota Widowmaker]

I stocked up a while back on lead shot. 3 bags of magnum and 2 bags of chilled.

I use chilled for all my BP loads for SASS/NCOWs activities and use the magnum for making light weight/large diameter cast boolits.

I still like the old time recipe of 25lbs of #8 magnum shot and 1lb of 50/50 solder. I get boolits that heat treat REALLY well and cast fairly easily. Some stuff has heat treated to as high as 22 BHN and stayed there after a year.

Bought all my shot 2 years ago for $18/bag... Those days are GONE!!!

[will52100]

Cool, and this may sound dumb, but what's the purpase of using graphite?  Anyway to hillbilly something similar up without dribling molten lead from a spoon into water? 

[Wills Point Pete]

Will, without graphite the shot tends to clump together when we fire the shotgun. Instead of a fine cloud of #6 shot (for instance) we get a couple-three irregular-shaped lumps flying in odd directions. In an extreme case there would be danger of an obstructed barrel when the shoot lump hits the choke.

[Mason Stillwell]

Also flows thru the loader easy with the graphite on it.


Mason

[will52100]

Thanks, that makes sence, how do you apply it?  I looked at the Littleton shot caster, and while I don't do "that" much shot shell loading, it would be handy to be able to make any size I need.

[Mason Stillwell]

I use an RCBS Sidewinder tumbler to put graphite on mine.

Mason