My father used to make #8 shot out of wheel weights. I am not exactly sure that this is how but I think he melted the lead and then poured it through a metal colendar(sp?) into a 5 gallon bucket of water. The drops would harden as they hit the water forming the shot. Does that sound right?

The only problem is that the shot is far softer than the factory shot.

I have a friend who used to make his own shot in Cuba. He would get a metal plate and poke holes in it, pour lead and allow it to fall into a bucket of sugar cane syrup leftover from the sugar processing plant, the shot was pretty round. Then he would pass it through a series of colander like pans in order to separate them into sizes 9,8 and so on. He also made his own primers and made smokeless powder from large rod powder from missles and grenades.

I make my own, i got a shotmaker off ebay, it's not one of the nice littleton ones but one of those older shotmaster types, it only came with nozzles that average about #7 shot, i use it on 16 yd trap and i can't hardly tell the difference between it and factory shot, works good on the 16.
I even got a pheasant and a quail with it last year, i just had to try it so i could say i got game with my homemade shot.
that was really gratifying.

I haven't done it, but from what I have learned by fellows that have is that it's not a good idea to let the molten shot fall into water. Brake fluid was one that was recommended. It would be nice to have one if you could find a good source of free lead!

The guy that sold me the shotmaker said he uses anti-freeze,
i've been using it with good success, and it's water soluble so rinsing the shot is really easy.

I have a great source of free lead, my brother is the manager of a Tire Warehouse store. He could bring home enough wheel weights in one day to last me years of shooting!!!

I am sure my father used brake fluid, he never does anything remotely dangerous, so I am sure he didn't drop lead into water. I will have to ask him exactly how he used to do it, I don't think he had shotmaker? I don't recall much, but my brother seems to think he did drip the molton lead through a colendar.

The instructions that came with the Littleton shot maker I had said to use water soluable oil and water mixed about 50/50. I never could get the darned thing to make decent shot.

really?
you had a littleton and couldn't get decent shot?
i thought those were the cat's meow?
at $300 + dollars, i'd hope they'd make decent shot.

It's a fact! The shot came out looking like teardrops,footballs,and some were even hollow! I followed the instructions to the letter and even called Mr. Littleton a few times for advice. REPETE: never did get it to make decent shot.

I stand corrected. I talked with my father and he in fact has a shot maker. So, I have a great source of free lead and free use of a shot maker.. My day just got better..

Man, that just blows!

Hmm. Well, I just got a Littleton, and am gonna try making shot this weekend. Got about 330 Lbs of lead ingots made up, ready to go but gotta make some strainers and stuff.

Ultramag-
Antifreeze? did ya dilute it with water?

The manual is suggesting one of the following-
1 DOT3 Brake fluid
2 water soluable oil (cutting oil?) in a 2:3 ratio oil/water
3 Laundry detergent "All" thinned with water
4 Flame retardant hydraulic oil- Metsafe FR210

Driller-
maybe your coolant was too thick...?
this is stressed in my manual under coolants---
5. No matter which coolant you use, the rules boil down to: If the shot is out of round, the coolant is too thick. If the shot has dimples, the coolant is too thin.

Anyways, Ill give it a go, and report back.
Chad_E

Hi all, heres an update on my adventure..

made about 25 lbs of nice shot this weekend. First batches were really bad but after trial and error, I figured it out. Was using "All- free and clear" laundry detergent for coolant.

some things I learned-
1. 3/16" distance from ladle to coolant works good.
2. Dont let the coolant get too hot (heat changes the viscosity of most oils and apparently soap too.)
3. dont let your container get too full !
4. this machine doesnt work well below 65 deg as stated in the manual.
5. the machine makes shot alot faster than you can process it. ( wash, dry, tumble, package. )
6. shotmaking is for people who like to tinker with things (like me) not for those who want instant success...

happy shotmaking,
Chad_E

Chad---glad to hear you had more sucess with your shot making than I did.

Chad, i use the anti freeze with no dilution,my first shot had some dimples , after a bit of experimantation, i pretty much did away with the dimples, and was getting more slightly out of round shot than dimples,but most of the out of round had a "very slight" teardrop almost to it, and i figured if hevi shot flew good, this stuff might even fly better than perfectly round shot, who knows, i'll do some more pattern testing with it when it warms up more.
I found that it seemed to depend more on my alloy than anything else, if i ran to much lynotype/printing lead straight, the melt point was really low and the stream of shot would come out too fast,and dimple, if i added a bit more pure lead to it, it raised the melt point, slowed the stream just a but and was giving me really satisfactory shot,i was doing some sporting clays practice with one of my own throwers this last weekend using factory magnum #8 and my mishappen blend of # 6 1/2 to #8 sized homemade, and frankly i could not tell the difference in the consistency or the way they broke birds.

ALL laundry detergent?????

That's a new one on me, might have to give that a whirl, that'll really make cleaning the shot easy and safer too if the mutt got out in the garage

I think that all the hupola over making trap grade shot is just that Bull. Now if you are a skeet shooter and seek out irregularly shaped shot and could care less about how round your shot is the Littleton is the product for you.

I think that if there ever was a Littleton he would make a good bridge salesman.

I watched three very good shooters at my TRAP club try to save a couple of bucks and make Littleton shot.

They made great ovals, footballs, cylinders and the crap would not even roll off a 45 degree inclined table. The good news is that when two of the shooters advertised the Littleton shot maker---Guess who purchased them, yep skeet shooters and holiday quail hunters. Those folks need and want an open pattern

Save your money and marriage and investigate the cheaper imported shot. Don't wind up being marked as a Littleton

Guest,

As a Skeet shooter, I want an open pattern. But I want to control the openness of that pattern with a choke tube and not get random patterns by using out of round shot.

Scott

More than a few people shoot reclaimed shot for practice on skeet and the 16, so what's wrong with homemade shot to do the same?

UltraMag,

Did you read what I wrote?

Scott