Littleton shot maker

Go to the Cast Boolits forum and look in the shotgun casting section. There is info there. FYI a gentlemen in Calgary was using one in a commercial warehouse bay and someone must have complained. He was charged with having an unliscenced lead smelter!
 
I think somebody told you a big fish tale; buckbrush.

Smelting lead is the process that mines use to win the lead from the lead ore. It's complex and is either purely chemical, or electrochemical in nature.

Melting lead...is just melting lead, and you don't need a licence.
 
To the OP, I'd recommend cast boolits, or shotgun world. I've done alot of research on the shotmakers, and the people who use them can be found on those two forums.

There are many owners of littleton shot makers, and also there are a number of people who've made their own shotmakers. It's really just a hot tray, and some nozzles screwed in the sides.

It's not complicated. Lead dribbles out of nozzles onto a short trough usually coated with powdered graphite and rolls off that into a bucket filled with either liquid dish soap, or automotive transmission fluid.

Both are thick enough, and cool the shot slowly enough, so that it makes fairly uniform globules.

Then you collect the shot, clean it, sort in by pouring it through screens, collect the sizes you need, and put the rest into the trough to remelt, and use again.

Now, if that sounds simple......it is.

But there are caveats, just like anything.

1. Temperature is everything, the lead is small at first, but as the shot heater heats up, the lead starts dribbling out of the nozzles faster, and can stick together, and can become larger.

2. Size, roundness (or lack theorof), and hardness can change as your coolant heats up.

3. Coolant soaked shot is messy.

4. The different lead alloys (pure lead, lead from wheelweights, unknown scrap lead) etc..etc.. change the characteristics of the shot that the shotmaker throws, size and shapes.

5. Round is relative, it's not uncommon to get alot of flattened, or teardrop shaped shot in your shot. If you want it perfect, you have to do alot of fiddling with temperature, distance to coolant, etc..etc..etc...

6. There is a maximum size for homemade shot, made with a littleton, don't expect to make any BB sizes!

7. Patterns won't be perfect, like with perfect shot from the factory, this is really important to some uptight anal kinds, or the kind of person that is trying to be really competitive. This shot seems mostly popular with the fungunners, and those people who shoot the shorter range clay sports.


Now, at the end of the day, you will get to spend some quality time in the garage, tinkering, and you will be able to load shotshells for a small fraction of the cost, and alot of people will turn up their noses at your slightly funky looking shot. Do I want one? YES!!!!

Can I afford one in university? NO :(, besides, I'm just not shooting enough clays to justify it right now, and I live in an apartment, so it's just not in the cards. I'll have to be content with boolit casting, and loading from bulk shot.

P.S. What I heard alot of is that the guys who are using these can afford to shoot ALOT more than their store bought only friends, so despite the small advantage given by the perfect shot, the guys casting their own can pulverize clays like there is no tomorrow and just switch to factory shot for competitions.
 
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Must be nice to be young and still know everything Bob. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Alberta provincial law is pretty tightassed about any processing of lead without ALL the proper permits and authorities being in place.
A friend of mine was looking at over 50 thou in fines for a melting operation that he was carrying out, processing recovered range scrap into ingots.
the smoke was seen and reported as a fire, the fire fighters called in the envirocops, and he had his day in court. It didn't cost him the $50K they were threatening to push for, but it cost him enough.

Cheers
Trev
 
I have one. Everything Bob said about the shot dropper is correct. It takes practice to get it right but it can be done. The shot is not perfect, but it's cheap, and works well.
 
Yeah,

Lots of really good info on the CastBoolits forum! Well worth digging through the back posts too.
IIRC there was a post there that linked to an Aussie site that had some stuff on home made non-toxic shot, too. Bismuth IIRC. Expensive raw materials, but still a lot cheaper than buying the shot if you shoot enough to justify it.

Cheers
Trev
 
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