Shotgun patterns with homemade pellets

[guninhand]

I'm thinking of getting the Littleton shotmaker and would use wheelweights for lead. What I'm wondering is if the greater hardness of the pellets would give improved patterning, i.e. a more uniform pattern due to less deformation of pellets due to their being harder.

Also, since these pellets could be made harder still through heat treating, would pattern uniformity improve accordingly?

 

[ben hunchak]

Actually this is one place where wheelweights would work well due to Antimony content.....as I understand it ,the pellets drop into cold water/oil...this is a heat treatment and the antimony in wheelweights makes it work good for quenching. In theory the harder shot should pattern tighter..however I don't know if you will get as high a percentage of good round pellets as from a shot tower and this would adversely effect paterning.

 

[Foxer]

Might also depend on the gun. Some guns just seem to pattern better with one brand of shot and others prefer different, and i expect it might be the case here.

I haven't reloaded shotshells, but i know a few who do and from what i understand there's a lot of other ways to improve your patterns as well by tweaking your load. So i'd say what the heck - give it a try, and if they don't pattern as well as you'd like, figure out a recepie that does a little better

 

[Grouse Man]

Seems like an awful lot of work. High quality shot isn't that expensive. And you can vary your powder, charges, wads, etc. to alter your patterns, add a filler, lengthen forcing cones to tighten up patterns. Hard shot, as you've noted, is imperative to a tight pattern. Don't try anything else until you've tested some high antimony commercial shot.