[waterfowlhunter]

Any one used one?

Any one built one?

I am planning on building a lead shot dripper and am open to others plans, ideas, MISTAKES and wisdom.

I have a pot and burner that can hold about 200lb of lead, I will be adding a valve to stop, start and regulate the lead flow. it will then flow "regulated" to the trough and drippers which will be pre-heated also. then off the drop tray into the coolant. I might purchase the drippers from Littleton but the rest I will build. I have started collecting lead and @ $50 a bag for shot it is time for me to make my own. if all goes well I should be able to make 200lb of shot in a couple of hours not counting the initial melting and mixing ( adding required items for hardness ) of the lead.

I did not do a search so if there are other post on this forgive me for starting it again. :thumbsup:

 

[J J Mac]

I asssume you know that lead is a very toxic poison. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning for example. Take proper precautions!

 

[waterfowlhunter]

I asssume you know that lead is a very toxic poison. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning for example. Take proper precautions!

I have been working with lead for about 30 years molding decoy anchors and lead bullets for muzzleloaders. I also do a lot of soldering at the micro minature level on ckt boards for panel repair.

That would be a given that lead is toxic and of course It is an outdoor process anyway but thanks for the input.

What I am looking for in this post is someone that has actually used or built one.

 

[crowkiller]

I have one of the first littleton shot makers made.They work very well.I have 14,000 pounds of lead saved for my own use. Should last the rest of my life.
My cost to reload a box of 28ga skeet loads is 1.51

 

[Ned S]

:smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: Ned S

 

[waterfowlhunter]

:smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: Ned S

:huh:

 

[UltraMag]

I've done some on a small, 2 dripper,
shotmaster i bought off ebay for $60.
It only came with #7 nozzles,so i ordered some #8's from Magma engineering (littleton),there's apparently two parties you can order littleton drippers, make sure you order from Magma, or you could be waiting a couple months for your drippers to arrive.
If your building the shot drop plate, you may want to get some dimensions and angles off a real shotmaker, the distance the lead drops onto the plate, and the angle of the plate, and it's length are
somewhat critical,i would imagine,for good success.
I'd also recommend making one with a lot of drippers, the more drippers the less time you'll spend tending to things, and the faster
you'll make a large quanity of shot, drippers aren't very expensive.
I was talkin to a guy at littleton who said some guy ordered 36 drippers from him once for a shotmaker.compare that to mine with 2 drippers.I've recently run about 300 lbs thru my little 2 dripper unit
in the last few months off and on when lead skyrocketed,i pulled out the 400 lbs of lead i had layin in the shed, and the 150 lbs of linotype i had in the corner of the garage (bought both for around .25 cents a lb) and started makin shot, the shot usually isn't "perfect", but plenty good for most all shooting.
I still buy premium west coast shot for shooting tournaments, or annie oakleys from the parking lot. I've used a lot of homemade shot on the skeet field.

 

[msmall]

How well do the littleton shot makers work? I would think the pellets would be deformed..... :huh:

 

[crowkiller]

The shot out of my littleton is just as round as remington or lawrence. The key is using the right coolant. I use antifreeze that I get free from the one of the 10 minute oil change places.
The shot drop from the maker to the coolant has to be 1/4" no more or the shot will come out with little tails on them.
I drop into a 6 gallon bucket with a overflow hose at the top to catch the overflow antifreeze and a drain plug about 1/2 way down.
I try to make shot between 60 to 70 degrees that keeps me from having to cool the antifreeze.
Production is about 45# per hour. My maker only has 6 drippers.The only other thing needed is sizing boxes. I use fanning screen it is used in the seed industry to sort seeds. Fanning screen comes in exact sizes from 2 thru 9 shot.
One more thing I use is a 20# bottom pour melting pot on top of the maker to pre melt the lead and flux. Then pour directly into shot maker.That prevents any down time waiting for the lead to get up to temp.

 

[chris63]

Has anyone bought a Littleton Shotmaker from Alan Burgess at www.littletonshotmaker.com? Do you know if the guy is reputable?

 

[20bolt]

I keep seeing flux.

Do you guys add flux to the lead?
Why?

Can you make shot from 45s you find on the range?

 

[waterfowlhunter]

I add flux to my melting pot with dirty lead, it helps to seperate the scum from the lead so that it can be scraped off the top easier IMO.

 

[20bolt]

Huh,

I was using this lead to cast my own hooked decoy weights. Before I cast it into the mold, I usually melt it in a big pot, stirring and skimming for about 5 minutes. Would the flux help to move that junk off the top? I love it how the rocks and dirt floats to the top.

My lead is from 45s and 50s I pickup off the range. When I get bored, I can head out there and pick up 25lbs in less than 20 minutes. About the 45yrd mark is golden.

Do you just use plumbers flux?
will these bullets make acceptable shot? I am just using it for skeet

 

[Ohio_Waterfowler]

I thought about getting into making my own shot when lead shot was $50 -$60 for 25# but I just bought 500# of magnum Lawrence shot for $21 a bag.This will keep me going for awhile.

 

[waterfowlhunter]

around here it never got over $32 a bag and is now around $30.

 

[msmall]

Last year the price was $65.00 a bag!!! I asked the guy how much a bag was and when he told me the price I said "No the price for one bag." I couldnt believe it, told him to keep it, I had plenty at home. Now its down to $29.00 a bag. Gonna buy about 10 bags once it gets back to $20.00.

 

[waterfowlhunter]

I was just talking to a guy at my local club. they reclaimed all the shot off the trap fields with some big maching that takes up about 6 to 8" of dirt and sifts it somehow.

He said the clubs share was about $85,000 and I believe he said that that was 1/3 of the value of the shot recovered. He said that was from about 6 years of shooting.

 

[20bolt]

I actually just built a shot dripper last night. I used some aluminum scrap my company had around, and tried to make some shot last night.

I am glad I made the nipples removable. .09" dia produced shot in the #1-#3 range. I used pure antifreeze as coolant, and MAP gas to heat the lead. I found I got the best shot when I actually got the lead hot, then moved the torch to blow across the nipple, torching the lead as it rolled down the ramp.

I made some new nipples today in .052 and .046, so we'll see what I get tonight.

 

[20bolt]

I also wanted to add that ~70% of the shot was teardrop shaped.

1. Would this be a problem for skeet?
The range is so short, does it really make a difference?
2. What should I change?

 

[REDGUN]

I also wanted to add that ~70% of the shot was teardrop shaped.

1. Would this be a problem for skeet?
The range is so short, does it really make a difference?
2. What should I change?

There are a couple of guys at our gunclub that make their own shot. They drop their shot into liquid laundry detergent. They say it is easier to remove, just rinse with water.

The drop distance is crital for round shot, as I understand it. I want to say they are only dropping their shot like 2"-3" inches.