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7 Responses to “DIY Shotgun Pellets”

1. Robb Allen Says:
   September 4th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

   Yeah, THERE’s something I need to try to do…

2. Lyle Says:
   September 4th, 2008 at 6:44 pm

   ‘Course the lead has to fall a certain distance before it cools enough to freeze. They called these facilities “shot towers” for obvious reason. The balls aren’t perfectly spherical because of the air resistance, and the diameter is variable, but they’re plenty good enough for a shotgun. Balls for muskets and rifles were cast for better uniformity.

3. Regolith Says:
   September 4th, 2008 at 6:55 pm

   They still make ammonium nitrate pellets that way (the kind that’s used for explosives in the mining industry). There’s a plant not 5 miles from where i grew up. The tower they drop the liquid AN from is something like 180 feet tall. I actually went up to the top of it during a tour with my high school chemistry class.

   Here’s a pic of it, taken from about 1000 or so feet above from an overlooking mountain ridge:

   http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/Koloblicin/BattleMountain%20Landscape/plant.jpg

4. Dr. Strangegun Says:
   September 4th, 2008 at 9:54 pm

   Liquid AN gives me pause.

5. Rivrdog Says:
   September 5th, 2008 at 1:35 am

   Can’t the size of the shot be controlled by pouring the molten lead through a heated grid of a certain sized mesh?

6. Standard Mischief Says:
   September 5th, 2008 at 6:41 am

   That was pretty neat, although I don’t know why you didn’t just link to the PopSci article itself. I also have to cringe a bit when they title it “make your own ammo”. Bullets are not cartridges as clips are not magazines.

   My understanding of the fur trade era was that this type of DIY shot tower was fairly commonly home spun. The shot does not need to be perfectly round to work in a smooth bore. They also left out the essential finishing steps of sorting the shot via mesh size (not done in the field) and ensuring the shot was perfectly round by rolling it down an inclined plane (the out-of-round stuff would roll off to the side.

7. Robb Allen Says:
   September 5th, 2008 at 8:30 am

   UPDATE – Ok, the top of a one story house is NOT, I repeat NOT high enough to do this.

   The fire marshal was a nice enough guy, though.

Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.

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