Comments on: DIY Shotgun Pellets

By: Robb Allen

Robb Allen — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:30:00 +0000

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.

By: Standard Mischief

Standard Mischief — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:41:22 +0000

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.

By: Rivrdog

Rivrdog — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 05:35:51 +0000

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

By: Dr. Strangegun

Dr. Strangegun — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:54:35 +0000

Liquid AN gives me pause.

By: Regolith

Regolith — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:55:06 +0000

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

By: Lyle

Lyle — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:44:33 +0000

‘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.

By: Robb Allen

Robb Allen — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:02:16 +0000

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