Casting buckshot...

[Andy Griffith]

Well, I just got in a gang mould for #00 buckshot.

It's one of those Sharpshooter moulds...seems to be pretty good, with the exception of some really short handles!

I'm going to try to cast some up this weekend, by which time I should have some longer handles made for it.

Any one else have a good, and fast way for making or casting buckshot, or even lead BB's for air rifles? Or does anyone else even like casting round balls?

 

[RayGT3]

Thought shot was made by pouring melted lead down a high enclosed shaft where it forms small droplets and then solidifies forming the shot. The temperature when released and the ambient temp. determines what size the resulting shot is. But been wrong before and probably won't be the last.

Ray

 

[Alk8944]

Thought shot was made by pouring melted lead down a high enclosed shaft where it forms small droplets and then solidifies forming the shot. The temperature when released and the ambient temp. determines what size the resulting shot is. But been wrong before and probably won't be the last.

Ray

Actually, birdshot was made by dropping, not buckshot. Droplet size was roughly determined by the diameter of the holes in the shot plate (sieve, sort of). Final size and roundness was determined by sorting of the resulting shot. A drop would likely result in about 3 nominal sizes and a proportion of culled shot that didn't meet requirements for roundness. The culls would be re-melted in another batch.

Buckshot has always been made by casting, swaging, or rolling of cut wire into spherical shape between two rotating plates. Most buckshot is then finished by tumbling with graphite. This last also applies to birdshot sizes. Of the three methods only casting is practical for home production.

For the life of me I cannot understand anyone ever using enough buckshot to justify casting instead of buying by the bag, but then I load a lot of really off-the-wall obsolete cartridges which I have made dies to form and load cases in.

 

[Paul5388]

The closest I come to casting buckshot is .495" round balls that serve double duty as muzzle loader fodder and as a 12 gauge 2 ball stack, with enough bird shot to make a total of 1 1/4 ounce. I place the first ball in a shot cup and fill around it with bird shot and then do the same with the second ball before crimping in a MEC 600Jr.

I was actually thinking about it being a hog killing load, but I haven't seen any in my front yard lately to try them on.

 

[Spotteddog]

Love to hear how it does when some do wander in!

 

[Paul5388]

I'll be sure to report on it!

Some may not know that buckshot loads are vastly different from shot loads. One of the reasons is the absence of barrel pressure from the shot. Since pressure is exerted in all directions equally, the shot puts pressure on the barrel as it travels toward its goal/target. Buckshot does not have the side wall pressure shot has, so there has to be an adjustment in the load to make it perform right.

When I use shot as a filler, the overall action of the load is like shot, not buckshot. That said, I used a shot load for these stacked round balls.

When I tried some on a 25 yard target several months ago, the two balls printed about 2" apart.

 

[bagolden]

I bought a box of casting stuff from a guy and one of the moulds was a 000 buck mould. 4 cavity. I haven't loaded any shot shells yet but it makes fine sling shot shot. I chrono'd my sling shot one day averaged about 200-210 fps. Sorry I digress. Yes I do cast buckshot.