Lead shotgun shot good for bullets?

Freeloader Reloader · July 29, 2014, 05:35 PM

Kind of new to the reloading and casting game so I have a question that is bugging me. A friend of mine gave me a whole ammo can of lead shotgun pellets of mixed grades. I have been using them to cast my pistol ammo with (9mm, .38 Special and .357 Magnum) along with my ingots made from wheel weights. I was just wondering if there would be a problem with this? As I said, I don't use strictly shotshell loads.

A400 Fan · July 29, 2014, 05:42 PM

Shot, besides antimony, will also have a graphite coating. How that works for casting bullets, I do not know.

ihctractor · July 29, 2014, 05:47 PM

Mixing it shouldn't be a problem. Shot is usually really hard. Much harder than it needs to be for bullets. I've found that wheel weights are just about the perfect alloy for pistol bullets and sometimes I will mix a little chilled shot into my wheel weight lead to get a harder alloy for rifle bullets.
Probably shouldn't cast with straight shot as the bullets may be so hard they don't expand into the rifling which will cause gas cutting, leaving you with enough lead fouling to never want to shoot lead again

salvadore · July 29, 2014, 06:00 PM

I read somewhere that chilled shot had a nice amount of arsenic good for heat treating.

DR Owl Creek · August 1, 2014, 09:57 AM

Adding some shot to your alloy would harden it, or enable you to heat treat it because of the arsenic content in the shot. You might actually be better off, however, selling the shot to someone reloading for shotguns, because shot is getting pretty expensive. You could then use the money from the sale of the shot to buy a larger quantity of "hardball" alloy from Rotometals or "magic alloy" from Missouri Bullet company.

Dave

zxcvbob · August 1, 2014, 10:58 AM

Lead shot should make fine bullets, especially for magnums and 9mm. You might want to add a little tin (solder) to make the bullets fill-out better in the molds, or cut it 50% or more with soft lead scrap.

Mike / Tx · August 3, 2014, 05:56 AM

Chilled Shot= 2.00% (Antimony), 0.625% (Arsenic), 97.4% (Lead) Brinell 10
Magnum Shot (6 or 9) 4.00% (Antimony), 1.25% (Arsenic), 94.8% (Lead) Brinell 13
Magnum Shot (7 - 8.5) 6.00% (Antimony), 1.25% (Arsenic), 92.8% (Lead) Brinell 13

The above represents some known brands of shot and the contents of their alloy. While they look close, the amounts of arsenic to antimony will add to the amount of hardness you can achieve by using one over the other.

As mentioned usually folks use the shot to stiffen up something like plumbers or pure lead to get something like clip on wheel weight as a final alloy. If as you mentioned this a box filled with mixed shot, I would simply smelt all of it into small ingots, and add it to pure as needed to get something in the hardness range I needed for the 9mm and 357.

If your not running your loads into the 1200fps range with either of those it would only take about an equal amount of the shot alloy to bring up some pure lead into a good range for either of those, and even less for the 38 SPL. That's if you don't water drop them, if you do that you could probably get away with a little less of the shot as the arsenic and antimony will harden up real good when quenched.

Here are a couple of links you should look into,
[URL="http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletAlloy.htm"]Cast Bullet Alloy/URL]

Heat Treating

Freeloader Reloader · August 3, 2014, 03:44 PM

Thanks, Guys, for all the great info. I just love this forum and all the experience that is literally right at your fingertips. I have to admit that my casting is improving by leaps and bounds. I poured hundreds of .356 Truncated Cones over the weekend in my Lee 6-cavity mold. From start to finish, I didn't have one scrap pour. They all came out perfect (from what I could see) and the mold worked just great. So glad to have the sprue lever problem taken care of, that's for sure. I have a whole Folger's coffee container full of these projectiles. I am leaving them unlubed and not resized until I need to start loading some rounds with them. I'll probably do the same thing with my .358 mold next and then I should be set for awhile. Time to start cleaning and reorganizing my shop a bit better. Thanks again for all the help.

A pause for the COZ · August 19, 2014, 10:22 AM

Since the change to Steel shot for Water fowling. I have been finding stashes of #4 magnum lead shot on a few Yard sales over the last few years.

I add it to my Range scrap lead when casting 223 bullets.
Hardens the mix up just fine.
No idea what Bn it is. But it sure hardens the mix.

July 29, 2014, 05:35 PM	#1
Freeloader Reloader Member Join Date: May 12, 2014 Location: New Orleans, LA area Posts: 54	Lead shotgun shot good for bullets? Kind of new to the reloading and casting game so I have a question that is bugging me. A friend of mine gave me a whole ammo can of lead shotgun pellets of mixed grades. I have been using them to cast my pistol ammo with (9mm, .38 Special and .357 Magnum) along with my ingots made from wheel weights. I was just wondering if there would be a problem with this? As I said, I don't use strictly shotshell loads.

August 1, 2014, 10:58 AM	#6
zxcvbob Senior Member Join Date: December 20, 2007 Location: S.E. Minnesota Posts: 4,720	Lead shot should make fine bullets, especially for magnums and 9mm. You might want to add a little tin (solder) to make the bullets fill-out better in the molds, or cut it 50% or more with soft lead scrap. __________________ "Everything they do is so dramatic and flamboyant. It just makes me want to set myself on fire!" —Lucille Bluth

August 3, 2014, 05:56 AM	#7
Mike / Tx Senior Member Join Date: April 8, 2000 Posts: 2,102	Chilled Shot= 2.00% (Antimony), 0.625% (Arsenic), 97.4% (Lead) Brinell 10 Magnum Shot (6 or 9) 4.00% (Antimony), 1.25% (Arsenic), 94.8% (Lead) Brinell 13 Magnum Shot (7 - 8.5) 6.00% (Antimony), 1.25% (Arsenic), 92.8% (Lead) Brinell 13 The above represents some known brands of shot and the contents of their alloy. While they look close, the amounts of arsenic to antimony will add to the amount of hardness you can achieve by using one over the other. As mentioned usually folks use the shot to stiffen up something like plumbers or pure lead to get something like clip on wheel weight as a final alloy. If as you mentioned this a box filled with mixed shot, I would simply smelt all of it into small ingots, and add it to pure as needed to get something in the hardness range I needed for the 9mm and 357. If your not running your loads into the 1200fps range with either of those it would only take about an equal amount of the shot alloy to bring up some pure lead into a good range for either of those, and even less for the 38 SPL. That's if you don't water drop them, if you do that you could probably get away with a little less of the shot as the arsenic and antimony will harden up real good when quenched. Here are a couple of links you should look into, [URL="http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletAlloy.htm"]Cast Bullet Alloy/URL] Heat Treating __________________ LAter, Mike / TX

August 3, 2014, 03:44 PM	#8
Freeloader Reloader Member Join Date: May 12, 2014 Location: New Orleans, LA area Posts: 54	Lead Shot Thanks, Guys, for all the great info. I just love this forum and all the experience that is literally right at your fingertips. I have to admit that my casting is improving by leaps and bounds. I poured hundreds of .356 Truncated Cones over the weekend in my Lee 6-cavity mold. From start to finish, I didn't have one scrap pour. They all came out perfect (from what I could see) and the mold worked just great. So glad to have the sprue lever problem taken care of, that's for sure. I have a whole Folger's coffee container full of these projectiles. I am leaving them unlubed and not resized until I need to start loading some rounds with them. I'll probably do the same thing with my .358 mold next and then I should be set for awhile. Time to start cleaning and reorganizing my shop a bit better. Thanks again for all the help.

July 29, 2014, 05:42 PM	#2
A400 Fan Junior member Join Date: June 17, 2014 Posts: 242	Shot, besides antimony, will also have a graphite coating. How that works for casting bullets, I do not know.

July 29, 2014, 05:47 PM	#3
ihctractor Member Join Date: December 24, 2008 Location: Ohio Posts: 78	Mixing it shouldn't be a problem. Shot is usually really hard. Much harder than it needs to be for bullets. I've found that wheel weights are just about the perfect alloy for pistol bullets and sometimes I will mix a little chilled shot into my wheel weight lead to get a harder alloy for rifle bullets. Probably shouldn't cast with straight shot as the bullets may be so hard they don't expand into the rifling which will cause gas cutting, leaving you with enough lead fouling to never want to shoot lead again

July 29, 2014, 06:00 PM	#4
salvadore Junior member Join Date: January 1, 2007 Location: Idaho Posts: 2,282	I read somewhere that chilled shot had a nice amount of arsenic good for heat treating.

August 1, 2014, 09:57 AM	#5
DR Owl Creek Member Join Date: June 7, 2014 Posts: 22	Adding some shot to your alloy would harden it, or enable you to heat treat it because of the arsenic content in the shot. You might actually be better off, however, selling the shot to someone reloading for shotguns, because shot is getting pretty expensive. You could then use the money from the sale of the shot to buy a larger quantity of "hardball" alloy from Rotometals or "magic alloy" from Missouri Bullet company. Dave

August 19, 2014, 10:22 AM	#9
A pause for the COZ Senior Member Join Date: October 11, 2012 Location: Braham, Minnesota Posts: 1,314	Since the change to Steel shot for Water fowling. I have been finding stashes of #4 magnum lead shot on a few Yard sales over the last few years. I add it to my Range scrap lead when casting 223 bullets. Hardens the mix up just fine. No idea what Bn it is. But it sure hardens the mix.