Littleton Shotmaker
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coolant
I use automobile antifreeze. It works great.
I have made about 100 pounds of very nice #7.5 shot recently. Machine works nicely.
Got an ammo can that holds two gallons of antifreeze (used PEAK and Prestone). Put the ammo can inside an inexpensive plastic storage tub so as to catch the overflow as the shot displaces the coolant. Made a little stand for the Littleton so that the lip of the machine was 1/4" from the surface of the coolant. Rubbed the lip with playground chalk. Put six pounds of the ingots in the ladle. Turned it on.
It worked flawlessly. Nice round shot. In four short sessions - 30 min. each - I made about 100 lbs of shot.
Rinse in water. Dry, Spray with a graphite aerosol.
Pete
I use automobile antifreeze. It works great.
I have made about 100 pounds of very nice #7.5 shot recently. Machine works nicely.
Got an ammo can that holds two gallons of antifreeze (used PEAK and Prestone). Put the ammo can inside an inexpensive plastic storage tub so as to catch the overflow as the shot displaces the coolant. Made a little stand for the Littleton so that the lip of the machine was 1/4" from the surface of the coolant. Rubbed the lip with playground chalk. Put six pounds of the ingots in the ladle. Turned it on.
It worked flawlessly. Nice round shot. In four short sessions - 30 min. each - I made about 100 lbs of shot.
Rinse in water. Dry, Spray with a graphite aerosol.
Pete
Joined
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1,862 Posts
How much use have you given this shot? I've long been curious about the device, and have heard conflicting reports on the quality of the finished product. How does it work? What kind of alloys have you tried?
use
I have access to and indoor range and can collect range lead which I process and to which I add WW alloy.
If I get a chance to pattern, I'll post.
My intention is to use this shot for Trap loads. I've been shooting four rounds of Trap a week and this stuff will be entering the flow next week. We'll see.
Visually, the Littleton shot are not as bright/polished as, let's say Lawrence shot, is. The info sheet that Littleton sends with the machine notes that the shot is not perfectly round but "mostly' round; they are up front about that. In any case, I was and am pleased with the finished product. It looks like shot; it is quite uniform; examined closely there are very, very few shot that are not what I would call acceptably round.
Btw - there was very little waste, maybe a pound or so of weird or outsized shot.
I expect that it will be fine in use, trusting soul that I am.
Pete
Now...that is a legitimate question. The answer is "not much" yet. Having just started using the shotmaker, I have only just topped off the shot bottles on the MECs. You'd think that I'd have run right out and patterned the stuff but I haven't. (Maybe today, now that you've asked.)
I have access to and indoor range and can collect range lead which I process and to which I add WW alloy.
If I get a chance to pattern, I'll post.
My intention is to use this shot for Trap loads. I've been shooting four rounds of Trap a week and this stuff will be entering the flow next week. We'll see.
Visually, the Littleton shot are not as bright/polished as, let's say Lawrence shot, is. The info sheet that Littleton sends with the machine notes that the shot is not perfectly round but "mostly' round; they are up front about that. In any case, I was and am pleased with the finished product. It looks like shot; it is quite uniform; examined closely there are very, very few shot that are not what I would call acceptably round.
Btw - there was very little waste, maybe a pound or so of weird or outsized shot.
I expect that it will be fine in use, trusting soul that I am.
Pete
Patterns
Well.....here is some quick and dirty patterning results. Not a lot of time this holiday - did my shooting yesterday and the day before.
Had time to set up a patterning board and shot one shotshell loaded with my basic Trap load (1 1/8oz #7.5s, 18.5 grains of Red Dot and a Rem Fig. 8 wad in a Win AA hull, Fed. 209A primer). I loaded a single shotshell using shot from the Littleton. (one shotshell does not a patterning session make, nor does one loading but it was all I had time for.) At 40 yards, through a full choke, I counted only 245 pellet holes or a 53% pattern. As a control, I fired a single Federal Low recoil "metro"load - 1 1/8th oz shot. It gave a pattern with 320 holes or 69%.
The good thing about the Littleton pattern was that it was very even. We'll have to do more with it.
Pete
Well.....here is some quick and dirty patterning results. Not a lot of time this holiday - did my shooting yesterday and the day before.
Had time to set up a patterning board and shot one shotshell loaded with my basic Trap load (1 1/8oz #7.5s, 18.5 grains of Red Dot and a Rem Fig. 8 wad in a Win AA hull, Fed. 209A primer). I loaded a single shotshell using shot from the Littleton. (one shotshell does not a patterning session make, nor does one loading but it was all I had time for.) At 40 yards, through a full choke, I counted only 245 pellet holes or a 53% pattern. As a control, I fired a single Federal Low recoil "metro"load - 1 1/8th oz shot. It gave a pattern with 320 holes or 69%.
The good thing about the Littleton pattern was that it was very even. We'll have to do more with it.
Pete
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