opening weekend is over ror another year the boy got 2 mallards from the air with the .410 at the same time as I fired with the 12ga. on plucking 1 duck had 3 #6lead pellets uder its wing so that bird was my sons. he finished off 3 others on the water from the boat and tonight he shot a hare of about 3kgs or 7lb at about 25yrs with a 11/16 load of #4s so yes the wee gun works and my wee fella is learning the ropes.

Good for you Elvis, however MY, opening weekend is almost five months away.
Yuk it up partner, my time is coming.

Eric

the wee fella got a swan the other day and finished off two canadas today the .410 is working well. I havent even seen a .28ga here in kiwiland but I guess they would be slightly better being able to handle a FEW more pellets. where did you get hold of the hevi shot to reload? I have pulled old lead loads apart to get shot to load .410 but flinch at paying 2-3$ around of 12ga loads just to pull them apart for better loads for the wee man.

Elvis, I once read an article where they made their own shot:

making a mixture of 1 part weelweights + 3 parts soft lead (= 2.5 % Sb)
fluxing as you do when moulding bulletsw
when heated till 280°-350° C
pour it trough a pot with a few nozzles (diameter 0.7, 0.8 or 0.9 mm)
(shotsize depends on temperature and diameter nozzle/sieve)
which is mounted about 10 mm above the liquid level in a container filled with a mixture 1 part oil and 3 parts diesel.
Afterwards wash the shot with petrol folowed by hot water with dishsoap, rince with cold water and dry.
Use different sieves to separate different sizes and add a theespoon 40 µm carbonpowder to 15 kg shot (kind of molycoat )

There are even special shotmakers available on the market.

Not that I tried it myself already, but somebody did and sure got me interested. I too don't like the prices of shot and when you could make your own, the costprice of a reloaded cartridge will be cut with more than 50 % and I'm always interested in a new challenge, sure when I can save money afterwards.

And as always be carefull when working with hot lead. It's poisenous and not good friends with cold water!

Got you interested? Remember: a lot of inventions started with a nut trying to do something, so good luck.

You could always build a shot tower...

www.dcr.virginia.gov/s...ttower.pdf

See page 2 there.

I've been by there a few times. Nice little park!

Aloysius Ive given up tryin that tried allsorts but without the right gear I just ended up with funny shaped bits. I have bought some #5 and #6 to load up and at 3/4oz per load it will last a while. The heavier than lead shot sound great as more pellets of a smaller size with good energy could be better for ducks. the lead works good but we always look for something new to tooto with.