doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Chilled shot

I noticed on the ten gauge mag thread Researcher's comments on chilled shot being $.20/hundred higher for some of the BP ammo offered at an earlier time, a significant upward price from the same ammo loaded with 'regular' shot, whatever that was.

Does this mean that chilled was harder or higher quality than 'drop shot' or 'regular' shot? I thought most all of the shot was made by molten lead being dropped into water or some coolant & so 'chilled'. I know some of it was rolled as well, S&B, for one, making it that way for many years & perhaps even now. I'm told that RC makes theirs in that manner.

Perhaps only a change of nomenclature over time, but I think of 'chilled' shot as being 'soft shot' & at least term wise interchangeable with 'drop shot' and not alloyed. Not positive on the meaning in the ad being ref'd. What is the real deal? Anyone know?

Perhaps we've already been down this road, I don't recall; thinking that the entry into today's 'magnum' shot thing [not magnum loadings] came along w/Winchester/Western's Luballoy & the Super X Double X loadings and then much more recently with the much harder shot offered in post cold war target ammo of the 1960's and beyond.

A good discussion of lead shot quality and the evolution of terms in use might be in order, I know I could stand some enlightenment. Lots of hype in those old advertisments. What was it exactly they were paying extra for? Who had the best shot, how was it being made? Seems most discussions of the time were much more concerned with the brand of powder being used.

Back in the 60's Remington claimed their shot making process was the highest volume precision manufacturing process in the world. Shot was dropped into water, then was poured down a series of pie-shaped trays. Round shot would go straight down to the next tray where the process was repeated. Irregular shot would roll off the side of the pie-shaped tray, and went back into the melter

Practically all shot has always been made by pouring molten lead through a plate with holes in it and letting it fall for a distance, which forms the droplets into little spheres. They then fall(fell) into water, which cooled them and caused a very slight hardening.

The first was pure soft lead, but eventually had slight amounts of antimony added to it to harden it. The antimony hardened shot then became known as chilled shot and the pure lead shot became known as drop shot.

The word "chilled" really does not imply that it was chilled any more than drop shot. Just their way, at the time, of differentiating between the two.

This info from George C. Nonte's Firearms Encyclopedia, copyrighted 1973.

SRH

Every thing I have ever read on this co-incides exatly with what Stan has posted. Have also seen the difference in number of shot per ounze for the two types, as I recal for #6 it was 218 for drop & 225 for chilled, or a gain of 7 pellets due to the very slight reduction of density.
Also in the early days one had to also name the tower shot was produced in when stating size as every tower had their own designations. An 1892 Lefever catalog for instance list a mumber of different towers with corresponding number per ounze, each being different. By their 1913 catalog they showed only one size which is essentially the same as today, only variation being from actual density of the alloy.
The Tower sizing which was finally standarized on was Tatham Bros of New York. With this standard the base line (Size B) was .170" with each whole size downward being .01" & half sizes being .005". I don't recall all the upward sizes bu BB is .180, which is .003" larger than .177" "Air Rifle" shot which we mostly call BB's. The development of shot is actually a rather interesting subject.
For any shot size larger than #10 simply put a 0 in front of the nubber & subtract from.170 & you get the dia of the shot as .170 - 06 =.110" or the average nominal dia of #6 shot. For #10 & smaller leave off the leading 0.

My understanding is slightly different than what is represented above. As far as I know, all lead shot has some antimony or some other hardening agent in it. Chilled shot has essentially become a marketing term with no real meaning. It doesn't indicate how much antimony is in the lead. The term Magnum shot is usually indicative of a higher level of antimony, but higher than what, since they don't give comparative numbers. Tom Roster(sp) I believe, did an article comparing differently marked lead shot that one can buy fior reloading. The inconsistency between what the shot is marketed as and the actual comparative hardness was striking.

I get my reloading supplies from Dawson and they offer Lawerance brand shot in chilled or magnum. The chilled is 50 cents a bag cheaper. The magnum says " high antimony " on it. How much, who knows. Paul

Mike;
I think you are simply not looking back far enough in history. To the best of my knowledge, although admitting the shot Cos do not consult with me, all shot produced today & in fact for a good many years does in fact have some antimony in it.
This I believe was not always the case & old catalogs etc for shot do indeed offer both Drop & Chilled & charts of number per ounce vary in their numbers, indicating a difference in the density (aloy or lack thereof)of the shot.

Mike,

I was referring to the initial use of the words "drop" and "chilled", not what they actually represent today. Fact of the matter, I don't think you can even buy shot today that is designated "drop". I think you are right that nearly all shot today has some antimony (Sb) in it.

SRH