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

What's the difference? I think I remember there is none; chilled is just polished??? Anybody know?...Geo

It has always been my understanding that "chilled" shot is slightly harder than "dropped"shot, the difference in the names of each being slightly erroneous as both were formed by being dropped. I think there was a difference in the way the shot was cooled, how quickly, etc., that gave the chilled shot a very slightly greater hardness, having nothing to do with the addition of antimony.

I do know that there is a procedure whereby one may temper soft lead shot to increase the hardness, by using an oven and a quench. PA 24 wrote me once and described the process in great detail.

SRH

I have read that from size 6 to 9 there is more antimony used to make it harder to stay round longer. Most shot companies will tell you what their antimony content is, and I know West Coast Premium is 5-6% antimony and Eagle Brand Magnum is between 4-6% antimony.
Unless you drop your own shot, I don't know where you would find soft shot in the smaller sizes.

I agree that chilled shot was harder than drop shot. I also am quite certain it was from the alloy, not from heat treating. Certain lead alloys can be hardened tremendously by a heat treating process, but didn't think this would work on pure lead. It will work on Wheel Weight lead, at least the older type, not sure what is used now.
If you have charts which show the number of pellets per ounce for both Drop & Chilled you will see there are more pellets in the chilled. This is because of the small percentage of alloy which is lighter than lead, heat treatment would not affect the number per ounce to a measurable significance.

Very good topic
My question>>>> is chilled shot harder on the surface or is it harder all the way through the pellet??? Or does the pellet get softer as it gets closer to the middle of the pellet???

I Still shoot a lot of Winchester Lubaloy and other copper coated shot, along with different brands of magnum and other hard shot. I have done the squeeze trick with pliers. Retrieved shot from birds while cleaning, and after many years I feel that I have learned little about the subject of chilled, hard or magnum shot. I do think that the copper coated shot works the best for me, but a lot of mystery in lead shot. I Have dug both copper coated and chilled shot out of Coyotes, with their soft fir I learned little of nothing from that adventure either.
David

If Miller is correct as to why chilled is harder, and I have no doubt he is, the chilled would be harder all the way through. The fact that it is alloyed in the molten state would mean the hardness would be all the way through. Even though the chilled is a bit harder than dropped, it does not approach the hardness of premium, or magnum, shot which has an even higher antimony level. Note that your Hornady shot is "standard shot", as opposed to premium, or magnum.

As I understand it, the only shot that would be harder on the surface than in the middle would be plated shot, like your Luballoy or nickel. Problem is, today, it is very hard to get your hands on true plated shot. Most of it is just washed with nickel or copper and the skin is so thin as to not help that much, at least not nearly as much as the true plated shot.

You have a nice supply of some hard to find shot.

SRH

Some years ago, when I was doing a lot of bullet casting, I read an article in an NRA publication on heat treating of cast bullets. In essence, it said that a very small percentage of arsenic in the alloy was necessary to be able to heat treat cast bullets, and that the wheel weights of that time contained sufficient arsenic. I ran some tests and proved to myself that heat treating worked, using a SAECO lead hardness tester for my comparisons. Unfortunately, the effect is not permanent as hardness decreases with time. If lead shot contains sufficient arsenic and antimony it can be easily hardened in a home oven just like the bullets.

"How Shot Is Made", 1895
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/SportingLife/1895/VOL_25_NO_20/SL2520019.pdf
The reason why the shot tower is built so high is that the dropping of the lead from a distance of only a few feet would not produce very perfect pellets, but instead would leave them flat, soft and lopsided, which would not result in very high scores at the trap. The making of shot by dropping molten lead from a height was only discovered by an accident. Some soldiers who were making their bullets by pouring the hot lead into a hole in a stone spilled some over, which fell some distance into the water below. Soon afterward the soldiers were surprised to find that the lead formed into globules when falling, and hardened when the water was reached. However, pure lead will not always assume the globular form when dropped so that shotmakers mix metallic arsenic with it which not only makes the lead form the spherical form pellets, but also hardens them.

Appears to have been some confusion back in 1900 also
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/SportingLife/1900/VOL_34_NO_23/SL3423015.pdf
It may perhaps be news to some, but it is nevertheless a fact, that much so-called "chilled shot" is not any harder than the best qualities of soft shot; on the other hand much of what is sold as best soft shot is very much softer than it should be, if desirable results are to be obtained.

Tatham & Bros. ad
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/SportingLife/1901/VOL_37_NO_02/SL3702013.pdf