Heat treating shot success

[Milton C Starr]

So I learned about heat treating lead shot that contains around 6% antimony from some coyote hunters for getting less deformation from setback and through the chokes. Most of them seem to be using BPI super buck which I have a bottle of in T shot I read this is normally around 12 bhn and heat treating it can raise it to around 22 bhn without making it brittle. Now I dont have a scientific method to test this besides the tried and trued channel locks. Heres what a untreated pellet looks like vs one I baked at 420F for 45 mins and quenching. You can barely squeeze them with the channel locks, now even the untreated ones still take quite a bit of force to flatten so they are pretty hard. The shot turns a light dull grey after baking compared to it new. I think this is perhaps some sort of lube or something BPI puts on it because they feel what I would describe as super dry after baking and before they are really slick. I plan to coat them in some mica as I have been doing to add some lubrication back to them. Now I tried this also with BPI nickel plated shot and it does seem harder but not as much as the unplated shot the color didnt change any with the plated shot. I plan to run this in my 8 ga since its cylinder choked not sure what effects it would have in a fixed choke but I figure the best way to test that would be to find a cheap single shot 12 ga with a damascus barrel in the future.

[mobirdhunter]

Milton, you'll have your Ph.D. in shotology before you know it. I assume you buffer those loads you're cooking up? And your shot cup provides some protection to your barrels?

Anxious to see what kind of patterns those heat treated pellets give. Keep us posted.

[Milton C Starr]

Originally Posted by Garry L Gordon

Milton, you'll have your Ph.D. in shotology before you know it. I assume you buffer those loads you're cooking up? And your shot cup provides some protection to your barrels?

Anxious to see what kind of patterns those heat treated pellets give. Keep us posted.

I had a chart around here somewhere the other day that showed the different hardness of various shot types and various barrel materials from damascus up to modern steels. Even extremely hard lead shot is many times softer than damascus. I do have some homemade shotcups that completely encapsulates the shot which the Remington 8 ga wads do not but they werent designed to so cant fault them for that. I got some more stuff on the way I ordered something for the 8 gauge which I havnt seen anyone else here use so hopefully they will ship them and see. I havnt used any buffer yet I plan to at some point getting PR to test some buffered loads maybe. One benefit I could see with buffer no one ever mentions, when you're loading large pellets with a roll crimp the over shot card can get a bit catawampus buffer would give you a more even surface for the OS to sit on. Although with the shotcups I made the OS sits flushs on top of them so when I roll crimp them I get a really nice even crimp and it seals the OS on top of the shotcup.

[Big D]

It's been years since I loaded turkey loads with Grex buffering, but my tests showed a 25% improvement in pattern density with 3% antimony shot

[Milton C Starr]

Originally Posted by John Dallas

It's been years since I loaded turkey loads with Grex buffering, but my tests showed a 25% improvement in pattern density with 3% antimony shot

From what I can tell 6% heat treated should give the same hardness if you were to make shot from linotype lead which I dont think anyone does. I think this comes down to these days most people would rather just jump to one of the tungsten alloys instead of experimenting with lead further. A side note I was recently reading about there is indeed non toxic lead but I havnt seen anyone try and make ammunition with it which I find interesting. Im not sure how much pattern I can expect with a cyl bore 8 gauge but it does seem to pattern buckshot out to 50 yards well.

[J. Scott Hanes]

Originally Posted by Milton C Starr

So I learned about heat treating lead shot that contains around 6% antimony from some coyote hunters for getting less deformation from setback and through the chokes. Most of them seem to be using BPI super buck which I have a bottle of in T shot I read this is normally around 12 bhn and heat treating it can raise it to around 22 bhn without making it brittle. Now I dont have a scientific method to test this besides the tried and trued channel locks. Heres what a untreated pellet looks like vs one I baked at 420F for 45 mins and quenching. You can barely squeeze them with the channel locks, now even the untreated ones still take quite a bit of force to flatten so they are pretty hard. The shot turns a light dull grey after baking compared to it new. I think this is perhaps some sort of lube or something BPI puts on it because they feel what I would describe as super dry after baking and before they are really slick. I plan to coat them in some mica as I have been doing to add some lubrication back to them. Now I tried this also with BPI nickel plated shot and it does seem harder but not as much as the unplated shot the color didnt change any with the plated shot. I plan to run this in my 8 ga since its cylinder choked not sure what effects it would have in a fixed choke but I figure the best way to test that would be to find a cheap single shot 12 ga with a damascus barrel in the future.

Did you heat in a kitchen oven? What medium did you quench the shot in? Most shot has a coating of graphite to make it slick. Perhaps the graphite was 'baked' off?

[Milton C Starr]

Originally Posted by J. Scott Hanes

Did you heat in a kitchen oven? What medium did you quench the shot in? Most shot has a coating of graphite to make it slick. Perhaps the graphite was 'baked' off?

Its a small portable oven I have in the garage, I just quenched it in room temp water let it sit for a few minutes. Im assuming it may be graphite I thought it had a higher temp range than 420F though it could be any sort of coating though it doesnt seem to rub off or leave a residue on your hands but does inside the bottle it comes in. I read mica basically does the same thing as graphite but it has a much higher temperature rating. Now mica does get on everything and all over the place its pretty messy lol.

Ive seen a wide variety of buckshot coatings a cheap popular one is graphite mixed with Lee Alox. I suppose if you wanted to squeeze the absolute most performance out of lead shot you could heat treat it then coat it or powder coat it and use it in a buffered load. In theory that should give the best results but I havnt seen anyone try all those together probably because it would be time consuming.

[charlie cleveland]

Milton you have above what I do with reloading very interesting...I wait for youre pattern tests...Charlie....

[Milton C Starr]

Charlie im trying to decide if I want to wait for my nitro cards to get here or just go shoot as I have been doing. Charlie if you bit down on one of these in some game you would be needing a new tooth haha. Whats been limiting me ability to do much pattern testing is I havnt been able to find any cardboard or large poster board locally to shoot, we're not really suppose to use shotguns at the range which is ran by the WMA seems a bit irresponsible on their part though.

[charlie cleveland]

paper plates are good cheap targets and my favorite the doctor pepper can....I think some one said that freezer paper made good cheap shooting material....charlie