As some may know, I cast many different projectiles including buckshot. I started with a .312 roundball mold (two cavity from Lee) and recently got a Lee 18 cavity OO buck mold.
I was always a little dissapointed with the sprue. Occasionally the sprue will leave a bit of extra metal around the sprue. I just lived with it figuring it was just the best I could do with just casting and no heavy equipment the big loaders have. I read recently about how the big boys make bukshot. Apparently they cut square wire and tumble them in drums till they peen each other into round balls. This got me to thinking. Maybe I can replicate this in a smaller scare to "round out" my own buckshot.
I took a batch of 900 cast .312 balls (right between #1 and O buck) and ran them in my vibratory case cleaner w/o media. I just let them beat against each other for 30 mins and VIOLA, MUCH more round. The sprue was peened enough and the few that had little "tails" were corrected. They are now much better than "as cast".
My next project is to develop a buckshot load for my wife's 20 ga. 9 pellets of .312 should be a very sufficient load for zombies.
I was always a little dissapointed with the sprue. Occasionally the sprue will leave a bit of extra metal around the sprue. I just lived with it figuring it was just the best I could do with just casting and no heavy equipment the big loaders have. I read recently about how the big boys make bukshot. Apparently they cut square wire and tumble them in drums till they peen each other into round balls. This got me to thinking. Maybe I can replicate this in a smaller scare to "round out" my own buckshot.
I took a batch of 900 cast .312 balls (right between #1 and O buck) and ran them in my vibratory case cleaner w/o media. I just let them beat against each other for 30 mins and VIOLA, MUCH more round. The sprue was peened enough and the few that had little "tails" were corrected. They are now much better than "as cast".
My next project is to develop a buckshot load for my wife's 20 ga. 9 pellets of .312 should be a very sufficient load for zombies.
