Can chilled shot by itself be used to make revovler bullets, or someone have mix ratio to use it for bullets.
Thanks rml9mm

I asked the same question (for .380, .40 S&W and .45 ACP) everyone here said it was great for it, so we've made several hundred, loaded some "test rounds" and I'm VERY well pleased. Great accuracy with "mid-range loadings"

NO doubt I'll be casting several more hundred (thousand?) from chill shot!

Thanks for the reply Aceoky, I haven't loaded shot shell for quite a few years now, and this bag of shot has just been laying around my reloading room.

I hope I don't start to reload for shotguns again soon, have you seen the price of a bag of shot lately ?

Happy to do so,RML9MM!

I had a similar situation where a guy hadn't loaded shells for a long time and let me have a bag :D

I think you'll be well pleased, I know that I was!

IF you have any trouble casting, then run the lead and the mold a bit hotter. Chilled shot has a few addtions (in very small amounts) that increase surface tension...which makes it "ball up" a little better when making shot, but can fustrate a low-temperature caster when it won't fill out the fine details of a complicated mold. Works fine for me so long as I keep it warm enough to very lightly frost.

Frosted bullets, glad you brought that up ribbonstone.
I just started casting last summer, and so far I have only cast some 400gr 30/1 lead/tin mix bullets for my sharps rifle. I have a Lee #20 ladle dip pot, and a RCBS thermometer. I have had the lead up to 850-900 degrees according to the thermometer and all the bullets dropped out of the mold filled out and shiny. So how hot can I get the lead before the bullets will frost ?

Frosted bullets, glad you brought that up ribbonstone.
I just started casting last summer, and so far I have only cast some 400gr 30/1 lead/tin mix bullets for my sharps rifle. I have a Lee #20 ladle dip pot, and a RCBS thermometer. I have had the lead up to 850-900 degrees according to the thermometer and all the bullets dropped out of the mold filled out and shiny. So how hot can I get the lead before the bullets will frost ?

WORD OF CAUTION..LOWER YOUR TEMP....AT 900 YOU RUN THE RISK OF GETTING POISONED...900 IS WHEN ALL THE BAD FUMES START COMING OUT OF THE LEAD....650 TO 750
SHOULD BE PLENTY WITH YOUR MIX....:eek::eek::eek::eek:

For me, it doesn't take that kind of lead temperature...something in the 700F area is hot enough. Even there, i cast outside, prevailing breeze to my back, or with an electric fan at my back with it's dead calm (or when it's summer and so hot i need all the breeze i can get).

Frosting is just a matter of how the bullet cools..at what stage the gain structure is when it becomes solid. Not real sure if you can frost a pure lead bullet (without any additives, it's not an alloy) and there are probably some odd metal mix out there that won't show frosting.


How much metal mass is in the mold has something to do with it as well. Real easy to heat up small blocks/big bullet molds (like Lyman 500gr. 45-70 molds)....not so easy to heat up big blocks/small bullet molds (Like an RCBS .22cal. mold).

When I cast in the reloading room I have a window fan with two fan blades on it, and a fan at the doorway blowing at my back. The casting pot is about 12-14 inches away and about 12 inches lower than the window. This setup seem to work out real good, as I can see the smoke being sucked out the window when I flux the pot.

Chilled shot works great.
But its real expensive to replace when it runs out.

A few years ago, I got a couple hundred pounds of it at the scrap yard
and cast a bunch with it,,,, until I realized what I had.
Nowdays, I'm real frugal with it and try to make the dwindeling supply
of this wonderful stuff stretch as far as I can.

For real good handgun bullets, even the gas checked .357s & .44s:
I put about 20% of the shot into pure Lead, and it casts like a dream.
Or, use it as a 50% alloy with wheel weights to make gas checked rifle bullets.

RML9MM,

Ribbonstone's advice for frosting and higher heat only applied to chilled shot alloy, which has antimony (usually about 2%, except some magnum shot goes as high as 8%, depending on the manufacturer) and arsenic and other small additive quantities. Not to your lead:tin mix. He and Bulletmaker are correct that you should not need to be that hot. I suspect that if you find you need it that hot, you may not be letting the mold warm up enough before you start keeping the bullets dropping out of it. It usually takes several casting cycles to warm one up if you start with it cold. Also, be aware the very high temperatures can be hard on mold blocks, with the same risk of warping that comes with pre-heating them too rapidly.

As to your chilled shot, same as with other casting alloys, adding tin can both improve casting ability and hardness. 2-5% is the usual range. Modern lead-free plumbing solder is mostly tin and alloyed to flow and fill narrow channels well. Adding half a pound to a pound of the least expensive brand lead-free plumbing solder to a 25# bag of shot will be in the right range. I would limit it to half a pound if you intend to heat treat the bullets for higher hardness. Letting the tin level to exceed the antimony level is reported to accelerate aging loss of hardness.

Hi can you tell me how much lead free soder use by plumbers to wheel weight for maken bullets. thank you

It depends what alloy you are trying to end up with and what you are going to do with it? Adding one pound of lead-free solder to 27.5 pounds of wheel weights will make the tin and antimony content roughly equal at about 4%, assuming your wheelweights are the 95.5:4.0:0.5, lead:antimony:tin ratio usually given for them. I understand they are different in different parts of the country, but that is a starting point. If you are going to quench-harden the bullets, they will lose softness with age faster if the tin quantity exceeds the antimony. That amount is also very close to Lyman #2 alloy, which is 5% each tin and antimony, and close enough for practical purposes to use any place you see that alloy recommended, as in Lyman molds. If you are not going to harden the bullets, and want them shinier and a little harder out of the mold, add one pound of solder to 20 lbs of wheelweights.

Thank you for your help .I am looking for a harder bullet for 44mag and 30-06 ,357 mag.Thank you