SHOT, common, small, or that used for fowling, should be well sized: for, should it be too great, then it Hies thin and scat ters too much : or if too small, then it has not weight and strength to penetrate far, and the bird is apt to Ay away with it. In order, therefore, to have it suita ble to the occasion, it not being always to be had in every place fit for the purpose, we shall set down the true method of mak ing all sorts and sizes under the name of mould-shot, formerly made after the fol lowing process : Take any quantity of lead you think fit, and melt it down in an iron vessel ; and as it melts keep it stirring with an iron ladle, skimming off all impurities whatsoever that may arise at top : when it begins to look of a greenish colour, strew on it as much auripigmentum, or yellow orpiment, finely powdered, as will lie on a shilling, to every twelve or four teen pounds of lead ; then stirring them together, the orpiment will ?tame. The ladle should have a notch on one side of the brim, for more easily pouring out the lead : the ladle must remain in the melted lead, that its heat may be the same with that of the lead, to prevent inconveniencies, which otherwise might happen, by its being either too hot or too cold ; then, to try your lead, drop a little of it into water, and if the drops prove round, then the lead is of a pro per beat ; if otherwise, and the shot have tails, then add more orpiment, to increase the heat, till it is found suffi cient.
Then take a plate of copper, about the size of a trencher, which must be made with a hollowness in the middle, about three inches compass, within which must be bored about 40 holes, accord ing to the size of the shot which you intend to cast : the hollow bottom should be thin ; but the thicker the brim, the better it will retain the heat. Place this plate on a frame of iron, over a tube or vessel of water, about four inches from the water, and spread burn ing coals on the plate, to keep the lead melted upon it then take some lead, and pour it gently on the coals on the plate, and it will make its wag through the holes into the water, and form itself into shot ; do thus till all your lead is run through the holes of the plate, taking care, by keeping your coals alive, that the lead does not cool, and so stop up the holes.
While you are casting in this manner, another person with another ladle may catch some of the shot, placing the ladle four or five inches underneath the plate in the water, by which means you will see if they are defective, and rectify them. Your chief care is to keep the lead in a just degree of heat, that it shall not be so cold as to stop up the holes in your plate, nor so hot as to cause the shot to crack ; to remedy the heat, you must re frain working till it is of 'a proper cool. ness ; and to remedy the coolness of your lead and plate, you must blow your fire ; observing, that the cooler your lead is, the larger will be your shot ; as, the hot ter it is, the smaller they will be.
After you have done casting, take them out of the water, and dry them over the fire with a gentle heat ; stirring them continually, that they do not melt ; when dry, you are to separate the great shot from the small, by the help of a sieve made for that purpose, according to their several sizes: But those who would have very large shot, make the lead trickle with a stick out of the ladle into the wa ter, without the plate. If it stops on the plate, and yet the plate is not too cool, give the plate hut a little knock, and it will run again ; care must be had that none of your implements are greasy, oily, or the like; and when the shot, being separated, are found too large or too small for your purpose, or otherwise im perfect, they will serve again at the next operation.