reloading it) . Except for the .22 LR bullet (which is quite close to the .224 diameter), all these rounds use a . 224-diameter bullet; again, weight and the avoidance of maximum loads are the main considerations . Whether you're using the .308- or .224-diameter bullet, you can vary the weight of the bullet to the round you're reloading by drilling out lead from the nose of the bullet with a drill press and a very small drill bit. This can reduce the heavier 68-grain bullets designed for the .223 Remington to the. 40-grain weight of the .22 Hornet, for example. Or you might cut off and round the nose of a 180 grain bullet designed for the .308 Winchester to reduce it to a 110-grain pill for loading a .30-caliber carbine cartridge. Shotgun projectiles are readily improvised with small nails, screws, bolts, or even sand. There are several important considerations in improvised shot, however. One is that the lighter the material, the less its effective range. That means sand is going to be good only within 10 yards, in contrast to the normal useful range of 30 yards for lead buckshot. Likewise, the shape of the projectile will enhance or decrease its range; steel ball bearings travel farther with greater velocity than steel screws, whose shape quickly slows them down. Another important consideration is barrel wear. Sending steel screws or sand down a barrel is going to scar it quickly and will eventually cause extensive damage to the smooth bore. The solution is to use a shot cup, perhaps improvised from plastic tubing or small plastic bottles. By encasing the abrasive shot in such a shot cup, the barrel will be protected and the shot pattern a bit smaller to boot, putting more of the projectiles on target. Shot cups will also help you avoid excessive chamber pressures, because odd-shaped projectiles such as screws could conceivably bunch up and bind in a barrel as they travel down it. If you can obtain lead wheel weights easily, they would be ideal for making shot. By melting the lead and dropping it from the highest point available into water, you get a variety of pellet sizes. If the drop is long enough, you can even create relatively round shot (though probably with a lot of odd-shaped pieces as well) . Several companies offering bullet molds also offer molds for casting shotgun slugs. A slug transforms a shotgun into a weapon capable of reaching clear through a car body to strike an opponent and makes defeating lesser barricades a cinch. The slug also increases the useful range of a shotgun to 100 yards, making it a consideration for those facing an opponent with a rifle or pistol . Whether you're using "bare" shot without a cup, a shot cup, or a slug, you can fill up the empty space in the shotgun cartridge with a variety of improvised materials; felt or cardboard discs are the most practical and are also easily made. It should also be noted that many shotgun shells were loaded with black powder during the first of the 1900s. This could still be done and would be especially practical with manually operated guns; a shotgun with a chrome bore is ideal if you're using corrosive primers or powder. Your rifle and pistol cartridges will have a bit more shelf life and weather resistance if you run a small coat of lacquer or shellac around the bullet-to-cartridge seam and also around the primer. This will seal the cartridge against moisture and prolong its life. In the past, much the same thing was done with asphaltic varnish. This required that the inside neck of the case be coated with the material before the bullet was seated into it. You can create this chemical by thinning asphalt with a nonpolymerizing petroleum-based solvent; naphtha and acetone are good choices . In general, lacquer produces better results, unless it is too thick, in which case it may create spreading problems. Thinning it to water consistency will avoid this. Seating bullets on centerfire ammunition is pretty straightforward if you have a reloading press. With rimfire bullets, things are a bit trickier. The first thing to keep in mind is that the rimfire primer is easily set off during this reloading operation. For this reason, you should take special precautions; an explosion will most likely send shards of brass every which way and might even blow up a reloading die if you've created one for the cartridge. It's important to wear safety glasses with all types of reloading operations, and this is doubly true with .22 rimfire shells . It should be noted that the .22 rimfire bullet is held in place by a crimp around the upper rim of the brass. This can be done with a small tool such as a pocket knife. Or you might want to just peen a few "holds" with a small punch, hitting along the upper edge of the brass to drive it into the side of the bullet. Surprisingly, rimfire ammunition is more sensitive to moisture than other types of ammunition, so a coating of shellac or lacquer around the mouth of the brass where the bullet is seated is essential for .22 ammunition that contains hygroscopic powders or primer chemicals. Shotgun shells are also very sensitive to moisture, thanks to their large primers and wide