Steel shot?

[Justin Deming]

Hi, this has been covered pretty well, I just have a few quick notes.

You won't find steel shot at any sort of gun place. Lead, and soft metals are used in guns so as to not destroy the barrel of the weapon. You could buy jacketed bullets at reloading places, they are lead bullets with a shell on the outside. Those wouldn't create the lead dust some were concerned with. They are nice & heavy, but could be a little expensive for this kind of purpose. I'm not talking about the entire cartridge with the powder & all, just the actual bullet. These are sold by the hundreds at reloading stores.

Sand would have to be conatined in something to keeep it from working out through the cloth. Maybe put it in balloons, then put several ballons full of sand in a cloth bag.

If you're going for nice heavy weights that aren't too bulky, did you consider bags of gold nuggets?

[J. Stephen McDonald]

Fortunately, there is a gradually-expanding group of laws that are closing down the use of lead shot and bullets. This is being done to protect birds from ingesting lead and being poisoned. It won't do you any good, either, if it powders and gets into your system. All federal and state-owned lands in my state are closed to the use of lead shot, so it's easy to find steel shot and non-lead bullets in supply stores here. Apart from gold, depleted uranium gives you about the best amount of weight for its volume. Of course, with that, you'd have to wear one of those exposure cards that indicate when you've maxed-out your roentgen limit in radiation.