If I wanted to make my own slinkies, where would I purchase the shot to load into the parachute cord?

Do any of the sporting goods shops sell shot for re-loaders?

You can buy jugs of it from any tackle shop. Normally around $20.

wal-mart.

There is ballistic quality shot and reject shot....no need to pay for ballistic shot for slinkys.
There is standard size and magnum size. When slinkys first came around, circa 1985, they were standard size, which is about 20-22 caliber and its associated para cord.

Then magnum para cord became available which allowed .250 - .270 dia shot. I evenually converted to magnum size and abandoned standard size.
I use those plastic key tags with the durable hook that you can get at the office supply stores to organize the various sizes. It gets where you go to a known run and know that it take a "seven shot" magnum slinky. I mark the plastic key tags 3 through about 11 so I can quickly reload if need be.

Now after dragging you through that, slinky (reject) shot is available at any decent sporting good store.

Edit:
We used to use basket ball net cord to get magnum size before the olive drab became available....sometime we had some weird colors

just cut pencil lead into shots.

Yeah you can do that.
The trick is to score it deeply every 1/4" with a sidecutter and slip the whole thing into the para cord. Then after the slinky is built, break the pencil lead apart.

Pencil lead you say......hmmmm


Thanks everyone, i appreciate the advice.

Score it every 1/4"

I believe there are even far more sizes than that now. ALL of it is EXTREMELY overpriced now. That being said, I wouldn't go back to pencil lead.

Any tackle shop should have slinky making chit.If they don't have it then they are way behind times and still stuck in the 70's and is shockingley still in business.Good luck,
SZ

i still prefer the pencil lead over the slinky system. why you ask? it's just plain faster. that is if you figure the time and expense put into purchasing [censored] and then the invested time in actually making them.

but helll if you got that much money and time to burn... well slinky buiding is for you.

I build my slinky's in the off-season in front of the TV @ night with the family after dinner.Some times it's a family affair.Like 2Many said,it's fun for both boy's & girl's.Good luck,
SZ

Gives me something to after dark and when it's raining.

when i fish slinkies, i leave a lot less of them on the bottom than i do with pencil lead, so it probably breaks even somewhere.

i prefer them to pencil lead, since it filters out the bottom and you feel bites a little better. just can't seem to find the time to get around to making them enough, though.

A friend moved away and gave me a bunch of fly tying and other assorted fishing tackle, including a jug of shot, slinky cord, and a shot stuffer-rammer thingy. How does one figure out how many shot to put in each slinky? And do you vary the weights by a single shot, or two, or three? I got the stuff, but I've never figured out what to do with it.

Sg

I don't like slinkies just because I prefer to pour cheap pencil lead. Gonna suck to have to move to slag and babbit with lead wheel weights being banned but oh well.

The ones I did make and still a lot of I varied them by 2 shot just to have a variance that I could feel and made a real difference in faster or deeper water. 2, 4, 6 and 8 count is all I made. I do like them, just easier to pour pencil lead.

used 'em, don't like 'em
there are a few stretches of water where I think they fish better than pencil lead, but not enough for me to bother with. but I'll pick them up when I find them.

I use two sizes:
.210 for side drifting.I make them in 4,6,8,10 shot.
.300 for down and dirty dredging.I make them in 5,6,7,8,10 shot.
Good luck,
SZ

Salmo,

1. Light a candle (this is actually NOT a joke).
2. Take the parachute cord and hold it with some needle nose pliars with a little tag end of cord coming out one side of the pliars.
3. Hold the tag end of cord over the candle. It will melt/smoke/catch on fire until it burns up to the edge of your pliars.
4. Cut several feet of cord so you now have one end sealed and the other end open.
5. Stuff a bunch of that shot into the open end of the cord. It can be a PITA but slide them down towards the sealed end. Now, you should have a giant string of cord with shot that you can make into a bunch of slinkies.
6 . Start making different size slinkies. I'd say I use more "5 ball" and "7 ball" slinkies than anything else but I go as low as 3 and as high as 14. I try to get the biggest shot I can get at the store so the shot size obviously matters too.
7. Sealing off the other end is similar to what you did in step 3. You generally want them tight so they look like a sausage and not like an orange in a gym sock.

I generally just attach them to my swivel by getting the swivel through some of the cord. Other people are more refined and actually burn/punch a hold through the cord. Slinkies are noticably less dense than standard lead and they take a lot of the traditional "feel" of drift fishing away because there isn't much of a "tick tick" feeling and the distinction between bites and the tapping/ticking isn't usually as pronounced. Once you get used to it though, I'm firmly convinced it is a better way for most drift fishing as you will lose less gear. I usually grab a couple of the most common sizes out of my box and either throw them my vest or the front of the boat so I can quickly swap sizes just like people do with pencil lead.

-AP

once again youtube is your friend.