New to the Cast Boolits Forum

[Big Cholla]

Hello All: I'm checking in with my first post. I am retired from both Construction Engineering then Law Enforcement and I have been messing with guns and casting since I was 16 years old. I cast regularly for years and then got away from it for about the last 15 years but now want to get back into casting for my own consumption in my pistols (.38/.357, .40, .44 and .45).

I have a big problem with all my old molds that I will get into in another post. I need help in reconditioning them correctly. I just came into a huge supply of wheel weights, which to my surprise are not all wheel-weight lead anymore. I'm going to need some real help there. Anyway, I will be reading and researching some more before I start asking questions. .......... Thanks for having such a great Forum! ........... Big Cholla (go ahead, ask about the screen name)

[geargnasher]

Welcome to the insanity! I was about in the same place you are when I joined almost two years ago, I've learned more in that time than I would have in five lifetimes on my own. Turns out I had been doing it all wrong for fifteen years.

Great advice, recommendations, you name it. Many common questions have been addressed in the "classics and stickies" sections, lots of helpful folks here if you don't see what you're looking for there. If you want to know about moulds, lube, boolit design, alloys, casting technique, related casting and reloading equipment, "smelting", fluxing, brass prep, tweaking guns to better shoot cast, decoppering, deleading, etc. I think the best advice on the web is to be found here.

Gear

[Big Cholla]

Gear: Much appreciated thanks! I should add that I worked my way thru college as a "No. 2 Gunsmith" in a custom rifle shop in Reno, NV. I then kept my hand in as an amateur until later in life when I opened my own custom gun shop for 12 years on the side while being a full-time lawman. I then closed and am now back to the "hobby" status that I am very comfortable with in my retirement years. I still have all the tools, but some of my skills and knowledge have oozed away from me. A Forum as informative as this one will be a huge aid in refreshing my approach to correct and safe casting. ............. Big Cholla

[dromia]

Welcome aboard Big Cholla. :drinks:

[missionary5155]

Greetings & WELCOME to you Big Cholla from all us members down here in Peru, South America.

[Ajax]

Welcome Big Cholla.

Andy

[*Paladin*]

Welcome aboard!

[mooman76]

Big welcome. Happy to have you aboard. Looking forward to your questions as well as your experiences!

[Echo]

Welcome from another desert-dweller! I am in a sorta similar situation, in that I was away from the fray for many years, and finally found the time (through retirement) to get back into it. My recommendation - read EVERY sticky! Then read it again! Like Gear said, found I was doing it wrong, before. You probably will, too, and jump for joy when you learn the right way...

[dragonrider]

Welcom Big Cholla, glad you found your way to the best cast boolit site on the net.

[Tazman1602]

Welcome Big Cholla!

Wasn't that the guy in Every Which Way But Loose would say; "WE ARE THE BLACK WIDOWS!" ????

Just scrub the molds up, heat 'em up on a hotplate and let cool a few times with a rubber band around the handles and start casting. then clean them again if they are not working right.

Pichurs are always helpful in this crowd..................and welcome to the madness dude!!

.....and you think you've got molds now???????

Art

[Jim]

Big C,
Welcome aboard, Sir! If you're not familiar with CAST PICS (http://www.castpics.net/), check it out. TONS of info!

[crabo]

OK, what's up with the screen name? What calibers are you going to cast for? I would recommend picking a straight wall case and starting with one caliber. Then branch out after having sucess and working through your problems with one.

[Char-Gar]

Welcome. Did you take the name Cholla after the cactus?

[Big Cholla]

Welcome. Did you take the name Cholla after the cactus?


I was born and raised in Clark County, Nevada. I was a horseman at an early age having started 'cowboying' at the age of 11 on my Uncle's ranch. Later, my Buds and I chased, roped and sold young wild burros (it was legal then) for fun and profit. I was on the tail of a young burro one day in the Joshua forested desert. I was standing in my stirrups trying to get a good throw downward. The burro went to the right around a Joshua Tree and I expected my horse to follow. Well, my horse got a notion to go left! I departed the saddle and dove right through the Joshua. On the other side I hit the ground and wiped a little Cholla cacti right out of the ground with my right side. My Buds gathered around and went to work on me with their tweezers (all desert cowboys carry them) pulling the cactus spines out. They were 'hoo-rahing' me pretty hard. One said that from then on I was to be called, "Little Cholla". I said I would fight before I was called "little" anything. So I became "Big Cholla" at the age of 20 and have been ever since. ........ :-) ...................... Big Cholla

[shooterg]

Welcome . Now that you are retired you will find it very easy to slip from part time to a full time addiction !! And this site is full of enablers...

[Big Cholla]

Welcome aboard Big Cholla. :drinks:

Thanks dromia: My Mother-in-Law's maiden name is "Rattray". I am of Welsh descent, but have come to think you "Scots" are A-OK after marrying my wife. :-)

............. Big Cholla

[Doc Highwall]

Welcome aboard, we are a lead addicts best friend.

[Dennis Eugene]

Oh you are going to regret this choice you have made. :kidding: Dennis Eugene

[iron mule]

welcome BIG C
you have made a wise decision to be here /// like all have said a lot of good info here
also a lot of good people here willing to give a hand when needed but they will also dig you a little on some things but mean no harm when doing it
read all you can and don't be shy about asking for help here
MULE

[Big Cholla]

Greetings & WELCOME to you Big Cholla from all us members down here in Peru, South America.

Thanks missionary5155: I have to ask what calibers are you casting for while you are working in Peru? Are you mostly paper punching or are you getting some hunting in? My across-the-street neighbor widow just came back from a year spent on an Adult Mission for the LDS Church in Peru. She really liked the place and the people. ............... Big Cholla

[Char-Gar]

Big Cholla -- In my salad days, I cowboyed in the Texas Big Bend on Southern New Mexico and have more than a passing relationship with the Cholla cactus. They have the prettiest yellow flowers when they are in bloom, but the fine spines can jump 5 feet off the plant to attack you if you get to close. At least, that is what the big boys told me.

[WILCO]

Welcome aboard Big Cholla. :drinks:

Same here!! [smilie=p:

[Big Cholla]

Big Cholla -- In my salad days, I cowboyed in the Texas Big Bend on Southern New Mexico and have more than a passing relationship with the Cholla cactus. They have the prettiest yellow flowers when they are in bloom, but the fine spines can jump 5 feet off the plant to attack you if you get to close. At least, that is what the big boys told me.

Far be it for me to dispute what you learned at the knee of the "big boys" in Texas. All I know is that the one I wiped out of the ground with my body didn't have a chance to jump. I was on it before it could know what was happening! :-)

In fact I'm going to say from my experience in checking my horse's legs over after a day in the desert and never going near Cholla Cacti that the darn things must jump because I sure had to tweezer a bunch out of my horse's legs. The other tool us desert cowboys learned to carry was a Woman's Rat-tailed comb. It was just the tool for 'combing' those Cholla balls off the horse's legs. Of course you still had to tweezer the remaining spines out. .......... Big Cholla

[Recluse]

Tweezers and needle-nose pliers--two things ALWAYS in my saddle bags since day one.

Growing up, we called them "Jumping Cactus." It was eerie how you could come home with the (expletive deleted) spines in you or in your horse or in the saddle blanket and never have come close to one of the (expletive deleted) things.

Welcome to Cast Boolits, by the way. Good bunch of folks here.

:coffee:

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Big Cholla -- In my salad days, I cowboyed in the Texas Big Bend on Southern New Mexico and have more than a passing relationship with the Cholla cactus.

I tent camped in Big Bend about 15 years ago. I was the only camper in a tent, everyone else in that campground was in a RV. When I awoke in the morning to a herd of about 20 Javalinas rooting through my stuff, I knew why...and dang if I was unarmed :(
Jon