1Shirt
08-01-2006, 10:27 AM
About a year ago, I got the urge to have as many old loading manuals as I could lay my hands on for reference. I also wanted to fill in the gaps between the older ones I had and some of the more up to date ones. Soooo-started playing around and bidding on manuals on e-bay, and came up with Lymans out of the 40's, and Speers, Hornadys, Sierras, Hogdens, RCBS's etc mostly from the 50's. About the same time I started bidding on some of the old Lyman molds no longer made. Now the smart thing about this, other than the fact that I had to buy the books and molds, was now I had data, recommendations, and just plain interesting stuff.
The Lyman's out of the 40's are a wealth of knowledge, a bit of history pertaining to powder, and insight into the mind sets of casters and cast shooters 40-50 years back. It is great to be able to do comparisons of old data with new data, noting the differences in recommendations of powder charges (obvious changes is powders of the same numbers than in times past), and various recommendations by some of the old timers now long since gone. It is obvious that old 2400 and new 2400 are not the same. It is obvious that a lot of new powders today burn cleaner than they did years back. It is obvious that we are spending a lot more money to load due to the cost of components. (Oh for the days when you could buy 4831 @50 cents a pound in brown paper bags in Shawnee Mission Ka, and pulled 30 cal FMJ bullets for one to two cents each).
One of the things I have noticed about reloaders in the past few years is that a whole lot of the new ones just don't read much. That's a shame in and of itself.
Am always amazed by the looks I get when I am at the range with two or three rifles and only cast loads. There are a lot of shooters who just can't believe that someone is shooting cast down a rifle bbl. that is 30 cal, or 6.5 mm, or .243, and heaven forbid .224. They seem to accept hand guns, particularly wheel guns shooting cast. or in rifles shooting 45-70, or 38-55's or the like. They are amazed when they see 3" or less 100 yd groups with cast. (sometimes even with iron sights---simetimes!) They are amazed that I might shoot 100-150 rounds in a session and not be black and blue from recoil. Always feel kind of sorry for the newbe with a new Weatherby, factory ammo, and limited experiance, knowing he is going to develop a good case of flinch after about 3 rounds. Any way, enough rambling from a cast shooting gezzer, who hopes to be a real old gezzer that is still shooting at 90 or better if he makes it that far. Old reloading manuals, and old molds are like old friends, and all of us who shoot cast ought to have some of each.
1Shirt!:coffee:
The Lyman's out of the 40's are a wealth of knowledge, a bit of history pertaining to powder, and insight into the mind sets of casters and cast shooters 40-50 years back. It is great to be able to do comparisons of old data with new data, noting the differences in recommendations of powder charges (obvious changes is powders of the same numbers than in times past), and various recommendations by some of the old timers now long since gone. It is obvious that old 2400 and new 2400 are not the same. It is obvious that a lot of new powders today burn cleaner than they did years back. It is obvious that we are spending a lot more money to load due to the cost of components. (Oh for the days when you could buy 4831 @50 cents a pound in brown paper bags in Shawnee Mission Ka, and pulled 30 cal FMJ bullets for one to two cents each).
One of the things I have noticed about reloaders in the past few years is that a whole lot of the new ones just don't read much. That's a shame in and of itself.
Am always amazed by the looks I get when I am at the range with two or three rifles and only cast loads. There are a lot of shooters who just can't believe that someone is shooting cast down a rifle bbl. that is 30 cal, or 6.5 mm, or .243, and heaven forbid .224. They seem to accept hand guns, particularly wheel guns shooting cast. or in rifles shooting 45-70, or 38-55's or the like. They are amazed when they see 3" or less 100 yd groups with cast. (sometimes even with iron sights---simetimes!) They are amazed that I might shoot 100-150 rounds in a session and not be black and blue from recoil. Always feel kind of sorry for the newbe with a new Weatherby, factory ammo, and limited experiance, knowing he is going to develop a good case of flinch after about 3 rounds. Any way, enough rambling from a cast shooting gezzer, who hopes to be a real old gezzer that is still shooting at 90 or better if he makes it that far. Old reloading manuals, and old molds are like old friends, and all of us who shoot cast ought to have some of each.
1Shirt!:coffee: