Why some new members will do better than others here.

[Linstrum]

Heh, heh, yep!

But you got to admit it would serve some of them right if they got smacked up the side of the head with a blue book! I have asked the question: "HAVE YOU SLUGGED YOUR BORE?" and gotten back: "How do you do that?" many many times, as have a great many of us who have been here for as long as we have. At least they asked how you do it instead of keeping it quiet that they hadn't, or worse yet, not admitting they didn't know what you were talking about!

But (sigh) I guess we will all continue to administer "The Newbie Test" after the fact, we have made it this far and the world hasn't fallen apart.

rl 1,219

[9.3X62AL]

Yeah, I try not to "turn off" new folks with The Third Degree-style questioning. We do have a FAQ section--perhaps a header-board posted there should read "If you don't have a confirmed idea of your firearm's throat and groove diameters, learn this info before proceeding further at this site. It is a foundational element to cast bullet success." Then follow with a definition of what groove diameters and throat diameters actually are, and how to determine them.

[Char-Gar]

I just noticed this protracted thread/sticky and have no intention of going back and reading all the multiple pages, but I will offer my 2 cents on the subject at hand.

Some of the new folks are teachable and some are not teachable. The non-teachable ones come to this board with some fixed concepts and notions and won't turn loose of them no matter what. Many ask questions, but only accept answers in line with what they wanted to hear. They are looking for validation and not correction. The teachable ones learn, prosper and do well here.

[Horseman1]

I've slugged my bore, read through this whole thread and tons of others, went to the Ruger forum to see the chaos as advised and promise not to ask questions that I should have learned by reading the stickies. I own three books and have read them all several times. I've snuck into this site for a long time before joining. However, I haven't measured my chamber but can plunk test with my eyes closed. Can I come in?

Answer: No, come back after you measured the depth of those tool marks in that barrel. Oh, and get some proper equipment and a work ethic, will ya? Have you ever even cast a boolit?

No. I've made ingots out of my own range scrap and pewter after reading up on it here. I'll cast some boolits soon. I figure I could learn a lot by the ingot making process. Fluxing, temperature of the melt and the ingot molds, safety, proper pot and such.

Not good enough, boy. What causes a wrinkled cast boolit?

Old age??

You out of here! Go back to THR where you belong!

[Char-Gar]

Horseman...What you have experienced is all to frequent, even the common on boards like this. Somebody asks a questions and folks jump in riding their favorite hobby horses and trying to display their vast or shallow knowledge on the subject. The result is a mass of information that contains good counsel, bad counsel, and irrelevant counsel and the fellow who asked the question is left to try and sort through the pile of brown stinky stuff trying to find a valid answer to his question. Doing so is most often an impossible task because if the questioner has the knowledge to sort through the mess, he would not have asked the question in the first place.

[Love Life]

Anybody load 45 acp? I can't find data for a 230 gr RN boolit anywhere...

[xtphreak]

Hmm...

Didja slug the barrel yet?

I can offer a set of plans for catching garden slugs

[Horseman1]

I was just having fun . I know exactly what you all mean. When I read 9.3 talking about not giving people the third degree, that nonsense I put down just popped into my head.

Sometimes I'm afraid to provide any advise to reloading threads, if the poster does not appear to be paying any attention to the feedback they are getting. I dont want any part of anyone getting all blowed up. Best left to experts anyway. I've only been at the reloading for a few years, but have had great luck so far and having a ball learning everything I can. This place is a treasure. I'm on the backside of 50, so I'm no spring chicken, but I have yet to cast a boolit .

Char-Gar - That was really insightful, and true.

Regards,
H1

[Bentracin]

After 50 years of loading,casting and READING a stack of BOOKS and a lot of mags 8 feet hight,I am Still learning OUTSTANDING Post!

[Hickok]

I am always happy to help someone willing to learn, and always willing to learn from someone who can help!

That is why I come here. I endeavor to be respectful, kind, and generous to all, the way I would like to be treated.

I started casting in the early 70's and learned most things the hard way, before the internet. Had to use trial and error, (many errors), ordered books= Lyman, Elmer Keith's, Veral's etc.

This forum and the people here are a wealth of information and experience. Thank you each and every one for letting me participate!

[Garyshome]

Recluse you forgot the Gun Addict!

[prs]

Char-Gar, you #263 post is very insightful. Regarding #265, that is the whole concept of "forum". Things are discussed from all points of view, the good, the bad, the ugly; and those with half a brain get the wine, the others the dregs. Ya gotta watch admitting you did not read the whole thread, I got raked over the coals for such admission regarding another War and Peace thread.

prs

[Farmer&shooter]

Well said Recluse, the classifications are brilliant. But,

I cast my first boolit in about 1959. Since then, I have poured literally tons of Pb. I have enough guns to make Nancy Pelosi very nervous, and handload over two dozen calibers ( and pour bullets for virtually ALL of them) and have thirty plus moulds. However, I am a newbie to CastBoolits only because I am pretty computer illiterate. My first question on the site was a good, legitimate question. I had already done my home work. But not knowing the GPS locations on the site, my first question appeared in the wrong category. It was my first post: I didn't know any better, and I said that it was my first post. I immediatly got criticism for being so stupid.

With all the anti-gun sentiment, we need all the "Newbies" we can get interested in anything to do with firearms. That is in ALL of our interests. So if the post is presumptious, or sounds like the OP thinks he/she is entitled to an answer, then we can deal with that, but at least initially, gently. I am far too old to wear my feelings on my elbows, but I can see that the response I got could easily have turned off a newbie.

This is supposed to fun. We need to keep that in mind.

[vietnam71]

Farmershooter I agree with you. I've been shooting since I was 12, shot competitive pistol for 10 years and started Reloading 1988. I lurked for quite awhile on every gun site I belong to just to understand the way they operate. I have to say most are the same, if a newbie asks a simple question there are usually a group who treat them poorly.

I'm 62 years old I've always tried to remember how I started out and how nervous I was asking what I thought were dumb questions. Time and age have taught me that there are no dumb or stupid questions. I always mention that in my Pistol Safety classes, the only dumb question is the one you don't ask.

Overall I have found most on this forum to be great at helping. I've only been a member a week or so and have learned a lot. Recluse brings out some excellent points but we must do all we can to bring more newbies into our sport.

Thank you all for all the help so far! I hope to learn more in the future. I retired in 2013 and can now enjoy shooting and reloading more often...

Charlie

[cajun shooter]

Charlie, First thing I have to say is WELCOME HOME SOLDIER!! I'm 4th ID 65-68.
I know you are a new member but after you are here for 5 years and are still answering which is the best mold to start out with, what is the correct size for me to order in my new mold and so on, you will want to post a similar thread.
I've always went out of my way to help new members or even answer questions from older ones but after an extended period of repetitive questions, you come to realize that the person has not read anything that is available to them. I'm a former Firearms Instructor and Armorer for many years and after you work with a student for a few weeks and have handed out many sheets of needed info and they approach you with a basic question, it's upsetting to say the least. How did you feel when you encountered a slacker in your outfit. Did you want to pick his butt up and choke him into reality?
Take Care and enjoy our forum. David

[bottomline]

I've shooting recreational, competitively, casting and reloading for 30. I thought I knew a lot, and then I found Castboolits. I can't believe how much I didn't know, but I'm reading and reading and reading.
Thank you

[Garyshome]

"loading books"....First place I go!

Man I got to get me one of them BIG hats!

[Three44s]

What the youngsters of today expect is instant gratification.

When you couple that with a hobby like handloading and casting you've got a dangerous cocktail.

I began loading in 1975 ....... like many other members who have loaded and even cast much longer than that ....... there was no internet ......... Owl Gore had not invented that yet .......... so the only source of info was either written or word of mouth.

I never trusted someone's recollection of load data and when someone could not even remember the right name for their powder ......... I always turned a deaf ear .... so to speak.

So that left reading!

And READ ...... I DID!

Truely, I have no other real hobby other than "loading and unloading" ..... and my "research time" was whole hog on guns and related info.

My FIL used to handload and hunt ........ he's turning 88 in a few days ....... a great fellow and great FIL ........ my wife takes after him a lot and though my MIL is a gem too ...... for my wife to be so much like her dad is just nirvana for me.

But he (FIL) made an observation that I disagree with the other day ....... he was so enamoured with the latest printing of the Lee 2nd edition ..... that he stated bluntly that no one should ever need any more resource than that ........

Well, while I like that manual a lot ...... I would feel naked with just that source ......... I have and keep and collect older manuals and as they start to slide into yesterday ...... I like to snap up newer manuals as their pricing comes down .........

Simply put, I have a lot of hard copy resources and to this day ........ I study them continuously.

When I was still a kid and starting out ........ my mother would accuse me of staring a HOLE through my gun books ....... she would exclaim that by now, I must have all of their contents etched into my brain! I felt that attitude was rather short sighted and silly .......... the TV may have been playing right there ......... but I had BETTER things to do with my "down time"!

So yes, as the OP (who did a wonderful job) frames up the issue of newbies wanting to be spoon fed information ....... and getting ignored or dressed down by more senior members at this and other forums ....... There are two elements to acquiring skills ........ you first have to teach yourself or have it taught to you ......... and then you need to apply it! .......... experience is the best reinforcement to learning. But this instant pop tart culture we are surrounded by today are not about to inquire and chase knowledge and then apply it ........ and it's bringing us to a dangerous place for the 2A.

We can as more experienced folks at this hobby ..... try our darnedest to change our fellow younger shooters and get them back to a better course and mind set but it's a losing battle. We all know that people are pretty much imprinted by age 4 or 5 ......... So ..... How are we gonna fight that?

Though it's imperative to cultivate as much gun ownership in this country to protect our 2A ...... we sure are not in place to instill positive thinking into young children we don't even have access to or know and even if we were there in a case or two, we'll never out influence some else's child. If the parents are not doing the job .......... we don't stand a chance!

I am guessing that the downward trend in gun related tragedies is about to reverse itself as more and more "gun illiterate" folks acquire guns ...... it's good news that gun ownership is on the rise ............ it's bad to terrible news that a good percentage of the folks coming in are illiterate on the subject at hand.

Best regards

Three 44s

[beardog454]

I am a newbie here and only been reloading for 20 years. I think i still have knots on my head from my old man not thinking i was taking it serious when he was teaching me. Now im reading posts on here every night trying to figure out what all i need to do to make my own boolits. Very fun and informative forum and more knowledge then my poor head can absorb!! Got some molds got a bunch of ww and pure lead workin on the pot and sizers and everything else i need to cast my very first boolit. Everything so far i have wanted to ask has been explained in more then 1 post and i am enjoying the reading. Thanks to all who post information here for this knucklehead to read enjoy and learn!!!

[Digger]

I am a newbie here and only been reloading for 20 years. I think i still have knots on my head from my old man not thinking i was taking it serious when he was teaching me. Now im reading posts on here every night trying to figure out what all i need to do to make my own boolits. Very fun and informative forum and more knowledge then my poor head can absorb!! Got some molds got a bunch of ww and pure lead workin on the pot and sizers and everything else i need to cast my very first boolit. Everything so far i have wanted to ask has been explained in more then 1 post and i am enjoying the reading. Thanks to all who post information here for this knucklehead to read enjoy and learn!!!

Most welcome to the bunch here !