Am I a youngster?

[DerekP Houston]

<- 34 here, I like my old fashioned hobbies. I still like paperback books vs e-readers too.

[Yard5429]

I'll be 28 in August. Learned to reload about 2 years ago. Started casting 3 months ago. So much fun!


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[dragon813gt]

I'm in my late thirties. Even at this age I'm at the younger end of the spectrum. As every day passes I realize how much I don't know. Never pretended to know it all. But the 16yo step daughter and her boyfriend put everything in perspective. I might as well talk to wall because no matter what I say they have to experience it themselves. I remember being like that.

[leadhead]

I'll be 75 in July....shot cast in handgun silhouette for 22 years and did very well with them.
I've been doing a lot of casting for surplus military rifles. I still shoot a lot of cast in handguns.
Denny

[472x1B/A]

I'll be 66 next month and really love cheep boolits. Started reloading, way too late in my life, in 1986. Sometimes I think about all the 'money' I could have saved, not shooting store bought ammo. Dad and both granddads weren't much into shooting so no interest in reloading there.

So, along came my interest in shotgun slugs and this site. This is where the casting bug bite took effect. Started in 2006 casting with no idea what I was doing then. Haven't bought factory made ammo since. ( With one exception. Last year my concealed carry class instructor said NO reloads, and I had to buy a box of .38's.) This site has really been good to me and I thank everyone everyday.

[rking22]

58 this past January , been casting bullets since the mid 70s. I've always been a bit frugal. I have always been sure to have a mold or few for any firearm I own. Been "prepping" since before it had a name. We just always considered it common sense. Farm raised probably has an influence too. Its a great hobby and practical too.

[Whitespider]

My dad and grandfather reloaded. They swore a cast bullet was useless past 1600. I can remember my father cussing about his S&W leading the barrel and forcing cone and how hard it was to clean. Looking back through some of the old stuff, He never owned a sizer bigger than .357 Well....

I grew up in a "gun family".
My Grandfather was a gun dealer... he owned and operated a "General Store" in a little town on the river with a one-sided main street. You could buy anything you needed in that store, from boots and horse tack, to eggs, milk, and bread, to fence posts and barbed wire, to fishing gear and guns. The gun racks sat back between the meat counter where he personally cut all the meat and the pot-bellied stove. I remember the gun representatives coming in and taking Gramp's order, showing him new models, and occasionally stepping out back to shoot them. I still have many of the promotional hand-outs from those guys... pocket knives, belt buckles, and such. The "ol' boys" (old to me at that time) would come in carrying their rifles and shotguns to sit around the stove, drink coffee, and talk guns and hunting. Like my dad, I was shooting a .22 as soon as I was strong enough to hold the Winchester M67... and pheasant hunting the fields alone before I was ten.

Funny thing... I was the first member of the family to take up reloading. When I started reloading in my early 20's both Gramps and dad looked at my like I had somehow contracted the plaque or something. According to them I was gonna' blow up my guns, or destroy them in some other way... and even if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to hit sour owl squat. I was told one horror story after another about the evils of "reloads". Gramps had long past when I started casting 10 years ago... however, dad thought I'd completely lost my friggin' mind.

LOL... I was was thinning the population of chipmunks on my place last fall using my .22 Hornet (shooting cast). Dad made the comment that I was using some awfully expensive ammunition for that task... that a .22 rimfire made more sense. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him my Hornet "cast reloads" costs something less than ½ of what .22 rimfire ammunition was costing at that time. I almost fainted when he asked if I could "reload" his .218 Bee that cheap... the last box of 50 rounds he bought cost him over $70 (I guess, after nearly 40 years, he's come to the conclusion my "evil" "reloads" ain't so evil after all). I ain't got to it yet (too many other things going on this spring), but the .218 Bee will be my summer project I reckon.
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[Jr.]

Yep you're a youngster. But then again so am I at 29. Just remember that guys like you and I are the few that do not fall within the bounds of our generations stereotype. Be proud to have a hobby that is one of the old arts. Learn as much as you can and pass that information on when you get a chance.

[riorider]

I'll turn 60 in Dec and been at it since about 13! My Dad was a gun nut and I grew up down the road from a Gunsmith shop so I got to play with this stuff as a kid! Now own a Gun store and Gunsmith myself!

[waco]

I'll be 43 in Aug. and have been casting boolits for 18 years now.

[OS OK]

Alright Boys...I keep reading about this 'so-called hobby' we have...it ain't no hobby, a hobby is collecting stamps...it's a CRAFT that lasts a lifetime with continuous innovation!

[JohnH]

Had lost track of my birth certificate and made the mistake of telling the guys at work about it. One asked a few weeks later if I'd found it yet and I said, "Yeah". He then asked it was etched in stone . Imagine that. And here, I'm not even quite 60 as yet. Started casting in the mid '80's. I've watched guns or having anything to do with them go from being completely socially unacceptable to the only growth industry the previous administration was able to foster. Still, if you are into casting it says to things. Most people think casters are just cheap skates. Ain't been my experience. I've actually spent more on guns and reloading as a result of casting. And ya learn. I'm willing to bet that most casters know more about guns, the care and use of and particularly the enjoyment of than most of their peers in gun owning community. If you are casting you are going to learn more about powders and load performance than any other segment of the art can teach. Glad to see so many youngsters here. Does my heart good to know that our hobby and rights are in the hands of a generation who is able to see that all that is old should not disposed of.

[bullseye67]

Good evening,
I will be turning 50 this year. Wow is all I can say! I was taught to cast when I was 13 and have been "mak'n boolits" ever since! I shoot less now than when I was young. 35 years of Bullseye shooting makes for a lot of lead it backstops!
I am happy to read some younger members getting into casting. I show anyone who is interested, it is too bad the authorities have decided LEAD is the new asbestos. A couple of guys wives won't let them melt lead at their place, so they come over and we do a group melt for ingots and casting boolits at the same time. Many hands make lighter work, especially with lead.
Have an awesome week

[Bazoo]

33 here. I started casting cause I realized reloading wasnt going to save me any money If I had to buy bullets. Then I started really enjoying it. Then I got a 44 magnum. I wouldnt have gotten a 44 if I wasnt a reloader and a caster.

[tarbe]

What a bunch of geezers we are!

I turn 60 late in the year. Started casting in 1975. Really only dabbled in it - not like some of you guys who drink molten lead instead of coffee!

I always saw casting as a supplement to J-words, and as an insurance policy if I couldn't get J-words.

I now have my 3rd 45-70 and I really need to feed this thing a regular diet of 400gr cast boolits. A lever action 45-70 should be shootin cast boolits!

[KVO]

I'm 32. While age can be paradoxical to experience, relative youth invites its own frustrations. I graduated from TSJC at 21 with an AAS in gunsmithing and found it challenging to work with shooters. It was about 50/50 whether or not I'd be taken seriously, and more often I'd end up receiving simplistic lectures from the "grand buddha" of the range or in the shop about guns that (they weren't aware) I built. Still happens occasionally. The irony is, now that I'm getting some grey, folks are starting to listen even though I no longer practice as a professional gunsmith. I started casting about four years ago when jacketed bullets became scarcer than hen's teeth and found it to be it's own reward beyond simply a way to feed the guns.

[sigep1764]

33, been loading for 4 years, casting about 3.

[slownsteady22]

35 year old, been reloading 10yrs and i am a casting newborn(6 months). I have learned alot from this site and all you old geezers...=)

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[Hickok]

Good to see the younger fella's involved in this passion we all share.

"My heart soars like a hawk!"

[Walter Laich]

from replies would have been interesting to break over 65 down by 5 years to 70 and 75

just saying....