Six Months in the Hobby

[bowfin]

I signed up for the Cast Boolits forum January 10th, when all I owned was a pile of lead and three fishing sinker molds. Last Tuesday, I had 54 .358" 158 grain hollowpoints ready to put into cases for load testing. These are the first boolits that I made that will be fired out of a gun.

Six months and only 50 bullets? Well, time is the biggest constraint. Money for starting out was the second. Third was the learning curve.

I actually had cast from my molds several months ago, but the molds were not broken in for good casting and I decided that my lead wasn't clean enough, so back into the pot they went and the lead was fluxed again.

I picked up a small variety of molds as finances allowed. If I had it to do over again, I would have bought only one or two and worked the process through to bullet holes in targets for those one or two boolit designs.

Then again, I waited until today to have the money to get three BRP molds, and look where that got me!:cry: For those of you who have been casting for decades, it might be interesting to sit down and figure up what it would cost you to restart to the level you are at now. Not complaining mind you, because I am at the point where the outlay is high and the payback is low, so it gets better from here.

The biggest outlay of time for casting (for me) has been reading. I have a lot more of that to do as far as lube, reloading data, etc. For every hour I have put in smelting, fluxing, ordering, and setting up equipment, I have put in 4-6 hours of reading. Yes, part of that was recreational, but this is a hobby that involves a lot of steps from wheelweight to bullet hole. That's okay, too.

I'll post some more later, got to get to work.

[para45lda]

And don't forget pics.

You're four months ahead of me!! I've been reading so much my wife begged me to look at some porn. :kidding:

I do have some ingots ready and I ordered my first mould (from a member here of course).

We'll see.

Wes

[birdadly]

I think you're doin' good bowfin! I think everyone would commend you for all of the reading you're doing (apparently you too para!). I'm in the same boat (almost 4 months from join date). I'm closing in on all my pieces... biggest thing now is a Lee pot and possibly a lubesizer.

The one thing that slowed me down even more than money and time, was/is knowledge. Not only am I knew to casting, but reloading as well. I'll be going through a few hundred FMJ reloads to get used to the process, but then hopefully onto casting.

As I'm sure you two are, I'm very thankful for this community and it's members and hope to be here for a long time! -Brad

[bowfin]

Some of the challenges putting out those first bullets were almost humorous. I mixed up some 45/45/10 tumble lube. Most everybody puts the finished product back into the Liquid Alox bottle. The only problem for a new guy is he has only one empty Liquid Alox bottle, and that won't hold his first batch!

It takes a little searching to find the Cool Whip bowl, pots, trays, sawdust, muffin pans, bottles, boxes, old towels and all of that paraphernalia that everyone needs but but usually isn't bought. I don't say this as a complaint, but to recommend to all others following me that a lot of what you need isn't listed in the Midway or Midsouth catalogs or websites.

One needs to sit down for five minutes before starting your first smelt or lube and make a list of everything you will need to get from Point A to Point B. Charging up the stairs and searching frantically for a plastic bottle while the lube is cooking might be avoided, or not having something down to protect against heat, spills, or catch your skimmings. By this time next year, I will have all this stuff lined up and ready to go. I will replace some of the "it will get me by" things I am using now with treasures from thrift shops and garage sales.

The payoff is now at hand. I have stacked and sorted ingots where I used to have buckets of wheelweights and coils of cable. My molds have all been cleaned and run once. I have ingredients for lube, I have bought some lube, I have a few workhose molds and one or two that caught my fancy. I know where I am going to what process, as I have my workspaces figured out. (Don't underestimate THAT part of the equation!)

So I have been through the process entirely once, and have 54 boolits to shoot, and I will try to answer the 500 questions I have on how they will shoot best. I am sure each answer will lead to at least one more question. But hey, all the next boolits are free, except for the electricity to run the pot!

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

bowfin,
you are not alone, it's more the norm.
I joined this website in the late winter/spring of
2010 with the hopes of casting my own.
It was just over 6 months before I poured any molten lead into a boolit mold.

on average, that first year on this website (and a couple of books).
I have read 1 to 2 hours each day.

Cost ?
I am lucky that I seem to have a gift of buying and selling.
I have been able to find a few people who have wanted
to sell their collections of casting equipement. I keep
what I think I need, then sell the remaining to try and
recoup some or all of my original purchase price.
It can be risky and it takes capital (cash) for those
kinds of purchases...and time, time has value too.
But I've built a collection of my own in that last 18 months
that'd be hard to imagine just going out and buying all new.
AND...it's no where near being complete.
Jon

[Lizard333]

And don't forget pics.

You're four months ahead of me!! I've been reading so much my wife begged me to look at some porn. :kidding:

I do have some ingots ready and I ordered my first mould (from a member here of course).

We'll see.

Wes

You mean this isn't a porn website?? Sure it is. Just boolit porn!!:cbpour:

[Ozarklongshot]

I've been casting on and off for 30+ years. When I was actively competing I couldn't cast fast enough to maintain the quality I needed so I bought commercial cast. I just cast practice and plinking stuff. I can say this. I have learned more in 3 weeks than the previous 30 years. I suspect that is because casting bullets is a solitary hobby. You don't do it at the range so you don't get a lot of outside input. At present I'm getting back into casting heavier than before and trying to up the quality so to speak...