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7Acres
11-23-2012, 05:42 PM
I've been lurking around on this fine forum for about a year. The folks here are so helpful and thorough in their instruction I wanted to do my due diligence reading the posts here before I opened my mouth to ask a redundant question. But I just saw 45nut's post encouraging the lurkers to introduce themselves and get into the conversation. I cast my own boolits for the first time yesterday and just wanted to share what a fun time I had!

We always do Thanksgiving at our place and my job is to grill the turkey. Since I have to spend the day basting the turkey every 20 minutes for 4+hrs I figured this year I'd set up by the grill and make my first boolits. I cleaned my 6 cavity .452 flat nose mold and smoked it good. By the time I finished that I had a few guests plus my father-in-law intrigued and asking 1000 questions as they saw my setup and realized I was intending to make my own boolits. What's the sawdust for? What is flux? How'd you get those lead bricks? What's the bucket of water for? Why do you need that fan?

Once I got up to speed with good filled out boolits I kind of lost track of how many I had made. I was just having fun! Next thing I know new guests were being taken directly to the back porch and my father-in-law was acting the tour guide explaining to each group of guests he brought back each step I was doing and answering all of their questions. I encouraged everyone to be sure to stop by the gift store on their way out. :lol:

I kept losing track of my boolit count and thought I was up to at least 300 by the time the turkey was done. I shut down the lead pot and came in to make gravy and carve the bird. Dinner was amazing and I was kind of on cloud 9 thinking of how much fun my new Thanksgiving tradition had been. After dinner was over I proceeded to count my boolits. 792 boolits! The gun-loving guests were in amazement! 792 shiny boolits all from WWs! Next I will be sizing the boolits to .452 and lubing them.

Thinking about reloading these boolits I jumped on Midway today to price out large pistol primers. That $27 hazmat fee has me spooked. Most CCI primers are sold out. Where do you guys buy your primers from? And what's with all the sold out primer? I've got the same question about buying powder. Should I just wait till the next gun show comes to town to avoid the S/H & Hazmat fees? FYI: I intend to feed my 45 reloads to my 3" Kimber Ultra Carry II. Any advise for me on that?

runfiverun
11-23-2012, 06:00 PM
the hazmat is 27.00 for the entire shipment.
if you buy 20,000 primers it's still 27.00.
or 10-k primers and 16 lbs of powder,as long as it's all one shipment it's one hazmat charge.
the best way to save money in reloading is to find products that are flexible, buy in bulk,and buy it all when you find a good price [and can afford it]

MUSTANG
11-23-2012, 06:10 PM
7 Acres:

Welcome out of the closet. Given your Thanksgiving holiday story, your entire extended family and friends are now aware of the addiction you have fallen into. May it last for many decades to come, and may you have many others that join you in that addiction and the comradeship that surrounds those so addicted.

Mustang

7Acres
11-23-2012, 06:16 PM
Thanks for the clarification, runfiverun! If you don't mind, what do you mean by "products that are flexible"? What makes a product flexible?

7Acres
11-23-2012, 06:20 PM
Thanks, MUSTANG! My whole family is made up of gun-lovers. My bro-in-law has been talking about getting into reloading. But the thought of casting your own boolits never crossed his mind. He was very impressed to see how easy it seemed. I hope he takes the plunge with me soon. That would be fun. We will see.

Dale53
11-23-2012, 06:31 PM
7Acres;
I have made my bulk purchases from Powder Valley.com in the past couple or three years. I also ask my friends if they would like to "ride along" while I made this online purchase. I divide the Hazmat and shipping amongst the group according to how much any one individual buys. That way it is fair to all. The last time I split the hazmat and shipping three ways so none of us had to pay full price.

The primer shortage is because of the way the Presidential Election went. People are justifiably afraid of the present administration limiting or outlawing guns and components. This administration is flat out opposed to the second admendment (regardless of what they say).

FWIW
Dale53

7Acres
11-23-2012, 08:09 PM
That's a good suggestion, Dale53. Hopefully I can get some friends to go in with me. I might have to go solo on the first order since I'm the trailblazer for now. I'll check out Powder Valley.com.

I'm guessing the market did the same thing after the 2008 election. True? Based on the trends from 2008, any idea on when supply will catch up with demand?

Wayne Smith
11-23-2012, 09:03 PM
That's a good suggestion, Dale53. Hopefully I can get some friends to go in with me. I might have to go solo on the first order since I'm the trailblazer for now. I'll check out Powder Valley.com.

Friends?? From what you have written just your family will fill out an order once you have introduced them to the savings of reloading, let alone casting!

Cherokee
11-23-2012, 09:15 PM
Welcome to the fun.

7Acres
11-23-2012, 09:32 PM
Thanks for the warm welcome, Wayne Smith and Cherokee!

Frosty Boolit
11-24-2012, 12:00 PM
Flexible products would something like Bullseye powder that has been loaded in a great deal of pistol calibers and has a ton of data available. Also get some loading manuals. I think the lyman is quite flexible and also I use the powder company websites. Another flexible powder is Unique.

Jailer
11-24-2012, 01:03 PM
Excellent first post.

Welcome to the forum and the addiction. :D

7Acres
11-24-2012, 01:13 PM
Good to now know that it's hard to go wrong with Bullseye or Unique in my pistol loads. I did buy and read the Lee 2nd Ed Reloading Manual. Mr. Lee is quite proud of his load data. I'm curious, so would the Lyman manual's load data would be different in some regards? Does anyone consider some load data "better" than other load data?